Do you want to learn how to attract the right people into your community - and get input from the RIGHT hot-core Superfans? This talk will teach you how.

1. Game Thinking
Find Your Hot-core Superfans

2. Is this you? I need to
• get customer feedback from
the right people
• know WHO to listen to &
WHAT to listen for
• focus on what’s actionable &
relevant - even when I’m
overwhelmed with feedback

3. What You Will Learn Today
A powerful, proven technique for
identifing your hot-core Superfans
& supercharging your design process

4. Amy Jo Kim, Ph.D.
Community Architect
Game Designer
Startup Coach

5. I help startups, game studios & global brands build
deep engagement from the ground up

6. Amy Jo Kim, Ph.D.
Community Architect
Game Designer
Startup Coach
Author

7. Amy Jo Kim, Ph.D.
Community Architect
Game Designer
Startup Coach
Author

8. I’ve worked on a diverse set of
innovative worldwide hits

9. online marketplace

10. Massively multuplayer RPG

11. Multi-player rhythm action game

12. PC simulation game

13. mobile fashion game

14. digital mental health app

15. online toy rental service

16. Some teams I worked with created breakthrough hits
Others didn’t cross the chasm

17. What’s the difference between
teams that succeed & fail?

18. Game Thinking
5 steps to product/market fit
Game Thinking
5 Steps to Product/Market Fit

19. Game Thinking Quotes
Step 1: Hypothesize
articulate your strategy & prioritize your assumptions

20. Game Thinking
5 steps to product/market fit
Step 2: Empathize
find hot-core customers & learn their habits & needs

21. Game Thinking
5 steps to product/market fit
Step 3: Design
sketch out your customer’s journey to mastery

22. Game Thinking
5 steps to product/market fit
Step 4: Playtest
Validate your assumptions by testing with Superfans

23. Game Thinking
5 steps to product/market fit
Step 5: Validate
distill your results & create your product roadmap

24. Game Thinking
Learn the basics at
Game Thinking TV

25. Game Thinking
Today’s Topic
How to find & leverage your
hot-core Superfans

26. Have you ever
listened to the
wrong
customers?

27. Game Thinking Quotes
“Build something just a
few people want - even
if most people don’t get
it right away”
Paul Buchheit
Partner, Y-Combinator

28. Game Thinking Quotes
Innovation diffusion theory
EVERETT ROGERS, 1961

29. Game Thinking Quotes
Crossing the Chasm
GEOFFREY MOORE, 1991
CHASM

30. Finding & leveraging Superfans
can determine whether you
thrive - or fail

31. This innovative gaming
platform didn't make it
across the chasm

32. This innovative
mobile health service
became a hit

33. Game Thinking Quotes
CHASMSTART NOT
If you want to cross the chasm…

34. Who to listen to - & who to ignore?

35. don’t rely on
friends & family

36. or people in
your ultimate
target market

38. increasing value over time

39. your super-fans are
SPECIFIC to your project

40. Alex Rigopalous
CEO, Harmonix

41. When the game was further along, we DID test our ideas with these casual
gamers. But in the early days, it was our super-fans who helped us bring the
game to life. In a very real sense, those hard-core music gamers were our
co-creators -- our collaborators — able to see what our crude mockups and
simple artwork could become, and — crucially — give us actionable
feedback on how to make it better.
rhythm game nerds
comfortable with Alpha

42. Will Wright
Creator, The Sims

43. simulation enthusiasts
who love to make things

44. Mary Lou Song
Product Manager, eBay

45. enthusiastic early sellers
making a living off the site

46. And then it happened! Remember Ranan
- the CEO of Pley? He challenged me to
deliver my toolkit to his team online -- and
empower them to make 6 months of
progress in 6 weeks That scared the hell
outta me...
Ranan Lachman
CEO, Pley

47. Lego-loving families who
enjoy sharing photos

48. Jeff Tsang & Blair Ethington
CEO & Exec. Producer, Crowdstar

49. Our mission was to create an mobile
game for fashionistas that would feature
hot-off-the-runway designer clothes, and
bring in a much broader female audience
than any previous game they’d published.
non-gaming fashionistas
who love fashion apps

50. Ofer Leidner
President, Happify

51. stay-at-home parents who’ve
recently left the workforce

52. Finding superfans
for a mental
health app
CASE STUDY

53. who is our game for?

54. hard-driving entrepreneurs?

55. people diagnosed with depression?

56. stay-at-home ex-professional parents?

58. 6-question Superfan Screener

59. TITLE:
Get passionate customers to tell you what they want
SECTIONS:
1: Recap & Who I Am
2: Find your super-fans with 5 key discovery questions
4: Foreshadow Video #3 (+ CTA)
5-min Speed Interviews

61. sort them into the right buckets

62. start testing your assumptions

63. diagnosed with depression?

64. coping with a major life change?

66. what do you do when you’re feeling down?

67. what tools & activities make you feel better?

69. how often do you actively seek out
an activity that lifts your mood?

71. Which mood-lifting techniques did
you try last week? What worked?

73. Given the
apps &
techniques
you’ve tried,
what could
be improved?

74. If you could
wave a magic
wand, what
would you
change?

75. Happify built a thriving super-fan community…

76. and leveraged that
to become the
market leader in
digital happiness

77. How can YOU find & mobilize your
passionate, high-need early customers?

78. Game Thinking
Put the Superfan Funnel to work

79. Game Thinking
1. SCREEN your audience
1
Superfan
Screener

80. 5 Magic Discovery Questions
Customize these questions for your project

86. Game Thinking
Write a 6-question Superfan Screener
3 mutiple choice questions
• Life situation (sorting)
• Existing behavior (proxy for need)
• Alternatives tried (seeking change)
3 open-ended questions
• Day-in-the-life (existing habits)
• What’s working (insight into needs)
• What could be better (imagination)

87. Game Thinking
Greenlight your Speed Interview subjects

88. Game Thinking
2. INTERVIEW promising respondents
2
Speed
Interviews

89. Game Thinking
Invite them to a 5-min followup interview
Interviewer
Note-taker

90. Game Thinking
Ask 2-3 revealing followup questions

91. Game Thinking
Greenlight your Superfan Testers

92. Game Thinking
3. DISTILL key insights from Superfans
Job
Stories
3

93. Game Thinking
Job Stories bridge research & design

94. Game Thinking
Surface relevant patterns across your data

95. Game Thinking
Identify existing habits to piggyback on

96. Game Thinking
Summarize those patterns into Job Stories

97. When I’m feeling down & blue
I want to get out & connect with other moms
So I can feel less alone and get some exercise

98. When I get home after dropping off the kids
I want a quick dose of pleasure & inspiration
So I can feel motivated and energetic

99. Game Thinking
5 steps to product/market fit
Use research-based Job Stories to
Design your Customer Journey

100. AKA Community Membership Lifecycle

101. Game Thinking So now you know how to
find & leverage your hot-core customers

102. Game Thinking So now you know how to
find & leverage your hot-core customers
1
Superfan
Screener

103. Game Thinking So now you know how to
find & leverage your hot-core customers
2
1
Superfan
Screener
Speed
Interviews

104. Game Thinking So now you know how to
find & leverage your hot-core customers
2
1
Superfan
Screener
Speed
Interviews
Job
Stories
3

105. Game Thinking
… which sets you up to deliver a
compelling customer experience

106. Want more?
Take our innovation quiz & get your free cheatsheet at
gamethinking.io/quiz

107. TAKE THE QUIZ
gamethinking.io/quiz
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER
@amyjokim
GET IN TOUCH
amyjokim.com
Here’s to your success!