Why Do Achievements, Trophies, and Badges Work? →
From The Psychology of Video Games:
Eight potential reasons why badges, achievements, and trophies might work are:
- They anchor our performance expectations higher
- Having goals increases our self efficacy
- Completing goals leads to satisfaction
- They create goal commitment
- They act as guidance mechanics and provide feedback
- They facilitate psychological flow through feedback
- They trigger social proof
- They trigger motivating social comparisons
Agile is full of ceremony, some of which remind me of these points:
- The team’s velocity anchors the team to what is considered a good performance
- The sprint goal can communicate expectations beyond the team’s previous velocity
- A successful sprint can be celebrated
- If the goal was reached with time to spare, the team can be more ambitious next sprint
- Progress is tracked through the sprint dashboard, Kanban board or other post-it heavy contraptions