Introducing Your New IPA-Powered Rewards Program

This our first guest blog posting here at ProcessMyBiz.com and thanks to Ross for his contribution! Ross works at ININ as an IPA Template Developer in Marketing, getting to do, among other things, really cool kick-ass stuff for the upcoming ININ Marketplace! Enjoy!

Introducing Your New 

IPA-Powered Rewards Program

by Ross Blaettner

In a group or team environment, how does work become an addictive, enjoyable, and entertaining experience? Live statistics? Leaderboards? Free pizza? Vacations? Rewards? All of the above. Definitely.

Example Gamify Dashboard

It’s no secret: people love getting rewards. The newest consumer loyalty and incentive programs, from airlines, to restaurants, to banks, add a little glamour to our routine lives. Businesses give away free stuff to encourage participation and to reward customers for being good customers. The extra gratification may be especially important, adding a little spice to otherwise bland business transactions. Participants may get a little enjoyment, satisfaction, and achieve some status but, as in Vegas, the house always wins.

Casino games (games, in general) can be addicting and rewarding. It’s nice to conquer a level, defeat a competitor, to win a seemingly limited supply of something. The house designs the rules and earns the profits. The participants give their time, money, and energy, and just enjoy the game. The players study the rules, the processes, the interactions, learn to play, and play to win, all within the context of the game sponsor’s overlying goals. At some level, certainly, this is about friendly competition and making ‘work’ fun.

After all, work is about rules, profits, time, money, and energy, processes and interactions, competition and winning. In our core biology, people are born to survive, to enjoy the game, and to thrive as a collective.

Business is once again learning from those areas of human psychology and development. The gaming industry has captivated billions across the world. Give people activities they can enjoy, and prosper as a business. “Put the ‘fun’ back in functional.” Design the software and use performance data to accelerate growth. Now, on to the next level...

How can IPA and Interaction Center harness “game mechanics” in customer environments? 

1. Read:  "Using Game Mechanics in User Experience Design"
2. Watch:  Applying Game Mechanics to Functional Software
3. Review:  Gartner Press Release about Gamified Innovation

In a follow-up post we’ll apply game mechanics to “gamify” some example IPA processes.

In the meantime...

Happy Processing!

ps - feel free to contact Rick if you'd like to submit or collaborate on a guest blog post.