Innovation Games

1. Innovation Games: Fun Collaborations for Customer-Driven Product Development

Innovation Games are fun ways to collaborate with your customers to better understand their needs.

Unleash customer creativity. Innovation Games are a set of interactive exercises designed to engage customers in the product development process. These games leverage principles of cognitive psychology and organizational behavior to uncover deep customer insights that are difficult to obtain through traditional market research techniques.

Diverse applications. The games can be used in various contexts, including:

• Creating product roadmaps
• Discovering new business opportunities
• Improving sales and marketing effectiveness
• Enhancing customer relationships
• Strategic planning

Tangible outcomes. By playing these games, companies can:

• Generate fresh ideas for product features
• Understand customer priorities
• Identify pain points and areas for improvement
• Develop empathy for the customer experience

2. The Power of Qualitative Market Research in Understanding Customer Needs

Customer intimacy—having a deep sense of what customers do and how to translate that into technological innovation—is both an art and a science that creates competitive advantage.

Beyond quantitative data. While quantitative market research provides valuable insights, qualitative research through Innovation Games offers a deeper understanding of customer motivations, behaviors, and unspoken needs. This approach allows companies to:

• Uncover "unknown unknowns" about their customers
• Generate rich, contextual information
• Foster stronger customer relationships

Overcoming limitations. Traditional market research methods often face challenges:

• Surveys may yield simplistic responses
• Focus groups can be dominated by vocal participants
• Customers may struggle to articulate their needs

Innovation Games advantages:

• Encourage open-ended exploration
• Facilitate collaborative problem-solving
• Create a fun, engaging environment for customers
• Provide multidimensional communication opportunities

3. Prune the Product Tree: Shape Your Product's Evolution with Customer Input

Gardeners prune trees to control their growth. Sometimes the pruning is artistic, and we end up with shrubs shaped like animals or interesting abstract shapes. Much of the time the pruning is designed to build a balanced tree that yields high-quality fruit.

Visualize product growth. The Prune the Product Tree game uses a tree metaphor to help customers shape the evolution of a product or service. Key elements include:

• Trunk: Core product functionality
• Branches: Major feature areas
• Leaves: Individual features or enhancements

Collaborative prioritization. Customers work together to:

• Place new feature "leaves" on the tree
• Prune unnecessary or outdated features
• Balance growth across different areas of the product

Insights gained:

• Understanding of customer priorities
• Identification of underutilized product areas
• Alignment of product roadmap with customer needs
• Visual representation of product evolution over time

4. Remember the Future: Envision Success Through Customer Perspective

When we ask "What will our product have done?" we are thinking of a future event as one that already has occurred—"remembering" the future.

Shift perspective. Remember the Future asks customers to imagine a point in the future where they have successfully used the product, then describe how it helped them achieve their goals. This approach:

• Encourages concrete, detailed responses
• Reveals customers' definition of success
• Uncovers underlying needs and motivations

Cognitive benefits. By framing the question in the past tense, customers:

• Generate a mental sequence of events leading to success
• Provide more plausible and actionable feedback
• Offer richer details about product usage and impact

Applications:

• Strategic planning
• Product vision development
• Identifying long-term customer needs
• Aligning product roadmaps with customer success criteria

5. Buy a Feature: Prioritize Product Features Through Collaborative Purchasing

Customers buy features that they want in the next release of your product using play money you give them.

Simulated marketplace. Buy a Feature creates a collaborative environment where customers:

• Receive a limited budget of play money
• Review a list of potential product features with assigned prices
• Work together to purchase the features they value most

Revealing priorities. The game uncovers:

• Which features customers are willing to "pay" for
• How customers negotiate and collaborate on feature selection
• The relative importance of different features across customer segments

Implementation tips:

• Price features to encourage negotiation (some should be too expensive for individuals to buy alone)
• Include a mix of short-term and long-term features
• Observe customer discussions and negotiations during the game

6. Speed Boat: Identify and Address Customer Pain Points Effectively

The boat is your system, and the features that your customers don't like are its anchors.

Visualize impediments. Speed Boat uses a boat metaphor to help customers express their frustrations with a product or service:

• The boat represents the product
• Anchors represent features or issues slowing down customer success
• Customers write their pain points on anchor-shaped cards

Safe expression of concerns. The game provides a structured way for customers to:

• Share negative feedback in a non-confrontational manner
• Prioritize issues by assigning "weights" to anchors
• Collaboratively identify common pain points

Action-oriented outcomes:

• Clear visualization of customer frustrations
• Prioritized list of issues to address
• Insights into potential product improvements or new features

7. Product Box: Uncover Exciting Product Features Through Creative Design

Product Box lets you leverage your customers' collective retail consumer experiences by asking them to design a box for your product.

Tap into customer creativity. Product Box engages customers in designing packaging for an ideal version of your product:

• Customers create a physical box using provided materials
• They add features, benefits, and marketing messages to the box
• Participants "sell" their product box to others in the group

Reveal hidden desires. Through this creative process, customers:

• Express unmet needs and desired features
• Prioritize product benefits from their perspective
• Demonstrate how they would position the product

Insights gained:

• New feature ideas and product enhancements
• Customer-generated marketing messages and value propositions
• Understanding of emotional connections to the product

8. Organizing and Facilitating Successful Innovation Game Sessions

The facilitator manages the playing of the game.

Key roles for success. Organizing an effective Innovation Game session requires a team with clearly defined responsibilities:

• Planner: Oversees the entire event
• Facilitator: Manages game play and discussions
• Observers: Record customer interactions and insights
• Helper: Assists with logistics and materials

Preparation is crucial. Ensure a successful session by:

• Selecting appropriate games for your objectives
• Inviting a diverse group of customers
• Preparing all necessary materials and space
• Briefing your team on their roles and expectations

Post-game analysis. After the session:

• Review and categorize all customer-generated artifacts
• Analyze observer notes for patterns and insights
• Conduct a team debrief to capture key learnings
• Prepare reports for internal teams and participating customers

Follow-up actions:

• Incorporate insights into product development plans
• Communicate results and planned actions to customers
• Use findings to inform future Innovation Game sessions

Last updated: January 22, 2025