What was getting in the way
Every founder has jobs they put off. For one of us it's the non-delivery aspects: the insurance quote, the follow-up, the note to someone who went quiet, the post. Building a tool is the fun part, and it's easy to call that work.Sales software doesn't help. It's built for a manager watching a team, and it rewards logging the work, not doing it.
Why we went this way
Plot draws our sales pipeline as a small town, and every company is a plot of land. Real actions (a conversation, something useful sent, a proposal) earn points and puts up a mast on that plot. Replies and wins light things up, but only actions build.Points buy permits, and a permit is a new feature for the tool itself.We nearly started with a paper version to test the rules. It would have missed the point: the game is the reason to open it.And every button registers a real task done.
How well it worked
The evidence is our To-Do lists. Some items on there were stagnating, too hard to start...too dull to finish. Now there's nowhere to hide in Hppntown! And growing the visual elements on the map are an incentive in themselves.
What we'd do differently
Ask us in 6 months. We'll update this page with what Hppntown looks like then, built up or gone quiet.The trick is to remember what you're trying to incentivise, and build the rules and game elements around that. That's pure human-centered design, and AI struggles in that department.