Speaker 1: So, here's a question I get a lot. I'm really into gamification, and I want to stay on the cutting edge. What does game thinking have to offer an enthusiast like me? I got some good news. If you're into gamification, there's a lot to love about game thinking. We all share the same goal, to engage customers by harnessing the power of games. Today, I'm going to give you three hot tips for engaging your customers that build on what you already know about gamification, but take you further. Now, Wikipedia defines gamification as the application of game design elements and game principles in non-game contexts to improve user engagement and organizational productivity. That sounds good, right? But when you dig in, you're going to find that the skill set and background of gamification practitioners varies widely. Everyone's got their own unique approach. For many people, gamification has come to be a code word for, give me a silver bullet for engagement. And that translates into a mechanics-first approach to designing your customer experience. So that's where we get gamification platforms that promise to make it easy to add game mechanics to your application, as if that solves your engagement problem. And people with no background in game design or product design who promise they're going to make your app engaging, they've got the secret. Here's the thing. The power of game design isn't in the mechanics. It's in the journey you take your customer on, the journey to becoming a better version of themselves. This leads us to hot design tip number one. Take a journey-first approach to designing engagement. When your mechanics support your customer's journey, that's when you deliver a compelling experience or a delightful game. And that's what game thinking is all about, giving you the tools to design a compelling customer experience from the ground up. Now, I'm not going to lie. This approach to product design requires more upfront effort than throwing a few mechanics at something. But when you put in that effort, it's going to pay off big time in long-term retention and product market fit. And this leads us to tip number two. Take the time to find your hot core customers up front. When you decide to understand your customer's habits and needs up front and then sketch out a compelling customer journey before you think about the game mechanics, you're going to embed your product with a backbone of intrinsic motivation that pulls people back because they feel empowered, not manipulated. That's the essence of game thinking. If you take the time to identify a handful of high-need early customers early and validate your ideas and iterate with them, you'll be positioned to innovate faster and smarter on the path to success. Now, you might be wondering, well, if this is so great, why doesn't everyone do it? The biggest barrier I've seen is that people simply don't know how to do this efficiently. They think it's going to take months of time and require special research skills. That's why we're focused on making this crucial step easier to execute. Our clients solve this problem in a few short weeks using our super fan funnel, a set of design activities that reveal your ideal early customers. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, here's something you should know. I'm a recovering mechanics enthusiast. When I first got my hand on game mechanics as a design tool and I saw what they could do to our stats, I thought they were magic. But over time, I saw how extrinsic rewards can backfire and cripple people's motivation. And I saw over and over again how a silver bullet gamification approach can actually prevent you from achieving true liftoff. And that leads us to tip number three. Give your customers an activity they can get better at. If you want to drive game-like engagement, you need to start with the basics. You need to give your customers something pleasurable and repeatable that they can do along with feedback to help them get increasing value over time from that activity. Now that's a journey your customers are going to want to stick around for. Please don't take this video as a slam on gamification. The truth is many smart gamification practitioners already embrace and practice a journey-first game-thinking style approach more and more every day. They know and I know and now you know that there's no magic pixie dust in the game mechanics or those viral tricks or 72 VIP levels. These scaffolding systems can support your growth and engagement, but they don't create it. Without a compelling activity at the juicy center, it's just icing on the cake. And we all know you can't make a meal out of that. Okay, now let's review what you just learned about the right way to drive engagement from the ground up. First, don't start with mechanics. Instead, take a journey-first approach to designing your customer experience. Second, make sure you're building the right product. Take the time to find your hot core customers up front. And then once you've found those early customers, keep them engaged by giving them an activity that they can get better at. I hope you enjoyed these design tips. Which one resonated with you the most? I want to hear your stories and help you apply these powerful ideas. So tell me in the comments and I'll be sure to reply. And make sure to subscribe and hit that bell so you never miss out on weekly episodes that we publish right here on Game Thinking TV. If you enjoyed this journey into smart gamification, you won't want to miss our upcoming training on the number one gamification mistake even smart entrepreneurs make. Don't miss out. Learn more and sign up today at GameThinking.io slash webinar. I'll see you at the event. Thanks. Bye-bye.