Agile Innovation Games The seriously fun way to do serious work – seriously

June 2012

Nadeem Ulla Khan

Agenda

• The Industry

• The Market

• Understanding the Market

• Games + Business

• Why do we need them

• Hot Air Balloon

• Value add

• Case study

• Other Innovation Games

• References

The Industry

Source - http://www.esrb.org

The Market

Source - http://www.theesa.com

Understanding the market

• Be more cognitive (knowledge gathering)

• Solving the unsolvable

• Be more competitive

• Self actualization (to realize ones potential)

• Socially intrigued

• Work better as Teams

Why do people play games?

So, can we use this in business ??? Lets explore…

Games + Business = Innovation Games

Developed by Luke Hohmann:

Game

Goal

Collaboration

Innovation

Business Strategy

Using games in business – Innovation Games

Innovation Games surface out these through effective collaboration

Circle of Knowledge

Innovation Games help in …

Making learning fun

Deeper Business Insight

Enables Ideation

Optimizing collaboration

Strengthening the customer-vendor bond

Hot Air Balloon

Let us summarize.

The game has 2 parts: 1. Fly high

2. Unable to fly

Hot Air Balloon

What did we learn from this?

Diverse expectations but one goal

Surface USP’s

Derive feature list

Uncover obstacles right from the word “Go”

Plan for risk management earlier in the cycle

Where can we use this exercise?

Bring out the Business Case, especially when multiple stake holders are involved

Product backlog Prioritization

In a “retrospective meeting” to discover what went right or wrong

Value-add

• Know your customer

• Discover unspoken needs

• Learn what you shouldn’t build and why

• Build consensus (Get every one on the same page)

• Foster trust relationship

• Share tactical knowledge/experience

• Validate requirements (Offering = Customer business needs)

…all of this while you are having fun

Valtech – Case Study – HR Open House

Valtech Bangalore, went through a merger. Challenges faced in the past: • Employees were hesitant to open up

• No Candid feedback

• Unavailability of management at times

• No structure in facilitation

• Unable to maintain transparency Solution:

• “Innovation Games”

Valtech – Case Study – HR Open House

Speed Boat in Action:

Valtech – Case Study – HR Open House

• 23 sessions conducted, over 2 Months

Valtech – Case Study – HR Open House

• 394 Employees addressed

Valtech – Case Study – HR Open House

• 195 issues raised, 166 closed and 29 open What is important

is to note the closed items – Transparency

achieved

Valtech – Case Study – HR Open House

Value-add using Speed Boat : • No inhibition due to use of post-its

• More open communication

• Higher level of interaction

• Transparency between management and employees • Accelerated more ownership

• Catalyzed smooth transition

Valtech – Case Study – HR Open House

The Team that made it happen

Innovation Games to explore

20/20 Vision Rank a list of choices.

Buy a Feature Prioritize features.

Give Them a Hot Tub Generate your crazy ideas and let your customers determine

just how crazy those ideas really are!

Me and My Shadow Watch your customer use your product on their terms, not yours.

Product Box Ask your customers to design a product box for your product.

Prune the Product Tree Build a product according to your plans.

Remember the Future Are you asking your customers the right question?

Show and Tell Ask customers to tell you about the results that they can

produce with your product.

Speed Boat Identify what customers don’t like about your products or

services.

Spider Web Clarify the operating context for your products and services.

Start Your Day Understand how and when your customer uses your product.

The Apprenctice Understand your customers' needs so well that you can envision

solutions to problems customers may not realize they have!

References

• http://innovationgames.com/

• http://www.esrb.org/about/video-game-industry-statistics.jsp

• http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2011.pdf

• http://www.nearsoft.com/blog/innovation-games.html

• http://www.itbusinessedge.com/

• http://allgamesofchance.com/psychology-of-games.htm

• http://www.alionscience.com

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation_game#A_description_of_innovation_games

• http://tastycupcakes.org/

• http://www.uie.com/

Feedback

Thank you Nadeem Ulla Khan (ATS Team)