This game is part of the custom workshop I create and facilitate for a product team when I first join the project.
I previously introduced the Focus Finder game that helps product teams prioritise ideas and narrow down the big list to just five to explore further.
We'll use those five ideas as the input for today's game. The purpose is to break down and understand each of those five user goals. We’ll do this by breaking down each into a short list of three to five sub components, to form a user flow for each.
The game is called Path Plotter.
Here's how you play it:
- Time needed: 25 minutes
- Participants: 4 - 20
- Materials: Square sticky notes
- Prep work: None
The only requirement for Path Plotter is the five prioritised ideas from the Focus Finder game. Then, you, or the facilitator, can simply introduce the game by saying:
We’re going to play a game called Path Plotter. The purpose of this game is to break down each of the large goals on the board into discrete steps in a user flow. We’re playing this game because we want to thoroughly understand what are the steps our users will take to accomplish those goals on our website. We’re then going to use the results of this game as input for the next one. Here’s how you play.
And then start explaining the steps of the game:
- We have five user goals to explore. We’ll pair up and each group will be responsible for one goal.
- I will pair up everyone without debate (simply announce who is going to work with whom and if there’s an odd number of participants, you’ll participate in a pair as well). I will also assign the goal to each group without debate (and simply announce which group takes which post it).
- Inside your group, take the goal and work backwards by asking yourselves “What needs to happen before the user can do X?” For example, if the goal is for the user to buy a t-shirt, ask “What needs to happen before the user can buy a t-shirt?” The answer might be “they need to pay.” We’re looking for the previous meaningful step in the flow. Write that on a post it and place it right before the original.
- Then, that becomes the new goal. And you repeat the previous step. For example, “What needs to happen before the user can pay?” And the answer might be, they need to fill in their shipping and payment information. Write that down on a post it and put it before the previous one.
- You’ll repeat this for 3-5 times. You should end up with a user flow made up of 4-6 steps. For example, “A user will have to add the t-shirt to his cart” -> “A user will have to log in or register” -> “A user will have to enter their shipping and payment info” -> “A user will click buy,” before they can buy the t-shirt on our website.
- You are free to talk and collaborate inside your group.
- You will have 15 minutes to do this.
- At the end, we will reconvene as a group and present each user flow.
There are two rules to this game:
- Talking is allowed inside each group, but not between groups
- Don’t get too deep into the breakdown for each idea
Now, set a timer for 15 minutes and instruct everyone to get to work.
Path Plotter seems like a simple game and it is. But depending on the product and how teams are already used to working together, you might hit roadblocks.
From my experience, the danger for this game to go sideways is when the teams will try to get into the weeds with each user flow. They will try to find little steps that won't make a big difference, but will seem like they are critical. If you as the facilitator don't know the product (which is a lot of the times my case), then you can't really help steer the participants.
Just remember that it's not about having a perfect flow. It's more important to nail down the first and the last step.