Because, oddly, I had never been to London, Andy Budd of Clearleft took pity on me and invited me to host a workshop at UX London 2011. (He swears it’s due to my content but I think he thought I needed a spot of tea.) So I must applaud his prescience – the Gamestorming workshop turned out to be so popular in the pre-conference participant poll that I ended up offering two of them. The global UX community, since they’re operating in such a new, complex and often misunderstood space, has an intense interest in designing and leading effective client meetings. And as many of you know, this is the DNA of graphic facilitation and Gamestorming. So, for those of you who share that interest but missed the workshop, the slides are available in this link on Flickr and in this link on Slideshare. (FYI, I don’t love it when people view my slides on SlideShare since the handwritten fonts are converted to something dreadful. But do as you must.) And if you’re looking to attend a workshop yourself, well, you’re in luck! Dave Gray and I are hosting a public Gamestorming workshop in Silicon Valley in July of this year thanks to the incredible generosity of our host Duarte Design. So you know I have to say it: GAME ON!
Prune The Future
Object of Play
People who work in large organizations know that most change doesn’t happen immediately or in broad sweeps. It happens incrementally by taking small, strategic steps. Prune the Future uses a tree as a metaphor to show how the future of anything can be shaped,one leaf at a time.
Number of Players
5–15
Duration of Play
30 minutes
How to Play
1. Before the meeting, cut a few dozen sticky notes or index cards into the shapes of leaves. Then, in a white space that will be visible to the players, draw a large tree with enough thick limbs to represent multiple categories of the future. Write the general topic under or above the tree.
2. Tell the group that the inner part of the treetop represents current states of the topic and moving outward means moving toward the future. For example, if the topic is about growing the customer base, the inner leaves would represent the current customer demographics and the outer leaves would represent future or desired customer demographics.
3. Ask the players to write current aspects of the topic—one idea per leaf—on the leaves and stick them on the inside of the treetop. Remove any redundant comments and cluster similar comments, with the group’s guidance, near the appropriate branches.
4. Next, ask the players to write aspects of the future on new leaves. These can be future states or variables already in progress, or simply potentials and possibilities.
5. Tell the players to “prune” the future by posting their leaves around the treetop, related to the categories of the limbs. If you’d like, add thin or thick branches within to show relationships and let the tree grow in a natural way. If it grows asymmetrically, let that be.
6. With the players, discuss the shape of tree that emerges. Which branches have the most activity? Which areas don’t seem to be experiencing growth? Where do the branches appear to be most connected? The most disconnected?
Strategy
The picture of the tree is the working metaphor for this game—it represents the roots of the topic, the branches of the topic, and, of course, the topic’s growth potential. This game is broadly applicable because you can use a tree as a metaphor for virtually any aspect of your organization that you wish to grow or shape. The topic can be a product whose future features you want to brainstorm. It can be a team whose future roles and responsibilities you want to plan. Or you could use this game to discuss the marketplace and show where the players think it is changing or growing.
When the players start to shape the outer treetop, encourage them to “go out on a limb” with their ideas for the future. This game is about possibilities—realistic and otherwise. And if someone requests fruit on the tree to represent ROI, draw apples where they should be. If the players request another tree (or even a grove!), draw quick rudimentary trees and let the players start adding leaves, following the original procedure. This game works well because it allows for a nonlinear, organic representation of what is likely a complex topic. It results in a visual display of the interconnectedness of future conditions; showing where some parts of the tree may be suffering while others are thriving.
The Prune the Future game is based on the Prune the Product Tree activity in Luke Hohmann’s book, Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play.
Online Prune the Product Tree
Get started right away by playing Prune the Product Tree online! One of the important aspects of this game is tailoring the image – and meaning – of the tree to match the goals of your game. To illustrate online play, we’re going to use an “Event Benefits Tree”.
Clicking on this image will start an events benefits “instant play” game at innovationgames.com that is useful in evaluating the benefits of attending a conference. In the game, there will be three icons that you can drag onto your Product Tree:
- Red Apples: Benefits you expected and got.
- Rotten Apples: Benefits you expected but didn’t get.
- Presents: Unexpected benefits that made the conference great.
The multi-layered regions of this tree are designed to capture a variety of information about these benefits. Where did the players receive these benefits (at the conference or at work)? What was the nature of the benefit (personal or professional)? And what about the conference infrastructure – the roots of the tree (before the conference or after the conference)? By exploring these dimensions with players, you can create better conferences in the future.
Don’t forget that this a collaborative game that allows you to invite other players to play. And when they drag something around – you will see it in real time! Of course, you will want to create your own trees after you’ve explored this one.
Graphic Gameplan
Object of Play
Plenty of us are visionaries, idea generators, or, at the very least, suggestion makers. But ideas never come to fruition without a plan. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Well done is better than well said.” Following up on a big idea with an executable action plan is one of the monumental differences between teams and companies that are merely good and those that are outstanding. That’s why this activity deserves special attention. The Graphic Gameplan shows you how you’ll get where you want to go with a project.
Number of Players
Small groups, but can also be done individually
Duration of Play
30 minutes to 2 hours
How to Play
1. Before the meeting, think of one or more projects that need to get traction.
2. In a large, white space, preferably 3–4 feet high by 6–12 feet wide, draw a picture similar to the following.
3. Display the graphic on the meeting room wall and tell the players that the goal ofthe meeting is to get consensus around specific tasks required to complete a project.
4. Write the name of the first project to be discussed at the top left of the first column.As the group leader, you can write all associated projects downward in that same column or you can ask the players to add projects that they agree need attention.Either way, you should end up with the relevant projects listed in the leftmost column.
5. Based on the projects listed, either tell the group the time frame and write the milestones in days, weeks, or months along the top row, or ask what they think it should be and write that time frame along the top. (Note: you can also establish a timeline after step 8.)
6. Sticky notes in hand, ask the players to choose a project and agree aloud on the first step required to accomplish it. Write their contribution on the sticky note and post it in the first box next to that project.
7. Ask the players for the second, third, and fourth steps, and so on. Keep writing their comments on sticky notes until they’re satisfied that they’ve adequately outlined each step to complete the project.
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for every project on your display, until the game plan is filled out.
Strategy
Completing a game plan as a group has two major benefits. The first is that it breaks big projects into manageable chunks of work, which encourages anyone responsible for a project. The second is that because the “group mind” creates the game plan, it raises the quality of the flow of project management. It becomes less likely that important steps are left out and more likely that the project is approached thoughtfully and strategically.But as you post the sticky notes, don’t assume that the first flow the group maps is the best one. Ask the players challenging questions about their comments: Does this have to happen first? Can these two steps be combined? How are steps related across projects?Do steps in one project affect the progress or outcome of another? Ask hard questions to help the group get to the best place and write any food for thought on a flip chart nearby.
When determining the timeline to write across the top, it’s important to note that it can be determined after the project steps are established. A time frame written beforehand can impact the steps people are willing and able to take, so think about whether it serves the facilitation process better by assigning time before or after the play is complete.
If you find that the players want to assign tasks to specific people or departments as they go, let them. Simply add the names of the responsible parties to each sticky note (obviously,these assignments should be realistic). And if the players want to discuss available resources, or a lack thereof, ask them to share what they expect to need in order to complete the projects and capture that on a flip chart in the room.
The game plan can be customized with several rows and columns in order to support more complex projects. You can draw however many rows and columns you’d like as long as you have sticky notes that will fit within. Whatever the matrix looks like, the visual that results from this group discussion can serve as the large-scale, step-by-step of a project, or its contents can be funneled into more formal project management software or some other platform used by the organization. Either way, the discussion around creating it will be of significant value.
- Optional activity: Draw smaller versions of the game plan on flip-chart paper and have breakout groups tackle specific projects using markers and small sticky notes. Then ask each group to present their approach to the larger group and to get feedback on the steps they proposed.
The Graphic Gameplan is based on the Leader’s Guide to Accompany the Graphic Gameplan Graphic Guide from The Grove Consultants International’s strategic visioning process,which involves using a template of the same name.
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Do, Redo & Undo
Object of Play
When creating something, it’s easier to think in the affirmative. We think in a vector of taking actions and building things, and can forget that over time undoing those same decisions can be just as important. Do, Redo & Undo asks a group to focus on this, and to think through the implications of dismantling and altering.
This is a useful exercise in developing any human-to-machine or human-to-human system. Software provides myriad cases of undoing: users need to change configurations, fix mistakes, and remove software entirely. Business processes need to address this equally well: components need to change or dissolve, and often this flexibility is lost without clarity on how it is done.
Number of Players
Small groups
Duration of Play
1 hour or more, depending on the complexity of the existing
How to Play
The Best-Case Scenario
Generally, the group would run this exercise after they have a concept or prototype as a starting point. In the case of software, it may be a user story or feature list; in a process, it may be a draft of the flow.
The group should be given time to walk through and digest this example. The exercise opens with the group brainstorming answers to a simple question: “What mistakes can and will be made?”
Using Post-Up, the group brainstorms a set of items on sticky notes and pools them to create a starting set of scenarios to explore “undoing and redoing.” It’s not unusual for a few humorous items to make the list. Other questions to consider asking in fleshing out the set include:
- “What would happen if a group of monkeys tried to use it?”
- “What happens if we pull the plug? Where is the plug?”
The Worst-Case Scenario
In generating the initial list in Post-Up, the group has identified at least one Worst-Case Scenario. Their task now is to address the items by focusing on three possible solutions:
- Do: Change the design or plan to avoid the problem altogether. This takes the issue off the table.
- Redo: Provide a means for altering action while it’s being taken. This may be a course correction or a buffering of the situation’s impact.
- Undo: Provide a means for completely undoing an action and returning to a previously known state. This completely abandons the scenario.
A group that has a large number of items in the Worst-Case Scenario may wish to prioritize them by likelihood and then focus on the hot spots. There is an implied order of preference in Do, Redo & Undo. A problem that can be entirely eliminated by changing the design avoids needing a “redo” or “undo” solution. For example, a feature that asks the user to enter her contact information might be eliminated entirely, if the information can be fetched from somewhere else.
As the group works through Do, Redo & Undo, they should capture their solutions and revisit the original Best-Case Scenario. Their draft of solutions should accompany the design as it matures, eventually proving itself in user testing and the real world.
The Do, Redo & Undo game is credited to James Macanufo.
Design The Box
Object of Play
Before you begin, focus on the end. In this exercise, teams create the physical “box” that sells their idea—whether that idea will ultimately become a tangible product or not. By imagining the package for their idea, the teams make decisions about important features and other aspects of their vision that are more difficult to articulate.
This game is popular among software developers when setting out to capture the customer’s view of a new application, but its use doesn’t stop there. The game can help facilitate any vision-oriented discussion, and has been used to describe topics ranging from “our future methodology” to “the ideal hire.”
In all cases, the box is a focusing device: it wraps up a lot of otherwise intangible information into a nice physical object, prompting decisions along the way. When teams present or “sell” their boxes to each other, a number of things come to life, including the natural translation of features into benefits. Also, it’s fun to do. The results of the exercise may be simple drawings or an actual box, which may live on well after as a friendly reminder of the big picture.
Number of Players
Although the exercise may be done with a small group, teams working in parallel on different boxes will result in a more robust discussion during the “selling phase.”
Duration of Play
1 hour or more, depending on the number of groups and depth of discussion.
Setup
Although paper and markers will work for drawing a box, don’t hesitate to bring heavier craft supplies to bear. Consider acquiring blank white cardboard boxes from an office supply or mailing store. Markers, craft paper, stickers, tape and scissors are all worth the investment.
It may help get the group’s creative gears moving by having sample boxes handy. Cereal boxes, with their free prize offers, bold imagery and nutritional information, are good thought starters. Likewise, plain “store-label” boxes, gift boxes and toy boxes offer a range of voices. A group that is heavily entrenched in the business-as-usual paradigm will benefit the most from having this inspiration at hand.
How to play
The exercise moves through three phases: an introduction, box creation and sharing by “selling.”
Phase One: Fill the Box
Before a group can jump into creating a box, they need to reflect on what could be in it. To get people oriented, consider laying out some building blocks:
- Possible names of the idea
- Possible customers, end users, or buyers
- Possible features, functions, or other important defining details.
This may be familiar ground, or it may be entirely new to the group. They key in setting up the exercise is to give teams “just enough” information to feel comfortable starting.
Phase Two: Make the Box
Give the teams a set amount of time, 30 minutes or more, to create the box for their idea. Ask them to imagine coming across the box on a retail shelf, shrink-wrapped and ready for sale. In designing the box, teams may be helped by a few of these prompts:
- What’s it called?
- Who’s it for?
- What’s its tagline or slogan?
- What are its most compelling features? Benefits?
- What imagery would make it stand out to you?
Teams may self-organize naturally; most participants will want to create their own box regardless of how they’re arranged. Make sure you have ample supplies for them to do so, and make sure they know that there is no wrong way to create their box.
During the game, there may be questions from medicine or about , you cannot use the description for drugs, this is against the rules.
Phase Three: Sell the Box
Each team or individual should be offered the chance to stand up and “sell” their boxes back to the group. It may be worthwhile to keep a timer for these stand-up presentations, and consider offering a prize to the team that does the best job “selling” their box back to the group.
Look for a naturally occurring breakthrough as they present back their boxes. People put features on the box, but when they sell them, they translate those features into benefits. Listen for the phrases “so that” or “because,” which bridge otherwise mechanical features into living benefits.
The exercise works well as an open-ended, divergent process, but may be run so that the teams converge on an agreed-upon, shared box. If agreement and alignment is a desired outcome of the exercise, note the differences and similarities in how each team interpreted their box. Build on the common ground captured in the similarities, and isolate differences for discussion. Consider running a second round, this time incorporating these agreements into a final shared box.
In any case, if there is a prize to be awarded for the best “box seller,” make sure it’s the teams that cast the votes. And have enough prizes so that if the box was created by a team everyone on the team will have a prize.
Strategy
Keep the boxes and display them in a prominent place. These may be more valuable (and visible) artifacts than any other documentation that comes out of the exercise. It may also be beneficial to record the presentations the teams give around their boxes, if it is not disruptive to the flow of the group.
The core act of “designing the box” may be altered to work for different contexts and participants.
This exercise goes by many names, and there are a number of good sources to look to for its variations. This version is based on and adapted from the game Product Box in Luke Hohmann’s book, Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play. Other sources point to Jim Highsmith of the Cutter Consortium, and to Bill Shackelford of Shackelford & Associates with the origination of the concept.
Understanding Chain
Object of Play
Communicating clearly and effectively is a challenge when there is a lot to say to a lot of people. It can be tempting to try to explain “everything all at once” to an audience and fail in the process. In the Understanding Chain game, a group shifts from a content focus to an audience focus, and draws out a meaningful, linear structure for communication.
Number of Players
1–10
Duration of Play
30 minutes to 2 hours
How to Play
To set up the game, the group needs to develop two things: an audience breakdown and a set of questions.
The audience(s): If there are a large number of audiences, break them down into meaningful groups. The groups could be as broad as “Corporate leaders” or as specific as “The guys in IT who fix the laptops.” As a rule of thumb, the more specific the audience, the more tailored and effective the understanding chain will be. Each audience group will need its own understanding chain. This list of audiences could be created as a result of a Who Do exercise (see Chapter 4).
The questions: Once the group has a clear picture of their audience, it’s time to brainstorm questions. The questions frame what people really want to know and care about. Questions are best captured in the voice or thoughts of the audience, as they would ask them. They may sound like:
- “What’s cool about this? Why should I care?”
- “How is this related to x, y, or z?”
- “What makes this a priority?”
Or, they may be more specific:
- “When does your technology road map converge with ours?”
- “How will it impact our product portfolio?”
The questions will become the links in the understanding chain. To generate them, the group puts itself in the mindset of the audience and captures the questions on individual sticky notes (see the Post-Up game in Chapter 4 for more information).
Play begins by sorting the questions in a horizontal line on a wall or whiteboard. This is the timeline of a communication, from beginning to end. The group may choose to:
Arrange the questions in a simple story format. In this understanding chain, the group clusters questions under three headings, from left to right:
- Situation, which sets the stage, introduces a topic and a conflict
- Complication, in which further conflict is endured and decisions are made
- Resolution, in which a course of action is chosen which leads to a result.
By constructing the understanding chain as a story, the group may find the “climax”—the most critical question that leads to the resolution.
Arrange the questions in an educate-differentiate-stimulate format. In this chain, the group arranges the questions from left to right, moving from:
- Educate, in which a topic or idea and its parts are introduced
- Differentiate, in which parts of the topic are contrasted to create a basis of understanding
- Stimulate, in which actions are asked for or proposed.
Arrange the questions as a conversation. In this chain, the group thinks through or role-plays a conversation with the audience and arranges the questions in an order that flows naturally. Although all conversations are different, one framework to consider is:
- Connecting: “What’s up?” “What do we have in common?”
- Focusing: “What’s important right now?” “What do you know about it?”
- Acting: “What should we do?”
Strategy
An understanding chain, like any chain, is only as strong as its weakest link. By examining the questions as a whole, the group may uncover an area that needs work or find the “tough questions” that are not easy to answer. A group that tackles the weak questions, and has the courage to answer the tough ones directly and honestly, will win.
The Understanding Chain game was developed by Dave Gray as part of XPLANE’s consulting approach.
Talking Chips
Object of Play
A recurring challenge in group work is managing discussions so that every individual has a chance to contribute, and no individuals dominate the meeting. By using simple “talking chips” as a currency for contribution, a group can self-manage the flow of participation.
How to Play
- Before the meeting starts, each participant draws a chip (poker chip, coin, or similar) from the center of the table.
- A participant places his chip in the center to speak. Once all of the chips have been placed in the center, participants may remove their chips from the center to speak in the same manner. The process repeats.
Strategy
Talking chips make the value of everyone’s contributions tangible and give everyone a chance to speak. They are just as effective at drawing out otherwise quiet participants as they are at containing dominant ones.
Talking chips is based on the idea of currency and was developed by Dave Gray, inspired by Byron Reeves’s innovative email program, Attent.
Synesthesia
Object of Play
By its very nature, knowledge work can be a head-heavy, deeply analytical activity. Even when the results of the work are sensory, the process of getting there is often the opposite: we think our way to solutions and filter out the five senses as irrelevant or frivolous. Through Synesthesia role play, participants examine a topic through a sensory lens, and let this inform their decisions and designs.
Number of Players
2–5
Duration of Play
15–45 minutes
How to Play
Participants may choose to examine an existing topic or explore a new idea. It may be something as simple as “the interface for our new site” or as complex as “the user experience.”
Participants choose or are randomly assigned one of the five senses: see, hear, taste, smell, and touch. Also consider including as choices temperature, position, and motion.
Participants are given a few moments to interpret a topic from the perspective of their sense and to move on to the other senses as they see fit. They then describe to the group what they perceived. For example:
- “The interface is warm to the touch. And it tastes like oranges.”
- “When the app launches, it’s as if I can hear an orchestra tuning up to perform. But I can’t see anything; I’d like to see what they’re doing.”
- “The user experience stinks. It smells like a stack of dusty papers, and there is no motion. I wanted to move forward but kept getting slowed down.”
Strategy
The Synesthesia exercise gives participants a chance to describe in visceral, memorable terms how they feel about an object or how they imagine it to be. It can uncover overlooked aspects of an idea or product or lead to new ones.
The source of the Synesthesia game is unknown.
Staple Yourself To Something
Object of Play
The goal of this game is to explore or clarify a process by following an object through its flow. Through this exercise, a group will create a memorable, visual story of their core process. After it is completed, this artifact can be used to identify opportunities to improve or educate others involved in the process. The notion of “stapling yourself to an order” comes from process improvement, but can be useful in a variety of scenarios. A group with no documented process, or an overly complex one, will benefit from the exercise. If the process is taking too long, or if no one seems to know how the work gets done, it’s time to staple yourself to something and see where it goes.
Number of Players
2–10
Duration of Play
1–2 hours
How to Play
- The group must have an idea of what their object is, the “bouncing ball” that they will follow through the process. It’s best to decide on this in advance. Some example objects could be a product, a trouble ticket, or an idea. A familiar example of this type of flow is “How a bill becomes a law.”
- Introduce the exercise by drawing the object. The goal is to focus on telling the story of this one object from point A to point B. Write these commonly understood starting and ending points on the wall.
- Ask participants to brainstorm a list of the big steps in the process and record them on the wall. If needed, ask them to prioritize them into a desired and workable number of steps. For a high-level story, look to capture seven steps.
- Before you start to follow the object, work out with the group the vital information you are looking to capture in the story. Ask: in each step of the process, what do we need to know? This may be the people involved, the action they’re taking, or the amount of time a step takes.
- Now it’s time to draw. The group will tell the story of the object as it moves from step to step. As much as possible, capture the information visually, as though you were taking a picture of what they are describing. Some useful tools here include stick figures, arrows, and quality questions. Questions that produce an active voice in the answer, as in “Who does what here?” will be more concrete and visual. Other good questions include “What’s next?” and “What’s important?”
- Be aware that the story will want to branch, loop, and link to other processes, like a river trying to break its banks. Your job is to navigate the flow with the group and keep things moving toward the end.
Strategy
Use the object as a focusing device. Any activity that is not directly related to the forward motion of the object can be noted and then tied off.
If possible, add a ticking clock to the story to help pace the flow. If the object needs to get to the end by a certain time, use this to your advantage by introducing it up front and referencing it as needed to keep up the momentum and interest of the story.
One trap to be aware of is that participants may move between the way things are and the way they want them to be. Be clear with the group about what state in time—today or the desired future—you are capturing.
Does the process have an owner? If someone is responsible for the process, you can use this person’s expertise, but be cautious not to let her tell the entire story. This can be a learning experience for her as well, if she listens to the participants describe “their version” of the story.
There are many ways of conducting a “day in the life” type of visualization. This version of the game is credited to James Macanufo.
SQUID
Object of Play
When exploring an information space, it’s important for a group to know where they are at any given time. What have we covered, and what did we leave behind? By using SQUID, a group charts out the territory as they go and can navigate accordingly. SQUID stands for Sequential Question and Insight Diagram. It is created progressively over the course of a meeting with sticky notes, capturing questions and answers as the group moves through the space. It is flexible and will move and grow with the discussion, but it also needs to “breathe” by moving between its critical modes of questions and answers.
Number of Players
Small groups
Duration of Play
30 minutes provides optimum productivity
How to Play
1. Reserve a large area of a whiteboard or several flip charts to create the SQUID. Participants are given two colors of sticky notes to work with, one for questions and one for answers.
2. Start to build the diagram by writing the group’s core topic on a sticky note. Put this in the center of the space.
- Question mode: To open the exercise, ask individuals to generate a question that is their “best guess” on how to approach the topic. They capture this on a color-coded sticky note, and share it with the group by posting it adjacent to the center of the SQUID. The questions should immediately offer a few different routes of inquiry, and participants will likely start offering thoughts on answers.
- Answer mode: Similar to question mode, participants write their “best answers” on color-coded sticky notes. They share them with the group by posting these notes adjacent to the relevant question and connect them with a line. They may answer more than one question, and they may answer one question with multiple answers. As a rule, answers should be succinct enough to fit on one note.
After a discussion, the group then moves back into question mode, generating questions based on the last round of answers. Participants may focus on earlier parts of the SQUID as well. The process repeats over the course of the discussion.
Strategy
Keeping with the current mode and not crossing questions with answers requires discipline that can only be acquired by a group through time. By working in this way, a group will train itself on the value of a systematic, rhythmic movement through unknown information, in contrast with a meandering group discussion. The SQUID itself is, of course, utterly flexible and will grow as the group directs it.
The SQUID game is credited to James Macanufo.