How playing roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons can help development teams work together better.
Join the DZone community and get the full member experience. A while ago, I saw a presentation by Karthik Nagarajan at ThoughtWorks, where he compared a Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) campaign to working with product teams. Many years later, I thought it was time we had a chat about the topic, and many months after that, I finally got around to writing it up. A long-running campaign indeed! Listen to the full interview where we cover much more than this summary including handling alpha gamers, and much more. The interview explored how by encouraging product management teams to engage in roleplaying games (RPG), such as D&D, companies can improve overall productivity, help teams gain better customer understanding and increase employee satisfaction. A critical challenge in developing good products is communication and understanding customer pain-points. There’s been a massive amount of time and money spent on tools and innovations to streamline internal and external communication processes. In exploring innovative ways to address customer challenges, Karthik became obsessed with games and their connection to product management. In implementing roleplaying game nights at a company he was working for in Berlin, Karthik uncovered a mixture of results that seemed to benefit everyone. The project intended to increase team rapport during what had been a period of high turnover. It’s important to note that, depending on the game system and the player dynamic, sometimes roleplaying games can turn into ‘a players vs.
