A method created through best-practice
Prioritizing backlogs can be a cumbersome and difficult task. It is difficult because it is a pure decision making process: what do you want to spent effort on for the coming period, and more importantly what not. Every person looks at a backlog with a different perspective: sales wants to have new features as soon as possible so they can sell those to customers, customer care wants to have the most pressing issues resolved, UX wants to have new screens and flows implemented, etc. In an organization people have different interests and different agendas and it can be difficult to…
In my spare time I love to design board games. To create prototypes I use various resources. The list below is occasionally updated if I find new resources that I use in my designs.
This article is subdivided in sections on General, Assets.
General
All resources that contain general information about board game design.
Board Game Design Lab
The Board Game Design Lab is an excellent place to read up on basically any element of board game design. They also have a great podcast (check out your favorite podcast app) that provides a lot of inspiration and knowledge. …
Brass Birmingham is a tactical game for more seasoned players. I recently got my hands on a copy and went through the rules myself. Afterwards I thought I understood the gameplay. Boy, was I wrong!
The basic rules are reasonably simple to understand: you have to develop industries to score points. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. The game is played in two rounds: the Canal era and the Rail era. Each round consists of a fixed number of turns for each player. …
Welcome to Homo Ludens. A publication on Medium around board games, board game design and board game culture. We have the ambition to reach an audience that is interested in the broader aspects of tabletop games than the simple reviews.
We will bring you articles on, opinions on, and analyses of the well-known, and lesser-known board games. If you are a writer: we are open to submissions on these topics!
Who are we?
We are driven by passion and interest, not by profession. We are not part of the professional board game design industry. We are passionate about board games and play on…
When to use the business case as go/no-go decision?
If you are working in product management sooner or later you’ll be asked to make a business case. When you take any course in management or business one of the topics on the agenda certainly is ‘how to create a business case’. Searching for the term business case in Google gives billions of results. So, if you’re being asked to make a business case, where do you start?
Can you make a business case for that?
In this article, I’d like to share my experiences with creating business cases and reflect on the different roles they have played in the…
2020 has passed. A year that will go down in history books, for sure. As we were hit by a global pandemic we were forced to rethink and restructure our lives. Working from home as the new way of working. Keep your distance as the new social structure. Online events as the new way of get together.
Now that countries are starting their vaccination programs we can only hope that 2021 will be the year in which we get past quarantines and social distancing. However, I believe the pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we will experience the world and…
If you’re a good product manager, you’re probably a good poker player too!
Developing and launching products is like playing poker. Poker players need to be able to judge a hand, read the table, know their opponents, and gather the right data to decide how to play their hand. Product Managers should be able to assess their product(s), understand the market, their competition and determine a strategy to approach their market with the product. The skills and strategies you learn in Poker, may actually help you to re-think the way you manage products.
Introduction
During the peak of the Poker hype (at least it was a hype in The Netherlands) I also played poker…
Customer segments, ARPU, Margin
One of the key activities in developing new products and planning a business strategy is to develop a solid and realistic business case. Not only will a business case help to calculate what is a realistic expectation for your product, it also serves as a means of communication to senior management. A business case also helps to brings some common sense to any strategic discussion. I’ve been in many meetings where business developers believe something is a great idea, and will bring in millions of euros. …
I recently turned 34. Every year on my birthday I look back at the last year and reflect on where I currently stand in life. I ask myself whether I’m satisfied with where I am, how my life is going, and if there are any unfulfilled dreams. One of the ambitions that I set out last year, was to start writing more. I love to structure my thoughts and ideas in articles that I want to share and publish. That is why I started to write on Medium.
In my reflection this year I also asked myself the question: how…
Product management 101
In the years that I have been active as product manager I’ve had the question many times:”What is product management? What does a product manager do?”
Let me try to explain product management as simply as possible.
What is a company?
A company is an organisation that delivers products or services in exchange for money. It’s as simple as that. People work to make something (a product), or do something for someone (a service). In return they earn money.
An example: Kate’s bakery
Meet Kate. She owns a bakery. (Why a bakery? Because everyone can relate to this type of business). She bakes fresh bread every day and…
