Ikigai of Gamification in Product-Part 1

A simplified approach for building gamified solutions

Product management is a diverse field of knowledge that requires not only a comprehensive understanding of various technologies and frameworks but also the ability to perfectly balance product demands and user needs, making the most of the available resources. The product manager's toolkit comes equipped with a diverse array of tools that are used for various purposes and gamification stands out as a particularly enticing option. Both product owners and users are consistently drawn to this feature, and Duolingo’s success story is an excellent example of the vast potential that gamification can unlock. Recently, I had the opportunity to delve into a gamification initiative at CloudSEK (my current company), and I’m eager to share the insights I’ve gathered from this experience.

So, what exactly is meant by Gamification in Product?

Gamification is the infusion of enjoyable and captivating game-like elements into a non-gaming product. This approach not only boosts user engagement and satisfaction but also paves the way for significant marketing opportunities. Essentially, gamification capitalizes on the fundamental human inclination towards competitiveness, accomplishment, and recognition via lucrative rewards, challenges, leaderboards, etc., to make user interactions more pleasant and gratifying. Its implementation requires a clever gamified design that influences user behavior, often without them realizing it.

Ideal Gamification Strategy: The Ikigai Approach

In my quest to gamify experience on the CloudSEK platform, I delved deep into countless blogs and video resources to grasp the basics of gamification and understand the approach that would resonate most with our product. Based on these learnings I have built an Ikigai-inspired model designed to guide PMs in identifying the optimal gamification strategy for their product, centered around four pivotal questions.

1. What your users need? — The answer to this question is the foundation of any gamification strategy. For a product to be successful, it needs to solve a problem or fulfill a wish for its users. Think about why users come to your platform in the first place and what makes them stick around.
2. What are your product’s goals? — This question will help guide your gamification strategy. Every product is built with a specific vision in mind. Knowing your product’s goal will help you to effectively decide on the challenges you want to address via gamification. This ensures that every element of the game helps advance your overall mission.
3. What motivates users? — Understanding what motivates your users is key to crafting an engaging gamified experience. Different things motivate different people: while a child might be motivated by sweets to study, an adult won’t be tempted by the same reward to work over the weekend. It’s essential to figure out which gamification tactics (levels, badges, rewards, etc.) will resonate with your specific audience.
4. What is technically feasible? — The final piece of the puzzle is to make sure your gamified solution fits with what your product can technically handle and afford. This requires understanding whether your current tech can support the desired gamification and gauging the development cost against the potential return on engagement.

Defining the Core Requirements by Analysing the Intersections

Each of the 4 parameters discussed above will help you define the requirements of your gamification strategy by providing you insights on the following:

1. User & Vision Alignment (Planning)— This intersection focuses on aligning what your users need with your product goals and provides you with the list of core issues you should be addressing while gamifying the product.
2. Psychological Engagement (Conceptualization)— This helps in understanding how users’ needs intersect with what motivates them and provides an array of gamification elements that are most likely to solve the problem statement identified in the 1st intersection.
3. Behavior-Driven Engineering(Designing) — The interplay between what motivates your users and what is technically feasible provides a guideline for the design of your gamification strategy. This intersection ensures that gamification efforts are impactful while not compromising the product’s quality or performance.
4. Practical Implementation (Development)— This junction decides how your product’s goals can be achieved within the technical constraints of your current infrastructure.

The synthesis of these insights paves the way for defining the Game Meta for your product — essentially, the ‘Most Effective Tactics Available’ that form the backbone of all engaging gaming experiences. By identifying these metas, you’re equipped to forge an Ideal Gamification Strategy that is not only targeted and effective but also mirrors the core values and objectives of your product.

Game metas are constantly evolving to reflect changes in user behavior, product needs, and success metrics. This approach of constant evolution helps product teams pinpoint the right time to adjust their gamification strategies. It also provides clarity on the necessary changes required to keep the gamified elements of the product functioning optimally.

This Ikigai-inspired approach has helped me keep gamification initiatives perfectly in tune with both what users expect and what the product can deliver. I hope it can help other product folks ensure that every aspect of gamification they implement is meaningful, captivating, and true to their product values. This thoughtful approach doesn’t just enhance the user experience; it also positions your product more prominently in a competitive environment.

With this, I will conclude part one of the blog. Stay tuned for part two, where I’ll dive deeper into how this concept applies to solving real-world challenges. I’m eager to hear your suggestions — feel free to recommend any products you’d like to see this model applied to.

Thank you for reading. I welcome your thoughts, feedback, and 👏 Do check out my previous blog on Exploring the Swiggy Rider Delivery App.

• Image credits to TheBitDoodler's Byte
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