Glossary of Games

The book is filled with a number of improv games and group activities. I couldn’t fit everything in the book and have added a number of other activities here.

General Warmup

Exercises intended to act as a general warmup. While some of these are more applicable to internal teams, some, like Yes-And may be used to provide a low-stakes introduction to a larger brainstorming session.

Yes-And
- No-Instead
- Yes-If
Word-At-A-Time (Single Word Sentence)
- Sentence Waterfall
Crazy Eights
Everybody Let’s
Red Ball Thank You
Knife, Baby, Angry Cat
World’s Worst Disco
Mind Meld
What’s in the Box
Everybody Let’s
Zip Zap Zop (Zip Zap Zop New Rule)

Status / Hierarchy

Status refers to the power difference between two characters. Hierarchy is the organizational structure within a team. These exercises explore how status and hierarchy may impact our team dynamics.

Presenting & Communication

A large portion of our work is how we present and communicate the products we collaborate on. These exercises flex some of our presentation skills, allowing us to be uncomfortable with the unknown and support one another.

Emotion & Body Language

Wether is is our participants’ emotions, our stakeholders needs, or our own desire to be the best, emotion impacts our work. After all, our emotion is a large portion of how we communicate. The remainder is how we appear, or our body language (only a small percentage of communication is verbal). The following exercises explore how we can focus on and leverage emotion and body language.

Pattern & Game

Game in improv is any repetitive action, saying, or behavior that can be repeated for comedic or dramatic effect. These exercises explore pattern and game.

Character

When we think of product design, we think of who our users, or personas, are. Our stakeholders and team members also have a vested interest in our success. Understanding who we are to ourselves and each other is explored in the following games.