Recap: NO MABUSHI! Product Marketing with a Laser & Tim C. Johnson

Please retweet: 8/22 Recap: NO MABUSHI! Product Marketing w/a Laser  w/ @johnsontc http://bit.ly/n6eXxH #prodmrktg #prodmgmt #prodmgmttalk

At our most recent, Aug 22 Global Product Management Talk on Twitter, Tim C. Johnson returned (after laser surgery) to lead us in a discussion to identify and remove MABUSHI.  Here is an edited recap - use this as a jumping off point to blog your insights and responses.

INTROLink resources for today's talk http://pack.li/21

full transcript: http://slidesha.re/pD63wO

Please welcome @johnsontc Tim C. Johnson, Product Marketing Expert for Discussion On Surgically Removing MABUSHI has 20+ years of sales and marketing experience in software ranging from end-user applications to development tools.

MABUSHI is an Israeli's term (not nice one) for get to the point, don't waste time!

MENTIONED DURING TALK:

• SIPOC Analysis: SIPOC is a six sigma tool - engineering approach to pain & probs. SIPOC maps Suppliers, inputs, process, outputs, customers. 
• Product Management as therapy, and how it guides the questions we ask customers: http://t.co/hj1adn6
• What is buying facilitation http://t.co/unVrEuT 
• David Meerman Scott gobbly-gook analyzer http://t.co/ahydGD8
• Microsoft redesigns the iPod package. Oldie but goodie.  http://t.co/jRU5wcF
• Bull Fighter http://t.co/whLGpRl

Q1 What are the two must-ask questions in your PMM toolkit?

saeedwkhan A1 -- Who and Why? :-)

johnsontc Agree. Its more who cares & why is it important?

johnsontc 'Who is being impacted and how?. How is it impacting them personally & how impacting the business?'

Jim_Holland A1 - I like "Why and How" oriented questions for #prodmktg 

MNOProductMan  A1 - Is this what they need or want?

nickcoster A1) who is it for, and what problem does it solve?

saeedwkhan A1 Tim says example is simply asking a person how they're compensated & how they're doing against metrics

johnsontc A1 - add on "and why not?" questions need to draw people out

jidoctor seems the must-ask ?s are situation dependent, but standard would include who, what, why, why not

bdoctor A1 when presented with features - the question is “so what” to get at benefits

johnsontc if you don’t understand whats broke or how its affecting them (cust or biz) then you’ll have difficult talk

johnsontc - ask these questions when you r developing personas, doing sales calls, presentations

jidoctor q1: need more context to better respond to this ?; all makes sense but motivation/compensation is not always relevant

brainmates More an approach to understanding value RT @saeedwkhan: re: A1: Can you clarify the question a bit? Its very general question 

johnsontc these questions drive the company to understand if they are doing a good job meeting their metrics

johnsontc When you’re trying to understand if you can help customer – if you understand their metrics – can better present your solution

johnsontc Talk into the pain point of the customer/biz

clivelam A1: 2 helpful questions: "What do you want to do?" and "Why do you want to do it?" 

rcauvin A1: Before pain point comes context - "what do you do each day", and "why are you doing it"

saeedwkhan For Q1 I tend to go into psychotherapy mode -- .tell me about your problems. What are your goals? What keeps you up at night?

johnsontc "Why r u doing it?" question gets into measurement and “who benefits from it”

saeedwkhan Q1 - objective is to get them talking so I can sit back and listen and direct the conversation

rcauvin @saeedwkhan #prodmgmt interviews are indeed like therapy. Set context initially; not just, "Tell me about your problems."

rcauvin More on #prodmgmt as therapy, and how it guides the questions we ask customers: http://t.co/hj1adn6

johnsontc We’re going between Q1 & Q2 – overall idea of trying to get to heart of what matters, what is valuable to them

johnsontc Based on what they tell you, ask questions like “who calls you when something goes wrong”

Q2 What techniques do you use to understand the value chain?

johnsontc A2: Start with who calls u when something goes wrong - insight on how the rest of the biz is affected

johnsontc A2: Outside of direct cust interaction – keep up on disaster stories you read in IT press to ask if relevant

rcauvin A1/A2: Explore how the prospect currently manages or works around relevant problems they face.

johnsontc PM uses it for product development and PMM uses it for developing messages

MNOProductMan  A2 - 1. Empathy 2. SIPOC's analysis to work out where they are in the E2E value chain-pain origin is normally external to them

johnsontc disagrees RT @MNOProductMan: E2E value chain-pain origin normally impacts them 

MNOProductMan SIPOC is a six sigma tool - engineering approach to pain & probs. SIPOC maps Suppliers, inputs, process, outputs, customers. 

bdoctor Sry, I'm lost. Whats the connection between Mabushi and value chain?

johnsontc @bdoctor When u understand the value chain you are not going to talk about the shiny red thingy

bdoctor Umm is thingy a tech term or Aussie?

cindyfsolomon Definitely tech term! But everything is a “thingy” to the Aussies!

Q3 When is your sales team a customer/persona and when are they a partner?

johnsontc these are sophisticated questions that must be solved

johnsontc From an IT perspective, IT is responsible for entire chain for info from suppliers – processes correct/ outputs to end

jidoctor imho, your sales team is a cust in respect that they absorb info, not a persona and not a partner

brainmates @MNOProductMan Thanks for definition of SIPOC. IT people are responsible for the infrastructure that keeps value chain running

jidoctor infrastructure to support value chain is not necessarily a partner

jidoctor & they aren't a persona since they are neither a user nor a buyer 

saeedwkhan A3 -- Sales teams map to personae. In smaller companies they can be partners. Need to maintain product/channel fit.

johnsontc agree RT @saeedwkhan: Sales teams map to personae. Smaller companies they can be partners

jidoctor remember, you are talking about partner as sales defines partner

johnsontc @jidoctor sales are a buyer – they have to agree that what you are saying is important & correct

jidoctor they are not buying your solution, only a customer who "buys" the info to sell the solution

johnsontc Exactly! RT @jidoctor: are not buying your solution, only a customer who “buys” the info to sell the solution

johnsontc Meta point – sales is NOT an adversary

clivelam A3: sales are more like an ear piece

saeedwkhan @jidoctor but Sales teams have needs, wants, objectives, goals, influencers etc. Perfect for personae

jidoctor if u r talking about launch material, then sales teams would b a persona; but if you are talking about urlaunch itself, no

jidoctor but, totally agree w/ can't ignore them, they are 2 imp

liz_blink @jidoctor can your sales team be a blocker to your customer? 

jidoctor yes @liz_blink, sales CAN, and often does, block access/info to customers

liz_blink @jidoctor is that because we too often leave them out of the process?

jidoctor @liz_blink, imho, yes, but we do that because we don't know HOW to include them properly 

brainmates This is when there is an adversarial relationship RT@jidoctor: yes sales CAN, and oftend does, block access/info to customers 

johnsontc No right answer. Sales is ultimately on your side – same logo on their biz card

jidoctor adversial relationship is non-productive: avoid at all costs!

jidoctor (make them a higher level on the biz card & they respond even well!)

brainmates I always include to avoid pain RT @liz_blink: @jidoctoris that because we too often leave them out of the process?

Q4 What makes your sales tools REALLY effective and how do you measure that?

johnsontc A measure of its bad is sales team calling MABUSHI on you!

saeedwkhan A4 - Sales tool must be created w/ consumer in mind & map to their buying process. Must understand info supply chain

saeedwkhan A4 -- FYI...consumer in last tweet is consumer of the tools/info and not general economic consumer. :-)

johnsontc to @jidoctor A4 field test it before you role it out to everyone – so they have some input

johnsontc to @saeedwkhan Yes, and Also must use their language and their metrics

jidoctor A4: agree w/ @saeedwkhan, sales tools must map to cust needs & language, not "sales" needs

johnsontc must use their language & metrics applies to both internal & external consumer

jidoctor a4: but be careful re: sales calling MABUSHI, it may not be, but since it wasn't designed for them they think it is

brainmates How? RT @johnsontc says "must use their language & metrics applies to both internal & external consumer"

liz_blink A4 @jidoctor @saeedwkhan but sales needs and customer needs should not be that far apart!

jidoctor examples exist when sales calls MABUSHI simply because they were left out of the process, or their suggestions were not used 

jidoctor @liz_blink sales needs & customer needs ARE designed to be different! 

brainmates Acc @johnsontc We need supporting docs to show how we can help sales make more sales.

jidoctor @liz_blink customer needs to be shown sol'n, sales needs to understand what the customer needs - they are different

brainmates But sales want more sales. If customer needs r met so r sales needs.  @jidoctor @liz_blink 

liz_blink Too true RT @Brainmates sugg to not do that! @jidoctorsales calls MABUSHI simply because they were left out of the process

MNOProductMan  A4 Sales attention span is short, sales are simple folk. Tools need to be simple & relevant to them. Sales need to trust tools

johnsontc Sales needs to understand language that the customer uses.

brainmates Tools need to work. RT @MNOProductMan Sales need to trust tools

Q5 What self-checks do you use to eliminate MABUSHI?

rcauvin @jidoctor Before customer can consider solution, must be helped to navigate change management issues:  http://t.co/unVrEuT 

jidoctor sales needs to not only understand cust language, but SPEAK cust language 

bdoctor A5) best tool - Bull Fighter http://t.co/whLGpRl

johnsontc A5 I run it past my spouse – if she can’t figure it out, then I know I’ve failed

brainmates WOW. That would be great.  That is what #prodmkgt is for RT @jidoctor: sales needs to not only understand cust language, but SPEAK cust language

ErikaLAndersen Can this be taught? RT @jidoctor: sales needs to not only understand cust language, but SPEAK cust language

Cindyfsolomon Eliminate jargon!

jidoctor @brainmates: THAT is the responsibility of #prodmktg; to help sales understand & speak the cust lang so WITH them, not AT them 

johnsontc David Meerman Scott has a gobbly-gook analyzer

bdoctor the @dmscott reference is http://t.co/ahydGD8

Cindyfsolomon results of this week’s press release put through @dmscott analyzerhttp://bit.ly/n8xa9u

brainmates Another test of Mabushi - if you get crickets from your audience

jidoctor “crickets” australian or american technical term? 

brainmates Aussie terms = crickets, thingy 

rcauvin A5: Examine communication & whether it mentions "features" instead of problems & what the user accomplishes.

liz_blink Or connection to ensuring you engage all! "@brainmates: "Bu..s..t" RT @liz_blink: maybe I don't understand Mabushi!

johnsontc Another definition of MABUSHI “hogwash” English term is “codswallop” or simply “rubbish”

jidoctor @johnsontc, "hogwash" is not what you call it on your blog post that defines it. nor is rubbish the word you use

brainmates "Bu..s..t" RT @liz_blink: @cindyfsolomon @johnsontcmaybe I dont understand Mabushi! 

Cindyfsolomon MABUSHI (not actually an Israeli term!) is more politically correct than what comes out of your horse’s back end

Q6 What are your favorite examples of bad product marketing?

       johnsontc  A6 too numerous to mention

jidoctor A6: too many to share & most would get me in trouble! but, none that I created ;-) 

johnsontc anything that says leading provider of... always smells of mabushi. words such quickly, easily, next generation - examples of mabushi 

cindyfsolomon A6: My old school favorites: “state of the art”, “user friendly” “cutting edge” “world class” and these days “lean agile” “customer driven” “lower cost of ownership”

ErikaLAndersen Microsoft redesigns the iPod package. Oldie but goodie.  http://t.co/jRU5wcF 

jidoctor Q6: bad if your doc uses: faster, easier, more productive or reliable, scalable, stronger performance...used 95% of time!

JohnsonTC Any properly implemented current tech will always perform better than old, “So What!”

brainmates When you write Mabushi terms - Got to ask yourself 'so what?' Get to the point. What parts of the biz is improved by the stuff 

rcauvin @cindyfsolomon Ha! Funny when company touts their use of agile or lean methods. Irrelevant to customers.

schmediad Add tailored to your needs RT @brainmates:@johnsontc says anything that says leading provider of. always smells of mabushi

brainmates @schmediad Yes. 'Tailored' has to be a Mabushi word

liz_blink Ta Light bulb moment! "@brainmates Mabushi got to ask yourself 'so what?' Get to the point. What parts of biz is improved

brainmates Too funny.. Going to check out the brainmates website to see if we use any Mabushi words!

prodmgmttalk Please join us again @JohnsonTC to slice deeper – he could go into techniques next time

JohnsonTC: Thanks to everyone. Great fun

bdoctor: thanks @johnsontc, @brainmates & @cindyfsolomon for another great #prodmgmttalk 

rcauvin Really appreciate @cindyfsolomon & @brainmates for bridging the gap between product managers around the world.

Thank you to all the participants! Join us next week on Aug 29 for "What Product Managers must learn from Brand Managers to Succeed w/ @Mack_McCoy "  

Please retweet: 8/22 Recap: NO MABUSHI! Product Marketing w/a Laser  w/ @johnsontc http://bit.ly/n6eXxH #prodmrktg #prodmgmt #prodmgmttalk


Global Product Management Talk^TM is a weekly mini-product camp Socratic discussion (on Twitter) of pre-posted questions (on Facebook) with live audio of thought leader and co-hosts commenting (on Blogtalkradio). 

Tweeting Best Practices & Repercussions from "Know Your Enemy"

Repercussions from August 1, 2011 Global Product Management Talk on “Know Your Enemy - Product Management and The Competitive Space with Gopal Shenoy”

Tweet this: Tweeting Best Practices & Repercussions from "Know Your Enemy" @prodmgmttalk http://bit.ly/r8kh8K #prodmgmttalk

On August 1, 2011, the title of our weekly Global Product Management Talk was “Know Your Enemy - Product Management and The Competitive Space with Gopal Shenoy”  http://bit.ly/opq26N

Every week, the transcript of tweets is readily available after the talk prior to being edited http://bit.ly/oEklaG and later posted on Slideshare http://slidesha.re/ozVWI1 .  The commentary of the speaker talking with the co-hosts is broadcast live via Blogtalkradio, and the edited recording is available after the event. http://bit.ly/qY3U16

On August 1, the regular co-host, Adrienne Tan of brainmates in Australia, was not available, and Roger Cauvin, Principal product strategist at Cauvin, Inc. and founder of Dadnab, (a past speaker at our February 28 talk on “Innovation is just good Product Management” transcript http://slidesha.re/o0AlAw ) and regular participant stepped in to be co-host with Cindy F. Solomon, who originated the talks, curates the content and produces the event weekly.

At our August 8 event, a Twitter participant tweeted during the weekly talk about how much they learned about "getting the competitors' information" from participating at the August 1 talk and how it was relevant to them in their current experience at an educational event. Unfortunately, they tweeted during a training, and their tweet was taken out of context.

The tweeter was presumed to be a competitor on premises actively seeking to traffic Intellectual Property information. Dire consequences ensued when outdated online information about their professional affiliation was mistaken to be current and the information was used as evidence of guilt against the originator of the tweet. Interestingly enough, the tweet itself was never identified as the source of the reaction. The misunderstanding resulted in the participant being barred from further participation at the training. 

This is not the first time that tweets have been taken out of context – it happens daily.  Example: New York Times reporter accused of bias after she inquires about a White House Twitter hashtag.  Summary: http://bit.ly/nSY0v8 Her storify: What's The Hashtag? http://bit.ly/nPwURi

Going forward, the Global Product Management Talk requests that all participants abide by the following suggestions and information.  (included in the FAQs http://bit.ly/pEQIrG)


TWEETING BEST PRACTICES

1. Recognize that tweets are public, not only are your Twitter followers reading your tweets, everyone following the hashtags you use are also reading them. Your followers may recognize the nature, purpose and pattern of your tweeting habits, but those who picked up your individual tweet with the hashtag, do not.

2. Notify your followers what you are doing, what twitter talks you are participating in, where you are tweeting from and why you are tweeting this information.  Be cognizant that people reading your tweets may take them out of context - timing and location of your tweets are pertinent. 

3. Include URLs in your tweets to provide context! 

Had the tweeter actually referenced the URL of the transcript, and had the decision makers followed through to the source material, they may have recognized that the tweeter was neither a spy nor a threat, but rather someone whose intention was to share their enthusiasm for the education of the training, excitement regarding the relevant timing of the previous week’s Global Product Management Talk content to their current training, and promote the quality of education being provided at the training to a global audience of attendees at the Global Product Management Talk.

Having said that, you cannot assume that people will follow through to read the URL, even if you do include it.

4. You are your own brand.

Be responsible for all your online information.  Twitter is a public broadcast medium as is every social media vehicle (including Facebook, Google+, Linkedin), public website, blog and any content that can be indexed and searched.  Track all your profiles and update them regularly. 

Another frequent participant and past ProdMgmtTalk speaker, Larry McKeogh addressed this in his Product Camp Radio interview http://bit.ly/rlH1FP discussing his presentation at Product Camp Austin, “The Product of You.”  Product Manage your own online presence.  Have a strategy for positioning yourself, your purpose for being online, for participating and having a presence in the online locations you do.  Manage your own positioning.

5.  Make sure everyone reading your tweets attends and actively participates in the Global Product Management Talks so they understand your references and are engaged in the discussion!  Point them to the website http://www.prodmgmttalk.com

6.  Blog about your learning weekly to provide context for people following your tweets.  We welcome contributions to the Global Product Management Talk blog, we’ll mirror your blog posting and point back to your blog. http://bit.ly/eOFmB6

7.  Attend other Twitter talks, such as #PR20, #smmanners, #blogchat, #custserv, where weekly people are discussing the opportunities, etiquette, ethics, legalities, and challenges of having an online presence, implementing social media in corporate environments, and sharing lessons learned from social media mistakes by companies and individuals. You can view the Schedule of Twitter Talks http://bit.ly/qzKb7V There are currently 478 different regular Twitter Chats, many also post transcripts of their sessions.

8.  Evangelize the intention of the Global Product Management Talk! ProdMgmtTalk exists to provide a forum for discussing these kinds of issues, and to;

• Engage Product people in utilizing social media effectively,
• Showcase Product Management experts, speakers, bloggers and thought leaders,
• Evangelize Product related job titles as exciting, challenging and rewarding career endeavors,
• Raise important issues that all Product Management professionals confront,
• Educate and share resources across industries and borders,
• Facilitate on-going dialogue, networking, mentoring and support beyond weekly events,
• Create global community around product management knowledge, 
• Educate and defend the value of the product professional.

We welcome your thoughts, feedback, suggestions, participation and questions!

Disclaimer: This article was written by Cindy F. Solomon, who conceived and produces the Global Product Management Talk, which is not affiliated with any other entity or individual. Co-hosts and speakers represent their own opinions and do not represent those of the Global Product Management Talk. All thoughts, opinions, statements are attributable to either Cindy F. Solomon, or provided proper attribution.   

Gamification and the SVPMA

July, 2011 Report from the Silicon Valley Product Management Association


At the July 6, 2011 meeting of the Silicon Valley Product Management Association meeting held at Tech Mart in Santa Clara, Rajat Paharia presented “Gamification: why it’s important and what it means for your product.” 



Gamification is an emerging trend that is influencing product design and marketing programs. If you haven’t heard about it yet, and you are in product marketing or product management, you will. Simply, gamification is adding elements of game mechanics into marketing programs and actual products to more deeply engage the user. These principles are becoming ubiquitously applied to everything from physical therapy, to social sites such as Foursquare, numerous loyalty programs, and user training by Microsoft. Nissan even developed an in-dashboard game to motivate fuel efficient driving behavior, and Atlassian Greenhopper employs it in new-user product training.

Rajat Paharia is the founder and Chief Product Officer of Bunchball. Rajat’s skill set combines a unique understanding of technology and design that stems from a four year career at design firm IDEO where he was co-director of the Software Experiences Practice. While there, he worked with clients including ATT Wireless, Avaya, Microsoft, McDonald’s, HP and Philips. Prior to IDEO, Rajat worked at Philips Consumer Electronics, IBM Research and ViewStar. He has a Masters degree in Computer Science from Stanford University, with a focus on Human Computer Interaction, and an undergraduate degree from the University of California Berkeley.

Rajat started in gamification back in 2007. Before Bunchball, he spent several years at a design firm called IDEO where one of his favorite quotes was 'Innovation = Invention + Opportunity'. So in 2007, after having spent 2 years as a social gaming company, Bunchball realized the power of game mechanics “(the Invention) and decided to attack the Opportunity to (a) take game mechanics out of the gaming world and (b) provide them as a web service that anyone could integrate quickly and easily." 

Rajat presented many examples and case studies of companies that have incorporated various aspects of gamification techniques into their customer facing strategies and the thinking as well as the process involved to arrive at successful implementation.  He identified media companies like USA Network, community sites like MySpace, B2B publishers like UBM TechWeb and product brands like Chiquita which have all jumped on the bandwagon to utilize “gamification” to drive participation, engagement and loyalty starting in 2010. However, his company, Bunchball, was revved and selling gaming solutions for several years before the big brands were ready. He spoke about the difficulty of being ahead of the market in recognizing the value of solutions before the market is ready to engage in the conversation.

Bunchball started as a social gaming site to give people something to do.  They pivoted (which means they failed and tried something else) before the mainstream realized the power of gaming and the market appeared. Rajat identified an “innovation adoption curve” of new approaches which appears to be fairly predictable in retrospect, based on his company’s direct experience. It starts with a trend of successful implementation within the consumer market.  When it reaches what appears to be a sustainable success rate, it’s picked up by mainstream media, entertainment businesses and consumer communities a few years later. Ultimately, the idea makes its way into the enterprise and onto the corporate intranet.

He used the example of “social media” starting with the explosive growth of MySpace circa 2005/06 which provided evidence that social could drive meaningful engagement and revenue for business. That set the bar for every consumer facing website to add an aspect of social into their online features. But it required several more years before social was integrated at the enterprise level with platforms like Salesforce Chatter, Yammer, Socialcast and Rypple.

Bunchball bore the battle scars in discovering that a giant consumer role model must provide successful precedence before enterprise will buy into a trend, no matter what potential benefits are identified.  The learning curve must be ascended and the early adopters must be sacrificed to pave the way for widespread adoption of new techniques. The mainstream media has to write about it so business can grasp dramatic effects.  Fortunately, Rajat and Bunchball survived three years of “trying to move the needle by educating companies about the art of gamification.”  Recently, a Gartner report found that more than 70 percent of Global 2000 organizations will have at least one gamified application by 2014 – seven years after Bunchball’s first customer was knocking on their door asking for a gamification platform before it was even completed.

When asked about the positive side effects of increased gamification, Rajat answered, "Business owners realize that their customers aren't just passive recipients, but active participants with needs and desires for reward, status, achievement, competition and self-expression. And that by satisfying those needs, they can create happy, engaged customers while at the same time driving real business goals."

Rajat referenced Daniel Pink’s book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, which draws on research in psychology, economics and sociology.  Pink shows that intrinsic motivators are more powerful than external.  People prefer activities where they can pursue three things:

1. Autonomy: People want to have control over their work.
2. Mastery: People want to get better at what they do.
3. Purpose: People want to be part of something that is bigger than they are.

Rajat added that the ability to measure and visualize progress within a context is important to the game experience. He asked the audience the question, “Should you gamify anything?” The answer is “No.” He identified areas that make sense, but not every experience will lend itself to being gamified, nor is every situation appropriate just because it can be done.  An obvious example is providing incentives to sales organizations, where gamification has always been intrinsic, but not framed specifically as gamification. He provided three questions to think about whether it makes sense to gamify:

1. What is the core user experience you are trying to gamify?
2. What is meaningful to users?
3. What is good for my business?

The answers differ depending on the type of business, the stage in the sales process, the call to action, the KPIs and the measurement of success.  He suggested that WIIFM is the key qualifier to recognize and answer. “Whats In It For Me?” What is the intrinsic, core, compelling reason why users will want to engage?  What reaction will users have and what experience will users derive immediately and on many different subjective and subliminal levels?

Begin by thinking about specific results that could be produced:
1. Tracking individual users’ activities and assigning a score to each.
2. Providing a list of every user and score next to their name indicating how valuable and how much progress has been achieved.
3. Game mechanics that will drive those numbers (scores) achieved by users and attach value to specific activities.

Businesses quantify success by acquisition, activation and retention.  Rajat offered some concepts to drive user’s increased engagement within a site, product or service.

1. Reward users with points that they can accrue over time. For brands, points are a good way to get consumers to complete certain tasks. Brands can capitalize on this notion and use points to drive different behaviors within a site or application by using them as status indicators, allowing points to unlock access to content, or making them valid for virtual goods and gifting.

2. Provide milestones so they can achieve different levels with mastery. Businesses can use levels within their websites to regulate access to certain parts of a site or as a way to recognize reaching a milestone to honor frequent users and engagement.

3. Challenge users directly with competition to achieve scores. Configure challenges based on actions that you're tracking, and reward your users for reaching milestones with trophies, badges, and achievements. For example, a business could challenge users to beat a high score in an online game. If a user achieves the high score, they would be commended and receive a badge, which will attach to their profile.

4. Provide virtual goods, badges or rewards. Virtual goods are non-physical objects that can be purchased for use in online communities and/or games. They help a game economy become more effective over time. Users can purchase virtual goods like clothing or decorations to create an identity for their virtual self (avatar) while comparing and showing off with their friends. "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" gamified its site and now allows users to create their own avatars. Users have the ability to style their avatar with virtual goods -- the more they buy, the better their avatar looks.

5. Enable users to challenge each other beyond being challenged by the game. Once everyone has done the activity, the user with the highest score wins a reward, while the losers receive a consolation prize. Team competitions are also a possibility. For example, when Bravo gamified "Top Chef All-Stars" with the "Virtual Top Chef Game," users chose their favorite "chef'testant" and were broken up into teams accordingly. Team members were then able to simultaneously earn points for themselves and their team through challenges for a chance to win shared and individual prizes.

6. Provide leaderboards so users can measure their progress against others. Leaderboards are used to track and display desired actions, using competition to drive valuable behavior. If users know that scoring points could land them a spot at the top of the chart, they will engage more and work harder to earn points. They are motivated to see their name in lights!

7.  Recognize the reality of user fatigue over time.  Make sure the core experience is dynamic and evolving so it is constantly refreshing.  The pursuit is to keep users at all levels engaged in the game in a never ending process, continually adding new challenges and new content.

The complexity of implementing game mechanics depends on multiple factors, including a business's content, audience, goal, and the type of tactics it wants to use. Regardless of the level of complication, if a gaming program is well-executed, an organization can expect to see an increase in key metrics such as time spent on the site, page views, and return visits.



---Cindy F. Solomon is Founder and Co-host of the Global Product Management Talk, the weekly mini-product camp Socratic discussion of Product Management thought leaders and international product managers via Twitter and audio commentary. @prodmgmttalk http://www.prodmgmttalk.com