Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play

by Luke Hohmann

Customers are people. They have trouble understanding their own problems. And even if they think they understand their problems, they often can't describe the solutions they seek. Of course, many times they often don't know they had a problem or that they desired a solution, until they see or possess it. This book takes the challenge of developing customer understanding head on by providing a fresh perspective on how to use a variety of games with...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0321437292
• ISBN13: 9780321437297
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Skinning the Onion on Customer Needs

With the disclaimer that I worked with Luke while some of the ideas that turned into the Games where bouncing around in his head, I have seen these games work to produce tangible results. (We used an early version of Remember the Future to develop the successful plan for our first product deployment.) In "Blink", Malcom Gladwell makes the point that if you ask people what they want, they will tell you what they *think* they want. (When asked, nobody thought they wanted the Aeron chair. Oops.) It takes a bit of digging to get beneath the thought level, tapping into real emotional wants and needs to extract ideas for products that stand a chance of being wildly successful. The Innovation Games help with that digging, engaging players above and below the level of concious thought.

Likely to lead to innovative ideas for your next product

One of the challenges in new product innovation is that the process cannot be broken down into a simple sequence of steps. "Follow these six steps" is not advice that will lead to the breakthrough thinking and innovative ideas that lead to best-selling new products or enhancements to existing products. "Innovation Games" acknowledges that innovation and creativity do not come from following a predefined sequence of steps but from pushing ourselves to thinking about products, users, and usage scenarios in different ways. One of my favorite techniques from this book is the idea of thinking of a product or service as a speed boat with an assortment of attached anchors, each representing something that a customer doesn't like about the product or service. Playing the games described in this book will almost certainly lead you to better and more innovative product ideas.

INNOVATION GAMES: CREATING BREAKTHROUGH PRODUCTS THROUGH COLLABORATIVE PLAY tailors games to results

This wide-ranging book could also have been reviewed in our computer or business sections, but is featured here for its additional interest to any interested in links between games and real-world strategies. Chapters survey how customers define success, impart wants, and foster product development - but go further, in showing how product developers may foster innovative strategies to meet unspoken demands and needs. INNOVATION GAMES: CREATING BREAKTHROUGH PRODUCTS THROUGH COLLABORATIVE PLAY tailors games to results. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

Gain insight into what your customers are thinking

This is a really fantastic book! The format is easy to follow with the reason behind why these games work explained to the reader, followed by a detailed explanation of how to run each game. These games offer a unique way to gain insight into what motivates your customers so that you can enhance your product, change it or even create new products and hopefully gain a larger market share. I have found that using these games have brought insight into my business that we have been unable to achieve up to this point. Not only is valuable insight revealed, customers really like playing the games. We have also used some of the games to identify potential improvements to our internal working teams. All of the old techniques for identifying opportunities for improvements have been yielding the same results. But, these games have brought to light some truly new approaches for us that wouldn't have otherwise been identified. I highly recommend this book. And I would bet that you'll be able to make use of well over 3 of the games within the first 3 months of your purchase.

Product requirements elictation the collaborative and inventive way!

Luke has created a handbook useful to product managers, business analysts, project leads and team/project facilitators. I've found these techniques -- collaborative play -- essential for discovery and invention as well as useful to the hard analysis of what products //really// need to provide customers. Luke has packaged a collection of practical and fun techniques to use in conjunction with requirements workshops, which explore user needs. Luke writes in a practical manner, provides fun cards, and useful guidance on the facilitation practices needed to be successful with these tools.