Agile Innovation Games : The seriously fun way to do serious work – seriously Nadeem Ulla Khan, Agile coach - Valtech India nadeemulla.khan@valtech.co.in Agile Day 2012 Valtech

1. Agile Innovation Games
The seriously fun way to do serious work – seriously
June 2012
Nadeem Ulla Khan

2. Agenda
• The Industry
• The Market
• Understanding the Market
• Games + Business
• Why do we need them
• Hot Air Balloon
• Value add
• Case study
• Other Innovation Games
• References

3. The Industry
Source - http://www.esrb.org

4. The Market
Source - http://www.theesa.com

5. Understanding the market
Why do people play games?
• Be more cognitive (knowledge gathering)
• Solving the unsolvable
• Be more competitive
• Self actualization (to realize ones potential)
• Socially intrigued
• Work better as Teams
So, can we use this in business ???
Lets explore…

6. Games + Business = Innovation Games
Developed by Luke Hohmann:
Goal Innovation
Business
Game Collaboration
Strategy

7. Using games in business – Innovation Games
Innovation Games surface out these
through effective collaboration
Circle of Knowledge

8. Innovation Games help in …
Optimizing collaboration
Enables Ideation
Deeper Business Insight
Strengthening the customer-vendor bond
Making learning fun

9. Hot Air Balloon
Let us summarize.
The game has 2 parts:
1. Fly high
2. Unable to fly

10. Hot Air Balloon
What did we learn from this?
 Diverse expectations but one goal
 Surface USP’s
 Derive feature list
 Uncover obstacles right from the word “Go”
 Plan for risk management earlier in the cycle
Where can we use this exercise?
 Bring out the Business Case, especially when multiple stake holders are involved
 Product backlog Prioritization
 In a “retrospective meeting” to discover what went right or wrong

11. Value-add
• Know your customer
• Discover unspoken needs
• Learn what you shouldn’t build and why
• Build consensus (Get every one on the same page)
• Foster trust relationship
• Share tactical knowledge/experience
• Validate requirements (Offering = Customer business needs)
…all of this while you are having fun 

12. Valtech – Case Study – HR Open House
Valtech Bangalore, went through a merger.
Challenges faced in the past:
• Employees were hesitant to open up
• No Candid feedback
• Unavailability of management at times
• No structure in facilitation
• Unable to maintain transparency
Solution:
• “Innovation Games”

13. Valtech – Case Study – HR Open House
Speed Boat in Action:

14. Valtech – Case Study – HR Open House
• 23 sessions conducted, over 2 Months

15. Valtech – Case Study – HR Open House
• 394 Employees addressed

16. Valtech – Case Study – HR Open House
What is important
• 195 issues raised, 166 closed and 29 open
is to note the
closed items –
Transparency
achieved

17. Valtech – Case Study – HR Open House
Value-add using Speed Boat :
• No inhibition due to use of post-its
• More open communication
• Higher level of interaction
• Transparency between management
and employees
• Accelerated more ownership
• Catalyzed smooth transition

18. Valtech – Case Study – HR Open House
The Team that made it happen

19. Innovation Games to explore
20/20 Vision Rank a list of choices.
Buy a Feature Prioritize features.
Give Them a Hot Tub Generate your crazy ideas and let your customers determine
just how crazy those ideas really are!
Me and My Shadow Watch your customer use your product on their terms, not yours.
Product Box Ask your customers to design a product box for your product.
Prune the Product Tree Build a product according to your plans.
Remember the Future Are you asking your customers the right question?
Show and Tell Ask customers to tell you about the results that they can
produce with your product.
Speed Boat Identify what customers don’t like about your products or
services.
Spider Web Clarify the operating context for your products and services.
Start Your Day Understand how and when your customer uses your product.
The Apprenctice Understand your customers' needs so well that you can envision
solutions to problems customers may not realize they have!

20. References
• http://innovationgames.com/
• http://www.esrb.org/about/video-game-industry-statistics.jsp
• http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2011.pdf
• http://www.nearsoft.com/blog/innovation-games.html
• http://www.itbusinessedge.com/
• http://allgamesofchance.com/psychology-of-games.htm
• http://www.alionscience.com
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation_game#A_description_of_inno
vation_games
• http://tastycupcakes.org/
• http://www.uie.com/

21. Feedback

22. Thank you
Nadeem Ulla Khan (ATS Team)