Game Thinking: Innovate smarter & drive deep engagement with design techniques from hit games

Ask yourself: What would motivate my best customers to stick around?

Product-centric triggers are designed into your product experience. The most effective ones tap into the customer’s existing emotions and habits. External triggers are environmental cues that remind you to do something, such as notifications, email, shoes by the door, or sticky notes on your laptop. Engaged triggers kick in once someone is engaged

Now it’s time to articulate and prioritize your assumptions. To generate this list, look through the hypotheses you’ve written down so far in the MVP Canvas. Ask yourself: which assumptions am I least sure about? Which ones would devastate my project if they turned out to be false? Your goal is to write down a prioritized list of your high-risk ass

What’s missing is a mechanism that ties these stats into meaningful unlocks and progressive skill-building. How would you answer these questions? When a customer uses your product for months, what are they getting better at? How will you show personal or social progress in a compelling, meaningful way? How is your customer’s Day 30 experience diffe

How could [relevant activity] be better or easier? What’s missing?

There’s a well-established theory of product innovation called the stage-gate model that can help us understand how this works. This model was popularized in 1986 by Robert Cooper in his book, Winning at New Products. It lays out a series of development stages, punctuated by decision-making “gates” that let the winning ideas pass through.

Once you delight your superfans, you’re onto something that can grow. But if you’re missing this early, energetic human feedback loop, it’s almost impossible to “cross the chasm” into mainstream use.

Don’t fall into the common trap of thinking that your innovative offering will create brand-new habits. If you want to drive adoption and retention, it’s easier to piggyback on an existing habit than get someone to build an entirely new one, just for your product.

What group of people will need and want our offering first? What characteristics and behaviors will they have in common? The best way to develop loyal customers is to fulfill their needs in a pleasurable way. Think about the customers you’re targeting and ask yourself: What relevant needs do they have right now that we could potentially address? Ho