As Product Designers we build MVPs often. To help get into the mindset of "minimum and viable" I like to play a game with a couple people that forces prioritization. This game is based off of Christoph Neiman’s I LEGO NY work. The point — use as few legos as possible to communicate an idea.
Outcome
Needs
- Legos (variety box of classic legos is ideal)
- Paper
- Solid container (hat, bucket, etc)
- 2+ people
Pre-Game
- Everybody privately writes 3-5 nouns on a piece of paper
- Fold each piece of paper and put them into the container.
- Pour the legos on the table in the center of everyone.
Rules
Selecting what to build:
- Each person picks an equal number of pieces of paper from the hat.
- Each person blindly chooses one of the pieces of paper they have.
Building:
- Maximum of 10 pieces can be used.
- For 4 minutes, everybody builds the thing they’ve chosen.
Presenting and guessing:
- Start with any person, they present their piece. They cannot talk.
- Go around the table clockwise, one person at a time, guessing what the piece is.
- If someone gets it right, the game stops.
- Once everyone has guessed the game stops.
*Note - if you think the person built what you added to the hat, don’t guess.
Scoring
- If your presentation was guessed correctly by anyone, you get points.
- If you guess the presentation, you get points.