Are you jealous that someone else invented a new geo-localized lighter that update your Facebook timeline each time you light a cigarette?
Well, Hybrid'up might be the game you need...
Hybrid'up is a small creative game that I imagined and first tested in June with a bunch of digital native guys working at faberNovel, one of our innovation partner. The goal of this game is to invent crazy new products. The creative result is achieved by hybridizing several cool startups to create a new one.
I mainly designed this game as an ice breaker but with a few adjustments it could be used seriously to invent great new products.
The game is structured in 5 rounds :
So how can you do that?
Hybrid'up can be either played traditionally with big post-its and of course, if you need remote participants or if you need to handle more than 15 participants, you could use Stormz brainstorming application.
Let's see how to do that the traditional way with a group of 4 to 7 participants.
First of all, you'll need extra large 3M Post-it notes. Give 3 extra large post-it notes, 1 pen that write big and 1 pen that write normally to each participant.
Ask participants to think of 2 to 3 innovative startups or products that they have in mind. Ask them to write the name of the startup in big and ask them to write in less than 7 words what the startup or product do.
Note: depending on the background and culture of each participants you might have to give a few link toward tech blogs or even prepare the list of products before the meeting.
When everybody is finished, share each post-it note by putting it on the middle of the table (or on the wall) and read the name and description.
Remove duplicates if necessary.
Give one of the post-it note to each participant and ask them to think of what is surprising or interesting or innovative in this startup. Ask them to write this down as a bullet points list (this is why you need extra large post-it). This has to go fast, so limit them to one or two bullet points.
When this is done, ask them to give the Post-it note to their direct neighbor... and repeat until all Post-it notes have been edited by all participants.
Put all the Post-it notes on a wall and let the participants take time to read them.
Note: this round can be a little too long if you have many post-it notes or participants. If so, you can time-block each edit time to 30 seconds and/or don't wait for every post-it to be edited by everybody (3 or 4 edits per post-it can be enough).
Note: you could also write down each innovative characteristics on tiny post-its that you stick on the extra large post-it.
Now, this is the creative part of the game.
Ask them, to think of crazy (insist on crazy) products that combine one of the characteristics of at least three different startups. To give a little more challenge to that, warn them that they will have to pitch their crazy product in front of the team afterward.
They have to find a name and then write down a cool description of their hybrid product.
You should give them at least 10 minutes so that they have time to imagine something crazy and craft a good description.
Ask them to pitch their product and tell them that it must be fun to hear. We don't mind about feasibility in this ice-breaker...
When everybody has pitched ask people to distribute 5 points to their preferred pitch.
Celebrate the winner and thanks everyone.
You'll have to use Stormz if you need to invite remote participants or if you need to deal with tens of participants (or if you just don't want to lose time writing a report). Designing a Stormz workshop for this game is quite straight forward, but If you wanna see how to do that just head over the Hybrid'up article in our Knowledge Base.
Why does it work?
This creative game works because the creativity needed to do the game increase round after round. The first round just need basic memory (or internet) research, the second round leverages logical thinking, the third round is creative but participants have food for thoughts, the fourth round leverages another kind of creativity and create a fun atmosphere, the fifth round enables a fun closing.
So this was all about Hybrid'up a new game to imagine crazy products.
If you give it try with your team, tell me how the experience was. Was it fun enough? Everybody was involved? Did you need to adapt it? Is there anything that frustrated you?
Any feedback is welcome!
— Alex (@ineation) from the Stormz Team.