Join us on June 14th for our next Innovation Games® for Agile Teams course.

• June 14, 2012
• Minneapolis, MN Area
• Venue: Normandale Community College, K1450
• 9:00 am-5:00 pm
• Max class capacity: 25

Description:

Innovation Games® are serious games that can be used to deliver cost-effective market research for Agile teams and super-charge the product planning process. Based on the book of the same name by Luke Hohmann, Innovation Games® power innovation by enabling you to better understand your customers.

This course will help you gain a better understanding of how to apply these games within the context of an Agile development process. While there is a lot to love about Agile development, many practices can get pretty tiresome. Retrospectives stop working when teams become bored with answering the same three questions (“what worked, what didn’t work, what should we change?”). Prioritizing a product backlog in a single meeting before, or during, release planning using a spreadsheet isn’t very engaging. Developing and presenting a product roadmap using PowerPoint gets pretty old, especially when you can’t find a way to show the growth in functionality of your product.

Key Learnings:

In this course, we will show how Innovation Games® can be used to improve many of the practices that are common in Agile teams. Beginning with an overview of Innovation Games, you will learn how to:

• Identify customer requirements for an ideal product through Product Box
• Improve retrospectives with Speed Boat
• Prioritize your backlog through the online game Buy a Feature Online
• Plan a successful project through the game Remember the Future
• Develop better release plans with Prune the Product Tree
• Understand product usage with Me and My Shadow and Start Your Day

Agile should be fun! And when you integrate the games described in this class into your Agile practice, it will be.

Target Audience

• All members of Agile teams with a focus on product planning, product development and product management.
• Anyone who wishes to create more innovative product and service offerings.

Format/Duration

One day of instructor-led, interactive training

Benefits

Upon completing this course participants will have played several Innovation Games that they can use to work together as a team and directly with customers to better understand their needs. They will also have reference materials to additional techniques beyond the ones used in the presentation.

Content Outline

• Discussion of Innovation Games and Market Research
• Planning, playing, and post-processing Innovation Games
• Multiple case studies and game play
• Review and shared discussion; helping participants plan their adoption of these techniques

Theory of Instruction

The course is guided by a “learning by doing” model of education based on the Innovation Games® “Know-Do-Have” model of course design:

• What participants will know after taking the class.
• What participants will do during the class to reinforce key concepts.
• What participants will have after the seminar to promote further practice and study.

Prerequisites

Although not strictly required, it is helpful if participants read the book Innovation Games®: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play before the course.

Materials

• Copy of the book Innovation Games®: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play
• Presentation in soft and hard copy
• A variety of handouts used to stimulate thinking and apply the materials
• Case studies

Instructor

Jason Tanner, President, Enthiosys Inc. 

Jason has over 18 years experience with software companies, a telecommunications company and the Marine Corps. His expertise spans agile software product management, product marketing, business planning, partner management, project management and leadership.

As general manager in his most recent position, Jason held responsibility for all aspects of an IT chargeback product including product management, product marketing, pre-/post-sales support and training. He worked with multiple clients ranging from Fortune 500 enterprises to government agencies to universities enabling their adoption of new technology and methods to optimize their IT organizations.

His prior position with a startup software company included experience migrating from waterfall to agile development methods. Jason collaborated closely with engineering to integrate product management into the Agile workflow.

Jason is an active member of the Agile User Group in Research Triangle Park, the Triangle Product Management Association in Raleigh, NC and the North Carolina Council for Entrepreneurial Development. He frequently speaks for the Product Management View webinar series, at user group meetings and for the Atlanta Agile Project Leadership Network.

He holds a BS degree in mechanical and aeronautical engineering from Cornell University and a MBA with a concentration in entrepreneurship from Duke University.