We are extremely pleased to have Luke Hohmann share his perspective with us at this years Agile Roots. This is a short interview with Luke about his work.

Shall we play a game?
(image from great post about Innovation Games at http://www.philmontgomery.com/ Click the image to read more...)

I believe your work is familiar to most people who are tracking the edge of Agile, but please introduce yourself and your work for those who are not.
My name is Luke Hohmann. I’ve been active in the Agile Community for many years, focusing on the use of Innovation Games® to help organizations solve complex problems across the product lifecycle. Innovation Games® are fun ways to collaborate with customers to better understand their needs. They have been used to improve holistic design thinking, prioritize backlogs and project portfolios, discover new business opportunities, drive strategy and product road map decisions, improve the effectiveness of sales and service organizations, fine tune marketing messages, and create more intimate, durable relationships with your customers.

Prior to my focus on Innovation Games®, I was a Product Manager and Vice-President of Engineering at various companies. I’ve also written three books that cover a range of cognitive psychology, organizational behavior, and business issues associated with creating great organizations and products.

I see your innovation games being applied to all sorts of problems in some really impressive organizations. What are some of your favorite applications of innovation games and organizations to work with?
It is hard to remember all of the many applications of Innovation Games®. Here, though, are some of my favorites:

• Watching several trained Innovation Games® Facilitators do a great job helping the APLN develop their strategic roadmap using both in-person and online Innovation Games®.
• Facilitating a set of global online Innovation Games® to help the Scrum Alliance identify and prioritize new project opportunities.
• Working with customers of Qualcomm to identify a new business opportunity in Business Intelligence.
• Working with customers of Cisco to prioritize hardware and software features for a new product offering.
• Helping VeriSign prioritize a complex IT portfolio through a global set of online games.
• Facilitating several very large in-person games in Monterrey, MX and Mexico City, MX.
• Helping facilitators from Israel, China, Germany, South Africa, India, Mexico, and Korea all integrate the games into their Agile practices.

What part of your work do you find most fulfilling? most surprising?
I love the “aha” moment when deep understanding of customer problems leads to strategic breakthroughs.

I’m always surprised by how creative people can be when you get out of the way and let them.

What do you find is the most common impediment to innovation in organizations?
I can’t think of a “common” impediment. Every organization has its own unique impediments.

Do people ever resist ‘playing games’ to solve serious problems?
Sometimes people are a bit hesitant or cautious to play the games – until they start playing! Then the power of the games kicks in and they genuinely enjoy the experience – while they are solving problems. It helps when people realize that these games aren’t “silly” like going to a Water Park or “humorous” like a joke.

You have worked out dynamics for quite a few games. Do you feel there is a uniting principle to them? and how are they all unique?
The unifying principle of the game is that real collaboration is always rooted in a verb: We want to prioritize a backlog. We want to envision a project plan or a future outcome. We want to understand relationships and boundaries. We want to identify opportunities for improvement. Verbs, in turn, need tools. Not generic tools like chats or Wikis, but specific tools. We have created a powerful set of very specific in-person and online tools for the most common kinds of collaboration verbs.

Anything else you think people should know?
You can do this. And yes, it is fun.

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