Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

This Game is Never Done: Design Leadership Techniques from the Video Game World

Gold
Monday, November 6, 2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Share the love for this talk
This Game is Never Done: Design Leadership Techniques from the Video Game World
Speakers: Erin Hoffman-John
Link:

Summary

You’ve probably heard a bit about “gamification”: how you can transform obligatory tasks into “fun” motivational ramps using techniques from games. Most of this is wrong! Behavioral science gets us a bit closer, but this session will focus on deep game design techniques that the video game world uses to generate lasting, rather than superficial, motivation. We’ll also dive into creative collaboration techniques used in game development to wrangle talent, the better to create awesome products.

Key Insights

  • Online games differ significantly from boxed AAA games by evolving through extended beta periods with real players, enabling live product iteration.

  • Game development teams are relatively small and cross-functional, typically under 200 people even for AAA products, fostering close collaboration.

  • Player communities in online games are hyperconnected and highly engaged, demanding strict consistency and rapid developer response to maintain immersion.

  • Game worlds and organizations behave as complex ecosystems with reinforcing and balancing feedback loops affecting stability and growth.

  • Donella Meadows’ concept of leverage points helps designers understand which system changes produce minor versus radical effects on the ecosystem.

  • Emergence arises from independent individual actions creating a larger collective behavior, such as schools of fish or organizational culture.

  • Failures of empathy between developers and players or among players themselves can cause online worlds to collapse rapidly.

  • High turnover or leadership changes risk destabilizing complex systems by disrupting important social and operational loops.

  • Design leaders must embrace vulnerability and emotional openness to build trust and cohesion in hyperconnected, highly inspected environments.

  • Storytelling and universal mythic themes provide a powerful medium to communicate organizational values and unify culture across diversity.

Notable Quotes

"Being delightful is the only thing that a video game does. It has no other purpose."

"We often say keep the big picture in mind and the devil’s in the details—system design bridges these two opposing needs."

"Ecosystems have reinforcing loops that can be out of control, like algae in a fish tank, and balancing loops that maintain equilibrium."

"Changing low leverage points in a system produces fine tuning, but shifting high leverage points can cause radical disruption."

"When organizations have regime change, shifting high leverage points can cause catastrophic effects, sometimes destructive and unintended."

"Emergence is a property where individual independent actions create a collective behavior like a school of fish moving together."

"Our players are hyperconnected and talking on Discord in real time, which spreads information lightning fast."

"Failures of empathy between developers and community can collapse online worlds just as quickly as technical failures."

"In a hyperconnected world, design leadership is under constant personal inspection, making kindness and empathy really hard."

"You can ask yourself what your organization’s fairy tale is—what universal myth you tell to tie people together."

Ask the Rosenbot
Indi Young
Paying Better Attention to the Problem with Indi Young
2019 • Advancing Research Community
Bilan Hashi
The Tension Between Story Collecting and Story Telling in Research
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Sam Proulx
Mobile Accessibility and You
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Lada Gorlenko
Theme 3: Introduction
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Ben Reason
Making the system visible: The fastest path to better decisions
2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Gold
Courtney Kaplan
Taking it to the next level: Career paths in DesignOps
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Jemma Ahmed
Research at an inflection point: Adapting to a new era of collaboration, equity, and innovation
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Aditi Ruiz
A PM State of Mind: Empathy Mapping Your Product Manager, Pt. 1
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
John Cutler
Oxbows, Rivers, and Estuaries: How to navigate the currents of change (without burning out)
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Sam Proulx
Understanding Screen Readers on Mobile: How And Why to Learn from Native Users
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Ted Booth
Discussion
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Marieke McCloskey
User Science: Product Analytics & User Research
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Jonathon Colman
How to Maximize the Impact of Content Design
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Peter Van Dijck
Hands-on AI #1: Let’s write your first AI eval
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Katie Hansen
Experimental research: techniques for deep, psychology-driven insights
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Sarah Brooks
Theme Three Intro
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold

More Videos

Joanna Vodopivec

"Video parties allow many teams to engage and observe learnings in a more compelling and digestible way than slides."

Joanna Vodopivec Prabhas Pokharel

One Research Team for All - Influence Without Authority

March 9, 2022

Louis Rosenfeld

"People like us—having a community—is imperative to not feel alone and to sustain in this space."

Louis Rosenfeld Lashanda Hodge Senongo Akpem Chris Hodowanec

Becoming a Civic Designer: Making the Move from Private to Public Sector

November 17, 2022

Bria Alexander

"We are obligated to treat each other with kindness and respect as part of this virtual community."

Bria Alexander

Day 3 Welcome

September 25, 2024

Uday Gajendar

"Sponsor sessions are so great that people want recordings. They’re not sales pitches."

Uday Gajendar Louis Rosenfeld

Day 2 Welcome

June 5, 2024

Sam Proulx

"Timely interactions that log users out without saving progress cause abandonment, especially for people with disabilities."

Sam Proulx

Online Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience

June 7, 2023

Russ Unger

"Waiting and vague communication during hiring is a painful guessing game for candidates."

Russ Unger

Onboarding: The Ecosystem, not the Afterthought

November 7, 2017

Catherine Dubut

"Being able to see faces and first names of people we're learning from makes those users tangible to the team."

Catherine Dubut

Bridging Physical and Digital Spaces: Approaches to Retail Service Design

March 18, 2021

Josh Clark

"Sentient design is about intelligent interfaces that are aware of context and intent so they can be radically adaptive to user needs in the moment."

Josh Clark Veronika Kindred

Sentient Design: New Postures for AI-Mediated Experiences (2nd of 3 seminars)

January 29, 2025

Dantley Davis

"I made an explicit choice: we’re not making any offers until we’re interviewing women."

Dantley Davis

Leadership & Diversity—A Fireside Chat with Dantley Davis

September 17, 2020