This document discusses using innovation games to gather feedback from customers and stakeholders. It introduces several games that can be used by product owners, including Hot Air Balloon to identify drivers of growth and risks, Prune the Tree to prioritize features, and Plan the Conference Budget to allocate resources. Additional games provide outrageous ideas to understand customer values or build collaboration between groups. Effective facilitation is key to ensure games achieve their objectives of visual collaboration and prioritization.

1. Innovation Games for
Product Owners

2. Agenda
Introduction to Innovation Games
Games for Product Owners
Game 1: Hot Air Balloon
Game 2: Prune the Product Tree
Game 3: What a Volunteer Wants?
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

3. Games are Fun!
 Everyone loves to play games!
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

4. Innovation Games
 Introduced by Luke Hohmann.
 Fun way to get feedback from the
participants.
 Visual and experiential way of sharing
thoughts.
 Participation by actual customers or end
users.
 Collect feedback on a current / new products
or services.Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

5. Benefits
 Organizing thoughts / ideas /
suggestions together.
 Understanding the customer
expectations.
 Identifying desired features / services.
 Identifying strategy or making strategic
decisions.
 Prioritizing most important features.
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

6. Games for Product Owners
 Use at Strategic / Operational planning
sessions.
 Play with customers to understand their
expectations.
 Understand customer’s grievances.
 Get feedback on current products, projects,
services, benefits etc.
 Enhance collaboration within the community.
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

7. Games for Organizations
 Executives: Generate / Prioritize new
ideas.
 Marketing: Conduct market research –
What the customer wants?
 Product Management: Identify
enhancements to existing solutions &
Stakeholder prioritization.
 HR/Admin: Get feedback from
employees on work environment /
policies etc.Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

8. A Product Vision Box
Front:
- Name
- Picture or drawing (if possible)
- Slogan
- 3 / 4 Bullets arguments for Sale / Selling points
Back:
-A more detailed view with more functionality
- The pre-requisites.
- Operating requirements

9. Product Vision Box
 Conference organizers are asked to use
cardboard box and sell the conference key
highlights using it.
 Put the vision statement or USP clearly.
 Highlight the value or benefits of the
conference, agenda/speakers etc.
 Highlight the key points:
◦ Date / Venue
◦ Cost
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

10. Game 1 – Hot Air Balloon
 Objective: Identify what would make an Product
Owner team fly high up in the sky and what
would be the obstructions.
 Identify the drivers that would help the team
grow.
 Identify the potential issues that would prevent
the growth.
 Brainstorm on the strategy for growth of the
team.
 Manage the potential risks and identify mitigation
plans.Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

11. Strategic Planning
 Preparations:
◦ A whiteboard or large sheet of paper
◦ A picture of a balloon & ropes
◦ Index card or sticky notes for the
participants
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

12. Strategic Planning
 How it works:
◦ The balloon wants to fly high up in the sky
(denotes growth of the team).
◦ The air pushes the balloon upwards (positive
push).
◦ The ropes tied up with the balloon prevents it
from flying (negative push) .
◦ Participants write their inputs on sticky notes.
◦ Participants brainstorms to define the strategy.
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

13. Strategic Planning
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

14. Strategic Planning
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

15. Guidelines
 Refrain from giving judgment or trying to
fix the problem during the game.
 Focus on understanding the feedback
shared by the participants.
 Same issues identified by multiple
members indicate gravity of the situation.
 Review the final results, organized by
priority.
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

16. Lets Play!
 Strategic Planning for building a PO team.
 Identify what would make the team
successful.
 Identify any potential risks that would impact
the team.
 Place the positive and negative push on the
board.
 Brainstorm on the strategies to make the
team successful.Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

17. Where to use?
 To identify strategic objectives of the
organization / team.
 To define the operational plan / new
initiatives.
 To create a risk management plan.
 Establish the team common goals /
guidelines.
 Establish areas to focus on (Marketing, HR
etc.)Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

18. Game 2 – Prune the Tree
 Objective: Identify the core features and
stretch goals to define a product roadmap.
 Identify the importance of various features.
What would provide most value to the
customers?
 Identify the timelines for providing the
features.
 Identify the features and release timeframe
for delivering those features.
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

19. Prune the Tree
 Preparations:
◦ A whiteboard or large sheet of paper
◦ A picture of a Tree
◦ Index card or sticky notes for the
participants
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

20. Prune the Tree
 How it works:
◦ Write different current or proposed features
as leaves.
◦ Customers would add the core features at
the center of the tree and extended features
at the outer edge.
◦ Add or remove the leaves on the tree to
balance the set of features.
◦ Identify the roots – support framework for the
product.
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

21. Prune the Tree
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

22. Prune the Tree
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

23. Lets Play!
 Identify the core & extended features of a
Agile Program Management Product.
 Use sticky notes as leaves. Place core
features at the center of the tree and
extended features at the outer edge.
 If some of the features do not add any values
then remove such leaves from the tree.
 Identify the priorities of providing various
features through its placement.
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

24. Where to use?
 To identify the core features required in any
product.
 To identify the required membership services.
 To identify the unused features and prune
them.
 To identify the customer care infrastructure
(roots).
 Identify the features that provide value and
develop release plan.
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

25. Game 3 – Plan the Conference
Budget
 Objective: Identify the core tasks for
organizing Agile Tour 2015, with the available
budget.
 Identify the investments to be made in the
next year.
 Identify the right features for a product
release.
 Prioritize the set of features.
 Get the customer perspective.Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

26. Game 3 – Plan the Conference
Budget
 Team has Total 500 Rs.
 Task List with cost:
◦ Hotel expenses: 300 Rs.
◦ Speakers Travel: 100 Rs.
◦ Participant Kit: 50 Rs.
◦ Video recording: 150 Rs.
◦ Logistics (like notepad, pens, tags): 50 Rs.
◦ Conference Souvenir: 80 Rs.
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

27. Game 4 – Cruise for Potential
Members
 Use outrageous services to identify the
value customers are looking for.
 The participants would brainstorm
amongst themselves about their
expectations from membership.
 Fancy language or crazy ideas would
trigger the participants to clarify their
expectations.
 The less valuable ideas would get
rejected.Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

28. Game 4 – Cruise for Potential
Members
 Create set of index cards with crazy
ideas.
 Share outrageous ideas like,
◦ Free cruise every month
◦ Free trip to Hawaii
◦ Big news about membership
 Let the participants brainstorm about
these ideas and identify what is most
valuable for them and what they would
be willing to pay for.
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

29. Game 5 – Speedboat
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

30. Game 5 – Speedboat
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

31. Game 6 – Give me water and
sun!

32. Game 7 – Don’t miss the bus!

33. Game 7 – Identify the bomb!

34. Role of Games Facilitator
 Explain the objective of the game and its
steps.
 Work across groups, answer any queries &
stay focused.
 Facilitate healthy discussions / brainstorming
amongst the participants.
 Initiate the review process and support in
developing objective outcome during the
session.
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

35. Games for Agile Environment
 Agile Manifesto:
◦ Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
◦ Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
 Identify what provides most value to the
customer.
 Identify customer’s inputs on priorities for the
features.
 Direct communication between the customer and
teams.
 Understand different views / perspectives of
peers.

36. Games to Build Collaboration
 Use various games effectively to facilitate
collaboration amongst the chapter members,
board members and potential members /
volunteers.
 Understand the member / volunteer expectations
and concerns.
 Project Managers can facilitate these games to
build team bonding and collaborative
environment.
 Customer expectations can be understood more
effectively.
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

38. References
 Innovation Games®: Creating
Breakthrough Products Through
Collaborative Play - Luke Hohmann
 http://innovationgames.com
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

39. Let’s start the Game!
Thank You!
- Rahul Sudame
9890021139
rahulsudame@yahoo.com
Agile Innovation Games for Chapter Strategies

40. Thank You !