GooseChase Blog

Want $10K, Superbowl Tickets, or an iPhone 5? Join the GradMail.com GooseChase now!

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 16:10:03 -0400

Ok People. Here it is, the Scavenger Hunt to end all Scavenger Hunts!

We at GooseChase have teamed up with GradMail.com to bring you a scavenger hunt of massive proportions. Taking place all across Canada and the United States for the next 8 weeks, YOU will have the opportunity to win great prizes including:

- $10,000 CASH
- Tickets to the Superbowl with airfare and accommodation included
- $5,000 shopping sprees to New York City or Beverly Hills (airfare and accommodation included!)
- A spring break trip for you and your friends
- iPads, iPhones (including the NEW iPhone 5)
- And much more! (Prizes will be updated throughout the game.)

Check in often at GradMail.com, Facebook and Twitter to see the additions and updates.

Contest is open to ALL individuals in the United States and Canada. There is no cost for entry and you can enter anytime!

Visit www.gradmail.com/scavengerhunt for all the rules and regulations. Official Launch of the game is at 5pm Eastern, September 4, 2012. GET HUNTING NORTH AMERICA and WIN!

Usability testing, round one.

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 23:54:23 -0400

This week we did our first ever usability test. I’d always known that we should be testing, but deadlines have always come so fast that it never happened. Plus we’re a startup, so it’s easy to say we’ll just figure it out and correct as we go. But man were we wrong.

It’s no secret that successful startups talk to their users frequently, yet somehow many of us never get around to it. It’s not like we don’t want to, we just put it off. Yet the benefits you get are completely disproportionate to the time you put in. In less than an hour, we found 3 major usability issues and quite a few minor ones. And that was with a design that I considered to be a major improvement from an old one.

So if any other startups are procrastinating usability testing, please, please give it a try. We only tested 3 people and received a ton of actionable insights. Steve Krug’s “Rocket Surgery Made Easy” is an incredible resource if you want help structuring your tests. I followed his examples and found it very useful. But anyone can really do it. All you do is pick a few key tasks you want your users to do, set a scenario and watch how they go about it. It’s incredibly simple, yet so useful.

Since we’re going to be running more usability tests going forward, we’re looking for volunteers. If you’d like a sneak peek into what we are working on, sign up here!

A big thanks to Renjie Butalid, Garrett Gottlieb & Kevin Simpson for helping us out with our first usability test!

Case Study: Yelp & GooseChase Partner for Vegas Spring Break

Thu, 31 May 2012 13:59:46 -0400

“GooseChase was an incredible addition to Yelp’s Spring Break in Las Vegas. It got people moving around, talking to each other in ways we couldn’t have even imagined!”

Yelp’s Las Vegas Spring Break

Every month, as a way of bringing their Elite Squad together, Yelp organizes special events for the Yelpers to mingle and meet each other offline. These events are typically hosted in their individual cities, but for the first ever Yelp “Spring Break”, over 500 Elites from 14 markets came to Vegas to celebrate. To get everyone moving around and mingling, Yelp & GooseChase partnered for a crazy city-vs-city scavenger hunt.

Breaking the Ice

With any event that brings people together, it’s key to break the ice as quickly as possible. For Yelp in particular, it was important to build camaraderie between Elites from the same markets and other markets. To accomplish this inter and intra-city mingling, all Spring Breakers represented their city while competing in a GooseChase. Just as Yelp hoped, the friendly competition led to strong inter and intra-city friendships in a very short amount of time.

Increased Brand Awareness

Spring Break was about strengthening the Yelp Elite community offline, but one pleasant bonus was the strong brand marketing they received throughout the weekend. Up and down The Strip, swagged-out Yelpers completed GooseChase challenges while promoting the Yelp brand. Whether it was swag giveaways or reviewing local businesses, Yelp received great brand exposure throughout Vegas over the course of the weekend.

Long Term Plans

When asked about including GooseChase in future Spring Breaks, it was a definite yes. Even the participants made their voice heard on the Yelp forums afterwards.

“We really want to include GooseChase again next year – it accomplished everything we wanted and more”. –Misti Yang, Yelp Community Manager – Las Vegas

“The true adventures happened as people did the GooseChase Spring Break Showdown” – Kevin P.

“The GooseChase was awesome. We wanna do another one!” – April D.

Passive & Active Games

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:10:35 -0400

When we first started working on GooseChase, we weren’t quite sure how people would use it. We knew that it would work well with the traditional 2-3 hour, “all-in” scavenger hunt, but we were really curious to see if people would use it for a passive game like Foursquare. It’s still early, but with our v2.0 product being live for a couple months now, it’s worth a look at our usage to see how our expectations held up.

Looking at the data, the first thing we noticed was how “all-in” scavenger hunts, like your standard 2 hour blitz, dominate. The vast majority of GooseChases last less than 3 hours. At first this was a little bit of a let-down for us as we were hoping to see some creative “non-standard” use, but it does makes sense. When a platform is very new, people start with the obvious ways. Only after they use it for a while do they figure out how they can tweak it for other uses too. We were expecting alternative usages to be found right away, which wasn’t realistic. They’ll come, but not this early.

The second is the breakdown of simple vs. intense tasks and how often they get completed. While it’s obvious that simple tasks would get completed more frequently than intense ones, we didn’t expect the disparity to be as high as it is. With the public “GooseChase Super-Hunt” we’ve been running for the last week or so, approximately 50% of the completed missions were “easy” and the other half were more “intense” missions. This may sound like an equal split, except that there were only 2-3 “easy” missions vs. ~20 “intense” missions, so completion was actually heavily weighted towards easy. We knew it would be like that, but we didn’t know it would be by so much.

Finally, the third insight is that there are really only two types of successful games - those that are incredibly passive and those that are very active & intense. Since most of our success so far has come from active games (e.g. a 2 hour blitz), we’d tried to convert the public games to a more passive style of play, but you can’t just “passivize” an active game and expect it to work. You either need to make it lightweight and easy to play from the ground up, like Foursquare or Words with Friends, or as intense and full of adrenaline as possible, like a 2 hour scavenger hunt.

It’s insights like these that enable us to continue improving our product. We can have all the ideas in the world, but until we test them, we never know for sure.

And since we’re always looking to improve GooseChase, we’d love to hear any suggestions you have about how we can improve the product!

I’ve caved. After being harassed about Pinterest by just about everyone I know, it’s...

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:10:15 -0400

I’ve caved. After being harassed about Pinterest by just about everyone I know, it’s time for GooseChase to get in on the action. Since our scavenger hunts produce some of the most entertaining pictures around, it’s a perfect fit. But I’ve got a secret. I don’t really understand it yet. I get the premise and all that, but the part where I’m supposed to get hooked, I’m not there.

So here’s what we’ll do. I’ve created 2 boards for GooseChase - one with great scavenger hunt pictures and another with great pictures I’d love to see on a scavenger hunt. But I need some help.

All you Pinteresting (sorry) folks out there, if you have some great scavenger hunt pictures, let me know! I want to post them on the GooseChase board and give you credit. We’ll be keeping it mostly PG-13, but other than that, anything goes.

Let’s see what you’ve got!

Peer photo review in scavenger hunts

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 11:57:00 -0400

Talk to any scavenger hunt organizer and they’ll tell you that the worst part, by far, is evaluating and scoring the photos at the end. Technology has helped a lot, but the photo review process is still very tedious.

When we ran through our platform a few months ago to figure out what was working and what wasn’t, we knew we could make this process a lot better. After testing out a few different ideas, we realized that peer photo review was the perfect solution.

At its core, since photos are already being reviewed on the photo feed throughout the game, why should the organizer have to review them all again at the end? Why not harness the peer review that’s already happening and use it to highlight the pics that might not be good enough?

With GooseChase 2.0, each photo now has an up and down arrow next to it on the photo feed. If there’s a great picture, participants can give it a congratulatory upvote. But if a photo clearly doesn’t cut it, participants can give it a downvote and flag it for review. Not only does it make the game more interactive for the participants, but the tedious photo review work is substantially reduced!

As an administrator, you’ll still need to make sure that the photos flagged are actually weak (there’s an area in our web interface that shows flagged photos), but instead of having to go through hundreds of photos, now you’ll only have to go through a handful. That’s a huge time-saver for you and is one of the features I’m most excited about in GooseChase 2.0.

We are still tweaking the algorithms on upvotes/downvotes to get it just right, but it’s there for you to play around with. We think that this is a big step forward on our path of making scavenger hunts easier to run and hope you like it!

If you have any feedback on the peer-review system, we’d love to hear it! Just drop us a line at hi@goosechase.com.

You can sign up for a free GooseChase account here or on our iPhone or Android apps.

GooseChase headed back to Waterloo in mid-May

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 22:33:00 -0400

As many of you know, GooseChase has had the amazing opportunity of participating in Start-Up Chile for the past few months. It’s been quite the experience and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. Our productivity has also been through the roof so it’s hard to complain. But like all good things, it must come to an end, and our time is almost up here.

When planning where to go after this, we struggled between moving to the Bay Area and going back to Waterloo. Both have pros and cons, but in the end we decided to head back to Waterloo. There’s something really exciting happening in Waterloo, especially with VeloCity growing the way it is. I’m confident there’s going to be a couple very large companies come out of the area in the next 10 years and I want to be a part of it.

So starting in mid-May, we’ll be back in Waterloo working out of the VeloCity Garage at the Tannery. If you’re in the area, give us a shout!

Mini-scavenger hunts in your daily life.

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:39:00 -0400

A few days ago a couple friends from Canada arrived in Chile. To show them Santiago, I’ve been acting as a tour guide, albeit a very unknowledgable one. And while showing off the sights, we started to notice a few trends that happen quite frequently. In Chile in particular, public displays of affection and almost car accidents seem to happen all the time.

To make a game out of it, we started making guesses on how many of X we would see before we got to Y. Turns out, that’s a really fun game. After thinking about it later, it’s essentially a mini-scavenger hunt. Other than the fact that I clearly have a style of game that I like, I realized it can be played in other situations as well (e.g. commuting to work, walking to the store, etc). Sure it’s a little childish, but it adds a little excitement to your life - and who doesn’t like that?

So if you are feeling bored tomorrow on your way into work, try predicting how many people will get off at the next stop or how many people will cough before your connection. Maybe loop in someone else on the game and compete head to head. Either way, it spices up your life in a fun way and helps you be more aware of your surroundings. In my book, those are two pretty awesome improvements.

Applying the Lean Startup to Mobile

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 09:34:00 -0400

http://vimeo.com/38394830

“Each Monday we would come up with a hypothesis to test, code like crazy throughout the week and test over the weekend.” - Mike Krieger, Co-founder of Instagram (paraphrased)

Like many startups out there, I’m a big fan of the lean startup. Despite the fact that it’s become a bit of a buzzword, there’s a lot of value in it, especially for first time entrepreneurs. But I’ve always found that there’s a complete lack of actionable guidance on how to apply it to mobile. With Apple’s review process taking 1-2 weeks at a time with the possibility of rejection, you can’t rely on live apps to test your MVP. You can distribute ad hoc, but that’s a very time consuming process and you can only have 100 devices associated with an account. To get around it, I’ll often hand my phone to friends and family to see how they use it, but again, that’s not ideal. Pretty much all options out there suck. In an effort to figure it out, I attended a “Design and the Mobile Startup” panel at SXSW last week. Seeing as the key speakers were the Alex Rainert, head of product for Foursquare, Alexa Andrzejewski, CEO of Foodspotting, and Mike Krieger, Co-founder of Instagram, I was hoping to glean some knowledge from those that have figured it out. The talk started off with basic stuff like intros, product vision, scaling up, etc., but the real gold came when they started discussing how the apps evolved from their earliest forms. As Ron Goldin, the founder & creative director of AKKO and the moderator of the panel, brought up screenshots of each of the three apps throughout their life, an interesting discussion started about the early iterations and how they tested. I didn’t fully grasp it at the time, but this was essentially the lean startup being applied to mobile before lean was a buzzword. Each panelist had a very similar approach, but Mike said it best (paraphrasing):

“Each Monday we would come up with a hypothesis to test, code like crazy throughout the week and test over the weekend.”

When Apple’s review process came up, it was revealed that both Foursquare & Instagram (and maybe Foodspotting?) used html apps to test their designs & features. Once they verified the design on the html version, they would build native apps when they were ready to go live. Admittedly, it’s not a perfect solution since you have to go build the native apps at the end of it, but it solves all the distribution and rapid iteration problems associated with mobile. Something doesn’t work? Push out a new version mid-week. Want to split test a feature? Go right ahead. It’s so obvious that I felt a little stupid when I heard it, but I’d never read/thought about it before so odds are others probably haven’t as well. With “mobile or web first” being a hot debate right now, it’s time mobile gets a bit more attention in the lean startup as well. Distilled down to the most lightweight form, here’s a few tips for applying lean startup to mobile as per Instagram, Foursquare and Foodspotting:

Hypothesize on Monday, build all week and test on the weekend. Consumers use apps most heavily on the weekend, so it’s a perfect time to run a few experiments.
Use html apps to test your hypotheses and switch to native at the end. Quicker iteration, split testing and changing on the fly all make it a no brainer.
Pay attention to what features your users use and how/when. Foodspotting noticed a huge split between users who are a) out and about looking for a tasty dish now and b) planning their meals ahead of time and want to find the perfect place to eat. As a result, they essentially split their app into two “modes” to improve the UX for each.

Get in on the SXSW GooseChase

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:47:00 -0500

GooseChase iPhone app can be downloaded from here & Android from here.

Hooray! It’s March! And with March comes the wildest conference out there, South by Southwest (SXSW). As we mentioned a month ago, GooseChase is going to be competing in the SXSW Accelerator competition, but our involvement doesn’t just stop there.

In order to celebrate the unveiling of our brand new, version 2.0 platform, we’re running a massive GooseChase to highlight all the hottest startups at SXSW. What’s so special about that? Well picture all the things you know and love about GooseChase: the intense competition, the incredible pics and the crazy challenges, and now add in the next wave of awesome tech from all over the world. Yup, sounds pretty awesome right?

Anyone who’s participated in a GooseChase knows that this isn’t your ordinary scavenger hunt. Sure you submit photos to complete missions and receive points, but when you see all the photos coming into the feed and you’re climbing the leaderboard, it’s really easy to get hooked. Like really, really easy. So with each mission highlighting a startup and their product with an entertaining challenge, it gives you an incredible way to meet the hottest startups before they explode.

Wouldn’t it have been cool to get to know Foursquare or Twitter before everyone else knew about them? I think so. And that’s where the SXSW GooseChase comes in. You’ll be up close and personal, getting to know these startups the way they really are. Uncensored and without PR polish, just raw, awesome startupness.

There’s already a ton of awesome startups in on it and their missions are nothing short of incredible. I’m always amazed by the creativity of others, and this has been no different. Whether it’s challenging others to a coaster throwing competition or having a pitch-off for make believe products, each startup has managed to convert their essence into a crazy fun task for you to do.

And you know what the coolest part is? All the startups that are trying to market themselves actually want to play too. You know something’s pretty awesome when everyone’s as excited as we are.

“Just checked out GooseChase & could not be more excited for their SXSW GooseChase!” -BringShare

“Amazing! Super excited to be involved.” - Stealth Startup

“I am going to have to download the app, I want to do the scavenger hunt myself!” -Wisdio

The good news is with SXSW starting in just over a week, we don’t have to wait too long to get this show on the road. If you are going to be in Austin, I highly encourage you to check out the SXSW GooseChase by downloading the new GooseChase iPhone or Android apps! It’s going to be an incredible ride and I feel pretty confident you won’t regret it :)

Are you a startup that wants to be featured in the SXSW GooseChase? Head to www.goosechase.com/sxsw and submit a mission for free!

The 20 best scavenger hunt missions

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:05:00 -0500

When I give someone the elevator pitch for GooseChase, I always make sure to weave in a couple of my favourite missions as examples. Not only does it get the point across, but this is usually the moment when they get what we are trying to do. Just like you put a face to a name, this puts an experience to the technology.

Since fun missions are the key to a great scavenger hunt, and we’ve got countless awesome scavenger hunt missions, I thought it would be fun to highlight my top 20. Feel free to use them for your own scavenger hunts or modify them as you please. If you want to see more, the full list is available in our game creation interface!

Rickroll in Real Life: Knock on someones door and sing never gonna give you up caroling style.
Hardcore Parkour: Show off your newfangled parkour skills by jumping over an object in style.
Piggy Back Please?: Have a stranger give a teammate a piggy back ride. Hang on!
Please Mom?: Take a turn on a coin operated children’s ride and get a little too excited about how much fun it is.
Ribbit: Recruit a few strangers to play a leisurely game of leapfrog in the park with you.
Safety First: Snap a picture of a team member wearing at least 3 items of personal protective equipment. Must be worn for the next mission as well.
Wheel Barrow: Find a real wheel barrow and give a teammate a lift. Act nonchalant.
Need for Speed: Engage in a footrace with a stranger for at least 100m (110y). Photo mid-race.
Comfy?: Photo all team members less one sleeping on a department store mattress. Get cozy.
Oxymoron: Balance is key for a healthy lifestyle. Go do yoga in a fast food joint with a stranger.
Energy Boost: Photo all team members simultaneously chugging an energy drink of any type.
Jugglin’: Find a stranger who can juggle 3+ objects. Snap them in action and give it a go yourself.
Murder Mystery: Create a human chalk outline on the sidewalk of a public place with someone lying in it.
Slam Dunk: You’re an NBA superstar. Throw down a thunderous slam dunk on something other than a basketball net.
Stowaway: Airfare is expensive these days. Save a bit of money and hide in a suitcase.
Breakdance Masta’: Teach a stranger how to do a breakdance move that you just invented.
Employed?: Photo a team member working at a service job they’re not actually employed at.
Fountain Fishing: Take a picture of a teammate fishing in a public fountain. Get creative.
Mista’ Twista’: Engage in a spontaneous game of Twister in an elevator. Preferably with strangers in the elevator with you.
Here for the Show: Photo your team eating popcorn and enjoying a movie at a local electronics store.
BONUS! Quick Trim: Get a teammate to undergo a body hair waxing session.

Yup. Some are a little crazy, but you’d be amazed at how often they actually get done. When the game is on the line, even Quick Trim doesn’t look that bad. Afterwards, not so much, but that’s all part of the fun of scavenger hunts. Letting loose and going for the win!

If you have any great scavenger hunt missions you’d like to share, we’d love to hear them! Just drop us a line at hi@goosechase.com. We might even post the best ones to our blog, so fire away.

If you liked these missions and want to create some of your own, check out Three formulas for coming up with great scavenger hunt missions.

In case you missed it, there was an awesome write-up on...

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:02:00 -0500

In case you missed it, there was an awesome write-up on GooseChase today in Tech Cocktail.

The interesting thing about Tech Cocktail is how they focus on the entrepreneurs and the business decisions behind the company, not just the shiny exterior of the product. It’s a unique take and leads to some very interesting articles. If you haven’t read anything by them, I encourage you to check it out ASAP (and the GooseChase article!).

http://techcocktail.com/goosechase-2012-02#.Tyw5SWNSSFh

GooseChase is pitching at the SXSW Accelerator

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:03:00 -0500

Today I’m incredibly excited to announce that GooseChase has been selected to pitch at the SXSW Accelerator on March 12-13. As one of only 8 companies selected for the Entertainment category, this is a huge honour. SXSW has the ability to make or break a product and we believe that we have a great chance of taking home the gold for 2012. Just like Foursquare, Twitter and GroupMe before us, we want GooseChase to hit the mainstream at SXSW.

But, to accomplish that, we’re going to need some help getting the ball rolling. I can’t tell you exactly what it is (yet), but I can promise you that it will be hella fun. You don’t need to be going to SXSW, but it will definitely help if you are. So if you are down to help, please drop me an e-mail at andrew@goosechase.com. In exchange, you’ll get a early peak at something special we’ll be unveiling just before SXSW!

Let the countdown begin.

About the SXSW Accelerator

The fourth annual SXSW Accelerator will take March 12-14 at the 2012 SXSW Festival in Austin Texas. A live audience, as well as a panel of expert judges will be discovering advancements in social media, mobile applications, web entertainment, and more. The best part? Product demonstrations by the most ambitious talents in the world with the most creative new ideas to change it. We will catch a glimpse of the industry’s future, with a guided tour by our emcees and judges.

This competition will be unlike any other. On March 12, forty-eight companies battle for your taste-making, trend-setting attention, leading to a fireworks display of innovation. Connections will be made and careers launched. On Tuesday March 13, the top eighteen companies will be invited back, and at the end of the day winners of SXSW Accelerator will be announced. The Music Accelerator follows on Wednesday, March 14th with a full day of programming in which eight music technology startups companies will pitch their products or services.

How long should a scavenger hunt be?

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:01:00 -0500

“So, uh, how long should this be?” – Most scavenger hunt creators

When I first start talking to someone about using GooseChase, one of the most common questions I get is “how long should this be?”. While there’s no perfect length, we have noticed that there are three types of scavenger hunts that seem to work well in many situations. Each one has their strengths and weaknesses, but 9 times out of 10 one of them will align perfectly with your use case. Every event is still unique, but making sure you have the proper timeline for your event will make sure you get the most you can out of it! So without further ado, here are three common scavenger hunt lengths that you should consider.

The Quickie

First off, the quickie. This works perfectly as a hit of excitement to boost the energy level of an event. It shouldn’t be the primary focus of a gathering since it’s too short, but if you are looking for a way to mix it up without a lot of time flexibility, this is it. We’ve seen these work incredibly well during breaks at conferences, picnics as well as mid-afternoon breaks at work.

Metaphor: 200m sprint

Target length: 30-45 minutes game-time + 15 min for organization and wrap-up.

Number of missions: 20-30 relatively quick missions (Interactions with Strangers with a handful of Mini-Flash Mobs are good here)

The Afternoon Delight

Next we have the afternoon delight. This is a full on blitz of scavenger hunt glory. When the participants come together, it’s to go for gold and nothing else. That’s not to say it can’t be included as a component within a bigger event, but during that time, the focus is only on the scavenger hunt. Some great examples of afternoon delight’s are team building events, a weekend game with your friends or a charity fundraiser.

Metaphor: 5,000m run

Target duration: 1.5 hours of game-time, 30 min for organization (this can be pushed a bit longer if required, but be careful or else it might get a bit tiring).

Number of missions: 35-50 varied missions (A 40/40/20 split of Interactions with Strangers, Mini-Flash Mobs, and Challenges that Push You is good here)

The Tortoise

Finally we have the tortoise. Just like the fable, slow and steady is needed to win here. It’s not as common for a fun weekend activity, but it does seem to be a perfect fit for conferences and marketing activations. The key is finding challenges that will keep people entertained and excited, but not interfere too much with their day-to-day obligations. The added bonus is you can include more challenging missions since participants have a longer time to figure them out.

Metaphor: Marathon

Target duration: 2-7 days (can be shorter for events like golf tournaments or one day conferences, but the sweet spot is 2-7 days).

Number of missions: 50-100 varied missions (A 20/20/60 split of Interactions with Strangers, Mini-Flash Mobs, and Challenges that Push You is good here)

At the end of the day, there’s no hard rules about how long a scavenger hunt can be. If you want to drop a Tortoise to 8 hours of game-time, it’s not a problem. But remember that most of us have limited attention spans. So before you boost an Afternoon Delight to 3 hours, keep in mind that it might be hard to maintain the excitement level for that long.

Still not sure how long your scavenger hunt should go for? Drop us a line and I’ll be happy to help! Absolutely no pressure, we just enjoy scavenger hunts.

Happy scavenger hunting!

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Coming up with great challenges for scavenger hunts

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 22:59:00 -0500

I find the variety of challenges you see in scavenger hunts to be highly entertaining. For university events, you’ll often see the boundaries get pushed a little bit. For other events like team building, pushing the boundaries isn’t as important as achieving company goals.

But despite the differences from hunt to hunt, there are certain formulas that a lot of the tasks follow. If you are struggling to come up with missions for your own scavenger hunt, play around with these 3 basic situations and see if you can come up with something interesting. My bet is you will.

Formula 1: Interactions with Strangers

Challenges where participants interact with strangers are one of the easiest but most effective options. You don’t want to make the interactions too crazy as these are random people, but something odd that only takes a few seconds makes a great challenge. When thinking of these quirky interactions, try mashing up activities that you would see in different locations (e.g. Yoga in a fast food restaurant with a stranger). The possibilities are truly endless, and you will often be amazed by a) how receptive random people are to help out and b) how good the participants are at approaching people during the game.

Some great examples:

Piggy Back: Take a picture of a stranger giving you a piggy back. You must hold on for at least 5 seconds!
RickRoll in Real Life: One of the weirdest internet trends to come along is the Rick Roll, where you play Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up when someone least expects it. Pull it off in real life by singing the song to some unsuspecting person karaoke style.
Heart-Felt Proposal: Get down on one knee and let the whole world know that you love that stranger who just walked by. Take a pic!

Formula 2: Mini-flash mobs

While this may appear to be similar to formula one above, not involving a stranger does make a big difference. The trick is to create tasks that are either a) very bold (e.g. a flash mob with your team in a public square) or b) subtle but odd enough that people will do a double-take (e.g. fishing in a public fountain). When I’m thinking up these types of missions, I first think of a busy public place for the target and then figure out odd things I’d want to see there.

Some great examples:

Here for the Show: Bring your own bag of popcorn into an electronics store and sit down to watch the movie!
Mister Twister: Who needs an actual playing board for Twister? Bust out a spontaneous game in the middle of a public place!
Hardcore Parkour: Think Parkour is just for an elite few? We beg to differ. Get out there and show off your best parkour skills.

Formula 3: Individual Challenges that Push You

Completing quirky challenges in public places is certainly fun, but it’s always important to mix in some more challenging tasks to take it to the next level. First, a quick disclaimer, don’t make people do something they will regret. Be smart. With that said, it’s amazing what people will do for a few points. Probably the biggest surprise we’ve had with GooseChase is the realization that people will do just about anything to win. When creating challenges, think of things you would have bet a friend to do for $20 when you were younger. It’s amazing how often these stupid ideas turn into great challenges.

Some great examples:

Take a Dip: Jump into a body of water fully clothed and fully submerge yourself. Nice little cool-down right?
Quick Trim: Shave something interesting into your’s or someone else’s chest hair. Outline your art in a marker.
Nasty Concoction: Combine at least 3 very different beverages together and drink your concoction. The grosser the better.

These are only three types of challenges that make great content for a scavenger hunt. There’s obviously many more. We find that most people intuitively have a couple favourites they want to include. However, at some point, you run out of ideas. When that happens, try using these formulas to mix things up. We’ve had a lot of success with them and they work for a lot of different situations.

Happy scavenger hunting!

Start-Up Chile: Lessons Learned 1

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 22:57:00 -0500

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve written here, so I wanted to give a quick update on Start-Up Chile. On the whole, it’s been a very positive experience. There’s definitely a few weaknesses with the program, but the pros easily outweigh the cons. I’ll write about that in the future, but for now I want to call out three things that struck me as interesting. They are pretty obvious and have been discussed many times before, but sometimes they don’t catch until you actually experience it.

Productivity

I knew our productivity would improve being away from the noise of home, but I didn’t expect it to improve this much. We’ve already pulled a few “almost-allnighters” just because we were on a roll. As a result, our productivity has practically doubled. We wouldn’t be where we are without working at the Communitech Hub, and I highly recommend it, but there is a definite weakness in terms of distractions. When you have several meetings a day and go out/home for lunch/dinner, focus is much harder to come by. Remove all that and the end result is more frequent “flow” and for longer.

Competition

Friendly competition is key. There’s a couple companies here that are in a very similar position to us: fantastic early traction and passionate users, but trying to take it to the next level. One of them (Jogabo.com) was actually just covered in TechCrunch France. If you don’t have any hard deadlines approaching, knowing others are moving quickly helps you stay driven. For me especially, I struggle with sticking to self-imposed deadlines. That’s why having an external influence like friendly competition is very useful.

Pacing Yourself

I’ve got a few friends who are tremendous hackers. They can binge on a new idea for days in a row and work at a pace few people can. But it’s not sustainable. That’s why a key piece of our work culture involves breaks and pacing yourself. I know this contradicts my earlier point about focus due to lack of food breaks and meetings, but I don’t think it has to. I’m talking about big breaks here, not micro-breaks every 30 minutes throughout the day.

Example: Last Saturday, we went to a backyard BBQ with some people from Start-Up Chile. You can look at the opportunity cost and say that we were net negative because we could have been working and making progress. But Sunday and the next few days after, our productivity was incredibly high. There’s obviously a balance associated with it. But my experience suggests that stepping away from your project completely for an afternoon or day every few weeks pays serious dividends. This is just my opinion and I don’t have any hard, empirical evidence to support it, but my gut is that we came out substantially ahead. This is one area that I’ll be playing around with going forward to try and lock down something more substantial.

These are just my first thoughts on our experience at Start-Up Chile. I’m sure there will be more to come, but these were the big ones so far. If anyone has any questions about the program, post them in the comments or tweet them at me (@GooseChase).

Here’s some awesome news for us that we wanted to share with...

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 22:53:00 -0400

Here’s some awesome news for us that we wanted to share with everyone. As of tonight, we are relocating to Chile for 6 months to participate in Start-Up Chile, one of the more intriguing accelerators to come out in the last year or two. It’s a pretty bold decision, but we are very confident in our ability to execute remotely and keep improving the product at a breakneck pace.

What I’m most excited about is getting to know the highly diverse set of entrepreneurs in the program. I think we sometimes get stuck in the bubble of what we know, and stepping out and living in another culture is a great way to break that habit. Everyone knows globalization is happening, yet few people actually act aggressively on it. By living in another culture and working with a global network of entrepreneurs, we are positioning ourselves well for the future.

With only a few hours to go before we head down, the excitement is really starting to kick in. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and we’ve got high hopes for what we can accomplish there!

I’m going to do my best to blog frequently and give plenty of updates on how things are going – so make sure to check back soon and add us on twitter (@GooseChase)! (feed: http://goosechase.com/blog/feed/)

More Information About Start-Up Chile:

Start-Up Chile is a program created by the Chilean Government, initiated by the Ministry of Economy and executed by Corfo/InnovaChile, that seeks to attract early-stage high potential entrepreneurs to bootstrap their startups using Chile as a platform to go global. In line with the national goal of converting Chile into the innovation and entrepreneurship hub of Latin America, the program plans to bring 1,000 startups to Chile by 2014.

During the six months the participants must be in Chile– for which they receive US$40k of equity-free seed capital, a 1-year work visa, and access to local financial and social networks– the objective is to raise funds, hire talent, create networks, and to launch their businesses from Chile while leveraging and interacting fully with the local entrepreneurship ecosystem.

The program, unique in the world, and catalyst of similar initiatives such as Startup America, Britain, and Greece, is the ideal opportunity for bootstrappers to receive funding without ceding equity while utilizing one of the strongest Latin American economies as their launching/development platform. Start-Up Chile has been featured in The Economist, BusinessWeek, TechCrunch, and Forbes, among others.

For more information about the Start-Up Chile experience, please visit www.startupchile.org.

How to run a great teambuilding scavenger hunt: Debrief

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0400

With this 3-part series, I’ll be looking at how to run a great scavenger hunt team building event. If you have any questions on how to use specific concepts, ask away and I’ll do my best to answer them. For this final post, I’ll be looking at the post-hunt wrap up and how you can make it more engaging and exciting for the participants. Part 1: Preparation can be found here and Part 2: In-Hunt can be found here.

I have a very good memory, but it’s short. Thank God for photography. -John E. Burkowski

Just like many of us are forgetful with everyday tasks, team building events often suffer a similar fate. Awesome in the moment, but the shine of them dissipates rather quickly afterwards. In order to get the most out of your events, here’s a few tips for a strong wrap-up.

Penalize late teams

Ensuring teams arrive back at the rendezvous point at the same time is a really easy way to ratchet up the excitement after a hunt. From a participant’s perspective, it’s effective in two different ways. First, being part of a big group that comes together all at once is a really cool feeling. The banter between teams leads to great excitement and anticipation for the final scores. The second reason is if everyone is back at the rendezvous point, no one can still be out there taking pictures. When it comes to competitive activities with adults, perceived unfairness is one of the easiest ways to get complaints. By making sure that nobody gets an unfair advantage, you can keep the mood light and energetic.

In order to achieve this magical, synchronized reunion, penalize teams for every minute they are late. We suggest a penalization of 200 points, or approximately a half the value of a standard mission, for every minute late. This way if a team is a minute or two late, it’s not a gamechanger, but it’s still stiff enough that teams usually make it back on time.

Have something for teams to do when they get back

Assuming teams are penalized for being late, there’s bound to be a few teams that will show up to the rendezvous point early. To prepare for these teams, make sure there’s something for them to do. Even if it’s just a table with beverages and snacks, having something there will prevent everyone from standing around.

To help prevent excessive standing around after the hunt, try using a smartphone app that automatically uploads the photos throughout the hunt. It eliminates the time wasted transferring photos from digital cameras and then scoring them by hand. It’s more efficient for the facilitator and prevents wasted time for the participants.

Look through pictures first!

We get it. All the teams have just come rushing back after a high paced, entertaining scavenger hunt and are clamoring to see the pictures. You want to throw them up there ASAP and receive the adoration of the masses. Don’t do it! Without properly screening the pictures, you have no idea what you’ll be putting up there.

Admittedly, the odds of someone taking a shockingly inappropriate photo during a company event are low, but it’s not worth the risk. Take five minutes. Go through the photos and look for two things. One, check that all the pictures are appropriate. Think about both now and in the future when they could be taken out of context. Two, make sure they achieve the minimum specifications for each mission. It’s a simple step, but it’s something that has to be done.

Slideshows

The slideshow is the grand finale of a scavenger hunt. Not only is it the first time everyone sees all the pictures, it’s also how the event will be remembered. When putting together the slide show, make sure you pay attention to three slideshow components.

Photo Organization

For photo organization, we find the most impactful arrangement is according to the missions. Show all the pictures for one mission and then move on to the next. It may be tempting to arrange via team or randomize the pictures, but great videos tell a story, and the most compelling story for everyone comes from a mission-based theme.

Accompanying Music

If you’ve ever seen a slideshow where the music seemed out of place, you’ll understand how important having the proper music is. Choosing the right music is an art that depends on the feel of the hunt, so we can’t give a single blanket recommendation. With that said, here are few of our go-to songs for a given mood:

Intense: Carmina Burana by Carl Orff

Funny: Always Look on The Bright Side of Life by Monte Python

Relaxed: Viva La Vida by Coldplay

Video Duration

Keep it under 5 minutes and have the slideshow length match the song length. Any longer and you’ll lose the attention of the viewers. iPhoto is a great photo management program the allows you to easily sync the slideshow length with that of the accompanying song. With larger groups, fitting all the pictures within 5 minutes can be challenging. If this is the case, try collaging pictures to shrink down the video time. If this still doesn’t work, feel free to remove some of the less interesting photos. No one will be upset if all of their photos aren’t included as long as two or three of their awesome pics make it in.

Since you now know how to run an awesome teambuilding scavenger hunt, get out there and start hunting!

How to run a great teambuilding scavenger hunt: In-Hunt

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0400

With this 3-part series, I’ll be looking at how to run a great scavenger hunt team building event. If you have any questions on how to use specific concepts, ask away and I’ll do my best to answer them. For this second post, I’ll be looking at the in-hunt experience and how you can make it awesome. Part 1: Preparation can be found here and Part 3: Debrief can be found here.

Searching is half the fun: life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party. -Jimmy Buffet

Jimmy Buffet clearly had it figured out. When you view life’s challenges as a game instead of a surprise attack, you are bound to be a much happier individual. With that kind of mentality, an actual scavenger hunt is like a game within a game. I suppose that makes GooseChase the Inception of teambuilding!

Now there are many different types of events that can be classified as scavenger hunts. Some deal with collecting a set list of items and bringing them back to a rendezvous point, others require participants to go to a certain number of checkpoints. I love scavenger hunts in all shapes and sizes, but my favorite, and the most common, is the photo-based scavenger hunt. Very flexible by nature, participants are given a list of missions at the beginning of the hunt and take pictures to prove completion.

For the sake of this article, I will be focusing on the photo-based scavenger hunt. I’m sure most of these tips will work for other types, but it’s been written with photo scavenger hunts in mind.

Ambiguous missions unlock creativity

The most impressive thing about a photo-based scavenger hunt is the incredible creativity that participants display. Many organizers feel that they need to be very specific about what needs to be done. That’s crap! The most creative and impressive pictures are from unique interpretations of an ambiguous task.

One of my favorite missions is “Employed”, where participants have to take a picture of a teammate working at a service job they aren’t actually employed at. We don’t specify what job it is, so participants are forced to be creative and the results are often incredible. Case in point, one team convinced a local barber shop to let them give (or at least pretend to give) a straight-shave to a teammate!

Add more missions than participants have time for

The first hunt we ever ran appeared to have been timed perfectly. With 3 minutes to go, one team finished their final mission. However, after going through the pictures and talking to the participants, it was obvious that there were a few missions they weren’t interested in and only did because it was all that was left. The drop-off in creativity was noticeable and reduced the overall “awesomeness” level of the hunt.

To avoid this, we recommend choosing approximately 40 missions for a 90 minute hunt. It’s still low enough that participants aren’t overwhelmed with choice, but it allows teams to complete missions they enjoy until the end of the hunt. Just make sure you emphasize that only legit pictures receive points before the hunt begins. We’ve found that this eliminates nearly all instances of the “take as many mediocre pictures as you can” strategy.

Use points for scoring

All missions are not created equal. Some are inherently harder than others and teams should be rewarded accordingly. That’s why we have a point value for each mission. Some teams will decide to go after the big points, sacrificing the easier, lower value missions. Others will go by volume, targeting the quick and easy missions. No strategy is distinctly better than the others, but having a strategy increases engagement and should be encouraged.

As a sidenote, you don’t have to be perfect in your point value selection. Teams will naturally choose what missions to do based on their perceived opportunity cost. If you notice that every team skipped the same mission, it might be worth making adjustments for future hunts, but having one under or over-valued mission won’t ruin the event.

Extra Tip for an Outgoing Group: Put a few “Hail Mary’s” in there. When your team needs a big move to catch up to the leader, waxing your back for 4000 points suddenly seems like the smart move. Know what your group is comfortable with, but if you’ve got a really fun group, don’t hesitate to push the envelope a little bit.

A good mix of social and non-social missions is necessary

One of our favorite things about social missions are the interactions between teams and strangers. It adds an extra element of unpredictability when you involve people that don’t know what’s going on. The great thing is most people are incredibly receptive to helping out teams on a scavenger hunt.

To prevent social mission burn-out, a good rule of thumb is to have no more than two-thirds of the missions involve strangers. This makes sure that all teams complete some social events, but other options exist. If you’ve got an especially crazy group, such as a sales division, feel free to adjust this number higher, but in most circumstances we have had success with this target.

Choose mode of transportation based on location

If you’re debating whether or not cars should be allowed, the location of the hunt should be considered. If your organization is located in a rural area, it’s hard to argue against the use of vehicles. Using multiple cars for one team is a logistical hassle, so stick to 4-5 people per team.

However, if your organization is located near a bustling, urban area, we recommend restricting transportation to walking or public transit. If you expect public transportation will be involved, providing day passes for participants is a nice touch. When cars are not required, team sizes are slightly more flexible. With that said, when a team is larger than 6 people, some team members will usually be less involved than others. Since the whole purpose of the event is to build teamwork and involve everyone, team sizes in the 4-5 range are still the best.

Inter-team feedback is incredibly motivating

Hunts where you can keep tabs on the other teams are so much more fun than being on your own the entire time. As human beings, we crave feedback and want to know exactly how we are doing compared to everyone else. Unfortunately, most scavenger hunts are entirely lacking in the feedback department.

There’s a few ways that this can be fixed. One way is to use checkpoints in the hope that teams will cross paths. Another option is to send out updates via text message. While these methods are both better than nothing, the best feedback is real-time leaderboards and updates. We are biased since this is one of the most loved features of GooseChase, but it’s hard to argue against continuous feedback when compared to the alternatives.

These tips will work well for the vast majority of photo scavenger hunts, but it’s important to remember that all people are different. If your group is a wild bunch, spice it up a little. If you think something a bit more straightforward is best for your team, that’s cool too. The great thing about scavenger hunts is they are so customizable. By changing the missions a little, it really is possible to have something that works for everyone.

By the way, if you want to see more photos from our previous hunts, we have a video compilation of some great shots here. I still get a chuckle out of some of these shots…and they don’t even include some of the more risqué shots we’ve seen!

If you liked these in-hunt tips, check back next week for part 3 of the series: debriefing in style! I’ll show you how to cap off a great event with a bang.

How to run a great teambuilding scavenger hunt: Preparation

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0400

With this 3-part series, I’ll be looking at how to run a great scavenger hunt team building event. If you have any questions on how to use specific concepts, ask away and I’ll do my best to answer them. For this first post, I’ll be looking at how to properly prepare for an event. Part 2: In-Hunt can be found here and Part 3: Debrief can be found here.

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. -Seneca

One of my favorite quotes on preparation is by Seneca. He proposes that luck isn’t really chance at all, but the result of hard work done well before an opportunity arises. The sad thing is, most people don’t prepare adequately and team building events often fall into that category.

The excuses are always creative (too busy, don’t know how, or *gasp* too lazy), but the reality is if you wan’t a great event, you have to prepare properly. With team building events, proper preparation could be the difference between a smash hit and a snoozer. To help you avoid putting on a sleep clinic, here are 5 tips to help you nail your next event.

1. Clarify the Purpose of the Hunt

This may seem like a no-brainer, but a lot of people jump right into the event details without any thought to the ultimate goal. For corporate team building events, this is especially important, as goals will often differ substantially between organizations.

As an example, a company that has been struggling with friction between marketing and sales will want to focus on building inter-departmental relationships. Alternatively, you may just be looking for something fun to do as a reward. Either way, take the time to clarify the purpose of the hunt. Some common examples are:

- Rewarding employees with a fun event.

- Icebreaking new employees.

- Integrating employees from separate departments into one big team.

2. Define the Budget & Get Multiple Quotes

Talk to anyone who has recently organized a team building event and they will likely complain about the cost. That’s because most professionally-run team building events cost ~$80-120/person. For someone who had $20/person in mind, it’s quite the shock. Setting a reasonable budget ahead of time will help mitigate this shock and keep you focused on the options within your budget. Once you have your budget, we recommend you get quotes from at least 3 providers.

3. Set an Event Duration

We’ve found that the best hunts are around 90 minutes in the field. Add on approximately 30-45 minutes for instructions and debriefing and you have a total event time of just over 2 hours. A 2 hour event is perfect because you can hold it in the morning or the afternoon. No meal times are influenced and there’s buffer time before and after in case things don’t go as planned.

The ability to run an efficient event ensures maximum value is squeezed out for a given amount of time. There will be times when it makes sense for a longer event (e.g. gala dinner’s, corporate offsites, etc.). If this is the case, duration isn’t that big of a deal. But if you are fitting this into a normal workday, you want to keep the event as efficient as possible and 2 hours is a great target.

4. Setting up the teams

Remember clarifying the purpose of the hunt? This is where it comes in handy. If you need to improve inter-departmental collaboration, match employees from different departments. If you are just wanting to better integrate the team, split up employees who hang out together regularly so people create new connections.

In a recent event that we ran for two organizations, we made sure that each team had at least one employee from each organization. The result was several key inter-organizational relationships that wouldn’t have existed otherwise.

5. Get buy-in from everyone in the company

Of all the preparation steps, this one would easily win the award for “Most Neglected”. As an employee, when management doesn’t participate, it says, “Our time is too important for team building”. How do you expect team building to be effective if the message from upper management says otherwise?

Cultures are created at the highest levels of an organization and trickle down from there. If you don’t have management buy-in, it’s all but impossible to convince the participants otherwise. I would even go as far as saying that getting buy-in from all levels in the company is the most important step to a successful event. So make sure you get participation from as high up as possible and we bet you’ll notice a big difference.

And there it is! Our top 5 tips to properly prepare for a team building scavenger hunt. While these tips will work for most organizations, there are going to be use cases when they require some tweaking. If you run into a situation where you expect these tips won’t work for you, think about it from a participant’s perspective or feel free to contact me at andrew@goosechase.com! I’m more than happy to help.

If you liked these preparation tips, check back next week for part 2 of the series: creating a killer in-hunt experience! I’ll show you how we keep participants engaged throughout the event while delivering long term results for an organization - what I call meaningful fun.