Where “The G Word” Fits in the Designer’s Toolbox

This Interview was conducted by Clark Buckner from TechnologyAdvice.com (they provide coverage content on gamification trends (including gamification in the workplace, sales gamification software and teaching games software).

Fresh off of his presentation at GSummit 2014, “Gamification as a Strategy,” Dopamine’s behavioral design expert Ankit spoke to TechnologyAdvice’s Clark Buckner about “the G word,” Dopamine’s custom-tailored solutions for their clients, and Ankit’s fandom of a particular attendee of GSummit.

In regards to his twenty-minute talk on gamification, where he tried to move his audience away from a narrow view of what gamification means and can accomplish, Ankit relayed that many people had lingering questions for him after his speech. They wanted to know how to dig deeper into what he’d shared, as well as where they could go to learn more about gamification as a strategy. More specifically, they wanted to learn how to transform their efficient, highly planned, oftentimes secretive organizations into more agile companies that offer their employees more autonomy by encouraging transparency.

Ankit called gamification a “sticky word” in the industry, but one that isn’t understood all that well by the general population or by those who become enamored by the idea and take it to their CIO or CEO believing it’s simply about games. For Ankit, gamification isn’t just about games. Gamification done right is simply part of a designer’s toolbox.

In his work with Dopamine as the lead on behavior and engagement design practice, Ankit’s quick to mention that they don’t offer “pre-baked solutions.” Dopamine doesn’t have a toolset ready to deploy and retrofit for every client’s needs. Rather, they “embed” themselves with their clients to learn their problems and objectives, then, “starting from absolute zero, build toward a creative, unique solution that will meet their needs.”

In talking about Dopamine’s clients, Ankit cites a number of Fortune 50 companies that were also a part of GSummit 2014. After experiencing first-hand how Dopamine’s approach helped their respective companies, they saw how that approach could be used across the organization in order to “drive better business outcomes.” In other words, most of the companies Dopamine has worked with on a single project come back to them for multiple, future projects.

Lastly, when asked what he was most excited about in that moment after delivering his speech, Ankit spoke about getting to meet Neil de Grasse Tyson at GSummit 2014. Ankit then shrewdly said he might ask Tyson, “‘Hey Neil, can I borrow a hundred dollars?’ And then after I get the hundred dollars and he asks for it back [I’d] say, ‘Hey, in the grand cosmic scale, what’s a hundred dollars?’”

To learn more about Dopamine, “a creative agency focused on fun, innovative, gamified campaigns for employees and consumers,” visit Dopa.mn. To connect with Ankit, follow him on Twitter @AnkitAShah (just don’t give him a hundred dollar bill).

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This interview was provided by Gsummit media partner TechnologyAdvice, an Inc. 5000 company that is dedicated to educating, advising, and connecting the buyers and sellers of business technology. Interview conducted by Clark Buckner.