Innovation Workshops
Get the expert tools & guidance you need to build a better product in less time. Our practical, hands-on workshops and discovery sprints are designed to get you results – fast.
Do you want to harness the deep power of games to build a more compelling product? Do you want to leverage the insider gaming techniques that REALLY work – the ones that that produce long-lasting, breakthrough hits?
An Innovation Jumpstart will get your project off on the right foot. We’ll show you, step-by-step, how successful games actually come to life – and help you leverage these ideas to super-charge YOUR product design process.
Take the guesswork out of building your MVP
Bring your ideas to life – faster and smarter – with a proven, step-by-step system that takes the guesswork out of early product design. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to use Game Thinking tools and techniques to:
- Create a repeatable, pleasurable core product experience
- Accelerate your path to product/market fit with the right superfans
- Build a product they love – and come back to, again & again
- Quickly turn your expansive idea into a simple, stripped-down MVP
- Drive sticky social bonding with smart co-op game design
If you want to create a compelling product experience that drives long-term engagement – this workshop is for you.
Sample Agenda
1. Create a repeatable, pleasurable Learning Loop
Game Thinking 101
What’s the #1 rule that makes a game engaging over time?
TEMPLATE: Elevator Pitch: Who/Why/Why/How
Social Actions
How do YOUR customers want to engage? What’s their style?
TEMPLATE: Social Action Matrix
Customer Narrative
Does your end-to-end customer experience evolve over time?
TEMPLATE: 4-stage Player’s Journey
Learning Loop
How do successful game designers bring their ideas to life?
TEMPLATE: Design Your Core Loop(s) with Habit Stories
2. Accelerate product discovery with superfans
Product Strategy
Articulate Your Hypotheses & plan your experiment
TEMPLATE: Alpha Canvas / Lean Canvas
Superfan Screener
Find your passionate early customers
TEMPLATE: Superfan Screeners
Speed Interviews
Surface relevant habits & unmet needs
TEMPLATE: Speed Interviews
Job Stories
Turn research insights into design-ready form
TEMPLATE: Job Stories & Habit Stories
3. Engage your customers with a path to mastery
Game Thinking Roadmap
Focus your efforts & plan your product rollout
TEMPLATE: Game Thinking Roadmap
Discovery
Help visitors quickly self-select & find the core value
TEMPLATE: Draft a Discovery Story
Onboarding
Help newcomers learn the ropes with small, achievable goals
TEMPLATE: Draft an Onboarding Story
Habit-Building
Re-engage regulars with fresh content/connections/challenges
TEMPLATE: Draft a Habit Story
Mastery
Empower experts with exclusive roles, powers & privileges
TEMPLATE: Draft a Mastery Story
4. Drive social bonding with cooperative game design
Winning Together
Introduction to cooperative game design
TEMPLATE: Collaboration Rules: 5 Tips for Non-Zero-Sum Design
Your Instructor: Amy Jo Kim, Ph.D.
Amy Jo Kim is a world-renowned game designer, entrepreneur and startup coach. Her deep experience in early-stage innovation & collaborative game design includes work on Rock Band, The Sims, eBay, Netflix, Cover Fashion, indiegogo, Ultima Online, nytimes.com, Happify, Pley and numerous startups.
She pioneered the idea of applying game design to digital services and is well-known for her influential book Community Building on the Web – & more recently for Game Thinking – online programs to accelerate product design with Game Thinking. Amy Jo holds a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience and a BA in Experimental Psychology. She’s an adjunct Game Design professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where she co-developed the game design curriculum.
Learn more at amyjokim.com and LinkedIn.
