Understand
Speed boat
Also called Speedboat game
Customers add the anchors slowing your product down, and how much faster it would go without each, to show what frustrates them most.
- Time45 to 60 minutes
- People3 to 10 customers
- Steps4
What it's for
Asking customers what they dislike can feel like inviting complaints. The speed boat makes it a picture: the product is a boat, and customers add anchors for the things holding it back, each with how much faster the boat would go without it. The size of the estimates shows how much each problem hurts.
Add engines too, for what customers love, so the session doesn't end on a list of complaints. The sailboat retrospective is a team version of the same idea.
How to run it
Add anchors15 min
Customers write what slows the product down for them, one per note, with how much faster it would go without it.
Group and vote10 min3 votes each
Group similar anchors, then vote on the ones to cut loose first.
Add engines10 min
What already makes the boat go fast?
Plan15 min
For the biggest anchors: which part of the product, how severe, how urgent.
Tips
- Don't defend the product during the session. Every explanation makes the next anchor less likely.
- Tell customers afterwards which anchors you're working on. It's why they'll come back next time.
Where it comes from
One of Luke Hohmann's Innovation Games, from his book Innovation Games (2006). It is also where the sailboat retrospective comes from.
Pairs well with
Sailboat
Picture the team as a boat: wind pushes it on, anchors hold it back, rocks lie ahead, and the island is the goal.
Prune the product tree
Draw the product as a tree and have people add ideas as leaves on its branches, to see where it should grow and what's being neglected.
Affinity mapping
Group a pile of notes into themes by moving similar ones together, then name each theme to see what the pile is telling you.