Gamifying Sales Training
Introduction
Google Fiber’s shift toward 'Lifestyle-based' selling—where sales reps prioritize customer needs over technical specs—required a fundamental change in how we train our teams. Traditional, passive training slides failed to capture the nuances of this new sales approach.
I proposed and designed a gamified learning platform that bridges the gap between conceptual brand knowledge and real-world application. By blending a 2D platformer world with bite-sized, interactive quizzes, I created an immersive environment where sales reps could 'live' the product brand, leading to higher engagement and improved knowledge retention.
Process
Reflecting Brand Identity
To transition sales reps from technical specs to lifestyle-based selling, I designed three distinct, immersive worlds that visually embody our product brands:
- Core : A stripped-back, gray-toned environment reflecting the simplicity and accessibility of the product.
- Home : A vibrant world inspired by the Utah landscape, utilizing the full Google Fiber four-color palette to represent the comprehensive, "full-life" nature of our flagship product.
- Edge : A space-inspired, dark-mode environment designed for high-performance users, signaling premium, cutting-edge speed.
By assigning unique environmental logic and aesthetics to each product, I helped sales reps build a cognitive map of the brand personalities, making it easier to intuitively associate product features with specific customer needs.
The Duolingo-style Quiz Loop
To ensure knowledge retention, I integrated a quiz loop that triggers once a player enters a 'Customer Home.' This design shifts the game from exploration to active recall: Each stage features five distinct customer archetypes who present lifestyle-based scenarios. Players receive instant validation for their choices, mirroring the rapid-fire nature of real-world sales conversations. By moving away from passive slide decks and into a choice-based interactive loop, the training requires reps to practice the art of the pitch rather than just memorizing facts.
Cross-Functional Strategy
TThis project required tight alignment between EDU team, marketing team and product team. My role was to act as the glue between these disciplines: We mapped product knowledge objectives to the game’s progression, ensuring the play mechanics served the pedagogical goals.I spearheaded the visual system and interaction design and development, ensuring the game felt like a polished consumer product rather than a typical internal tool. By collaborating with stakeholders early, we ensured the game was not just a design experiment, but a scalable tool that could be easily deployed to over 5,000+ internal users via the company-wide Daylight channel.
Conclusion
This project moved sales training from a passive task to an active experience. By replacing one-way slide decks with an interactive journey, we saw a measurable shift in how our sales reps engage with the product portfolio.
The Impact:
Scale: Over 5,000+ total plays across the company.
Adoption: Successfully trained 300+ sales reps during the initial rollout.
Recognition: Featured in the company-wide 'Daylight' email and earned high praise from leadership for its innovative approach to internal enablement.
