A super interesting read, Jens! Though I am not so much of a game person, I always love to explore the field especially if there are lessons to learn :) This approach reminds me of a game - 'Age of Empires'. It started slow with a couple of villagers building and growing stuff - houses, farms, cattle grazing and slowly picked up into fight amongst civilizations.
Thanks Charu, glad you found the content interesting! Its fun and games, but big business as well - some of these player volumes are bigger than the population of smaller countries!
This is the first I’ve heard or read of Grow a Garden but one lesson I picked up their gamification strategy is how they allow players gain even when they’re offline. The garden grows even while offline. I think that’s bold and confident and something I would love to test out in my business.
Also the post read like a great story, I didn’t even realize when I got to end.
Yes Yes YES! Make it fun! We spend most of our hours at "work" - gamifying is a solid model that is here to stay. I can see many applications in the boring world of "work" for both organizations, employees and customers alike.
Glad you liked the article Petar! There is some really smooth user engagement going on here, combined with clever strategic positioning and scaling of the product.
This is a really fun example, Jens! I’ve seen similar game-based approaches used before, and the retention they drive is incredible. A great illustration of how customer value can be scaled!
Thank you so much Jenny! The excitement that this game is driving is difficult to describe in words, although the massive volume of people that are flocking to this game hopefully gets the same point across.
I've been hearing a lot about this game, weirdly enough!! And it’s clear you did your homework on Grow a Garden and nailed why it's a standout. Does this shift your thinking about engagement design in your own projects?
That's a really good question, James! Some of the research I did on this article reinforces some of my existing beliefs around engagement design, but perhaps where my thinking is shifting is towards defaulting to a combination of online and social media to scale faster.
Thanks for sharing! I recently bought an IPad and tried a bunch of games and alot of them used similiar tactics. I think it’s obviously powerful, but it also gave me a weird impression of them.
There are two different approaches or schools of thought when it comes to engaging or managing customers: Push vs Pull techniques. It's a bit like Yin and Yang, where you need a sensible balance to achieve harmony and it's easy for companies to go overboard and typically it leans too much towards the Push side.
In a gaming context, this might represent intrusive ads or annoying pop-ups asking you to upgrade to continue. The approach Grow a Garden takes is exactly the opposite and take a soft and gentle approach when it comes to upselling and lead on user engagement.
I hadn’t heard of grow a garden. Seems like quite a sticky experience. Over 21M users is just insane. And the classical music thing seems like it could my vibe. Thanks for sharing the business lessons from the game. The offline progression and creating value for customers even while aren’t actively engaged is really intriguing. I am thinking of ways more businesses could integrate that in their workflows.
It's really interesting to see how the concept has resonated with users and scaled to such big numbers! The practical application of how these concepts could be used across different business models and industries is definitely thought-provoking.
A super interesting read, Jens! Though I am not so much of a game person, I always love to explore the field especially if there are lessons to learn :) This approach reminds me of a game - 'Age of Empires'. It started slow with a couple of villagers building and growing stuff - houses, farms, cattle grazing and slowly picked up into fight amongst civilizations.
Thanks Charu, glad you found the content interesting! Its fun and games, but big business as well - some of these player volumes are bigger than the population of smaller countries!
This is the first I’ve heard or read of Grow a Garden but one lesson I picked up their gamification strategy is how they allow players gain even when they’re offline. The garden grows even while offline. I think that’s bold and confident and something I would love to test out in my business.
Also the post read like a great story, I didn’t even realize when I got to end.
Designing the game loop in that way gives users a good reason to come back to the game and keeps activity rates high!
Love how you not only broke down Grow a Garden’s success but actually mirrored those same engagement and retention tactics in your writing!
Clear onboarding, lively breakdowns, and those practical takeaways at the end—this post is a masterclass in practicing what you preach.
Looking forward to more!
Thank you Mahesh - you’re too kind! :o)
Yes Yes YES! Make it fun! We spend most of our hours at "work" - gamifying is a solid model that is here to stay. I can see many applications in the boring world of "work" for both organizations, employees and customers alike.
Thanks Elle, totally agree! If something is fun and effortless, it drives activity and engagement and the numbers usually follow :o)
I love how you are combining ideas from different domains. This is a very fertile realm.
Thank you! Glad you like the article. It seems to have been quite a popular post so far!
Fascinating analysis of 'Grow a Garden' you’ve got here. I love how you tie game mechanics to business strategies.
Glad you liked the article Petar! There is some really smooth user engagement going on here, combined with clever strategic positioning and scaling of the product.
This is a really fun example, Jens! I’ve seen similar game-based approaches used before, and the retention they drive is incredible. A great illustration of how customer value can be scaled!
Thank you so much Jenny! The excitement that this game is driving is difficult to describe in words, although the massive volume of people that are flocking to this game hopefully gets the same point across.
I've been hearing a lot about this game, weirdly enough!! And it’s clear you did your homework on Grow a Garden and nailed why it's a standout. Does this shift your thinking about engagement design in your own projects?
That's a really good question, James! Some of the research I did on this article reinforces some of my existing beliefs around engagement design, but perhaps where my thinking is shifting is towards defaulting to a combination of online and social media to scale faster.
Thanks for sharing! I recently bought an IPad and tried a bunch of games and alot of them used similiar tactics. I think it’s obviously powerful, but it also gave me a weird impression of them.
There are two different approaches or schools of thought when it comes to engaging or managing customers: Push vs Pull techniques. It's a bit like Yin and Yang, where you need a sensible balance to achieve harmony and it's easy for companies to go overboard and typically it leans too much towards the Push side.
In a gaming context, this might represent intrusive ads or annoying pop-ups asking you to upgrade to continue. The approach Grow a Garden takes is exactly the opposite and take a soft and gentle approach when it comes to upselling and lead on user engagement.
I hadn’t heard of grow a garden. Seems like quite a sticky experience. Over 21M users is just insane. And the classical music thing seems like it could my vibe. Thanks for sharing the business lessons from the game. The offline progression and creating value for customers even while aren’t actively engaged is really intriguing. I am thinking of ways more businesses could integrate that in their workflows.
It's really interesting to see how the concept has resonated with users and scaled to such big numbers! The practical application of how these concepts could be used across different business models and industries is definitely thought-provoking.