How To Use Play, Props, And Pre-/Post-Engagement To Turn In-Person CX Days Into Culture-Changing Moments

Games are as old as we are as people.

Games give us a way of making sense of the world and of creating social interactions. They spark motivation, curiosity, and can frame everyday situations in more intellectually stimulating ways.

Gamification has been around for a while now as a way of tapping into people’s intrinsic motivations, and we often see this through the lens of “points-ifying” leaderboards or rewarding badges or prizes for participation, but actually that’s a very naive lens to look through to think about how games interact with customer experience (CX).

A relatively new trend in games is more interactive experiences, such as escape rooms. At Forrester, we’ve been experimenting with building interactive experiences and immersive learning, inspired by concepts like escape rooms, to help teach key CX concepts, such as how journey maps and atlases connect to improvement roadmaps. Small teams move through stations, shoulder awkward and oversized props, and design a better home-buying journey together. They leave laughing, debating trade-offs — and actually remembering the CX tools they used.

Design Your Workshops As Experiences To Shift Behaviors

Professional event leaders design around human energy, not just agenda items. They balance the big “peacocking” moments that showcase the brand with smaller, highly personal sessions where attendees can find themselves in the content. And experience designers borrow from escape rooms: thinking in terms of players, difficulty curves, and the emotional arc of solving a challenge together rather than just hearing about it.

  • Build a narrative arc, not a moment. Treat your workshop or CX day as an experience with a narrative. Don’t think of a workshop as a a meeting with an agenda. People arrive in a certain emotional state, move through a sequence of moments, and leave with a story they will retell — or forget.
  • Design space, roles, and rules, not just content. Props and environmental cues create a “magic circle” that tells people that this is different than your usual Tuesday. Time-boxing, small groups, and facilitated stations keep everyone involved rather than letting the loudest voices dominate.
  • Cater to different player types. Some are achievers who love clear goals and progress; others are explorers who want to wander; socializers thrive on conversation; and a few competitive spirits light up when there’s a leaderboard or friendly contest. The best CX days give each of them a way to win.