Validate ideas 10X faster with the
Innovation Sprint
Find your ideal customers & create an engaging Customer Journey
The OPPORTUNITY
Want reliably better innovation outcomes?
Do you have a brilliant new idea? Or are you already working on an innovative product or service?
- Who will be your customers?
- How will they use your product?
- And what will they use it for?
Finding the right answers to these questions will greatly increase your product’s chances of success and turn your bright idea into the next big hit.
Getting the right answers from the right people will set you up to find the best possible product-market fit (PMF).
Amy Jo’s MVP methodology is fantastic. The results you’ll see are a no-brainer
Ofer Leidner
President, Twill / Happify
The solution
The Innovation Sprint: Find product-market fit quickly
How do you build the right product for the right people?
You don’t need working software or high-fidelity designs to get reliable customer feedback.
Instead, focus on:
- Finding who your best customers are
- Understanding their needs and habits
- Asking them the correct questions
Design and build around early customer feedback
Sometimes, the right approach is to build a quick prototype or MVP and gather feedback from customers.
However, many innovators then find out their prototype is NOT what their customers want.
So. Frustrating.
What if you could do it the other way around? What if you could build a prototype from customer feedback rather than get customer feedback from your prototype?
And what if you could do this really quickly?
The Innovation Sprint will teach you how to do this and uncover design-ready customer insights.
This program had invaluable impact on my product thinking – AND my product
Chris Swain
Professor @ USC Iovine and Young Academy
This program got everyone on the same page, testing our assumptions
Allison Kelsey
Director of Product @ Geocaching
I was amazed at how quickly we found the right people to test our product
Robin Allenson
Founder, Similar.ai
The Process
A step-by-step guide to research your product ideas
The Innovation Sprint is broken down into four phases with easy-to-follow steps and useful tools.
We want to enable you to build the right product for the right people.
Phase 1: Superfan Discovery
Clarify your strategy & find the right beachhead niche
Who is actually your customer? And what makes them need and want what you offer? The steps in this phase will help you find your superfans.
- Pitch Maker: define who you’re serving & what they need to make progress
- Niche Finder: discover the key traits of a high-need beachhead niche
- Screener Builder: draft your 6-question Screener Survey
Phase 2: Sticky Habit Design
Build long-term engagement from the ground up
What will your product do for your customers? And how does that cater to their needs and habit? In this phase, you’ll learn how to fit your product into the lives of your customers.
- Habit Synthesizer: identify relevant Habit Stories among your Superfans
- Loop Builder: design a sticky Habit Loop around an existing anchor habit
- Journey Crafter: describe your customer’s goals during 4 Journey Stages
Phase 3: End-to-End Storyboards
Visualize your end-to-end Customer Journey with no-code Storyboards
How will your customers use your product? And how does it enrich their lives? In this phase, you’ll learn how to create the ultimate customer experience.
- Beat Shaper: identify the key Story Beats in your end-to-end journey
- Persona Creator: define how your customer will engage with your product over time – specifying location, access device, time of day, anchor habits, and intent.
- Storyboard Builder: visualize key “beats” in a 30-day customer experience
Phase 4: Concept Validation
Test your end-to-end Journey with validated Superfans
Does all your hard work really check the important boxes? In this final phase, you’ll validate your insights, assumptions, and design decisions. This is your true test of product-market fit!
- Playtest Planner: create & run high-learning concept tests
- Insight Clipper: collect video clips illustrating your key insights & findings
- Brief Builder: summarize what you learned & next steps to share with your team & stakeholders – including video highlights from customer playtests.
You’ve got to find your own window of opportunity. Game Thinking is your instruction manual.
Garry Tan
CEO, Ycombinator
Want to use Jobs-To-Be-Done to build the right product? You’re in good hands with Amy Jo
Bob Moesta
Founder, ReWired Group
Amy Jo’s program & insights gave me practical, tangible design skills.
Gina Bianchini
CEO, Mighty Networks
Power-up your customer research
Playwright: Your AI-powered discovery & validation tool
Playwright is our own tool that will help you test your product ideas with a powerful Discovery & Validation engine:
- rapid niche validation: generate a highly targeted Screener
- research-based habit-stacking: identify Jobs & Habits
- end-to-end journey design: define a 4-stage Customer Experience
- automated storyboard creation: generate end-to-end Storyboards
Communicate better with Concept Storyboards
Playwright helps you generate Storyboards that visualize your customers’ experience over time – and shows you how to use
Storyboards to test & de-risk your product ideas.
But end-to-end Storyboards aren’t just for testing.
Storyboards help you visualize & explain what you’re planning to deliver in an integrated way – which helps you communicate more effectively with your team, stakeholders, and investors.
underneath the bonnet: Game Thinking
Go beyond Design Thinking & Lean/Agile
If you’re familiar with Design Thinking, Lean/Agile, Stage-gate, or Gamification – you’re in the right place.
Game Thinking embraces these frameworks, & adds proven, cutting- edge techniques from game design & systems thinking to take things further.
Game Thinking extends existing frameworks
- Save months of time by targeting a high-need, underserved niche
- Drive retention with a sticky Habit Loop & engaging Customer Journey
- Test your end-to-end experience with no-code Storyboards
Game Thinking stretches beyond gaming
Join an elite group of innovators
Game Thinking is not just for games
If you’re building a product, app, service, or marketplace – Game Thinking can help you drive retention & accelerate product/market fit.
Hundreds of teams worldwide — working in diverse industries like beauty, education, entertainment, fintech, gaming, & healthcare – have achieved breakthroughs with our Rapid Innovation toolkit.
When you join the Accelerator, you’ll become part of an elite group of high-performing teams who use Game Thinking to delight and engage customers.
Amy Jo has a refined, effective process for bringing new ideas to life
Blair Ethington
VP @ eBay
Cara Meverden
Podcasts @ Apple
Dylan Watkins
VR / AR Developer
Eugenia Kuyda
CEO @ Replika
ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE
What to expect in your PMF Sprint
Expert coaching & implementation support
Your team get expert feedback & guidance with your project directly from Amy Jo Kim.
Plus our higher levels offer implementation support from our team that can include planning & running customer research, designing a sticky habit loop, and creating a stakeholder presentation to communicate your results.
In-depth workshops that help you succeed
We kickoff each Sprint with an in-depth workshop to teach you the basics & accelerate your progress
During these sessions, you’ll create a customized gameplan & key Sprint materials quickly using our AI-powered Sprint Templates.
AI-powered templates deliver results FAST
Our proprietary templates take the guesswork out of validating your ideas by showing you exactly what to do, and how to do it.
These templates will help us make smarter design decisions – faster than you thought possible.
Monthly LIVE sessions with VIP guests
Each month, we bring in a world-class expert in game design, investing, UX, product management and other relevant topics.
You get a front-row seat in these exclusive sessions, plus the opportunity to ask questions & engage with our guest experts after the sessions.
Finally, I have a method to track innovation projects & help my team build hits
George Ogbonnaya
VP @ First City Monument Bank
This program is magic for entrepreneurs searching for product/market fit
Candis Best
CEO @ Learningateway
This program saved my team months of time. Incredible value
Vinayak Joglekar
CTO @ Excellerate
APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN
Apply for the Innovation Sprint
In this high-powered, fast-paced program, you get:
- Hands-on expert coaching to tackle & solve your toughest challenges
- Easy-to-follow training videos to learn the ropes at your convenience
- Tactical Workshops that help you implement the system quickly
- Step-by-step templates that guide you through each activity
- AI-powered Tools to streamline recruiting, testing & communication
- (Optional) Done-for-you services take over operations for your team
Game Thinking saved us from struggling through Customer Discovery on our own
Cara Meverden
Podcasts @ Apple
Frequently Asked Questions
I’m a solopreneur – is this for me?
Our Accelerator is for funded teams. However, if you’re a solopreneur & work with freelancers, it might be a fit. To learn more, apply & tell us about your situation.
My team needs to find PMF faster – is this for me?
YES! The Accelerator is perfect for teams who want to move faster, test ideas earlier, & ship the right product to the right people. To learn more, apply now
What is the time commitment?
To get you results & save time, we offer 4 different levels of support. Your time commitment is 2-3 hours a week and upward, depending on your support level.
When do meetings happen?
Our small-group coaching sessions are at 9am PT. Our private team coaching sessions are scheduled for a time that works best for your team.
What if I get busy and need to miss a week or two?
This program is designed to accommodate vacations, crunch, & the realities of being a working professional.
What are the LIVE coaching meetings like?
In our sessions, we’ll answer questions, share designs, review work-in-progress, & resolve roadblocks.
I’m building an app/platform/enterprise system. Is this only for games?
Game Thinking will improve any product experience that can be built around learning, mastery and empowerment. It works for games – and ALSO for products, apps, blogs, marketplaces, and events where the goal is long-term engagement.
This reminds me of Gamification – but I’m not hearing a lot about game mechanics. What’s the difference?
Gamification opens the door and gets people interested in the power of games. Game Thinking is the next step. You’ll learn how to bring your ideas to life like a game designer, and create a sticky habit loop that empower your players
Validate ideas 10X faster with
PMF Copilot
AI-powered Discovery & Validation toolkit for innovative teams & product leaders
You’ve got a great idea – & you think it could reach a BIG market.
If you’re a builder, your first impulse is to code up an MVP, Vertical Slice, or prototype – & get it into people’s hands.
Sometimes, that’s EXACTLY the right approach.
But too often, ambitious teams build their idea, get it into customer’s hands, & THEN find out that it’s NOT what they want.
So. Frustrating.
Is there a better way to test ideas early & find out what’s working? How can we speed up the process?
Meet PMF Copilot →
Your AI-powered Discovery & Validation Toolkit
Validate your ideas 10X faster
The PMF Copilot helps your team test product ideas with a powerful Discovery & Validation engine that implements:
- rapid niche validation: generate a behaviorally targeted Screener
- research-based habit-stacking: generate Jobs & Habits
- end-to-end journey design: define a 4-stage Customer Experience
- automated storyboard creation: generate end-to-end Storyboards
Communicate better with end-to-end Storyboards
PMF Copilot helps you generate Storyboards that visualize your customers’ experience over time – and shows you how to use Storyboards to test & de-risk your product ideas.
But end-to-end Storyboards aren’t just for testing.
Storyboards help you visualize & explain what you’re planning to deliver in an integrated way – which helps you communicate more effectively with your team, stakeholders, & investors.
We’re currently in Early Access as we ramp up capacity.
Want to start using PMF Copilot to accelerate innovation? APPLY FOR EARLY ACCESS BELOW.
Or contact us directly with questions at support@gamethinking.io
