Lean Startup & Innovation Games

www.innovationgames.com
Lean Startups
& Innovation Games
Michael Tarnowski
Plays-In-Business.com
Xing Lean Startup Circle Rhein-Main,
29.10.2012

www.plays-in-business.com
Basics of LEAN
Lean: Focus on the business as a
whole and what brings value
Muda − Wasteful Activities
Non-Value-Generating: Process steps
that either the customer is not willing
to pay for or are not critical to the creation of value for the customer.
Lean Principles − NO MUDA!
Basic principles of lean: reduce waste, maintain quality,
and accelerate productivity.
“Optimize the whole“ – “Eliminate waste“
“Build quality in“– “Deliver fast“
MUDA

Non Value Adding:
• Waste
• No Customer Focus!

Waste #1: Defects / Scrap / Rework
Waste #2: Over Processing
Waste #3: Waiting
Waste #4: New Ideas / Employee Knowledge
Waste #5: Transportation
Waste #6: Inventory
Waste #7: Motion
Waste #8: Excess Production
7 (or 8) Ways of Muda

Waste #1 – Defects, Rework,
Scraps
Defects in end product add no value – they
often require fixing and attract significant
costs to the organization. – Loss of corporate
image not included.

Waste #2 – Over Processing
Additional features or process steps the customer is unwilling to pay for
or doesn’t find them to be valuable add no value.

Waste #3 – Waiting
Waiting around for the next step in production add
no value.

Waste #4 – New Ideas / Employer
Knowledge
Not utilizing the ideas generated by those people who
actually use the processes themselves add no value.

Waste #5 – Transportation
Wasting time and resources for picking up/moving/ dropping
off of raw materials or finished product, as well as moving
materials/product over long distances, outside of the actual
process itself, add no value.

Waste #6 – Inventory
Consists of either all components, the work in progress, and the
finished product not being processed

Waste #7 – Motion
People moving or walking or equipment
moving more than they actually have to in
order to the processing to be performed
add no value.

Waste #8 – Excess Production
More production than there is actually demand

D – Defects / Scrap / Rework
O – Over Processing
W – Waiting
N – Non-utilized Employee
Ideas / Creativity
T – Transportation
I – Inventory
M – Motion
E – Excess Production
(“stolen” from Chad Walters/LeanBlitz.Net)
No Innovation (Waste)
= Down Time

U – be Unforgettable
P – be Productive
T – be Transparent
I – be Innovative
M – be Motivated
E – be Experimental
Be instead
Up Time

Up Time !
Time Is UP!!
Do IT!
Innovation Games
…Gamestorming
…Agile Games

Innovation Games ‒ The Seriously Fun Way to
Do Work!
Innovation Games:
 a set of originally market research oriented,
facilitated and directed games, developed
by Luke Hohmann. *)
 13 core games at the beginning; now more
than 20 games.
Innovation Games are in context of Game Storming, a
similar game-oriented approach initiated by Sunny Brown,
David Gray.
*) Free account to play online: http://innovationgames.com/resources/instant-play-games/

Why Games?
World is a Complex System:
 made up of many complex systems,
 all of them interacting with each other
 in complex, dynamic and unpredictable ways.
Games:
 involves people,
 have structure and goals,
 operates more like a real-world system,
 results are unpredictable,
 small changes in variables generate
dramatic differences in the result.

Games *)
 Games are alternatives to
standard business meetings.
 Games are structured activities.
A facilitator leads a group
towards some goal by way of a
game, that provides scope for
thinking freely, even playfully.
 Games require a few props such
as sticky notes, poster paper,
markers, random pictures from
magazines, or other thought
provoking objects ― “Fluffy Stuff”.
New Ideas
Agreement
Problem Solving
Planning
Deep Understanding
Unraveling
complexity
*) Innovation Games, Agiles Games, LEGO Serious Play

Do Work!
Innovation Games:
Focussed on real-time collaborative games to engage customers and
stakeholders to reveal what really matters to them and to get
breakthrough ideas.

Do Work!
Ways of
 customer feedback about a product or service
 prioritising issues, features, meanings, options,
possibilities, ...etc.
 Serious games to solve a wide range of
product strategy and management issues
across the whole market lifecycle.

Innovation Games ‒ Fields of Application
Not only applicable for market research and product design,
but also for
 Portfolio management,
 Requirements management,
 Project management
 .....
...any number of tasks of
 Innovative Thinking
 Brainstorming
 Collaboration / Team building
 ...

Core Set of Innovation Games: 13 Games
Product Box Spider Web
Make My Day Speed Boat
Buy a Feature
20/20 Vision
Me and My
Shadow
Hot Tub
The Apprentice Remember the
Future
Show and Tell Prune the Product Tree My Worst Nightmare

Innovation Games 1/5
Product Box: customers work individually or in
small teams to create and sell their ideal product.
Me and My Shadow: discover hidden needs
by carefully observing what customers
actually do with your products.
Buy a Feature: customers work together to
purchase their most desired features.

Give Them a Hot Tub: customers provide
feedback on outrageous features to establish
what is truly essential.
Remember the Future: understand your
customers’ definition of success by seeing how
they shape their future. (This game is related
with Future Perfect from Agile Coaching)
Spider Web: participants work individually or in
small teams to create vivid pictures of how your
products and services fit into their world.

Start Your Day: participants collaboratively
describe when, how, and where they use your
product(s). Participants describe their daily,
weekly, monthly, and yearly events related to
their use of a product.
Show and Tell: customers describe the most
important artifacts produced by your system to
you and other customers.
The Apprentice: an engineer or product
developer uses the product as an end-user.

20/20 Vision: customers negotiate the relative
importance of such things as product features,
market requirements, and product benefits.
Prune the Product Tree: customers work in
small teams to shape the evolution of your
products and services.
Speed Boat: customers identify their biggest
pain points with your products and services.

My Worst Nightmare: Discover hidden and/or
unconsidered worst-case scenarios to develop
better understanding and planning.
Participants imagine and draw a caricature of
their “worst nightmare” related to the product or
service that you’re researching.

Innovation Games ‒ 3 Prominent Applications in Lean
Identify Chances to
Reduce Waste
Identify your Minimum
Viable Product (MVP)
Value Stream
Mapping

Innovation Games ‒ Value Stream Mapping,
Streamlining the Value Stream
Value Stream / Value Stream Mapping (VSM):
identifies and analyses flow of materials and information
required to bring a product or service to the customer.
 Identify major sources of non-value added time in a
value stream;
 Envision a less wasteful future state; and
 Develop an implementation plan for future Lean
activities.
Most Useful Innovation Games:
20/20
Vision
Prune the
Product Tree
Speedboat Show and Tell

Innovation Games ‒ Identify Chances to Reduce Waste
Waste: Non-Value-Generating Activities.
Build Current State Value Stream Map
 Identify waste
 Identify bottlenecks
Most Useful Innovation Games:
20/20
Vision
Prune the
Product Tree

Innovation Games ‒ Identify your Minimum Viable
Product
Minimum Viable Product (MVP): has just those
features that allow the product to be deployed, and
no more.
MVP provides the minimum set of features needed
to learn usage from earlyvangelist – early adopters.
Eric Ries, StartupLessonsLearned.com
Using MVP:
+ Avoid building products nobody wants
+ Maximize learning per dollar spent
− Hard Work: much more minimum than
you think
 Define feature set being as most
minimum and most compelling as
possible
 Gather user feedback for product
development constantly
Most Useful Innovation Games :
20/20
Vision
Prune the
Product Tree

Books
 Luke Hohmann: Innovation Games. Creating Breakthrough
Products Through Collaborative Play. Addison-Wesley, 2006.
 Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, James Macanufo: Gamestorming.
O'Reilly, 2010.
Web Links
 Innovation Games: www.innovationgames.com
 Gamestorming: http://www.gogamestorm.com/
 Plays-in-Business (Artikel) http://plays-in-business.com/2011/09/innovation-games
 http://tastycupcakes.org/
Further Reading

Competencies:
 Trained Innovation Games Facilitator & Trained LEGO Serious Play Facilitator
 Certifed Scrum Master, Agile Coaching
 ISO 15504/Automotive SPiCE Prov. Assessor
 Requirements Engineering & Management consultancy
 Quality Assurance & Management consultancy
 Project Management & Configuration Management consultancy
ISO 15504
Assessor
Industrial Sectors:
 Automotive, Finance
 Logistics & Public Transport
 Defence , Aerospace
 Aviation & Air Traffic Management

 http://www.ftd.de
 www.innovationgames.com
 Izahorsky, http://www.flickr.com/photos/ingmar/3934077939/
 http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1164/5125476119_2cdf57722e.jpg
 oschene, http://www.flickr.com/photos/oschene/3016792272/
 Ravi Pinisetti, http://www.flickr.com/photos/rk_p/6913697731/
 LX_ZX, http://www.flickr.com/photos/lx_photo/7439564388/
 Kamomemushi, http://www.flickr.com/photos/shinjinakai/6080589831/
 RayVanEng, http://www.flickr.com/photos/rayvaneng/4675892563/
 Mang PK, http://www.flickr.com/photos/42682894@N05/3939957339/
 Steven H Scott, http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevenscott/6779454656/
 Budderflyman, http://www.flickr.com/photos/21686909@N07/3458700677
 musklick, http://www.flickr.com/photos/mouse-click-media/5597883913/#
 Mr Andrew Murray, http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrandrewmurray/5826411174/
 DownOnEarth, http://www.flickr.com/photos/16173624@N03/4147638363/in/faves-58564123@N05/
 Daniel Rennen / pixelio.de, http://image.pixelio.de/000/612/512//player/1--612512-Stra%26szlig%3Benkehrer%20reinigt%20Stra%26szlig%3Be-pixelio.jpg
Graphics Acknowledgements

Website: plays-in-business.com, info@plays-in-business.com
Twitter: twitter.com/playsinbusiness twitter.com/m_tarnowski
Xing: xing.com/profile/Michael_Tarnowski
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/pub/michael-tarnowski/52/b62/a98

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