Innovation Games — The Seriously Fun Way to Do Work!

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The Seriously Fun Way to Do Work!

Michael TarnowskiPlays-In-Business.com

www.plays-in-business.com

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Innovation Games ‒ The Seriously Fun Way to

Do Work!

Innovation Games:

a set of originally market research oriented, facilitated and

directed games, developed by Luke Hohmann.

13 core games at the beginning; now more than 20 games.

Free account to play online: http://innovationgames.com/resources/instant-play-games/

http://innovationgames.com/resources/instant-play-games/


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Gamestorming ‒ Another Playful Way to Do

Work!

Recently, Luke Hohmann (Innovation Games) and Gamestorming

started a co-operation aka “Community Games”.

Gamestorming:

A similar approach, initiated by Sunny Brown,

David Gray.

More games ― collection of “traditional games”,

and not limited to a certain business field.


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Games

Games involve a high level of emotion.

Emotions help us to

Focus

Remember

Decide

Perform

Learn


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Games

involve people

have structure and goals

operate more like a real-world system

their results are unpredictable

small changes in variables generate dramatic differences in the result


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Business Process

Result of a well-designed and well-

executed business process are

standard, repeatable, scalable results.

chain of cause and effect,

leading to a predictable result


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World is a Complex System...

...made up of many complex systems, all of

them interacting with each other in

complex, dynamic and unpredictable ways.

Picture Credit: PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE, https://www.flickr.com/photos/photonquantique/1818489936



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Innovation Games…

Picture Credit: Xavier Vergés, https://www.flickr.com/photos/xverges/3557323170


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Business Process vs. Creative Process (Game)

Business Process

Same result every time

Framework for Predictability

Game

Different result every time

Framework for Possibility and

Creativity


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Games *)

Games are alternatives to

standard business meetings.

Games are structured activities.

A facilitator leads a group

towards some goal by way of a

game, that provides scope for

thinking freely, even playfully.

Games require a few props such

as sticky notes, poster paper,

markers, random pictures from

magazines, or other thought

provoking objects ― “Fluffy Stuff”.

New Ideas

Agreement

Problem Solving

PlanningDeep Understanding

Unraveling complexity

*) Innovation Games, Agiles Games, LEGO Serious Play


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Do Work!

Innovation Games:

Focussed on real-time collaborative games to engage customers and

stakeholders to reveal what really matters to them and to get

breakthrough ideas.


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Do Work!

Ways of

customer feedback about a product or service

prioritising issues, features, meanings, options,

possibilities, ...etc.

Serious games to solve a wide range of

product strategy and management issues

across the whole market lifecycle.


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Innovation Games ‒ Fields of Application

Not only applicable for market research and product design,

but also for

Portfolio management,

Requirements management,

Project management

.....

...any number of tasks of

Innovative Thinking

Brainstorming

Collaboration / Team building

...


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Innovation Games ― use them forSlide f

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Scenario:

You have a bunch of smart people in a

room


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Option One...

…One Question leads to the other


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Option Two...

…One dominates the meeting ― the dullest one most


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Option Three...

…Chaos of Creativity


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Solve Scenario Problem by…

…Gamestorming

…Agile Games

…Innovation Games


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Core Set of Innovation Games: 13 Games

Product Box Spider WebMake My Day Speed Boat

Buy a Feature

20/20 VisionMe and My Shadow

Hot Tub

The Apprentice Remember the Future

Show and Tell Prune the Product Tree My Worst Nightmare


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Innovation Games (Core) 1/5

Product Box: customers work individually or in

small teams to create and sell their ideal product.

Me and My Shadow: discover hidden needs

by carefully observing what customers

actually do with your products.

Buy a Feature: customers work together to

purchase their most desired features.


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Give Them a Hot Tub: customers provide

feedback on outrageous features to establish

what is truly essential.

Remember the Future: understand your

customers’ definition of success by seeing how

they shape their future. (This game is related

with Future Perfect from Agile Coaching)

Spider Web: participants work individually or in

small teams to create vivid pictures of how your

products and services fit into their world.


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Start Your Day: participants collaboratively

describe when, how, and where they use your

product(s). Participants describe their daily,

weekly, monthly, and yearly events related to

their use of a product.

Show and Tell: customers describe the most

important artifacts produced by your system to

you and other customers.

The Apprentice: an engineer or product

developer uses the product as an end-user.


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20/20 Vision: customers negotiate the relative

importance of such things as product features,

market requirements, and product benefits.

Prune the Product Tree: customers work in

small teams to shape the evolution of your

products and services.

Speed Boat: customers identify their biggest

pain points with your products and services.


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My Worst Nightmare: Discover hidden and/or

unconsidered worst-case scenarios to develop

better understanding and planning.

Participants imagine and draw a caricature of

their “worst nightmare” related to the product or

service that you’re researching.


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Bring “Ideas into Action”™

Me and my Shadow

Product Box

Prune the Product

Tree

Speed Boat

Spider Web

The Apprentice

Start your Day

Give Them a

Hot Tub

Remember the

Future

Show and Tell

Buy a Feature

20/20 Vision

My Worst

Nightmare

+ more Games…


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Discover

Cover Story Think big to uncover your company’s potential

Empathy Map Understand what your stakeholders want from

the business

SWOT Analysis Uncover how to attain your desired end state

Whole Product Differentiate your product

Shape

Impact/Effort Matrix Find the most efficient way to reach your goal.

Learning Matrix Think of effective improvements for your iteration

Free account to play online: http://innovationgames.com/resources/instant-play-games/

+ a Bunch more Games aka „Community Games“ 1/2Gamestorming, Agile Games

http://innovationgames.com/resources/instant-play-games/


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Shape

Bang for the Buck Collaboratively rank a project backlog

based on estimated value and

estimated cost

How Now Wow Matrix Form original ideas to implement

Act

Plus/Delta Game Collect constructive criticism to improve

future events

Pros/Cons Game Organize your thoughts to make careful

decisions

Actions for Retrospectives Discover how you can improve an event

for the future

Circles and Soup Improve your past projects

Circles of Influence Identify who can help you reach your goal

+ a Bunch more Games aka „Community Games“ 2/2Gamestorming, Agile Games


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Books

Luke Hohmann: Innovation Games. Creating

Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative

Play. Addison-Wesley, 2006

Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, James Macanufo:

Gamestorming. O'Reilly, 2010.

Web Links

Innovation Games: www.innovationgames.com

Gamestorming: http://www.gogamestorm.com/

Michael Tarnowski (Article) http://goo.gl/vS2Py

http://tastycupcakes.org/

Further Reading

http://www.innovationgames.com/

http://www.gogamestorm.com/

http://goo.gl/vS2Py

http://tastycupcakes.org/


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Twitter: @M_Tarnowski, @PlaysInBusinessFacebook: http://bit.ly/PiB-FBLinkedIn: http://bit.ly/MT-LinkdInXing: http://bit.ly/MT-XingSlideShare: http://bit.ly/MT-SShare

Or call me: +49-172-6915261 • +49-611-2056820(cell phone/mobile) (regular phone)

Drop me a note:[email protected]

This document may be further distributed free-of-charge in its original, complete form only. Please credit Plays-in-Business.com.All images used are – if not stated otherwise – taken from flickr.com under Common Creative License.

Michael Tarnowski, Plays-In-Business.com

Certified Innovation Games Facilitator(Certified Collaboration Architect)

https://twitter.com/M_Tarnowski

https://twitter.com/PlaysInBusiness

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Trained LEGO Serious Play Facilitator

Trained Innovation Games Facilitator

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Certifed Scrum Master, Agile Coaching

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Leadership & Management

Innovation Games — The Seriously Fun Way to Do Work!