Sometimes new professional lessons come from unlikely places. In my case that place was playing Magic: The Gathering. For 20+ years Magic has been the premier trading card game. It’s produced a universe of content as vast as Star Wars and Star Trek combined (and fans that are just as fanatical). And since the game is based on the player building their own deck, those that play the game need to be an architect, a strategist, a problem solver, a pragmatic decision maker and a player. (Sound familiar?) Over the last year I've been a member of the Magic fandom. By filtering this experience through the professional lens of Digital Strategy & UX I’ve learned some important lessons that have made my work better, my career stronger & my life a whole lot funner.

1. Lessons in
Digital Strategy & UX from
#MTGLessons

2. Adam McCrimmon
@McAtoms
amccrim.com
Director of Digital Strategy & UX!
hyc.com
Co-Host of WhatTheGrok Podcast!
whatthegrok.com
#MTGLessons
#MTGLessons

3. #MTGLessons #MTGLessons

4. #MTGLessons

5. #MTGLessons

6. #MTGLessons

7. #MTGLessons

8. #MTGLessons

9. Only for über nerds.
#MTGLessons

12. #MTGLessons

13. Best Selling Game in the World
Created in 1993
Over 20 Billion Cards Printed
!
Over 12 Million Players
Printed in 11 Languages
Sold in 120 Countries
!
More than 700k Sanctioned Events a year
#MTGLessons

15. 4 Expansions & 1,000 new unique cards created a year
14,000 Total Individual Cards
!
5 Colors
20 Color Combinations
!
8 Card Types
24 Creature Types
136 Keywords
#MTGLessons

16. #MTGLessons

17. How Did I Get Here?
#MTGLessons

18. Lesson 1:
It’s ok to suck #MTGLessons

19. I sucked.
#MTGLessons

21. A new type of failure
#MTGLessons

22. Rationalized Common
This bad thing happened
but it’s not totally my fault.
This bad thing happened it’s
my fault & it’s not a big deal.
Budget wasn't big enough!
There wasn’t enough time!
Requirements kept changing
Got to work late!
Forgot my lunch!
Didn’t recycle that bottle
#MTGLessons

25. We’ve grown accustomed to
rationalized & common failure.
!
We’re comfortable with it.
#MTGLessons

26. Invested
This bad thing happened. !
It’s my fault and it’s a big deal to me.

27. Invested
Emotionally Invested.!
Full Responsibility.

28. Fake it.
#MTGLessons

29. Capability
#MTGLessons

30. Capability
EXPERIENCE EXPERIENCE
#MTGLessons

31. You only get one chance to
learn something new.
Don’t Fake It.
#MTGLessons

32. Invested failure is transformative.
Approach
Point of view
Assumptions
Helps you learn.
#MTGLessons

33. Invested
Emotionally Invested.!
Full Responsibility.

34. Lesson 2:
Get a Hobby #MTGLessons

35. Hobby:
!
An activity done regularly in one's leisure
time for pleasure.
#MTGLessons

36. Entertainment.
Today’s world we have lots of entertainment
options.
But would you call Facebook a hobby?
How about marathon TV watching?
#MTGLessons

37. Hobby:
!
An activity done regularly in one's leisure time
for experience, fulfillment, challenge &
pleasure.
#MTGLessons

38. Learned about myself
#MTGLessons

39. Learned about myself
How I handle pressure and tense situations.
How I judge fairness.
How I’m perceived by others.
How I make pragmatic decisions.
How I solve problems on the fly.
How I handle success and how I handle failure.
#MTGLessons

40. I got better!
#MTGLessons

41. Momentum
#MTGLessons

42. Matthew Effect
#MTGLessons

43. Matthew Effect (1963)
Success can breed success, and inequality breeds
more inequality.!
!
“For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but
from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.”
Robert K Merton
Sociologist
http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/merton/matthew1.pdf
#MTGLessons

44. Arnout van de Rijt
Associate Professor - SUNY
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/04/28/on-privilege-and-luck-or-why-success-breeds-success/
#MTGLessons

45. Arnout van de Rijt
Associate Professor - SUNY
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/04/28/on-privilege-and-luck-or-why-success-breeds-success/
#MTGLessons

46. Arnout van de Rijt
Associate Professor - SUNY
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/04/28/on-privilege-and-luck-or-why-success-breeds-success/
#MTGLessons

47. Success leads to success.
#MTGLessons

49. Hobbies give you a self-motived outlet
for success and teach you about yourself.
#MTGLessons
Scored 15% to 30% higher on performance rankings

50. Lesson 3:
Restraint is a Requirement #MTGLessons

51. You can do anything!

52. You can do anything!

53. #MTGLessons

55. Without limitations we’re directionless.
#MTGLessons

56. Video - Stephen Hawking’s Into the Universe !
Gravity Explanation!
!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DECAorZYErk

57. Limitations give us direction.
#MTGLessons

59. Famous Quote or Story about limitations.

60. Richard Garfield
#MTGLessons

61. Richard Garfield Peter Adkison
#MTGLessons

62. Peter Adkison
#MTGLessons

63. Wanted a game:
Fast Playing
Little Setup
Inexpensive
!
Had a contact to:
Print Pictures on Cards
Richard Garfield Peter Adkison
#MTGLessons

64. Richard Garfield Peter Adkison
#MTGLessons

65. Richard Garfield Peter Adkison
#MTGLessons

66. Richard Garfield Peter Adkison
#MTGLessons

67. “Limitations are something that I latch onto - like working in genre, or if you're writing TV,
there are act breaks, there's a length of time it's supposed to be. The restrictions of budget
and sets can be really useful.”!
!
- Joss Whedon
“It was really SMS that inspired the further direction -- the
particular constraint of 140 characters was kind of borrowed.” !
!
- Jack Dorsey (Twitter)
“The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.” !
!
-Orson Welles
#MTGLessons

68. #MTGLessons

69. Constraint = Creativity
#MTGLessons

70. Think Here. Not Here.
#MTGLessons

71. Think Here. Not Here.
#MTGLessons

72. Cognitive Overhead
#MTGLessons

73. Cognitive Overhead
How many logical connections or jumps your brain
has to make in order to understand or contextualize
the thing you’re looking at.
http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/20/cognitive-overhead/
#MTGLessons

74. Cognitive Overhead
High Low
#MTGLessons

75. #MTGLessons

76. #MTGLessons

78. Lesson 4:
Stop Talking. Start Doing. #MTGLessons

79. Theory Design
vs
Practical Design
#MTGLessons

80. Theory Design Practical Design
Talking & thinking about
how something might work.
Trying it out as quickly as
possible to see if it works.
Brainstorming!
Meetings!
Documentation
Role Playing!
Sketching!
Prototyping
#MTGLessons

81. Prototyping
#MTGLessons

82. Prototyping
#MTGLessons

83. High Fidelity Low Fidelity
#MTGLessons

84. Trying it out as quickly as possible to see if it works.
#MTGLessons

85. Finding Problems,
Not Solutions
#MTGLessons

86. So how do we find
solutions?
#MTGLessons

87. Iteration
#MTGLessons

88. Good enough is fine.
#MTGLessons

89. Judo Solutions
One that delivers maximum efficiency with minimum
effort. Judo solutions are all about getting the most
out of doing the least. !
!
When good enough gets the job done, go for it. And
remember, you can usually turn good enough into
great later.
#MTGLessons

90. 1993 1999 2014
#MTGLessons

91. 1993
Name & Mana Cost
Art
Creature Type
Rules & Flavor Text
Artist & Power/Toughness
#MTGLessons

92. 1993
Name & Mana Cost
Art
Creature Type
Rules & Flavor Text
Artist & Power/Toughness
#MTGLessons

93. 1993
Name & Mana Cost
Art
Creature Type
Rules & Flavor Text
Artist & Power/Toughness
#MTGLessons

94. 1993
Name & Mana Cost
Art
Creature Type
Rules & Flavor Text
Artist & Power/Toughness
#MTGLessons

95. Iteration
Mana
Symbols
Rules
Card
Type
#MTGLessons

96. #MTGLessons

97. #MTGLessons

98. !
Micro Iteration
#MTGLessons

99. Video from 37signals.com!
Evolution of a homepage!
!
http://vimeo.com/29088090

100. Everything is a prototype.
!
Anything can be changed.
#MTGLessons

101. Lesson 5:
Respect Human Nature #MTGLessons

102. You Can’t Beat Human Nature
#MTGLessons

103. Humans like patterns.
#MTGLessons

104. #MTGLessons

105. #MTGLessons

106. #MTGLessons

107. http://shapingcloudsproject.tumblr.com/
#MTGLessons

108. http://shapingcloudsproject.tumblr.com/
#MTGLessons

109. http://webwithoutwords.com #MTGLessons

110. http://webwithoutwords.com #MTGLessons

112. Shared Knowledge
#MTGLessons

119. Lenticular Design
#MTGLessons

120. Lenticular Design
A player’s experience will dictate how complex a
design is to them. And some complexity is hidden,
because it requires certain knowledge to even be
aware of it.
http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/293
#MTGLessons

121. #MTGLessons

126. People do what we ask.
Respect them.
#MTGLessons

127. It’s ok to suck.
Get a Hobby
Restraint is a Requirement
Stop Talking. Start Doing.
Respect Human Nature
#MTGLessons

128. Thanks!
Adam Mc
amccrim.com | @McAtoms #MTGLessons