Every episode of the Professor Game podcast, hosted by Rob Alvarez of The Octalysis Group. Honest breakdowns of gamification, behavioral design, and the Octalysis Framework, applied to real products, retention, and engagement. New episodes weekly, plus interviews with leading experts.
Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real products: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Rob breaks down why the most durable loyalty has almost nothing to do with points, contrasting a typical airline miles program with a neighborhood barber who […]
Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real products: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Victoria Ichizli-Bartels, author of fourteen books on gameful living and coiner of the term “self-gamification,” explores how the role of the tabletop RPG game master maps […]
Get the free Core Drives in the Wild guide, behavioral design applied to real products: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Tetiana Kobzar, product designer with 18 years of experience and creator of the Comportance Framework, joins Rob to share how behavioral design turns clinical and educational […]
Most apps lose 77% of their users within the first three days because they treat onboarding like a tax audit instead of a human journey. In this episode, Rob Alvarez breaks down why your “helpful” 15-step toolkit might actually be causing cognitive friction and driving users away. By moving from function-focused design to human-focused design, you can transform a bounce into a lifelong advocate. Rob explores the “Christmas Magic Mistake,” the “Hello World” principle for instant wins, and the “Miyagi Method” of scaffolding to ensure your users actually want to come back for Day 2.
Identify the exact strategies Sharon and Rob discussed so you can start increasing engagement in your own projects today. Grab our Core Drives in the Wild guide for free professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Sharon Wood, who launched the original Grand Theft Auto in 1996 on […]
Don’t experiment on your own revenue with broken game mechanics. Get our guide “Core Drives in the Wild” to learn how to apply real behavioral science to your product: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Rob Alvarez breaks down three “engagement leaks” that cause products to lose […]
Exploring gamification for your product or org? Let’s chat → professorgame.com/chat Episode Summary Nesrine Changuel, former product leader at Google Chrome, Google Meet, Spotify, and Skype, argues that delight collapses when treated as a sprint at the end of the backlog rather than as […]
Master the science of motivation and see how top experts do it right. Get the free 9-day “Core Drives in the Wild” email sequence here: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Rob Alvarez dissects three high-profile gamification failures (Disney’s hotel laundry leaderboards, Zynga’s FarmVille, and Yahoo Answers) […]
Wondering if Octalysis fits your challenge? Quick intro chat → professorgame.com/chat Episode Summary Joris Beerda, CEO and co-founder of The Octalysis Group, walks through the five-step Octalysis design process and argues that IDEO-style human-centered design produces intuitive but not repeatedly engaging products. He distinguishes […]
Don’t experiment on your own revenue with broken game mechanics. Get our guide “Core Drives in the Wild” to learn how to apply real behavioral science to your product: professorgame.com/WildCD Episode Summary Rob Alvarez attacks the “chocolate-covered broccoli” approach to gamification, arguing that points, […]