The 6-Step Workflow for Creating a Simulation

6-Step Workflow for Creating a Simulation

The most successful Simulation creators spend time planning before they start adding content and questions to ensure it helps people engage with the Simulation's goals. You're not required to follow this process exactly, but you may find this workflow helpful. 

Step 1: Create an outline, add a title, and add Rounds

First, use a tool like Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or something similar to start an outline or use our free (Google Docs) Simulation outline template. Then, after thinking about who will likely participate and what they need or want to learn about the topic, write the title and divide the Simulation into Rounds.

As a reference point, here's an example of a Simulation outline that's well-developed and makes use of most of the Simulation features available to you.

Write a straightforward title

The best titles are often simple. Examples:

• Your Day as a Barista at Stellar Coffee
• Hiring a New Accounting Manager
• Manage a New Water Permit Application
• Negotiate the Purchase of a Small Business

Determine the goal of the Simulation

Simulations.net enables you to determine what "points" mean for your Simulation and whether the goal of the Simulation is to maximize or minimize "points." If "points" isn't appropriate for your use case, you can also turn scoring off altogether. In our example Simulation (Hiring a New Accounting Manager), we'll just use a simple scoring approach where points are points and the goal of participating is to maximize points. Read more about points and available scoring settings here.

Add the goal of the Simulation under the title in your outline. You'll be able to include this goal and few other select details as the Simulation's subtitle when you create the Simulation on Simulations.net.

Divide your topic into Rounds

What "steps" or "phases" are involved with what you're simulating? Reflect on this, then use the results to define the Rounds of the Simulation. Each Round will eventually hold content and force participants to make Choices before moving forward.

Example: Hiring a New Accounting Manager

1. Defining the job and ideal candidate
2. Sourcing candidates
3. Selecting candidates for interviews
4. Interviewing finalists
5. Making the job offer

Add each of the Round titles in your outline.

Step 2: Write out the Goals

Here's the workflow for creating your Simulation's goals (from this post):

First, list the key concepts or skills a participant would need to navigate the Simulation as an expert by reflecting on each Round in your Simulation.

Then, for each of these follow this formula to write out the goal above the Rounds listed in your outline:

1. Write out the concept or skill.
   Example: Match job requirements with candidate skills
2. Identify how it is used in the real world.
   Example: Reviewing applicant resumes and other application materials
3. Put it into a context.
   Example: Select candidates for interviews whose application materials show a skillset that match those in a job description

Note: If you're creating a Simulation that compliments a course, your Simulation's goals should align with all or some of your course's key learning outcomes.

Detailed Example: Creating Goals

Let's create the goals for our Hiring a New Accounting Manager Simulation. We're going to simply go through each Round, consider the needed skills, then create a goal around it.

First, we ask "what skill(s) does a participant need to define the job and ideal candidate?" 

• How to find out the job requirements for a position
• How to identify the characteristics of the ideal candidate for a position

Second, we identify how these skills are used in reality:

• How to find out the job requirements for a position → Using job requirements during the hiring process
• How to identify the characteristics of the ideal candidate for a position → Creating and using an ideal candidate profile (a formal document shared by the hiring team)

Third, we put those skills into a context:

• Using job requirements during the hiring process → Using job requirements in the process of hiring a new accounting manager
• Creating and using an ideal candidate profile → Creating and using an ideal candidate profile when hiring a new accounting manager

Step 3: Place Goals in Rounds

Now, let's place each goal in all the Rounds where it's used. We'll consider each goal, then each of our Rounds, and, if the ability to use this goal can be associated with this Round, we'll make a note of it in our outline. 

Example: Creating and using an ideal candidate profile when hiring a new accounting manager

This goal can be exercised in three Rounds:

• Round 1: Defining the job and ideal candidate
  
• Round 3: Selecting candidates for interviews
• Round 4: Interviewing finalists

Step 4: Add Questions to Each Round

It might seem counterintuitive, but you probably want to identify the questions posed in each Round before you start outlining the Round's content, because the Round's content exists so that the questions can be posed to participants. 

Pro tip: The notes you added associating the Simulation's goals with its Rounds in Step 3 should likely be used to inform what kinds of questions you add to each Round.

What kind of questions work best for Simulations?

Create questions that offer a spectrum of Choices

Try to structure questions so that they enable participants to choose from a "spectrum" of options rather developing "right / wrong" type questions. For example:

✘ Which candidate's skillset matches most closely to the job description?

   ○ José

   ○ Chen

   ○ Florence

✔ How closely does Florence's skillset match the job description?

   ○ Not a match

   ○ Somewhat of a match

   ○ Close match

By taking the second approach, you have more flexibility in designing the Simulation and can offer more feedback about Florence's candidate profile specifically by adding extra feedback as a Side Effect to the choice. Extra feedback associated with choices is an excellent way to help a participant make progress on the Simulation's goals.

Draft questions for your Rounds

Now you'll want to go through each Round in your outline and, for each goal you've added to the Round, create one or more question associated with it. Just think about the real world and ask yourself: "what kind of decisions need to be made that involve this skill in this context?" Let's go through an example.

How to Craft Questions and their Choices

• Example goal: Creating and using an ideal candidate profile when hiring a new accounting manager
• Example Round: Interviewing finalists

Posing the Question

To find potential questions, ask yourself this question: "In my experience, when [insert topic of the Round] I use the [insert goal] to ______________." Fill in that blank, then turn it into a question.

For example:

"In my experience, when interviewing finalists, I use ideal candidate profiles to assess the culture fit between finalists and the company." → To which finalist do you recommend the hiring committee extend an offer?

Creating Choices

The best Choices are those that aren't right or wrong, but offer the participant the chance to feel what it's really like to make hard decisions. Just like real life! Also, Choices that involve elements of chance (think: Randomness) and/or potential Side Effects make your Simulation more interesting.

Example Question: "To which finalist do you recommend the hiring committee extend an offer?"

Example Choices: 

   ○ José

   ○ Chen

   ○ Florence

Now, let's say that Florence's candidate profile is the safest bet, whereas Chen seems like a candidate that could make a huge impact but also may not be the best culture fit. By taking advantage of Simulation.net's scoring features and adding appropriate Side Effects, you've created an excellent question (with Choices) for a Round that reinforces one of your goals. Members on a paid plan can also use Choice tags to get additional insights into how participants think and choose. For example, you may want to see which participants are most customer-centric or technologically inclined.

Add these details to your outline and repeat this process for each of your goals!

Step 5: Add content to the Preview, Introduction, and Rounds

Once you know the Rounds and questions you're going to ask, the hardest work involved in creating a Simulation is done. The final step is to add content that takes your participants through their journey in your Simulation. You'll use it to help bring the participant into a scenario--to help them imagine that they're doing something. You're adding color to your Simulation! Get started by clicking the + New button at simulations.net/designer (you'll need to create an account to create your Simulation).

What kinds of content can I add to my Simulation?

You can add:

• Videos (hosted on YouTube, Vimeo, and other providers)
  Participants love videos! They can be produced by you or sourced from publicly-shared videos on platforms like Youtube.
• Blocks of text
  
• Attachments (links, images, or PDFs) 
  Attachments are best used as sources of data for participants to review. For example, they can be links to a Google Sheet that contains relevant data or to a PDF of a report.

What content should I add?

Using your outline, identify the content you'll add to your Simulation's Preview, the Introduction, and each Round. Here's what we recommend:

• Use the Preview to get people excited to participate in the Simulation. Here's a simple workflow for creating your Preview content.
• Use the Introduction to help participants imagine themselves in this scenario. For example, you might help them:
• Imagine specific surroundings, events, and/or feelings that put them "into" the situation
• Background information that enables them to make better Choices in the Simulation
• Imagine feeling a certain way
• Use the Round content to enable participants to understand the scenario you're developing and to answer the questions associated with the round. Some tricks we recommend:
• Hide a crucial piece of information in an attachment--for example, in a linked dataset or article.
• Add content that could tempt them in a direction, then add a Feedback Side Effect that corrects them for taking the bait.
• Search YouTube for videos that feature people and organizations who participate in the real-world version of your Scenario:
• Clips from news stories that are associated with your Simulation
• Interviews with people who are associated with the topic
• Footage of events associated with the topic
• Add "further reading" links for participants:
• Scholarly articles
• Links to outside media like podcasts, movies, documentaries, or shows
• Links to news articles
  

Note that the final round is the last chance you'll have to add text or videos seen by participants. If you want to leave them with any thoughts, that's the place to do it!

Step 6: Let the world know!

Build buzz around your Simulation! Share links with friends and colleagues, and get feedback on it. If your Simulation is publicly available, you’ll be able to leverage the traffic on Simulations.net to get participants. This allows you to spend more time on other things and less time marketing your Simulation.