I often provide strategy and product development guidance to some of our portfolio companies; however, I wanted a more immersive experience and to be part of the excitement of startup life. So over the last several months, I increased my assistance to a particular portfolio company in the Toronto area, which I believe is well positioned in the marketplace. Strategy discussions with management of this company led to a conversation to bring me on-board as Product Manager of a new mobile social game at the idea stage. Eager to help the company succeed and to gain additional experience, I undertook a more formal responsibility on evenings and weekends as Product Manager. It was a perfect fit for both the company (lacked product management capabilities) and my career ambitions.

As part of the team, I faced my first challenge: Figure out the best way to manage the development team and the product. I evaluated several methods of product development and eventually settled on SCRUM since it is ideal for agile development with rapid iterations and incremental updates — perfect for an iPhone game.

For product managers that are new to SCRUM, be sure to check out the SCRUM Reference Card (great overview) and beginners SCRUM Guide (fairly basic). These were helpful resources in my quest to better understand this product development process.

It was my next goal to conceive of a process to coordinate everyone’s collective efforts on the team to come up with ideas and potential features for the game and to convert that list into the Initial Release Plan and Product Backlog for the game. I created a spreadsheet in Google Docs and shared it with the team. I wanted to be a very transparent Product Manager and show the team everything that I saw — idea list, resource planning, timeline estimates, business value associations to product features, etc… I did this because I believe that transparency will help the team better understand my points of view and decision-making rationale.

Since I am continuing to learn, I invite you to have a look at the Initial Release and Version planning spreadsheets that I created to manage the product development process. Naturally, I stripped out any game-specific information, removed the names of people involved and altered values so that it would no longer represent our plan in any fashion. Other small changes to this public version include:

• For the idea list tab, each item should be a minimum of 4 hours to a maximum of 16 hours only; tasks less than 4 hours should be placed on each developers Scratch Pad and aggregated into an item on the list; tasks greater than 16 hours should be broken down into components (if possible) to fit within the 4 – 16 hours window for ideal planning purposes.
• Each developer would have his or her own “Scratch Pad” (the demo version only shows 2).
• The only tab that was completely removed was the method by which we determine business value for each product feature.
• The “Product Backlog” tab is dynamically driven from the “Idea List” tab and broken-down into version and sprint for each assessment; a tip for collecting the unique “Groups” is to export the long list of Groups from the “Idea List” into Excel and create a Pivot Table, then select the grouping and extract the unique elements to import back into Google Docs.
• In the “Product Backlog” tab, you should determine your own complexity factor for the project  (a guide to determining this factor can be found in the SCRUM Guide linked above).

I would love to hear your questions, comments and (hopefully) suggestions to further improve what I have already created in hopes of making this effort more successful. If you would like a copy of my example spreadsheet, please let me know and leave me your email address in the comments section below; I’ll make sure to get you a copy either on Google Docs or as an export to MS Excel.

My next post will discuss putting this plan into action.

Metagame Design – Presentation Transcript

1. MetaGame Design Reward Systems that Drive Engagement Amy Jo Kim CEO, Shufflebrian
2. What is a Metagame?
3. Using out-of-game info or resources to affect in-game decisions Gaming definition
4. Layering an rewards system onto an existing activity
5. Metagames are Everywhere
6. Collecting Complete Collections — Gain Status, Access, $$
7. Behavior Chart Collect Stickers – Earn Privilege or Prize
8. Karate Develop Skill – Earn Rank, Prestige, Powers
9. Scouting Complete Tasks – Earn Badges, Rank, Prestige, Powers
10. Frequent Flyer Programs Spend Money – Earn Points – Redeem for Flights
11. Arcade Spend Money – Earn Points – Redeem for Items
12. Text RPG Complete Missions – Earn Points – Redeem for Items
13. Contest/Raffle Take Action – MAYBE Win Item
14. Contest/Raffle Take Action – Maybe Win Item
15. Tournament Play Sport – Enter Tournaments – Earn Ranking/Trophies Leagues & Teams are part of this
16. Tournament Play Sport – Enter Tournaments – Earn Ranking/Trophies
17. So how do you design a Metagame?
18. Metagame Design Framework Viral Outreach Feedback & Rewards Points
19. Metagame Engagement Loop Post updates, give gifts, send taunts Get feedback, earn rewards Take actions, earn points
20. Act React Customize Create Earn Spend Step 1: Assign points to actions Viral Outreach Feedback & Rewards Points
21. Which ACTIONS earn points?
22. Which REACTIONS earn points?
23. 3 Types of points
    • Experience Points (XP) – earned directly via players’ actions – track & reward socially/economically useful player actions
    • Skill Points (Score, Rank) – earned via interacting with the system – based on mastery of the activity or game
    • Influence Points (Rating, Reputation) – earned via the actions of other players – proxy for quality/reputation/influence – track & reward socially valuable contributions & actions
24. Is your points system tracking skill, experience, or both?
25. Is your points system assigning ratings to people or objects?
26. Can you Spend your points?
27. Levels Leaderboards Roles Reputation Missions Challenges Achievements Collections Step 2: Add Feedback & Rewards Viral Outreach Feedback & Rewards Points
28. Levels are shorthand for participation and achievement
29. Leaderboards identify, motivate and reward your most devoted players
30. Social Leaderboards drive competition and enable missions
31. Leaderboards can cause problems – don’t be afraid to remove/hide/change
32. Missions tell players what to do next
33. Mission-driven engagement loop Post updates, give gifts, send taunts Get feedback, earn rewards Accept Mission Update Mission List Take actions, earn points
34. Reputation and Ratings track quality/skill + motivate contributions
35. Achievements provide short-term goals + sense of progression
36. Motivate newbies with easy-to-earn rewards
37. Motivate power-users with scarce resources
38. Motivate contributors with a rating system
39. Updates Gifts Sharing Invites Step 3: Grow through Viral Outreach Viral Outreach Points Feedback & Rewards
40. What are the ‘social moments’ in your game?
41. Competition Bragging, Taunting, Challenging
42. Cooperation Sharing, Helping, Gifting
43. Self-Expression Check out my character/outfit/farm/page
44. Case Study: Farmville
45. XP + coins earned by completing tasks
46. Customize your character
47. purchase seeds
48. Plant & Harvest Crops
49. Help Neighbors
50. Design & Develop Your Farm
51. Buy exclusive items with $$$
52. Tutorial introduces pts, levels, rewards
53. Earn coins, level up, buy more stuff
54. Leaderboards facilitate social interactions
55. Achievements come early & often
56. Achievements displayed as collections
57. Achievements displayed as collections
58. Help your neighbors, then brag about it
59. Many opportunities for self-expression
60. Gifting pulls people into the game
61. Case Study: Stack Overflow Technical Q&A site w/crowd-sourced moderation
62. Ask/answer good questions to build Reputation
63. Leaderboards for Reputation score
64. Earn badges by performing basic site tasks
65. Question: why no viral outreach?
66. 5 Tips for Designing a Compelling Metagame:
    • Create a coherent experience that unfolds over time
    • Define a points system (XP, social pts, redeemable pts) that supports your purpose and audience
    • Introduce feedback and rewards that motivate newbies, enthusiasts, and contributors
    • Design rewards that players will be eager to share
    • Use “game pacing” to grant rewards over time

See Amy Jo Kim’s profile on GDC 2010.