Posted by Luke Hohmann on June 17th, 2011 at 4:07 pm
Prune the Product Tree was originally designed to help product companies collaboratively develop roadmaps and strategic plans with customers. Because of this, the game board - the tree - needs to be tailored for each product. In this example, we describe the online version of the game we used for the Agile 2010 conference retrospective.
Timing: 1 hour
Ingredients:
Customers who attended your conference
Players (5..8 recommended):
Product Manager / Product Owner
Customers
...
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Posted by Luke Hohmann on June 17th, 2011 at 11:30 am
Timing: 1 hour
Ingredients:
A group of customers with complaints.
Players (5..8 recommended):
Product Manager / Product Owner
Customers
Directions:
The goal of this game is to identify factors that are preventing your product or service from moving forward. The speed boat represents your company while the issues holding it back are symbolized by anchors.
Clicking on this image, will start an “instant play” game at innovationgames.com. You’ll see this image as...
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Posted by Ben Carey on April 25th, 2011 at 7:56 pm
Timing:
60 minutes for the exercise and around 30 minutes to debrief
Materials:
Construction paper, pens, sharpies (multi-color), scissors, duct tape, cardboard, rubber bands, tin foil, bows, ribbons, blank cards, any other similar items you can get your hands on.
Instructions:
Guide participants through the materials in the handout. See the facilitator guide for more information with guidance.
You will be leading pairs through multiple iterations of : empathize, define, ideate...
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Posted by Luke Hohmann on March 20th, 2011 at 9:41 pm
Timing: 1 hour
Ingredients:
A list of backlog items (epics / stories) to prioritize.
Players (5..8 recommended):
Product Manager / Product Owner
Development Team
Directions:
The goal of this game is to collaboratively rank a backlog based on estimated value and estimated cost. The y-axis is the value of an epic or story and the x-axis is the cost. Each axis is organized as a Fibonacci number. We typically use this game for release planning.
Clicking on this image, ...
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Posted by Mike McCullough on July 3rd, 2010 at 8:37 pm
Description
Organization and prioritization are two distinct activities that can be used to improve the quality of a product backlog. A simple linear list is difficult to prioritize. As well, many stakeholders are forgotten in the rush to deliver customer value. See example list of stakeholders. The purpose of this game is to expand the view of multiple stakeholders as well as illuminate the value of organizing the work without prioritizing.
Learning Points
● The value of organizing befor...
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Posted by Michael McCullough on June 20th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Timing: 10-15 mins
Ingredients:
100+ Toothpicks (or something similar)
At least one Die
Directions:
Participants line up in a row with a collection of toothpicks (or something similar) placed with the first participant. The first participant rolls a die to determine how many toothpicks to pass to the next participant. Each participant then takes turns rolling the die and passing the corresponding amount of toothpicks to the next player. The final player creates a stack of toothpicks...
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Posted by Michael McCullough on June 20th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Timing: 30 mins
Ingredients:
20-30 balloons per team
Supplies for each team: construction paper, rulers,
scissors, markers
Directions:
Start by showing the teams a balloon that you would like created (or draw one).
Test Balloon with Acceptance Criteria
The balloon has a face made up of two round eyes, a triangular nose, and a semi
circle mouth. Without any further instructions, tell the teams that they have 2
minutes to create as many of the balloons as possible, then have th...
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Posted by Don McGreal on June 20th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Timing: 15 mins
Ingredients:
Origami instructions for half the participants (like this one)
Blank standard sized printer paper for half the participants
Directions:
Pair up participants and provide an instruction sheet (face down) to one person in each pair (the "instructor"), and provide a blank sheet of paper to the other member of the pair (the "folder"). Split the pairs into three groups:
Group 1 sits side-by-side,
Group 2 sits face-to-face, and
Group 3 sits back-to-ba...
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Posted by Don McGreal on June 20th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Timing: 20 mins
Ingredients:
Many coins of varying denominations
Directions:
A customer wants to hire the subcontracting vendor who provides the quickest estimate to sorting a bag of coins. Have teams of participants bid on the project by shouting out bids (in seconds). Let all the teams attempt the exercise and hold them to their bids by timing them. After they have finished, point out that what the customer actually wanted, was to have the coins sorted by date, not denomination.
Le...
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Posted by Michael McCullough on June 19th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Timing 15 mins
Ingredients
People and space
Notepads and pens for participant
Directions
The moderator whispers a short phrase, such as “The company is facing budgetary problems, and some of us will be let go,” in the ear of a participant. The moderator writes down what he whispered.
The participant then whispers the sentence that he heard in the ear of another participant and writes down what he whispered.
Repeat step 2 until everyone has participated.
The moderator the...
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