Gamification Workshop (learning) - Jan 13-14 2014
Firstly, I really like the "Octalysis", which is a enterprise gamification framework designed by (one of the very gamer guy) Yu-Kai Chou. Â
Here, I am summarizing my key take aways from Gamification Workshop and Octalysis in order of importance;
There are 4 gamer types with percentage in overall population: Killer (~1%) -who tries to be the top one, very competitive, CEO or General Manager-, Achiever (10%) -who tries to be rich, founders or Managers focused on earning rather than competing-, Explorer (10%) -who tries to find all the secret areas, researchers or engineers focused on learning rather than earning money- and Socializer (80%) -who likes to communicate with others, focused on hanging out rather than sitting home :)-. This means that, do NOT gamify your enterprise/ world/ game for the Killer guys, but gamify your enterprise/ work/ world/ game mostly for socializers :) without forgetting the other types!!!
8 Core Driver To Play The Game: Epic Meaning (believing into some global goal), Accomplishment (feeling the success by doing something), Empowerment of Creativity (freedom to act/create), Ownership (collecting something), Social Influence (all communications between other REAL humans), Scarcity (hard to find/have/see and you would like to that guy), Unpredictability (curiosity. Easy to understand in gambling), Avoidance (You don't want to loose! You can't leave now!). These are very important to design the game OR enterprise gamification with the right motivation factors.Â
4 Phase on Motivation: Discovery (the reason to try the game - Why to try it out?), Onboarding (how to learn basic things and teaching - How to learn?), Scaffolding (how to make it fun? Repetitive task with Joy - Why continue?), Endgame (how to keep veterans motivated? what will be the next? - What’s next?). These are very important to determine when the company / game will be the use these motivation drivers to have addictive work / gameplay.
5 Steps in Problem and User Definition (Business def - Gaming def); Business Metrics - Game Objective ("what do you want to improve?" sorted in importance order and need to be qualify), Users / Players Definition (demographic, motivations, likes, dislikes, why they do the current activities, why they don't do desired actions, etc), Desired Actions - Win-State Definition (all little actions you want users to do, chronological order, not too trivial actions, actions make lead to a win-state), Feedback Stats Definition (feedback about the win-state should be identified - might be: seeing a good view, feeling the success, hearing a sound, point, level, status change, avatar, bonus etc.), Incentives Definition (if you could give users everything they want -within your power-, what would it be?)Â
 NOW. The one big thing! In order to design Enterprise Gamification, first define your problem and users (see:4). Then create a the motivation phase (see:3) matrix for each gamer type (see:1). For example: Gamer Types in Y - column and Motivation Phases in X-Row. Now, select the most suitable core drive(s) for each type of gamer for each phase (and prioritize it). Then design your gamification to make fun for each of your users in each phase according to your user and problem definition in order to reach your goal.Â
Then check on design for each Gamer Type on Octaylsis Tool and see your weakness point and strong points. Then you should increase your weakness point by thinking about what you missed in your problem and role definition. Then you can change your gamification or add some extra items into your game. Then run this tool again until you stratify for each user for each phases. Â
Repeat 1-2-3-4-5-6 until everything seems OK for you. That's it!. Simple to write but hard to be an expert :)Â
Without having a case study it may hard to understand it. So I am giving a brief example below. This image shows how all things will come together with my example :P
Problem definition:Â In our software company, we are following Scrum. The problem is one of our team member X is not attending the daily Scrum in Y% percent. We talked but nothing changed! We know that he is a kind of hardworking guy, but we would like to see him in the meeting because sometimes some stakeholder would like to participate to see what is going on and he may not be there.Â
Business Goal: Increment in developer X participation in daily meetings.
User Definition: Hard working, late coming, late leaving, rational, analytic thinker, 30 years old, male, immigrant, likes sport cars, like solving critical problems, like out of the system guy, dislike obeying rules, dislike authority, other developers fear from him (also respect him)
Desired Action: Coming early and willingness of participation on daily meetings.
Feedback Stats (now thinking on gamification begins :) ):Â check list for participant (see who participated), the checklist can be hanged on wall, after 10 meetings (2 weeks) who participated all of them circled in Red (if there is no circle), if Red make Yellow, if Yellow make Green, if Green make Blue, if Blue make Cyan, if Cyan make Black and this is the last one.Â
Incentive Definition:  Who reaches the Black circle gets a real racing car experience on track! (like Audi Sport Car Experience )  which cost about $2K or equivalent experience defined by the company and user has to choose among them.Â
Now we are checking what is the motivation phase matrix with our current roles and gamer types;
- Killer = Product Owner;
Discovery Why to try it out?): Unpredictability. In order to see that is it working or not? Because, scrum master told about this gamification and he is still unsure that it is working or not.Â
Onboarding (How to learn?): Ownership, Social Influence, Accomplishment. In order to show the general managers and stake holders, how his decision increases the availability of people on meetings.Â
Scaffolding (Why continue?): Ownership, Social Influence, Accomplishment
EndGame (What’s next?): Accomplishment
- Achievers = Scrum Master (all phases should be defined)
- Explorers = A+, Senior Level, Lead Type of Developers (all phases should be defined)
- Socializers = Scrum Team Members (all phases should be defined)
After having the definition of phase matrix now we can look at our Octaylsis chart for Killer type to see. These numbers are given relatively so you have all the control.Â
Epic Meaning = 2 -> The change in the company culture
Accomplishment = 5 -> If everything goes ok, then product owner get the feeling of success and accomplishment
Empowerment = 0 -> We didn't have any creative activity ? Right? So it is zero!
Ownership = 4 -> The gamification project will be owned by the product owner, if everything is ok for him. So there is also a ownership drive to use gamification in their daily scrum.
Social Influence = 7 -> The product owner should report the increment to the Managers and Stakeholders  as well as feeling the success among them. It is kind of social influence. In addition, he may wants to be the fist one among other product owners to try gamification in his Scrum.
Scarcity = 2 -> It is kind of a unique project and try! So there is a scarcity driver but not so strong.
Unpredictability = 3 -> He may also curios about the change in company culture and effects of using the gamification.
Avoidance = 3 -> After starting the gamification on daily scrum meeting, he doesn't want to loose the all work on team. It is also kind of social influence but there is also some metrics like daily availability percent. If it works, then he won't want to lose the increment.Â
According to given point our Octalysis Chart is given below;
Here, we see that the Creativity is not used and the others are distributed equally. So we may think about adding some creativity activity for killers. In addition, the killers are mostly rational and analytic thinker, so we should increase the left brain part which are located on the left side in the Octaysis chart also. For example for killers, we may give the right to select and create events as gift for winners! So, it may increase the creativity.Â
This is a brief example, so in order to make it deep enough there should be very well defined Roles and Problem Definition (our is ok). Moreover, the motivation phase matrix should be generated for each gamer type. Then we need to check the results and see our weakness. Then we should repeat the analysis for each additional additional though process on our gamification design.Â
The general learnings from Enterprise Gamification Workshop;
Choosing your favorite game and your avatar (with name) gives an idea about you and your role.Â
Everyone LOVES PLAYING games. This is vital on our lives. Almost everything makes us fun / happy is a kind of game! Moreover, the animals love playing game, also.( check this polar bear )
Game is the one of the most focused activity! So, why not convert our boring jobs into a  game - fun way to do?
 In Industrial Age the customers are not so important but the important is "Mass Manufacturing". Then in the Information Age, "User Experience" becomes more important than just manufacturing. In the the future (in couple years), this becomes how to fun your customer while giving the best user experience. This also shows the importance of "making work fun" in your company.
Make work more fun! :) Working on repetitive job seems boring but think about Candy Crush or Angry Birds. You are doing just same thing in every play? -Touch the screen and sending the bird to the bad piggies OR match three or more with same color by sliding each colorful item by one-
As a simple solution for Enterprise Gamification: Choose a problem in your company. Then identify the personas (age, background, living style etc.) who are complaining it OR who have these problems. Make stories about these people; what he likes, doesn't like, daily life, what he/she cares etc. Then choose a popular or your favorite game and combine the problem with his cares/ likes with the goal of the game. This is a simplistic way on Enterprise Gamification.Â
The simplistic approach in steps : Understand the Problem, Observe the users, Player point of view, Ideate, Prototype, Validate
