INTRODUCING LIGHTNEER QUESTS

Finally it's time to open the door to Lightneer's own Quest system.

We’ve hyped this hot potato to you in our previous blogs, and it’s finally time to open the door to Lightneer’s own Quest system.

In early 2020 we were looking for a collaborative goal-setting method that teams and individuals at Lightneer could use to set challenging and ambitious goals, but with measurable results. By then, there was already a bit of an understanding that a specific goals setting system like OKR, Objectives and Key Results, would be perfect for a company based on a people-centric approach.

So, in the same year we started to create this company and a team-wide OKR framework which is used by many large companies, as it aims for flow efficiency rather than resource efficiency. We wanted our operations to be transparent and OKRs transparency is pivotal in the corporate world because it allows employees to see inside the organization and establish its short and long-term goals. Point of view being that each and every employee has a real understanding of the contribution that their work makes to the company goals. Soon it was integrated into Lightneer. About six months went by, and it was discovered that this was a bit too cumbersome for Lightneer, with its system being heavy, and Lightneer’s focus on rapid goal changes. 

Lightneer Leadership Team switched on the DIY mode and started to brainstorm on a concrete system based on OKR that would be just right for Lightneer. The end result is that the company now has its own Quests system, an application with a built-in points system based on company goals, where teams challenge themselves as a team and as individuals, for fun as well as profit. Points are achieved as a team for the whole company, in an open and inclusive way.

Quests were created by our own team, for the teams, from scratch. It tracks and incentivises people, creates a sense of community and above all improves the performance of the teams in a relaxed way, without any pressure. One of the biggest points of pride is that we did everything from start to finish on our own, from brainstorming and design, all the way from programming to piloting.

From an insider perspective

Let’s let Lightneer’s Tech Lead Juho, who has been involved in the Quests design project from the beginning, tell us more.

As the whole system is based on the idea of employee well-being and engagement, Juho emphasizes that “the aim in developing the Quest system has been to have a wide range of themes; from development to continuous learning.” Quests allow you to control what teams do, without any kind of coercion. Thus, one of Lightneer’s values, playfulness, then brings its fun to this combo. He elaborates; “The first prototype, the so-called Initial package of Quests, was created with the Lightneer’s Operations team.” 

So it’s time to peel the onion, piece by piece, to really get to the heart and purpose of the Quests. So, we have four game teams, and each team chooses three active Quests to hunt for achievement points at any one time. When one challenge is completed, another one pops up, again chosen by the team. Usually there is no ticking time-bomb limit for completing these. Slowly good things come sometimes, but the idea is not that they are done particularly slowly, as Quests of different sizes and themes have different timetables. For this reason, there is no set in stone to set weekly or monthly deadlines for completion. Keep reading, interesting and concrete Quests examples coming next!

These Quests then accumulate Achievement points in the overall shared Achievement pool. When the required number of points have been accumulated, the whole team will be rewarded with a nice prize, “such as a Wolt gift card for example”, says Juho. 

Let’s dive into the heart of Quests

So, what kind of tasks do the Quests involve then. System offers a large pool of Quests, from which teams can choose the best and most effective ones just for them. But there is always a greater purpose behind the tasks. How about, say, “Meet a colleague at the office”; and you get to know a new colleague, bond with an old team for lunch or brainstorm the latest game idea. It is not all so technical as a range of non-technical skills are needed to improve cohesion and team spirit. 

It is important to be able highlight the rewards of work through Quests and thereby improve job commitment and satisfaction. Employee and team development is also a key. How does “Olden but golden” Quest were pivoting an old project worth revisiting with better metrics, sound? And if we bring money and cost efficiency into the debate, that doesn’t always have to be a boring subject, many of the tasks are intrinsically linked to CPIs, but in an engaging way. Themes such as product specific KPIs, quality and the development of production processes and, above all, teamwork, appear evenly on the Quests

How were the Quests received by the teams then? “Very well, after a few small but relevant initial technical hiccups, the teams are really excited and suggestions for improvement are coming in daily. The progress of the quests is also discussed in weekly meetings.”

Quests and beyond

There are currently three Game Teams, People Operations Team and our Tech Team competing for the Quests points. The teams are, of course, typically named quite amusingly and aptly for the industry. 

As these teams continue to compete on the line, we should maybe start bouncing ideas around about what’s next for Quests. Put simply, the possibilities are endless. The Quest page/tool itself is also being developed further. Tech Lead Juho says that there will be, among other things “messages automatically populated in Slack when a quest is completed, when a team chooses a new one, or when a prize is available, and so on.” In addition, the goal is to automate the current quest progression with all the info in our company’s weekly slides, with some UI/UX improvements coming as the cherry on top. With this skilled team, there’s bound to be a lot of ideas floating around, and like new hybrid casual games, reforms will come out fairly quickly. 

Hopefully we’ll have a (playful, of course) list of teams who have completed the most quests by the end of the year, and as the company grows, new teams! More on our people, future, and career options at Lightneer to come! Meanwhile you can follow us on