GameForce, Part 2. Gaming achievements in CRM
So, what is GameForce? A couple of years ago, I was working in a consultancy firm as a Salesforce Developer, and I noticed that users got really excited when they saw “the confetti” effect after completing the path of the opportunity or lead.
And, while it might look a bit silly, it is not surprising at all, because “confetti” is a good example of gamification theory applied in practice. Gamification refers to the application of game design elements and principles in non-gaming contexts to engage and motivate people. The idea behind gamification is to take advantage of the inherent appeal and motivating factors of games to enhance user experiences, increase participation, and drive desired behaviors. And in this case, “confetti” taps into a simple psychological loop that helps us to stay motivated:
- Action: The individual performs a specific behavior or action.
- Reward: Upon completing the action, the individual receives a reward or reinforcement.
- Reinforcement: The reward serves as a positive reinforcement, increasing the likelihood of the behavior being repeated in the future.
So, it made me think, what other tricks from the gaming industry can be applied to Salesforce? And after some time (and countless hours playing games) I’ve realized that system, similar to Xbox Achievements, would be a perfect addition to Salesforce. For non-gamers out there, Xbox Achievements (or PlayStation Trophies or any other similar system) are a set of virtual goals, that you can reach while playing the game. Reaching the achievement gives you a cool notification, shows it to your friends, and grants a set number of points that places you on a leaderboard alongside other gamers. This seemingly simple system hides a set of psychological nudges behind itself:
- Being placed in a leaderboard alongside friends, forces gamers to spend more time and effort to get more points and to be set higher in a leaderboard
- Achievements that are hard to get force gamers to replay specific levels or try different strategies in the game
- Getting achievements becomes an added reward and motivates gamers to play the game that might otherwise be boring to them
You’ve probably guessed it already — GameForce is an achievements system for Salesforce.
However, different games have different achievements, and different companies have different business processes. It would be naive to think that it would be possible to cover all the possible scenarios with just a set list of achievements. Instead, I am aiming to build a solution, which can be easily configured to add new achievements, so that once installed, admins can add goals that would motivate users effectively. But I think that it also makes sense to have a wide variety of standard achievements that will be built into the package, for those who are not ready to fiddle with configuration.
Okay, so at this point, you still might not be convinced that this is a promising idea, or that it will work, but I would argue that you are reading this not to be astounded by the grandeur of my genius, but to actually see how I will do it. And this time around I’ve decided to try something new — developing an open-sourced project, that others can contribute to. By the way, you can check the repository and current progress here. And that brings a lot of new aspects to this problem that I’ve never thought about. The thing is that I am used to working in a distributed team, so things like reviewing PRs from people that are sitting somewhere across half the globe don’t scare me. But working in a distributed team still means working as a team. And working with people on an open-source project is more like trying to manage a community. Fortunately, there are a couple of things that you can do from the get-go to make your life easier, and that is what the next article is going to be about.
