The document describes an innovation game called the Product Box game. In this game, participants are divided into teams and each team creates a product box representing a product or service they are developing. They decorate the box to market the product and its key features. Then each team presents their box to the other teams who vote on the best box. Analyzing the results from the game helps product teams understand what customers value most in a product.

1. Innovation Games
Games of collaborative play
Fun ways to understand customer needs
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Iasonas Antonopoulos

2. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
Get feedback and ideas

3. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
Innovation games
» Innovation games refer to a form of primary market
research developed by Luke Hohmann
» Customers play a set of directed games as a means of
generating feedback about a product or service.

4. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
Accomplish many kind of goals
Innovation Games

5. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
What to achieve
Innovation Games
Innovation games help:
 discover new business opportunities
 drive strategy and product road map decisions
 improve the effectiveness of sales and service organizations
 fine-tune marketing messages
 create more intimate, durable relationships, with your customers
 better understand your customers

6. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
The Process
Innovation Games
1. What are your questions?
What will you do with the answers?
3a. Acquire the data 3b. Plan and play the game
5. Take action
4. Process/Analyze the data
2a. What data is needed to
answer these questions?
2b. Select and prepare for
the appropriate game

7. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
Innovation Games* (1/4)
*From: Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products
Through Collaborative Play Luke Hohmann

8. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
Innovation Games* (2/4)
From: Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play Luke Hohmann
*From: Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products
Through Collaborative Play Luke Hohmann

9. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
Innovation Games* (3/4)
From: Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play Luke Hohmann
*From: Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products
Through Collaborative Play Luke Hohmann

10. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
Innovation Games* (4/4)
From: Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play Luke Hohmann
*From: Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products
Through Collaborative Play Luke Hohmann

11. Product Box Game
Identify the most exciting features
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12. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
@ a glance
Product Box
Product Box:
 let’s you leverage your customer’s collective consumer experience
 let’s you discover how your customers/users think/prioritize features
 gives you an idea of what your customer/users want to “hear” from your
product/service
Product box in Agile
 is used for release planning based on what customers/users
believe that is more important
 can be used to further produce user stories

13. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
How it is played
Product Box
1. Participants are divided into multiple teams
2. Participants create a product box of the product/service that they will want to buy
and not just any box but a box that “represents” that product
3. Each team is given a blank chart paper wrapped box and stationary and is asked
to efficiently utilize the box outer surface to sell/market a produce/service they are
currently developing/ planning to develop/ using /or will use
4. Time-box the product box creation/decoration activity to 20-40 min
(tip: the lesser the time, the faster the brain imagines!!)
5. Once all teams are finished product boxes are ready, one representative
markets/tries to sell the product to the audience (rest of the teams) by explaining
all that is illustrated on the box.
6. Once all product box demonstrations are finished, all participants vote for the best
product box excluding their own product box.
7. The Product box with the maximum votes wins!!

14. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
Product Box
Preparing for the game
Product Box needs
 finding the right customers
 preparing tables
 ensuring that all material is present
 preparing the observation sheets

15. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
Product Box
Roles & Material
The roles
 facilitator(s): Explains the game, set the rules,
helps teams, keeps time
 Product Box players: customers/users
(in groups of max three people)
 Observer(s): observes and records
reactions of other teams, during
the Product Boxes presentations;
post processes the data

16. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
Product Box
Material
The material
 One blank bright white product box for each participating team
 Colored markers, crayons, pencils, pens, glitter glue, stickers (stars
or words or images, like "New" or "Exciting"). Check out
www.innovationgames.com for ideas
 Plain white and colored paper for
each table
 Two or three sample boxes for each
table

17. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
Why it works
Product Box
Product Box
 helps customers/users to deep dive into their needs and express them while trying to
form/sell/market their Product Box
 provides valuable and revealing observations from customer interactions
(remember they’re trying to sell to you and all other customers)
 helps product teams since customer focus on benefits not features (even if feature is
written, marketing and sales will be beneficial)
 limited printing space and forces feature selection prioritization on a must have basis
What is necessary to succeed
 speed, open mindedness
 collaborative work (if teams want to form on their own let them)
 for products targeting international markets, it should be played those countries to
capture the different cultures

18. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
Processing results (1/2)
Product Box
1st step process: Map data to primary product categories
 Features: Statements related to a feature
 Benefits: Statements related to a benefit
 Labels or slogans: messages, statements, titles, quotes, phrases
 preparing the observation sheets
2nd step process: Map data to secondary product categories
 Recognition: something outstanding about the product
 Adoption: how wide spread the product is used or desired
(review to understand if this is the right segment)
 Community: user channels such as websites, blogs, conferences, etc (review to
understand if you have an infrastructure that allows your users to love your product)t

19. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
Processing results (2/2)
Product Box
2nd step process: Map data to secondary product categories
 User experience: How easy/practical/fun/sexy is the interaction of users with your product
(review to understand how the user experience with your product is perceived – especially
in relation to other products)
 Support: Support related comments – Review to understand importance
 Technology: Comments on your technology (cool, advanced, etc) - Review to understand
it’s value in current market
 Price: Comments on specific price (discount, basic, deluxe, etc) – Review to understand
your customers’ perception on price
 Value: Comments on perceived value – Review to ensure that your perception and your
customers’ perception align
3d step process: Assess if your current product matches the idealized product your users
have described

20. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
Agile UX Example
Product Box

21. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
Game Example
Product Box

22. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
Learn from the “Masters”
Product Box
Examples of
» Features
» Taglines
» Security issues
» Payments
» Benefits
» Value
» Need/Insight
» Reasons to believe
» Acknowledgements
» Associations/Certifications
» Technology
» The brand
» The company
» Cases

23. 4th Prod.Active Meetup: Innovattion Games - Product BoxIasonas Antonopoulos
References
» Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play by Luke
Hohmann
» http://www.innovationgames.com
Agile
» https://karannangru.wordpress.com/2012/08/29/product-box-worthy-agile-planning-
innovation-game/

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Let’s play the game
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