Let's Be Awesome - Big Apple Scrum Day 2017 - Game Objective & Guide

Let’s Be Awesome
A framework to improve customer and team collaboration
Game Objective and Rules of Play
Jason Tice – www.theagilefactor.com - www.asynchrony.com – www.wwt.com

Twitter: @theagilefactor – Email: jason@theagilefactor.com

Background:
“Let’s Be Awesome” is an ideation framework for customers, stakeholders and teams to have focused conversations to
determine what aspects of the team / customer relationship require the most attention at the current time. The
framework then guides the selection of practices that support prioritized applying a fit-for-purpose mindset. In prior
experience we have learned that the characteristics of a successful relationship between team members and their
customer varies between teams - this is due to the uniqueness of the people involved and variations in the work being
performed. We have observed the relationship between team members and customers can suffer when standard
processes and metrics are used without consideration for unique needs. Other teams struggle when they establish
customer-working agreements at the beginning of a project, but don’t realize when it is necessary to update those
customer agreements as changes occur. We have also seen teams struggle to meet delivery expectations when they
were mandated to support standard processes for customer interaction; however, the teams could have found more
time to focus on software development and delivery if they had autonomy to use fewer or different practices. “Let’s Be
Awesome” is intended to facilitate a safe discussion where all team members and customers can share their needs, then
decide on practices to support those needs, and select metrics to guide success. All leave the game with clear priorities
of what to focus on for a successful partnership. The “Let’s Be Awesome” game board allows team members and
customers depart from a game session having created an information radiator with actionable working agreements to
build and sustain an effective customer / team relationship.

Objective Of The Game:
The objective of “Let’s Be Awesome” is to establish consensus between team members and customers on what aspects
of the team / customer relationship require the most focus at the current time. The game board is intentionally
constrained forcing players to focus on what is most important. As needs are identified, practices to support needs are
suggested, then a metric is selected for each practice to assess impact. The game guides conversation to determine the
frequency by which the identified practices should be executed. All discussion, selection and prioritization of needs,
practices, metrics and frequency should be done mutually to include both customer and team member needs. As
consensus is achieved during a “Let’s Be Awesome” session, customers and team members emerge with a clear
understanding of what the group feels are the highest priority needs to build or sustain a successful relationship. Having
achieved consensus during the game, all participants can hold each other accountable to execute the practices and
metrics selected during the game at the specified frequency.

Game Roles & Roles for Workshops:
“Let’s Be Awesome” should be played with whole-teams, customers and stakeholders for software development
work. If you happen to be playing “Let’s Be Awesome” in a workshop, decide on a role / persona for each member of
your group - your group should have a mix of people who understand (or have performed) these roles in the past.

Game Setup:
• “Let’s Be Awesome” is intended to be played like Poker game - players can sit at a table surrounding the game
board, or the game board could be setup as a canvas on the wall where all players can focus on it.
• Find your packet of BLUE “Set” cards - these are the cards used to create your game board:
o Layout cards 1-9 across the top of your game board to create your columns
o Layout cards 10-17 downward under “Priorities” (card 1) to create your lanes
• Next find your packet of WHITE “Play” cards - these cards include an assortment of the following:
o Needs (N) - core elements of the customer / team relationship
o Practices (P) - activities that teams & customers can do to support needs
o Metrics (M) – ways to measure to assess impact / effect
o Frequency (F) - how often the team & customer will support a practice
o Each “Play” card has a large upper case letter in the upper right corner to denote what type of card it is.

Let’s Be Awesome


• Shuffle the “Play” cards well and then deal out FIVE cards to each player, place the remaining cards in a draw pile
next to the game board.
• As players receive their cards, they can look at them, but they should keep them hidden from other players.

Game Setup Diagram:
After you setup your game board, it should create a grid that looks similar to this:

PRIORITIES NEEDS PRACTICES FREQUENCY METRICS TREND/
TARGET
WHY HOLDING AREA INCINERATED
First Priority
Second Priority
Third Priority
Fourth Priority
Fifth Priority
Sixth Priority
Seventh Priority
Eight Priority

How To Play:
During play, the following card placement, movement and limit rules are in effect at all times:
• The “Needs” Column may ONLY contain Need cards (marked with N in the upper right)
• The “Practices” Column may ONLY contain Practice cards (marked with P in the upper right)
• The “Frequency” Column may ONLY contain Frequency cards (marked with F in the upper right)
• The “Metrics” Column may ONLY contain Metrics cards (marked with M in the upper right)
• Cards may not be stacked or layered anywhere on the board, unless they are in the “Incinerated” column
• No more than 8 cards of any type may be in the “Holding Area” at anytime
• Only cards in the “Holding Area” may be moved to the “Incinerated” column
• An unlimited number of cards may be placed in the “Incinerated” column
• Once a card is placed in the “Incinerated” column, it cannot be removed

YOUR TURN - Play begins with a person volunteering to play first or using a suitable random selection method to
determine the first player.

PLAY A CARD - When it is your turn, you may do ONE of the following actions:
• Place a card from your hand into an open position on the board – if cards remain in the draw deck, pick the top
card to replenish your hand so it has 5 cards.
• Move a card on the board to another open & valid position on the board (see board rules above).
• Swap a single card in the “Needs”, “Practices”, “Frequency”, or “Metrics” column with any card of the same type
in the “Holding Area”.
• Discard a card in the “Holding Area” by moving it into the “Incinerated” column - once a card is incinerated it is
out for the remainder of the game.
• Pass - you do not wish to play a card at this time.
• FREE PLAY – Use the FREE PLAY pass to play any METRIC card in your hand on the board WITHOUT the need to
play a full row on the board. The FREE PLAY pass allows you to reserve a row for a single Metric that is so
important you want to track it regardless of what practices are in play. Once FREE PLAY is used, you can change
the metric protected by FREE PLAY if all team members unanimously agree when a change is proposed.

Let’s Be Awesome


AFTER YOU PLAY A CARD, TELL YOUR FELLOW PLAYERS WHY - As you are playing your card or after you make your
move, you need to share with the group why you played as you did. This explanation is especially important if you
“Pass” - if you don’t see a need to play a card or move a card on the board, please share why. Increased frequency of
people passing can demonstrate the group is starting to establish consensus around how the cards have been placed.

NEXT PLAYER - After explaining why you played (or passed) as you did, play advances to the next player.

LISTEN TO YOUR FELLOW PLAYERS - While waiting for your turn, you may NOT speak, rather you should LISTEN and pay
attention to how your team members play their cards and the reasons for why they played or moved cards as they did.

Tricky rules that some players struggle with:
When the board becomes full - As play begins, it does not take long for the game board to become FULL - remember
you can only play a card from your hand onto the board if there is an open spot on the board.

• Stacking or layering of cards is only allowed for “Incinerated” cards – no stacking or layering anywhere else!

When the board is full, you ONLY have the following options:

• Move any card in the “Holding Area” to the “Incinerated” column to create an open space on the board - the
open space created by this move will be in the “Holding Area” but on future moves, other players will be able to
move / swap cards in / out of the “Holding Area”.
• Swap a single card in the “Needs”, “Practices”, “Frequency” or “Metrics” column with another card in the same
column OR a card of the same type in the “Holding Area”.
• Pass - don’t forget to share why you passed.

Working with your team members - As the board fills up, remember you are only allowed ONE play per turn, so if you
want to move cards around to adjust priority, or make space for a new card on the board from your hand, you will have
to work with your fellow team members to do this. If you have an idea for a complex move, wait for your turn, then
share the idea and ask if others are willing to help you achieve that idea by moving cards as needed when it is their turn
in support of your plan.

Discarding Cards - If you have a card in your hand that you do NOT wish to play (you don’t feel the card is needed), cards
may NOT move directly from your hand to the “Incinerated” column - you are allowed to play a card from your hand into
the “Holding Area” if there is an open slot in the Holding Area, and then ask if another team member would move the
card to “Incinerated” on their turn. If the “Holding Area” is full, you will need to move one of the cards to the
“Incinerated” column and explain why, this will create space to play the card on your next turn, if space remains in the
holding area. HINT – make sure you explain your moves, so your other team members can support you with them.

FREE PLAY – Each game includes 1 FREE PLAY that can ONLY be used for a METRIC card. To initiate FREE PLAY, the Need,
Practice & Frequency cards on the FREE PLAY row must be cleared from the board BEFORE the FREE PLAY card can be
used to reserve a row of the board. When beginning FREE PLAY, normal card play rules are in effect – cards for Need,
Practice and Frequency need to be moved to other rows (if room exists), or to the HOLDING AREA (if room exists) before
the FREE PLAY card can be played. Once FREE PLAY is in effect, the metric protected by FREE PLAY can be changed if the
team unanimously agrees to swap the FREE PLAY metric with a different metric in someone else’s hand, or a metric in
the Holding Area. FREE PLAY can be ended at any time, if the team unanimously agrees. When FREE PLAY ends, the row
reserved for FREE PLAY is once again available for normal play, and the FREE PLAY card is removed from the board.

Let’s Be Awesome


Ending The Game:
“Let’s Be Awesome” game play ends when all players have played all their cards onto the board (no cards in players’
hands), the draw deck has been exhausted and there is consensus on how the cards have been placed on the
board. The following two events trigger the end of the game:

• #1 - All “Play” cards have either been placed on the game board in accordance with the rules or have been
“Incinerated”.

• #2 - There has been two consecutive rounds of all players “passing” on their turn – this demonstrates consensus has
been achieved on the placement of the cards on the board.

DISCUSS & RECORD WHY - Before leaving the game, team members are asked to reflect and to capture reasons or
motivations why they prioritized “Needs”, “Practices”, and “Frequency” as they did. These reasons are captured on
large Post-It notes and added to the game board in the “Why” column. Team members can discuss & write these “Why”
statements for each need, practice, frequency combination working as a full team, in small groups or in pairs and then
sharing and posting what they wrote.

DISCUSS & RECORD TRENDS & TARGETS - Next team members review the metrics that have been prioritized by game
play – using Post-It notes, team members indicate the desired trend (upwards, downwards, stable, etc) or target for
each metric specified. Hitting a metrics target may indicate that a team has achieved a level of proficiency with a
specific practice and should review the needs, practices, and metrics selected to identify if there are other opportunities
for improvement which may result in changing prioritized needs, practices or metrics. If a team is tracking a new metric,
they should indicate a hypothesized trend for that metric (are you hoping that the metric trends upwards or
downwards).

At conclusion, the game board should be displayed or captured as a reminder of how the team and customer agreed to
work together and the team and customer should set a future time and/or criteria which remind them to come back and
play again to ensure they remain focused on the most important needs for a successful customer / team relationship.

Game Play Options:
• Write-Ins - Allow players to provide Write-In cards for “Needs”, “Practices”, or “Frequency” that they think of during
discussion in the game - use Post-Its to allow Write-Ins - once introduced, a Write-In card is played like any other
card in the game. Standard card rules apply for Write-Ins: the card needs to be placed in an open spot on the board,
it can be moved to the “Holding Area” and it can even be “Incinerated” if necessary.

• Time-Box - Rather than allowing play to continue until all cards have been played and consensus is achieved,
establish a time-box for the game (~20 minutes) whereby the team and customer will agree to honor the cards on
the board as they are displayed at the end of the time-box or consensus is achieved (whichever comes first) - adding
a time-box to the game creates a sense of urgency supportive of increased focus and staying on task as people play.

Let’s Be Awesome


Debrief Sheet
Reflect / Write / Share

LEARN - What did you learn regarding how to use agile practices & metrics to
collaborate with customers?

DO - What will you do to enable better collaboration between your team and
customer?

SUCCEED - How will you measure success of the changes you advocate for or
implement?

Let's Be Awesome - Big Apple Scrum Day 2017 - Game Objective & Guide

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