Lessons learned from WoW: Showing Progress

There's clear progress markers on your way to the bank.

There's also a ready dashboard of your progress.

Think about it.

Let's say you get a small refund from your local office supply store for that latest thingamabob that you just bought. Let's also say you have a chance over your lunch hour at work to run the check to the bank. Let's also say, just for fun, that you're NOT going to drive.

How would you know you're making progress on your way to the bank? What if you haven't been to this branch before (perhaps the job is new)?

You would

look for indicators

watch for changes in the landscape

recognize the landmarks from the path you researched

see things changing around you

All of these are positives. Now, what if it's raining out? Would that change how you measured your progress?

And how would you tell your wife/sister/lover/brother/kid/boss/coworker that you had made progress, if they called you while you were walking? To someone who isn't familiar with your methods, ways, speed(s), knowledge, how would you communicate clearly how close/far you are to/from the bank?

I think, if you're like most people, you would try to make the abstract concrete by wrapping your progress in artificial numbers. Meaningless, really, since that branch could be closed for remodeling this week, and your *actual* progress is really much smaller. While we're not getting into scope creep in this entry, how do you communicate your progress?

In WoW, the presentation format (3-d PC graphics rendered in a 2-d screen) allows for graphical progress representation. How could you do that for your walk to the bank? There are some ways, actually.

However, what if it were more complex than just a walk to the bank? What if it were showing progress on your Software Development project, across teams, divisions, and software versions? How would you show the same progress?

Would you treat it as a walk to the bank?

Lessons Learned from WoW: Vision

Warcraft's vision is easy to swallow.

It's easy to understand, and you can grasp it within minutes of playing for the first time.

The vision becomes personal or personalized very quickly, and seemingly anyone, IF A PLAYER, can internalize how the goals ("quests") align with the vision.

I describe the player vision as

"Get to level 80"

However, it seems to me the larger corporate vision is best described as

"Create an immersive environment that encourages social connection and self-accomplishment"

I find that creating a description that's easily digested by friends and family of my own vision for my own life is equally simple:

"Raise three model citizens"

However, the underlying version is much more complex:

"While successfully raising three model citizens, keep moving forward and evolving"