buzz: Forrester gives Innovation Games a “Strong Thumbs Up”
Forrester’s Tom Grant joined one of our Innovation Games classes on 14 Feb, and wrote enthusiastically about serious gaming as a very serious product management tool:
The other day, the good people at Enthiosys were kind enough to let me sit through part of one of their product management seminars. They use “serious gaming” as a very serious product management tool, an idea that gets a strong thumbs up from me.
This short introduction to Enthiosys drove home a “meta-point” about product requirements. During a matched pair of games, the participants played both customer and product manager. Starting with a cryptic customer comment – and how many hours have we spent deciphering those – the PMs were responsible for understanding why someone might be unhappy with a pair of headphones…
The “Aha!” moment came pretty fast. Product managers are often in the position of the proverbial blind men and the elephant, trying to decipher the whole (what customers really want) from the parts (enhancement requests). The exercise made it clear that, based on the customer comment alone, there was practically no way to discover why a representative consumer might not buy a particular set of headphones. Only quality time with the end users could reveal what was right and wrong with the product….
PMs definitely can sharpen their skills through “serious gaming” and similar exercises. However, it’s just as important for other people in the company to have these experiences.
Read his full blog post on Forrester’s site.
At Forrester, Tom helps Technology Product Management & Marketing professionals succeed and technology companies better use their product management resources.
