The toughest part of innovation?
Accurately predicting what customers want, need, and will pay for.
Even if you ask them, they often can’t explain what they want. Now, there’s a breakthrough solution: Innovation Games.
Drawing on his software product strategy and product management consulting experience, Luke Hohmann has created twelve games that help you uncover your customers’ true, hidden needs and desires.
Scroll down to view all games.
Customers describe the most important artifacts produced by your system to you and other customers.
Customers collaboratively describe when, how, and where they use your product(s).
Customers work in small teams to shape the evolution of your products and services.
Discover hidden needs by carefully observing what customers actually do with your products.
Customers work individually or in small teams to create and sell their ideal product.
Create empathy for the customer experience by doing the job of a customer.
Create empathy for the customer experience by doing the job of a customer.
Customers work together to purchase their most desired features.
Customers negotiate the relative importance of such things as product features, market requirements, and product benefits.
Customers work individually or in small teams to create vivid pictures of how your products and services fit into their world.
Customers provide feedback on outrageous features to establish what is truly essential.
Understand your customers’ definition of success by seeing how they shape their future.
Praise for Innovation Games
“I ran the Buy a Feature game at our 2004 user group, ‘Agility.’ The experience was enlightening and useful for both myself, as a product manager, and our customers. I was quite pleased with our customers’ responses following the event. One person said, ‘I’m honored you invited me (us) to this event and hope you continue to do this in the future.’ Another said, ‘This was the greatest experience I’ve ever seen your company do for customers. I’d like to participate in the next session.’ As a result of playing the game, I felt I had a more validated list of customer requirements than before and I felt that my credibility behind these requirements was not challenged. It was truly empowering and I wish anyone who attempts to use Innovation Games the best success. It’s worth every ounce of effort!”
“Innovation Games is one of those books you don’t know you need until you read it, and then you wonder how you ever got along without it. If you hope to have customers tomorrow, you need to read this book and play these games!”
“Ever wonder where those software requirements and user stories come from? Hohmann provides practical techniques to help software teams develop insights into the real business needs and opportunities their solutions are intended to address. A unique and innovative work that will help software teams on their quest to build better software; software that is indeed a better ‘fit for its intended purpose.’”
“Luke Hohmann sweeps aside the barriers that prevent software companies from understanding their customers. The result is software that includes the features customers actually want, which doesn’t sound that radical unless you’re a customer. His firm, Enthiosys, uses his process to produce big results for its clients. In his new book, Innovation Games, Luke does a clear—and entertaining—job of giving away his recipe. You don’t want to compete with a company that uses these techniques.”
“The use of Enthiosys’ Innovation Games at our Technical Advisory Council meetings have not only provided us with wonderful insights regarding product strategies, requirements, and new market opportunities, more importantly they have given our customers new and creative ways to provide feedback in a way that they enjoy.”
“Continuous innovation is hard. Continuously innovating the right products, features, and capabilities is even harder. After seeing these Innovation Games in action with real customers driving the development of real products, I am convinced that Luke has created a better way to ensure that customers get what they truly want. These games are fun for customers. But more importantly, they get customers thinking in unique and unusual ways, which leads to better innovation.”
“We all have different mental models of what our words and concepts mean to us—never mind what we think they mean to other people. And these models are difficult to communicate.... Luke Hohmann’s book of reliable tools, which he calls Innovation Games, help make these mental models that consumers compose in their heads visible and tangible for them—and for you—to see and understand.”
“Innovation Games were an excellent way to put structure and fun into traditional focus groups. The resulting gaming environment allowed our customer participants to better interact with each other and be more creative as they helped us identify specific product and service needs that will certainly give us a competitive advantage.”