News & Press

Launching new board games

Launching a new board game is an exciting time. It sees the culmination of months of hard work come to fruition and at last you have a physical manufactured product ready to sell.

When launching a board game, just like any other any sector the key to a successful project delivery is:

  1. Having a realistic plan which everyone buys into,
  2. Having good clear communication between all impacted parties,
  3. Ownership of tasks with participants taking a pride in delivery and going the extra mile to ensure everyone who needs help, receives help to deliver.
 

The board game industry is no different and with the bulk of sales occurring in the 8 weeks prior to Christmas it is imperative that as a company you have everything ready and in place to allow you to maximise the potential of this lucrative sales window. Get it wrong and you have to wait 40+ weeks for the chance to rectify things. And if you are a small start up then ‘getting it wrong’ often means there is no next year.

1 – The plan

If you are a company similar to Taxi Game Ltd. where you continually aim to launch new products or editions in Q4 of each year, then you will know that the development process often starts 10 months or more before the product is ready to appear on the shelves of retailers or in the online stores. From initial idea to tentative first designs, customer focus groups, further development, sign off and then manufacturer a project plan with the appropriate contingency is an absolute necessity.

2- Communication is key

In this world everyone is different, we all excel in different areas, unfortunately not everyone is good at keeping their colleagues, their customers or their suppliers informed of events which may impact on others. Slow delivery or poor communication on one task can have a significant impact on the timely delivery of a project or on the ability of others to complete their tasks.

Communication issues are easy to fix.

Regular update meetings and/or quick emails advising of changes which may impact others are easy to implement and the benefits are instant. Keep everyone in the loop your project will benefit massively from this and surprises should be eliminated.

3- Own the task
‘It’s not my responsibility – I was waiting on someone finishing their task before I could start mine.’ Is a familiar excuse for non delivery.

Don’t sit back waiting on someone to deliver their part of the project immediately prior to your task. Own it, ensure that the person before you is on schedule to deliver their part of the process in the agreed time. If they are struggling to deliver then help where you can OR rework your plan so that any implications are factored in or understood else where.

Future blogs
Planning, communication and ownership are all vital in the development and launching of new board games, and in future blogs we will look at each of these in turn, in more detail, and how they are vital to giving you the opportunity to succeed in that magical ‘sales window’.

As Taxi Game has evolved we have made and learned from a number of mistakes on our journey to date, and inevitably we will make a few more as we progress. We will share our experiences in the future in the hope that it may help others.

Look out for the next blog in November.