Innovation Games: Creating Innovation Products Through Collaborative Play (Not a Talk, but an Experience)

When: 
Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 7:00pm
Room: 
34-101
Lecturer(s): 
Luke Hohmann, Enthiosys

Romantic notions of innovation include the lone inventor who toils away in their garage and, with luck, comes up with a “Big Idea” that they then somehow mold into a useful product. As is often the case, romance is a mixed bag. The “Big Idea” part – the invention – can be exhilarating. The innovation part—the solving of your customer’s problem in a new or unusual way—is often just plain old hard work. Innovation comes from people who are continuously interacting with and gaining a deeper understanding of their customers, and then using this understanding to create more effective ways of solving their problems. The challenge with “being innovative” or creating “innovations” is that understanding your customer’s problems well enough to solve them in a new and or unusual way can be pretty hard! Learning how to do this more effectively is the key to leveraging the precious time that you actually have to be working on innovative products and services. This tech experience tackles the challenge of developing customer understanding head on by providing you with a fresh perspective on how to use a variety of games with your customers to develop the understanding that forms the foundation of innovation. We're calling it an tech experience because instead of just talking about these ideas, you'll experience them for yourself in a series of carefully designed simulations. You'll learn about these games by playing them. You’ll find that if you use them, you’ll come to understand what your customers really want. You’ll have fun doing it. Perhaps more importantly, they’ll have fun doing it. Armed with this understanding, you’ll be able to create the breakthrough, innovative products that are, and will continue to be, the foundation of your success.