Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play

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X-axis: “How to Win.” This is designated for the novelty of the product that you are offering to customers. Are you using existing, adding incremental, or developing new products? You will see note card icons in the upper left corner of the chart, which represent team members’ ideas. Simply drag a note card to the area you are thinking of and describe what the icon represents. Players can edit the placement and description of each note card, which everyone can view in real time. Use the integrated chat facility and communicate with your players throughout the game to get a better understanding of each move.

Henning Breuer consults, researches, and teaches in the fields of innovation management and business psychology using gamification and games in his consulting work and university teaching. He is a Professor for Business and Media Psychology at HMKW Berlin and founder of UXBerlin – Innovation Consulting. Since 2001, Henning has worked with multinational corporations, SMEs, public organisations, and start-ups, providing consulting on sustainable innovation culture and business models, future scenarios, and ethnographic stakeholder research. Henning has co-authored numerous journal and conference publications and textbooks on Values-Based Innovation Management and Sustainable Business Model Design. As a visiting researcher and professor, he has worked at the University of Chile (Santiago) and Waseda University (Tokyo). To learn more about the Apple Design Award winners and finalists, visit developer.apple.com/design/awards or the Apple Developer app. This game should be played with members of both the sales and marketing teams, as it is necessary that they work together to perfect the Commercial Teaching strategy. The marketing team can provide the insight for reps to use as teaching material for their customers, and the sales team can ensure that reps have the skills required to use the insight to its full advantage. Play SAFE-BOLD Framework Online

Left – “ Small” = ideas that do not make customers curious or intrigued; customers have probably already thought of these Here’s an activity suggestion used by Lisa Bodell, the founder/CEO of Futurethink and author of the book Kill the Company, which was highlighted in an Inc.com article. Make sure to draw a timeline to highlight that your customers remember a future event as if it was the past. The real question is, “how can you get the teams in your organization to not only be more innovative, but to also feel more comfortable sharing their innovations for the benefit of the organization as a whole?” Each person approaches innovation differently depending on their talents and strengths. To personalize and internalize innovation, participants should create a poster or presentation about themselves. This should include their favorite inspirational quote(s), photo(s), and a short bio of a person who inspires them. This should also include a description and photo of a skill, hobby, or field they know the most about (outside of family, work, and/or school). A Jung typology test is encouraged to be included and participants should choose which of three types of intelligence (shown above) fits them best. Uniqueness in the presentation of this work is highly encouraged. 4. 100 Uses

At this step, players will assess the potential and the challenge of each opportunity in their set, to compare and prioritize options. Market opportunities are not born equal- some are more attractive than others. Players can edit the placement and description of each icon, which everyone can view in real time. Use the integrated chat facility and communicate with your players throughout the game to get a better understanding of each move. After the game, the results will be organized in a spread sheet to maximize the benefits of the game. As a team, reflect on and note how connecting with each person could be advantageous. Who benefits from the relationship? Who knows other potentially helpful people? Why is the interaction important? Focus on ways you can provide a win-win (give something, get something) experience to the people on your task circle. Work as a team to identify people that belong in each area. This requires you to think outside the box (or shall we say circle?), as each user persona will be connected to many others within the ecosystem. Exercise: Participants question some of humanity’s social norms and regulations in the guise of an alien at a dinner party seeking to understand why people do the things they do.Right – “ Outperforming” = ideas that are risky and innovative, push customers out of their comfort zone, and show that you can help them get ahead of their competitors

What makes gamification a superpower is its use of powerful methods and techniques from diverse disciplines and traditions – like futures studies, user experience, agile management, design thinking or business design – in a new, action-oriented and engaging framework. Each game world is a safe, playful space, where groups are free to experiment in innovative and inclusive forms of collaboration.

Suggest your customers to think about the moment in the future after they have been using your product for a while (a month, a quarter or a year depending on your product). Ask the players if any initiatives are missing from the wall. If so, request that they write them down, post them, and discuss their benefits so that you can capture them. To get to truly exciting, creative, and out-of-the-box ideas (and have some fun!), try these 5 innovation games in your next brainstorm: 1. 100 uses for… Chapter 3 Innovation and entrepreneurship: Gamification and games in the innovation and entrepreneurship space