These are the slides from Luke Hohmann's presentation at the Triple Helix IX conference, July 11-14, 2011 at Stanford.

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Using Innovation Games® Online to Reach
Consensus in Distributed Triple Helix Teams
Luke Hohmann
Founder and CEO
Conteneo, Inc.
Twitter: #innovgames

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The Process: Ideation, shaping, Prioritizing, Acting
Innovation Requires Others
Distributed Teams Need Tools

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How Do I Help My City Grow?
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/wp-
content/uploads/2008/11/jonah-art-model-of-small-city-700px.jpg
Industry
UniversityGovernment

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What Creates, Causes, Enables, and Promotes Innovation?

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Remember, we’re talking
innovation.
Invention is thinking up cool
stuff. Innovation is
successfully applying the
inventions in practice.

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Collaborative Innovation Lies In Spaces
Industry
UniversityGovernment

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7
Let’s Find Out Who You Talk With
Draw a circle. Write your name
in the center of the circle.
Pick a Triple Helix project you’ve
worked on or studied.
Write the names of people you
collaborated with on this
project around the circle. Draw
the web of these relationships
as you see it. Use different line
weights and colors to represent
good/bad communication.
Spider Web

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8
Let’s Do It Again
Draw a circle Write your name in
the center of the circle.
Using your first diagram as a
guide, replace the names of the
people with their Triple Helix
roles. Use different line weights
and colors to represent good/bad
communication.
Spider Web

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Collaboration is more than talking…

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So, what’s Collaboration?
Collaboration is a recursive process where
two or more people or organizations work
together in an intersection of common goals
— for example, an intellectual endeavor that
is creative in nature—by sharing knowledge,
learning and building consensus.
Thanks, wikipedia!

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It’s not the platform
But tools and platforms are important!!!

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Is it about me?
It’s not about me… but I am important…
https://jazz.net/downloads/pages/rational-team-concert/2.0/M3/images/apt_tempo.png

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It’s not “sharing”
http://www.inf.unisi.ch/postdoc/lelli/imgIndexArticle/social_network.jpg
But we need to share to collaborate.

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But notifications are important.But we need to be notified of changes.

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It’s not just “talking”

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Maybe…
It is
the
tools?

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Collaboration DOES Need Tools
collocated distributed
Different
Time
Same
Time

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Innovation Games® are
Serious Collaboration Tools.

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What Are Innovation Games®
Innovation Games® are serious games
that solve a wide range of product
strategy and management problems
across the market lifecycle.
They are played:
• with customers & internal stakeholders
• online or in-person
• within or across organizational units
• in single or multi-game formats

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Not Humor
Like Joke
Not Silly Like
Water Park

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More Like
Settlers of Catan &
Euchre
Meet Business

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Not Work
(Leisure)
Pleasure
Work
Play
Not-Play
External GoalsInternal Goals
Not-Pleasure
Adapted from http://it.coe.uga.edu/~lrieber/resources/blanchardmodel.gif

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And yes, it is FUN
V1-388 Luke Did you enjoy this experience?
V1-388 Toni Yes - fun!
V1-388 Greg Sure.
V1-388 Greg I enjoyed it.
V1-388 Vladimir thanks for the chance. B)
V1-393 Luke Did you enjoy the experience? Would you be willing to play again in the
future?
V1-393 Tom yes, and yes
V1-393 Mike Yes -- it was fun
V1-393 Sarah Definitely
V1-393 Dominic Yes, and I think VersionOne are getting great info here
V1-393 Patrick I would be happy to play again.
V1-394 Luke Team, are you now satisfied with your bids?
V1-394 Mike YES!
V1-394 Rene yup
V1-394 Andre Indeed.
V1-394 Jim I want more money!
V1-394 Andre It was hard. But lots of fun. And yes, I want more money too - do you
take credit cards?
V1-394 Mike hahaha
V1-394 Mike ok, gotta go guys.... it was fun
Chat log extracts from three
games played to prioritize a
product backlog.

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Innovation and Collaboration Goals
Manage
strategic
roadmaps.
Identify
New Products
Determine Product
Interactions
Train
Sales Teams
NPD Improve
Marketing
Messages
Prioritize
Project
Portfolio
Identify Product
Enhancements
Prioritize Epics NPD

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Enterprise Goals
ARE Verbs

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Verbs mean ACTION

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To take Action we need to:
• Create goals and/or
equifinal meanings
• Reduce ambiguity
• Reduce equivocality
• Identify,
distribute,
perform,
integrate,
verify…

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Special Communication Problems in Distributed Teams
• Language
• Culture
• Cold communication
• Time shifting takes a toll

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Innovation Games® Case Studies

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San Jose, CA Budget Games

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Chief Intellectual Property Officer
Damon Matteo, PARC
Beatrix de Russé, Thomson
Marshall Phelps, Microsoft
Rob Sterne, SKGF
Anne Culotta, Halliburton

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Scrum is an agile framework
for completing complex
projects. Scrum originally was
formalized for software
development projects, but
works well for any complex,
innovative scope of work.
The ScrumAlliance hired The
Innovation Games® Company
to research member needs.
• 5 Games
• 35 participants
• 100 potential apples
• 81 unique apples
• Rich online discussions
• Each game ~1 hour

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Field: Football Field divided into Health Sectors called “Indicators”.
Indicators: Actions in the game will reflect the Status of Health.
Moving across the field records a change in status depending on the scenario. A Layer
with Action Indicators can be turned on and off during play.
RED = HEALTHY Choices, Outcomes or Decisions
WHITE = NEGATIVE Influences, Outcomes or Decisions
FOOTBALL = INDICATOR OF HEALTH of the person or family
Field w/o Indicators Field with Indicators
EXAMPLE TO OTHERS
THRIVING
GREAT HEALTH
GOOD HEALTH
1ST SIGN OF ILLNESS
SERIOUS ILLNESS
CRITICAL
SUFFERING & DEATH
HEALTH TO HEALTH CARE – H E A LT H A S T E A M S P O R T
22
22
1
Michael Dinneen, M.D.
Director, Office of Strategy Management
Military Health System

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A GAME IN PROGRESS Item Information:
Players fill in a
description of the Role
& Action when the
play is started or
changed
Player Action Detail
All PlayerActions
captured as the game
progresses
Track Team
Players / Plays
= Total minus # on
the field
Players move in 1 +
“Roles / Situations”
to Aid or Counter
HEALTH
CHAT
DURING THE
GAME

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How Do I Help My City Grow?
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/wp-
content/uploads/2008/11/jonah-art-model-of-small-city-700px.jpg
Industry
UniversityGovernment

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Our 3-Step Process
Open-ended,
collaborative
innovation.
E.g. Prune the
Product Tree to
collaboratively
generate ideas.
Collaboration
tools (such as
wikis and forums)
to shape ideas.
E.g., Google docs
Picking High ROI
Projects / Features.
E.g. Buy a Feature
tournaments to
collaboratively
prioritize projects
and take action.
Ideation Shaping Prioritizing

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Prune the Product Tree: City Growth
Understand the
evolution of your offering.
• Draw a tree. It represents the
growth of your city.
• Add current ideas on how to
grow as apples and apples.
• 5 to 8 stakeholders shape the
“growth” of your offering.
• Captures very rich information
about perceptions of the
future, timing of new concepts,
balance, and relationships
among ideas.

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Prune the Product Tree Online: Preparing
Planners define layers and regions so
that they will know where players are
placing their ideas.
Planners choose images to
represent growth.
Planners select the kind & number of
items that can be placed on the image
during the game.

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Place Initial Items
Any existing ideas or roadmap items
are placed on the tree.

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Playing the Game!
Players collaborate in real-time to
place features/benefits (leaves/apples)
on the tree.
An integrated chat facility
enables you to understand
player motivations.
Players label and
describe their
ideas
All information is recorded and
available for analysis

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Interpretations from the Results of Multiple
Game 1
Results
Game 2
Results
Interpretation
Game results are merged into a
new game – which you can edit
and shape, further process, or
play with additional players.

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Step 2: Collaborative Shaping
• Once ideas have been identified they are
shaped by the project/product teams into
a backlog
• Existing tools, such as shared wikis, shared
documents, emails, and chats, help teams
shape concepts
• The process typically produces a
candidate list of projects and/or product
features that is greater than available
resources
“infinite” portfolio
local project
expensive project
big project
other project
another project
the other thing

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Step 3: Collaborative Prioritization
Common Approach Problems
Single expert Do they have the knowledge and
trust of the organization to make
the hard choices?
Small groups Tradeoffs are not clear
Large groups Insufficient tools!
Where is the
“Voice of the Customer?“infinite” backlog
use case
bug fix
arch change
do this
do that
the other thing
Goal? is to take large list and
prioritize to a manageable set.

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Innovation Game® Buy a Feature
• A list of 12-20 items (projects) are described in
terms of benefits and cost
• 5 to 8 invited stakeholders given
limited “budget”, must reach
consensus on projects to “buy”
• Captures very rich information about customer
motivations, trade-offs, objections, actual
collective needs
In-person
• Provides rich opportunity for “new” ideas
Online
• Captures data for sophisticated analysis of
preferences
• Preliminary trials indicate faster/more accurate
results than traditional tools
Collaborative
Prioritization of Key
Ideas

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Buy A Feature Online - Preparing
A list of features with
prices. This example is
for product concepts for
a pair of internet
sunglasses
“Shirt Sizes” help you
quickly price your
features – or you can
enter a price directly!

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Buy A Feature Game Play
Participants.
Planner sets their budget.
An integrated chat facility enables
you to understand participant
motivations. Here, we learn that
participants dislike learning a
rental car’s navigation system.
Participant bids.
Highly desired items are
purchased.

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Buy A Feature Online - Results
Results of many
games played,
sorted by number
of times
purchased.

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Many Ways to Play: Parties, Galas, and Tournaments
What is it? Who plays? Facilitated? Number
of Items?
Number of
players?
Party A “dinner
party”.
You select and
control
participants
Yes 12..20 5..8
Gala An “open
seating
event”
Random
participants based
on a shared URL
No 12..20 9+
Tournament A
combination
of parties!
You control and
select participants
Yes 20+ Based on
number of
items and
number of
tournaments

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Tournament Structure
15
15
45
15
14
14
1
2
3
4
5
List of
projects 15
Each dark square
represents one game
“Winning” items are promoted each game.
Items that win the final game are the most
valued items.
Play multiple tournaments with random
placement of items to control for bracket
strength.

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Tournament Case Study:
VeriSign Global Customer Support
Context 46 projects ranging from small to very large.
Problem The VeriSign leadership needed to quickly identify the high-
priority, most globally supported projects.
Engagement
Profile
VeriSign project managers prepared the portfolio for the
games. Enthiosys structured the process into three
tournaments involving ~60% of the 200 person global
customer care organization and facilitated the games.
Results • Very clear separation of the “winning” projects – the
original list of 46 was prioritized to the top 5 projects
• High degrees of collaboration – even when collaboration
was not required to purchase an project!
• Participant chat logs provided detailed explanations
behind the bidding – the meaning behind the choice.
• Participants considered the process fun.

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Let’s Play!
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/wp-
content/uploads/2008/11/jonah-art-model-of-small-city-700px.jpg
Industry
UniversityGovernment

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To Learn More…
Innovation Through Understanding®
We’re happy to help you learn how
Innovation Games® can help you solve
complex problems.
Luke Hohmann
Founder & CEO
Conteneo, Inc.
cell: (408) 529-0319
luke.hohmann@conteneo.co