We had a good laugh in the office this week.
A puzzler had called this week because her puzzle was missing a piece. She was really upset that she could not complete her puzzle. Missing pieces are a rare occurrence, but they do happen. We put something like 5 billion puzzle pieces into boxes each year. One or two is bound to bounce out despite our best efforts.
By the way, no puzzle company likes to talk about missing pieces. But every puzzle company hears from consumers who have missing pieces. We usually ask the folks to try and complete the puzzle first. Often folks are convinced a piece is missing because they can not "find" it while assembling the puzzle. The piece is there. The colors or shape are just different than what they are expecting. As they get to the end of the puzzle they "find" the piece they were looking for.
Anyway, we spoke to the puzzler in the morning and reassured her we would help her out.
Later in the afternoon she called us back. She said she had told her husband about calling us and how happy she was with our customer service. Her husband was quiet for a few minutes and then said he said he needed to admit to something. He had vacuumed up the piece earlier in the week. He saw it go in and decided not to say anything. Our puzzler was calling to say she had gotten the vacuum cleaner and opened the bag. She found the piece (slightly bent, a little dusty, but still usable) and her puzzle was complete.
We all had a good laugh imagining the scene at this house. And we all agreed we too would have cut open the vacuum cleaner bag to retrieve the piece.
I was glad her husband came clean (pun intended) and she was able to finish the puzzle.
JP
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
This place has become a dismal place of death like silence.
I just read that on another blog I like and follow. I do not want this place to be like that. So today I write.
A really neat thing happened in the last couple of months.
We have a new product being introduced this fall. It is a series of Origami titles. Now, origami kits have been around forever. I never really did them because I thought the activity was difficult and the instructions impossible to decifer. But we came up with some neat incremental innovations that really improved the experience of making the pieces.
Among other things:
We rewrote the instructions with the novice in mind.
We added little dash marks on the paper indicating where to fold and crease the paper.
We printed on the paper so that when you are finished, the flower (or dolphin, or horse, or fish or whatever) looks like the object.
We used paper that was meant to be folded and creased.
We included a background that stood up in front of your origami projects.
The item is really nice.
A few weeks before we went into our first printing, Cora in our office suggested we do video instructions too. I loved the idea, but worried about our ability to execute. In my head video instructions meant writing scripts, renting film studios, hiring actors, editing and more. We have over 20 different designs in our first run and that sounded like a lot of work. And expensive. Mostly I thought the idea sounded expensive. I made the executive decision not to include anything about video instructions on our packaging until the videos were done.
I did this assuming that it would take months and months to make the videos (if we ever got to doing them).
Then I forgot about video instructions.
Until a few weeks later when Cora and her team e-mail me some links to videos on YouTube.
The videos were up. And they were really good. I mean REALLY REALLY good.
The joke is that they were filmed in our conference room. And they were filmed using a cell phone camera. The script was Cora or Vivian or Sujata just making the piece. They had written the instructions and had made the items a ton of times, so they knew exactly what they were doing. They knew the confusing parts and how to explain them clearly.
Take a look at this link to the LPF YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/LPFPuzzle
What I really love about this project is that Cora and the team knew how good these would be and went ahead and did it. The cost was mimimal. All our other projects are moving along right on schedule. I worried about costs and execution. They worried about just making a great video. And it worked.
I am mad at myself that I did not make a bigger deal about the video instructions on our first packaging. I should have trusted the team when they said the instructions would be easy and cheap. I have learned my lesson. We are redoing the packaging right now to catch our next manufacturing run.
And here is a little insiders tip. Check out the Horse Origami video. Around the 6:25 mark there is a neat little trick you can do with the horse.
JPC
I just read that on another blog I like and follow. I do not want this place to be like that. So today I write.
A really neat thing happened in the last couple of months.
We have a new product being introduced this fall. It is a series of Origami titles. Now, origami kits have been around forever. I never really did them because I thought the activity was difficult and the instructions impossible to decifer. But we came up with some neat incremental innovations that really improved the experience of making the pieces.
Among other things:
We rewrote the instructions with the novice in mind.
We added little dash marks on the paper indicating where to fold and crease the paper.
We printed on the paper so that when you are finished, the flower (or dolphin, or horse, or fish or whatever) looks like the object.
We used paper that was meant to be folded and creased.
We included a background that stood up in front of your origami projects.
The item is really nice.
A few weeks before we went into our first printing, Cora in our office suggested we do video instructions too. I loved the idea, but worried about our ability to execute. In my head video instructions meant writing scripts, renting film studios, hiring actors, editing and more. We have over 20 different designs in our first run and that sounded like a lot of work. And expensive. Mostly I thought the idea sounded expensive. I made the executive decision not to include anything about video instructions on our packaging until the videos were done.
I did this assuming that it would take months and months to make the videos (if we ever got to doing them).
Then I forgot about video instructions.
Until a few weeks later when Cora and her team e-mail me some links to videos on YouTube.
The videos were up. And they were really good. I mean REALLY REALLY good.
The joke is that they were filmed in our conference room. And they were filmed using a cell phone camera. The script was Cora or Vivian or Sujata just making the piece. They had written the instructions and had made the items a ton of times, so they knew exactly what they were doing. They knew the confusing parts and how to explain them clearly.
Take a look at this link to the LPF YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/LPFPuzzle
What I really love about this project is that Cora and the team knew how good these would be and went ahead and did it. The cost was mimimal. All our other projects are moving along right on schedule. I worried about costs and execution. They worried about just making a great video. And it worked.
I am mad at myself that I did not make a bigger deal about the video instructions on our first packaging. I should have trusted the team when they said the instructions would be easy and cheap. I have learned my lesson. We are redoing the packaging right now to catch our next manufacturing run.
And here is a little insiders tip. Check out the Horse Origami video. Around the 6:25 mark there is a neat little trick you can do with the horse.
JPC
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Our family has been putting together puzzles alot lately. The last two were from our Colorluxe 500pc and 750pc Panoramic lines. These puzzles are on sale at Target, but their quantities are limited. We put together a really fun image of Hawaiian Sarongs on sale at a shack in Hawaii. This puzzle was pretty easy, but a lot of fun. There are a ton of different colors and patterns making lots of different zones to complete. There are very few "dead" areas in the puzzle (almost no blue sky, just some shadows scattered about). It took us less than 2 hours to put together. I am sure others can complete them faster, but we try not to make it a race. I like puzzle time to be about talking and working together. Next we tackled an image of two adorable cats. I had lower expectations for this puzzle, but I loved the cats. I am a cat person and this is why this image made the cut. I was worried the background would be difficult since there was a lot of green. But I discovered (happily), that the background greens are made up of many different shades of green. And there are a variety of textures in the leaves and plants. This made the background challenging, but not impossible. I am not the type of puzzler that likes the super duper difficult puzzles that are all one color. I want to do puzzles that are challenging and fun. Not unfinishable. Doing our puzzles makes me really proud. I am pround at how nicely the pieces fit together. I was able to put areas together and then move the section of puzzle into the area is belongs without the puzzle pieces coming apart. I had to be gentle, but they basically stayed together. More and more, I find that other puzzles I buy from competitors do not hold together well enough for me to move sections around like that. I like that ours do hold together. I am always curious if other consumer goods companies presidents use and work with their products like I do. I like that I can discuss with a puzzler a puzzle LPF produced and we both have assembled. I did that today and it prompted me to write this entry. If you have not tried a Colorluxe puzzle, get yourself over to Target and find one. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. JP
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
I am up late tonight. I am working on quote sheets, samples and presentation materials.
It is getting late in the selling cycle to get our products on shelf for this coming 4th quarter. By now, most retailers have made their decisions on what they will carry for the the holiday seasons. In a few weeks, we will actually begin shipping for the Fall retail selling season.
But this week, we received a request to meet with someone who had seen our puzzles in other retailers. They liked what they saw and they want to see if we fit into their puzzle set.
This is very exciting. And very rushed. The retailer thought they had made all their decisions. But seeing our Spring line in stores has made them curious. The funny part is we have been trying to meet with them for months.
Being the new guy on the block, we will jump at any opportunity. So I am up late putting together a presentation for them. I have been in their stores a lot this winter and I was back today to make sure I had not missed anything. I can tell from visiting the store so many times what sells well and what does not. When you go look at the puzzle aisle of a retailer every week for months, you can see what is new on the shelf and what is gathering dust. I will use this investigation to make recommendations.
But first I am taking a break to write a blog post. I am going to try and write one blog post a week from now until the end of the year. It did not seem so hard when I decided to commit to writing more frequently. But now that week three is dawning, I am feeling a little pressure to keep up. I do have a back up plan if I can not think of anything to write. I might just post pictures of cute babies I see. Other blogs do this and it is very effective. Everyone likes to look at cute babies.
My next post might be about the puzzle our family put together this weekend. It was one of our Colorluxe 500 piece puzzles on sale at Target right now ($3.99 for a limited time!). It was really fun and I am not just saying that. The colors were great. I rarely tell you to go buy one of our puzzles, but you really should check out our Colorluxe puzzles at Target. I am so proud of them.
Keep on puzzling!
JP
It is getting late in the selling cycle to get our products on shelf for this coming 4th quarter. By now, most retailers have made their decisions on what they will carry for the the holiday seasons. In a few weeks, we will actually begin shipping for the Fall retail selling season.
But this week, we received a request to meet with someone who had seen our puzzles in other retailers. They liked what they saw and they want to see if we fit into their puzzle set.
This is very exciting. And very rushed. The retailer thought they had made all their decisions. But seeing our Spring line in stores has made them curious. The funny part is we have been trying to meet with them for months.
Being the new guy on the block, we will jump at any opportunity. So I am up late putting together a presentation for them. I have been in their stores a lot this winter and I was back today to make sure I had not missed anything. I can tell from visiting the store so many times what sells well and what does not. When you go look at the puzzle aisle of a retailer every week for months, you can see what is new on the shelf and what is gathering dust. I will use this investigation to make recommendations.
But first I am taking a break to write a blog post. I am going to try and write one blog post a week from now until the end of the year. It did not seem so hard when I decided to commit to writing more frequently. But now that week three is dawning, I am feeling a little pressure to keep up. I do have a back up plan if I can not think of anything to write. I might just post pictures of cute babies I see. Other blogs do this and it is very effective. Everyone likes to look at cute babies.
My next post might be about the puzzle our family put together this weekend. It was one of our Colorluxe 500 piece puzzles on sale at Target right now ($3.99 for a limited time!). It was really fun and I am not just saying that. The colors were great. I rarely tell you to go buy one of our puzzles, but you really should check out our Colorluxe puzzles at Target. I am so proud of them.
Keep on puzzling!
JP
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
It was my turn to answer the phone. We are still small enough the president has to answer the phone when it rings.
"Hello" I said warmly. "Thank you for calling the Lafayette Puzzle Factory. How may I help you?"
"There is a pea in my puzzle"
Uh-oh. My mind raced. I have answered the phone for 3 years. I have talked to hundreds of puzzlers. I thought I had heard it all.
I said the first thing I could think of "Huh?"
"There is a pea in my puzzle and I want to know why".
My mind was in full swoon. A pea. In the the puzzle? How did a pea get in her puzzle. We do not allow food near the puzzles. No drinks, no food allowed in the production area. A pea.
"The pea is bright green and it stands out against the puzzle. And I want to know why."
"Hello" I said warmly. "Thank you for calling the Lafayette Puzzle Factory. How may I help you?"
"There is a pea in my puzzle"
Uh-oh. My mind raced. I have answered the phone for 3 years. I have talked to hundreds of puzzlers. I thought I had heard it all.
I said the first thing I could think of "Huh?"
"There is a pea in my puzzle and I want to know why".
My mind was in full swoon. A pea. In the the puzzle? How did a pea get in her puzzle. We do not allow food near the puzzles. No drinks, no food allowed in the production area. A pea.
"The pea is bright green and it stands out against the puzzle. And I want to know why."
Bright green? A pea in the puzzle? I have never heard of such a thing.
I asked "What puzzle are you trying to assemble and are you sure the pea was in the box?"
The caller answered "The pea is in the upper right hand corner."
Upper right hand corner? What does that mean? Why is she telling me what corner the pea is in. Wait. Wait. Does she mean that pea is in the picture.
Gathering my composure "Do you mean the pea is in the picture? In the image?"
Upper right hand corner? What does that mean? Why is she telling me what corner the pea is in. Wait. Wait. Does she mean that pea is in the picture.
Gathering my composure "Do you mean the pea is in the picture? In the image?"
"Yes!" she exclaimed. "Why is it there?"
"What puzzle are you assemblying?"
At this point the caller explained that she was assemblying a picture of licorice candy we have in the line this winter. The licorice is basically pink, white, and brown. It is a neat puzzle and I remember looking at proofs of the candy. But I did not remember any peas in the picture.
The caller went on to describe her theory for why the pea was in the image. While she described her theory, I went scrambling to find the image on our servers.
"The Cherokee Indians (jp note: it might have been another tribe, but I know how to spell Cherokee, so Cherokee it is. If you know what tribe was described, let me know and I will correct this sentence) had a belief that you can never have all of a like thing together. When they wove a blanket of wool, they would be sure to include one thread of straw so that the blanket was not all wool. Did you add the pea so that the image would not be all candy? Like the Cherokees"
I love this theory. And I found the image. There is a green pea in the upper right hand corner. How it got there? I have no idea. But I like the theory. We put the pea in the upper right hand corner so that the image would not be all of one like thing. What a great idea. Maybe we should hide a pea in every image we do. It would sort of go with my name, JP. It might be the hook we have been looking for.
But that is not why the pea is there. As a matter of fact, until this phone call, not a single person had noticed the pea in the image. Now, we all notice it. Our eyes are drawn to it. Its all we can see when we look at the image.
It was a fun phone call and we talked for quite some time about puzzles and the types of images the caller liked. She was an expert when it came to puzzles and I enjoyed listening.
Here is the image:
"What puzzle are you assemblying?"
At this point the caller explained that she was assemblying a picture of licorice candy we have in the line this winter. The licorice is basically pink, white, and brown. It is a neat puzzle and I remember looking at proofs of the candy. But I did not remember any peas in the picture.
The caller went on to describe her theory for why the pea was in the image. While she described her theory, I went scrambling to find the image on our servers.
"The Cherokee Indians (jp note: it might have been another tribe, but I know how to spell Cherokee, so Cherokee it is. If you know what tribe was described, let me know and I will correct this sentence) had a belief that you can never have all of a like thing together. When they wove a blanket of wool, they would be sure to include one thread of straw so that the blanket was not all wool. Did you add the pea so that the image would not be all candy? Like the Cherokees"
I love this theory. And I found the image. There is a green pea in the upper right hand corner. How it got there? I have no idea. But I like the theory. We put the pea in the upper right hand corner so that the image would not be all of one like thing. What a great idea. Maybe we should hide a pea in every image we do. It would sort of go with my name, JP. It might be the hook we have been looking for.
But that is not why the pea is there. As a matter of fact, until this phone call, not a single person had noticed the pea in the image. Now, we all notice it. Our eyes are drawn to it. Its all we can see when we look at the image.
It was a fun phone call and we talked for quite some time about puzzles and the types of images the caller liked. She was an expert when it came to puzzles and I enjoyed listening.
Here is the image:
Do you see the pea? I do.
Keep on puzzling!
JP
Keep on puzzling!
JP
Thursday, January 20, 2011
I have written in the past about why folks like to assemble puzzles.
But why do we make puzzles? Why do we sell them. Why do we look at thousands and thousands of images to find the perfect puzzle image?
Like the reason why folks assemble puzzles, the reasons and motivations are many.
I have always liked puzzles. I grew up in a house that assembled puzzles. I can distinctly remember a 500pc puzzle of a hamburger that we put together as a family many times. I still pull that puzzle out of the closet and assemble it. It brings back wonderful memories. When I had a chance to work for a company that manufactured puzzles, I knew I had found a home. And then later when I decided to start my own company, puzzles were something I knew about and had a passion for.
Puzzles allow me to earn a living and provide employment for others. Everyone works to earn a living. I am blessed that I am able to have a career that I enjoy and can earn a living. No one ever got rich making and selling puzzles, but it allows me to provide for my kids and family. And we employ other people and companies. In addition to the obvious people like artists, photographers, graphic designers, accountants, shipping experts, and quality control people, we do business with a wide array of companies including the US Postal Service, Fed Ex, UPS, Office Max, trucking companies and more. That is satisfying.
We provide affordable entertainment to people. I never realized how much this would mean to me. To be honest, when I started the Lafayette Puzzle Factory, the money reasons were what I thought about most. But as folks have written me letters and e-mails, I realize how many families are positively impacted by our puzzles. Some of the letters are sad. Puzzles remind them of places they traveled with loved ones no longer with us. I heard from a person recently who loved an image we have of Niagara Falls because they had honeymooned there 50+ years ago. Another letter told us about a man who has been diagnosised with Ahlzheimer's disease. This is a disease that hits home for me in a very personal way. The man described in the letter found peace in assemblying puzzles of places he had visited in his life. While many of his memories were fading, puzzles were triggering something. This person and their spouse could do puzzles together and still connect. Puzzles take peoples mind off of hard economic times, illness and loneliness.
The letters and notes keep coming. I read some of them recently to our team to remind them that the puzzles we sell are not just numbers on shipping reports. Each one goes into a home. Each one is used and enjoyed by real people in their homes.
So when we are looking for new images and thinking up new formats, we remember this. And it motivates us to take a few extra minutes to look a little deeper for that great image. We debate a few minutes longer to make sure the images that make it into our lines are the best we can find. And even when we think we have found all the greatest images, we know that we need to keep looking. And we do.
- Its an affordable, relaxing activity.
- There is a sense of challenge while putting the pieces together and a sense of accomplishment when the last piece goes in.
- It can be a shared activity with the whole family gathered around or a solitary activity.
But why do we make puzzles? Why do we sell them. Why do we look at thousands and thousands of images to find the perfect puzzle image?
Like the reason why folks assemble puzzles, the reasons and motivations are many.
I have always liked puzzles. I grew up in a house that assembled puzzles. I can distinctly remember a 500pc puzzle of a hamburger that we put together as a family many times. I still pull that puzzle out of the closet and assemble it. It brings back wonderful memories. When I had a chance to work for a company that manufactured puzzles, I knew I had found a home. And then later when I decided to start my own company, puzzles were something I knew about and had a passion for.
Puzzles allow me to earn a living and provide employment for others. Everyone works to earn a living. I am blessed that I am able to have a career that I enjoy and can earn a living. No one ever got rich making and selling puzzles, but it allows me to provide for my kids and family. And we employ other people and companies. In addition to the obvious people like artists, photographers, graphic designers, accountants, shipping experts, and quality control people, we do business with a wide array of companies including the US Postal Service, Fed Ex, UPS, Office Max, trucking companies and more. That is satisfying.
We provide affordable entertainment to people. I never realized how much this would mean to me. To be honest, when I started the Lafayette Puzzle Factory, the money reasons were what I thought about most. But as folks have written me letters and e-mails, I realize how many families are positively impacted by our puzzles. Some of the letters are sad. Puzzles remind them of places they traveled with loved ones no longer with us. I heard from a person recently who loved an image we have of Niagara Falls because they had honeymooned there 50+ years ago. Another letter told us about a man who has been diagnosised with Ahlzheimer's disease. This is a disease that hits home for me in a very personal way. The man described in the letter found peace in assemblying puzzles of places he had visited in his life. While many of his memories were fading, puzzles were triggering something. This person and their spouse could do puzzles together and still connect. Puzzles take peoples mind off of hard economic times, illness and loneliness.
The letters and notes keep coming. I read some of them recently to our team to remind them that the puzzles we sell are not just numbers on shipping reports. Each one goes into a home. Each one is used and enjoyed by real people in their homes.
So when we are looking for new images and thinking up new formats, we remember this. And it motivates us to take a few extra minutes to look a little deeper for that great image. We debate a few minutes longer to make sure the images that make it into our lines are the best we can find. And even when we think we have found all the greatest images, we know that we need to keep looking. And we do.
Keep on puzzling!
JP
Friday, November 12, 2010
So many things to keep me busy and away from this blog.
But I am making time tonight. I am making time because I enjoy writing here. Not many folks start a business and I have always felt like this blog could be a small window into the first few years of a new company.
I attended my 3rd Toy Preview Show in Dallas last month. Our booth space keeps improving (the first year we were the last booth on a deadend aisle in an overflow hall). People found us then, but it is easier when you are on the main floor like we are now.
It is a good show for a company of our size. The big toy companies (Hasbro, Jakks Pacific, Mattel to name a few), do not attend. But most of the major retailers do attend. Without the big companies dominating the retail buyers time, we find that we get quality face time with major retailers. Anytime we can tell the story of the Lafayette Puzzle Factory it helps. We are different and we have a compelling line up of puzzles and activities.
I got to thinking about all of this because of an e-mail I received this week. The father of my oldest friend sent a note. In the note he re-introduced me to a woman who grew up in our neighborhood. She has started a new business and he thought it might be interesting to reconnect.
Her business is really interesting and her web site is great. She is selling doll clothes. But not just any doll clothes. She sells used doll clothes, some of the pieces date back decades. I am not a doll collector, but I admit I loved looking through her website and seeing the way she presents the clothes and the company. The advice I was given before I started the Lafayette Puzzle Factory is to only do it if you really love it. Looking at her website, you can tell she really loves this niche fashion business.
I am not sure how many of your might need doll clothes, but I know a lot of folks who collect also assemble jigsaw puzzles, so I thought there might be some folks who would be interested in this company.
Check out the company, enjoy the dresses and keep on puzzling!
http://www.tinyfrockshop.com/
Thanks!
JP
But I am making time tonight. I am making time because I enjoy writing here. Not many folks start a business and I have always felt like this blog could be a small window into the first few years of a new company.
I attended my 3rd Toy Preview Show in Dallas last month. Our booth space keeps improving (the first year we were the last booth on a deadend aisle in an overflow hall). People found us then, but it is easier when you are on the main floor like we are now.
It is a good show for a company of our size. The big toy companies (Hasbro, Jakks Pacific, Mattel to name a few), do not attend. But most of the major retailers do attend. Without the big companies dominating the retail buyers time, we find that we get quality face time with major retailers. Anytime we can tell the story of the Lafayette Puzzle Factory it helps. We are different and we have a compelling line up of puzzles and activities.
I got to thinking about all of this because of an e-mail I received this week. The father of my oldest friend sent a note. In the note he re-introduced me to a woman who grew up in our neighborhood. She has started a new business and he thought it might be interesting to reconnect.
Her business is really interesting and her web site is great. She is selling doll clothes. But not just any doll clothes. She sells used doll clothes, some of the pieces date back decades. I am not a doll collector, but I admit I loved looking through her website and seeing the way she presents the clothes and the company. The advice I was given before I started the Lafayette Puzzle Factory is to only do it if you really love it. Looking at her website, you can tell she really loves this niche fashion business.
I am not sure how many of your might need doll clothes, but I know a lot of folks who collect also assemble jigsaw puzzles, so I thought there might be some folks who would be interested in this company.
Check out the company, enjoy the dresses and keep on puzzling!
http://www.tinyfrockshop.com/
Thanks!
JP
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