Rapid Innovation Accelerator
Supercharge your innovation & 10X product/market fit
Introduction to the accelerator
Want to validate ideas 10X faster?
Our Team Accelerator is for startups, game studios & global brands who want to turn promising ideas into successful products — faster & smarter.
With our support & coaching, you & your team will visualize, test & validate your product ideas – using techniques from breakthrough games.
We’ve helped dozens of teams innovate faster & bring hit products to life.
How can we help YOUR team find product/market fit? Let’s find out.
Amy Jo’s MVP methodology is fantastic. The results you’ll see are a no-brainer
Ofer Leidner
President, Twill / Happify
About Game Thinking
Go beyond Design Thinking & Lean/Agile
If you’re familiar with Design Thinking, Lean/Agile and Gamification, you’re in good company. Game Thinking is built on the principles of Design Thinking and Agile/Lean design, plus cutting edge methods from game design and systems thinking.
How Game Thinking goes further than most other methods
- Save months of time by leveraging your early adopter Superfans
- Create long-term retention by building a Mastery Path and Learning Loop
- Validate your end-to-end product experience early, before you have built a thing, by using concept scenarios
Game Thinking stretches beyond gaming
Trusted By Leading Brands, Startups & Game Studios
Game Thinking is not just for games. Hundreds of teams worldwide have achieved breakthrough innovations with Game Thinking — and you can too.
Graduates work in beauty, education, entertainment, finance, healthcare, manufacturing, & technology. Level-up your team with a system trusted by game studios, hot startups & global brands.
Amy Jo has a refined, effective process for bringing new ideas to life
Blair Ethington
VP @ eBay
The Process
Accelerate Innovation across your company
In the Accelerator, we run three connected Sprints: Discovery, Design & Validation. Here’s how it works.
Sprint 1: Superfan Discovery
Clarify Product Strategy & Gather Customer Insights
- Clarify your product/market strategy & risky assumptions
- Identify who NEEDS what you offer — and who doesn’t
- Discover the habits and motivations of your best customers
- Synthesize insights into Job Stories about customers’ intrinsic motivation & existing habits
Sprint 2: Habit Design
Build Long-Term Engagement From the Ground Up
- Visualize how customers will use your product over time with a four-stage Mastery Path
- Use hot-core customer insights to create a sticky re-engagement loop
- Drive lasting retention with Progression Design & Cooperative Social Mechanics
Sprint 3: Concept Validation
Test Your Customer Journey with No-code Storyboards
- Visualize your 30-day experience with research-informed Concept Storyboards
- Test your concept with vetted customers & get actionable insights on your product experience
- Validate your assumptions, update your designs and outline next steps in a Product Brief
How you’ll learn
What to expect in the Accelerator
Live Sessions
Live trainings with Amy Jo Kim & guests
Get your questions answered & hear real-time case studies during our live coaching calls. We post recordings in your Members area.
Expert coaching & hands-on support
You can observe our private Coaching meetings with entrepreneurs and business owners, and jump in with feedback when you’re ready.
Monthly LIVE sessions with VIP experts
We bring in a world-class expert in game design, Lean UX, product management and other topics. monthly. You get a front-row seat.
Step-by-step templates
Advanced courses add to your knowledge
You get access to our Game Thinking Innovation Sprint signature system, plus Cooperative Design & Product Teardown mini-courses.
Step-by-step templates streamline your work
Our proprietary Game Thinking templates take the guesswork out of building your MVP by showing you what to do, and how to do it. These templates will help you make smarter design decisions.
Sample Workshop Agendas kickstart your results
We make it easy for you to create your Game Thinking Workshop by giving you sample Game Thinking workshop agendas to customize.
Curated Peer Community
Peer feedback amplifies your progress
In every coaching meeting, you get the opportunity to learn from your peers.You’ll continue those connections in our private community filled with people like you, eager to learn and happy to share their knowledge and experience
VIP Experts expand your horizons
We host monthly AMAs with VIP experts that expose you to world-class designers & leaders — & give you the opportunity to get their feedback on your work.
Community
A growing international community
Game Thinking Certified professionals are a diverse, high-powered group from Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, South America, and across the USA.
In this exclusive community you get access to on-going meetups, events & partnership opportunities.
Apply for the ACCELERATOR
Join our Fall ’23 Cohort
Apply now to join the Accelerator & you’ll get:
- 90-day Innovation Sprint to accelerate learning & deliver rapid results
- Weekly implementation support to insure you make rapid progress
- Hot-seat coaching to help you solve your toughest design problems
- Easy-to-follow training videos you watch at your convenience
- Step-by-step templates that guide you through the activities
- Supportive peer community to help you learn & iterate
- Flexible schedule to accommodate your schedule & disruptions
This program changed how we design; it delivers powerful insights fast
Kacie Hsu
User Research @ Jam City
This program help me serve customers better & deliver client solutions faster.
Dylan Watkins
Founder, Reality Smash
Game Thinking gave me techniques to accelerate my research. Brilliant!
Amanda Taylor
Head of Insights @ (stealth)
This program saved my team months of time. Incredible value
Vinayak Joglekar
CTO @ Excellerate
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the time commitment?
To participate, you need 2-3 hours a week to attend LIVE meetings, watch lessons, and fill out templates.
When do meetings happen?
Our sessions happen Thursdays at 9am & 4pm PST, to accommodate students in different time zones.
What if I get busy and need to miss a week or two?
This program is designed to accommodate vacations, crunch time, and other realities of being a working professional. It’s easy to get caught up – and we can extend your course membership to accommodate your schedule.
What are the LIVE coaching meetings like?
In our weekly coaching meetings, we answer questions & review work-in-progress from everyone in the course. You can get your own work reviewed – and participate in dynamic feedback sessions on other people’s work too.
What if I can’t make it to a LIVE meeting?
All the weekly calls are recorded and published online – so you can download and listen to them on your own schedule.
Can I share the course with other team members?
Your seat is for you – and you can register your team for the course, just APPLY & tell us about your situation.
Game Thinking sounds great, but 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 Learning Loops that empower your players
This course covers a LOT of material. How can I do it all?
You’re right – it IS a lot of material. We’ve broken it into manageable chunks, organized around activities with step-by-step instructions that move your project forward. You’ll get short-term gains from this material – AND long-term skill-building as you use these techniques on future projects.
What if I don’t have the time I need, or the right skills?
This program is not for everyone – it’s for those who are passionate about running smarter product experiments and getting amazing client outcomes. Skill-wise, you don’t need to be a trained researcher or designer; you DO need to be willing to follow directions and learn how to iterate towards success.
What is the cost? Will my employer cover it?
For individuals, the cost is $5K USD. We have 2 team options: small (up to 6) for $10K or large (up to 12) for $15K
The course will enhance your product design and management skills & everyone on your team will benefit from the techniques you bring back to the company. If your company has a training budget, this should be covered. LEARN MORE
What do I get as a result of being Certified?
Once Certified, you get a Certificate of Mastery to display on your LinkedIn profile – and you’ll be included and promoted in the Certified Professionals directory
You also get a 1-year license to use the Game Thinking tools and templates in your work – plus the opportunity to earn $$$ by promoting and running your own Game Thinking programs. Most importantly, you’ll be connected to a worldwide community of professionals who can help you solve problems and keep learning.
