Two Imagination Games: Success and Failure

Bloom Home and Blog Resources For Entrepreneurs
,
#1

Imagination Games

Two games I am adding as suggested activities for all Pitchworthy teams to help us all strive towards creating a clear direction for your project as well as avoiding pitfalls. The first one comes from Amazon and is called the:

Internal Press Release (or Working Backwards)

1) The game of “We work backwards from the customer, rather than starting with an idea for a product and trying to bolt customers onto it.”
- Ian Mcallister at Amazon

The idea is to write a press release as if the project is done and was successful using non technical accessible “Oprah Speak” describing the benefit to customers and why it’s better than whatever is already out there.

The general outline they use is:

  • Heading - Name the product in a way the reader (i.e. your target customers) will understand.
  • Sub-Heading - Describe who the market for the product is and what benefit they get. One sentence only underneath the title.
  • Summary - Give a summary of the product and the benefit. Assume the reader will not read anything else so make this paragraph good.
  • Problem - Describe the problem your product solves.
  • Solution - Describe how your product elegantly solves the problem.
  • Quote from You - A quote from a spokesperson in your company.
  • How to Get Started - Describe how easy it is to get started.
  • Customer Quote - Provide a quote from a hypothetical customer that describes how they experienced the benefit.
  • Closing and Call to Action - Wrap it up and give pointers where the reader should go next.

For more information on the practice and how amazon uses it as well as details about the process can be found here:
https://www.quora.com/What-is-Amazons-approach-to-product-development-and-product-management

Premortem - Writing the obituary for why your project might fail

No one likes to fail, yet guess what, failure is one of the best classrooms out there. Yet it’s a classroom no one wants to enter. How can you benefit from the process of failing in your imagination before failing in the real world? By doing a premortem

These steps - derived from this article - can help you take practical steps to figuring out what could go wrong and then avoiding it.

  1. Imagine the worst: Start the meeting by exposing that the project at hand has been a complete disaster.
  2. Generate Reasons for Failure: Ask each person to write down all the reasons they can think of to explain the failure that occurred.
  3. Share Reasons for Failure: Ask each person to share one item on their list and continue to go around the room until everyone has exhausted their lists. Record all reasons on a white board.
  4. Brainstorm with solutions: Discuss solutions to prevent this from happening.
  5. Review the list: After the session, review the list and look for ways to strengthen the plan.

Hope you enjoyed these activities! Would love to see your answers here! Tell me if you’d like more!
#authenticity #prduence
+BG

#2

Hi Bilal, i accepted this task but when its done (like the other 2 tasks that were assigned and i did them), who can give me feedback from the mentors or you & Tudor? thanks

#3

Place the results here so we can all review it - if the mentor doesn’t have access once they log in here we’ll give them permissions :slight_smile:
+BG

#4

Heading HelpMePlant transforms homes and lives through plants
Sub-Heading More exposure to plant stores and easier planting for gardening hobbyists .
Summary HelpMePlant makes home gardening accessible to people who are busy, but who care about health, wellness, aesthetics, and style. The mobile app makes gardening easier by giving you plant suggestions (along with prices from nearby retailers) with just four questions: indoor/outdoor, type of plant, amount of water, and intensity of sun.
Problem People have lack of knowledge toward gardening and this is why they are getting away of planting and doing their hobby.
Solution HelpMePlant will help you find the suitable plant for you, link you with nearby plant stores so you can order it online, and invites you to an awesome community of gardening lovers.
Quote from You I want to create a garden in every household. I want to enrich the gardening sector and make it so easy that it becomes inevitable for an individual not to have one. I believe in the power of gardening as a a healer, a nurturer and a motivator .
How to Get Started 4 inputs 4 clicks, you will check the suitable plants and one more click to order online.
Customer Quote This app makes gardening such a lovely hobby ! I like how they introduced technology without removing the human factor.
Closing and Call to Action Wait for us, We are really close.

2 Likes
#5

Internal Press Release
Internal Press Release370×594 61.8 KB

1 Like
#6

HOW DID YOU DO THAT?! You gotta share!!

#7

Hahaha! I always type the world generator in google :slight_smile:
https://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp
There are other tools out there since this one cut my last paragraph short :sweat_smile:

1 Like
#8

Did you enjoy the exercise, any takeaways? Also, you’d really help me out with the leaderboard if you could fill out this form for your daily activities: https://airtable.com/shrXhmRph3yECSbO8 Thanks!

1 Like
#9

This activity helped simulate the eyes of a consumer! I was able to imagine how our value propositions would directly affect consumers (universities) and related users (teachers/students).
As for the post-mortem, I am glad to see such an activity exists! I am considered an over-thinker and I always plan what may go wrong. I thought it was pessimistic thinking but I guess this activity proved it to be realistic :slight_smile: That is why I think day and night about how to counter these dismal events early on.

1 Like