About the CGI framework
The CGI Framework provides a systematic and comprehensive approach to digital thriving design and development. The framework is oriented around three lenses:
- Community (C) — All the players oriented around a game
- Group (G) — Two or more players with a shared goal or content
- Individual (I) — Single players
CGI is designed to be:
- Simple — You only need to remember the three lenses to do more impactful work.
- Memorable — “CGI” is already a familiar term to many. (Yes, we’re aware it can also mean “computer-generated graphics.”)
- Powerful — Empowers developers to see the “whole elephant,” which isn’t possible with most comparable design tools.
- Scalable — CGI can be used by everyone, from individuals working on small projects to entire organizations with multiple products and complex ecosystems.
We believe that the CGI framework is the most important tool in the Digital Thriving Playbook. This belief is so strong that we take steps to ensure that all Big Idea-related research has been viewed through the lenses of C, G, and I.
Why is seeing the “whole elephant” important?
When focusing on communities, groups, and individuals separately, developers are only looking at parts of the problem space. This can lead to:
- Treating symptoms instead of addressing root causes.
- Overlooking opportunities to create more satisfying experiences.
A better approach is to look at products through each lens (C, G, and I) and get a solid understanding of how each affects the other. With this understanding, you can better plan and coordinate work across products, services, and the company.
We think of this as seeing the “whole elephant.”
How to use the CGI framework
Though there may be other ways, the CGI framework can be used for:
- Guiding design — Making better design decisions with “CGI” as a design heuristic.
- Project planning — Ensuring a project considers all relevant aspects.
- Organizing a workshop — Conducting problem-solving sessions with groups.
- Aligning teams — Harmonizing and coordinating efforts between teams across the different parts of the company.
Like many Playbook methods, the CGI Framework can be used by individuals or groups as part of a design toolkit or as a workshop exercise.
Example: CGI as a problem-solving workshop
To help demonstrate how you use the CGI framework, we’ve developed an example problem-solving workshop agenda. The agenda has three parts:
- Step 1: Components — Organize existing components (features, touchpoints, etc.) by level (C, G, and I respectively).
- Step 2: Analysis — Examine how each idea interacts with other levels.
- Step 3: Proposal — Generate and prioritize ideas for solving issues in the biggest problem areas.
All ideas and thoughts are captured in color coded sticky notes (physical or virtual). C, G, and I each get their own respective colors. Analysis notes should all be colored the same. Component sticky notes are to be organized into three rows. Each row should leave room for analysis notes, which will be added in Step 2. This image helps demonstrate the basic row and color coding structure:
Step 1: Components
The Components step is where teams visualize relevant parts of products and their ecosystems. Visualizing is done by creating sticky notes for anything that represents what players see, interact with, or may be influenced by.
As a facilitator, you are responsible for determining how long participants create component stickies. Keep in mind that the more stickies there are, the more will be required for Step 2, which focuses on analysis. Facilitators should consider assigning a limited scope at the beginning of the workshop to ensure participants aren’t overwhelmed and stay on schedule.
Sticky notes should be created for C, G, and I, and then organized into rows as shown in the graphic below. We recommend that the notes be placed in a logical order from left to right. Consider having the group create a simple player journey that can provide a basis for the ordering.
Placing the sticky notes into rows makes it easier to incorporate other Playbook methods into your workshop or at a later time.
Step 2: Analysis
Once they’ve created and organized a sufficient number of sticky notes (as determined by the facilitator), the group is ready to begin Step 2: Analysis. In this step, participants are asked to analyze and address the interplay of components across levels.
Participants should discuss how they believe each component affects and is affected by other levels. Though not required, analysis can be supported by incorporating existing company research into the workshop.
The following graphic illustrates how the analysis step works. Here we see how a team has compared their content creator program with ranked teams. A note beneath the program sticky has spawned discussion about a recent trend of “Iron to challenger” runs where higher skill players create new accounts to climb ranks as quickly as they can at the expense of lower-skilled players on ranked teams (who are reporting the behavior as “smurfing”).
Further analysis reveals that managers on the content creator program have been too relaxed and are allowing behavior that is not tolerated among the larger player base. Stickies have captured this insight.
When all components have respective analysis sticky notes, the group is ready for Step 3.
Step 3: Proposal
The final step of the workshop is about creating a project proposal. The proposal can take any form the group prefers.
To create a proposal, participants should:
- Determine which problem area in their CGI landscape is the biggest.
- Generate ideas for how to fix the problem area.
- Decide which of their ideas is best.
- Draft a proposal that summarizes why the specific area is a priority and how the group wants to fix it.
Once a proposal has been drafted, the workshop is complete!
Using CGI with other tools
By organizing CGI stickies into rows, the framework and workshop results can be easily combined with other Playbook tools. For instance, when the CGI framework is combined with the Rafting Model, participants can analyze and improve how the entire company is working together towards player behavior and digital thriving goals.
Experience maps are another great tool to use with the CGI framework. With these maps, participants can take detailed looks at existing player experiences from different perspectives and determine how to better support or improve them.
Now what?
At this point, we hope you’ve acquired a solid understanding of the CGI framework and its uses. To continue building on your new knowledge, please read the following:
