Free to play · about 10 minutes · phone or laptop

ShiporChurn

Ship before your customer churns.

A card game for product teams. Build features, bank your stars, and keep the bugs from piling up. The whole squad shares one product and one customer.

How it plays

One squad. Three sprints.

You’re all one squad, with three sprints to build a great product experience that delight the customer. Keep them happy and you win together. Let the bugs pile up and your customer churns, and you all lose.

MISS THE GOALCustomer churnsREACH THE GOALCustomer delightedS1S2S3You all win!Out of the market.

Bugs push the customer out

Fill the bug meter and your customer heads for the exit. It grows with your squad.

Stars keep them smiling

Ship enough stars by sprint 3 to hit the squad goal, and you all win.

The numbers change with your squad size

Players23456Bug meter5791113Squad goal356085110135

The bug meter is 2 × players + 1, so a bigger squad gets more room for bugs. The squad goal is in stars shipped by sprint 3.

Each turn

Two moves. Build or Ship.

Each turn, you have two options. Build features and earn stars. But be careful, every feature brings bugs. Or ship, and make your stars safe for good.

1

Build

FeatureSolid Feature+4+1
+4 stars for you+1 bug for all

Tap Build to draw a card. Features go into your build. Action cards go into your hand, and you can hold only two.

Big features score big and bring big bugs.

2

Ship

Ship 66 stars live
Customer stays
or
Customer churns

Tap Ship to make your stars safe for good. Then bet in secret: will your customer stay? A right bet earns +2.

Shipped players watch. They can’t play cards.

Along the way

Help your squad win. Win the spotlight too.

Every star you ship counts toward the squad goal. Collect the most and you’re the MVP (Most Valuable Player).

Together

Every feature you ship helps the team reach the squad’s goal.

Reach the goal by sprint 3 and everyone wins.

Goal 85
29
22
21
16
SSara
LLayla
OOmar
KKhalid
88 of 85 stars · Squad win!
Individually

The top collector takes the spotlight.

Most stars wins the MVP crown, whether the squad wins or not. Nobody sees the ranking until the final reveal.

MVP
S
29
L
22
O
21
K
16
See it play

Every card flipped. Every bug on screen.

Built for phones, so a whole team can play at the end of a sprint, from the same room or from different cities.

Your turnBuild or Ship. Two buttons, one product.
The drawA card flips from the deck. A new bug sneaks in.
The launch betYou shipped. Now bet on whether your customer stays.
The squad winHit the squad goal and everybody wins. One of you wears the MVP crown.
What it sounds like

Lines you’ll hear at the table

“Just ship it. Please. Just ship it.”

“Who played the Stakeholder Ask on me?”

“Six bugs. I’m building anyway.”

“A Big Bet in sprint one? Bold.”

The point of the game

Ten minutes of play. Six lessons you’ll feel before you can explain them.

The big one

There’s a fine line between how many features you add and how many bugs pile up until your customer leaves.

In the game: the stars keep climbing. So do the bugs.

6 stars · unshipped6 stars · shipped
Lesson 01

Ship it, or it doesn’t count.

In the gameUnshipped stars vanish when your customer churns.

At workValue only exists once it reaches the customer.

FeatureBig Bet+7+3
Lesson 02

A big bet is everyone’s risk.

In the game+7 stars for you. +3 bugs for the whole squad.

At workYour bet sets the odds for the whole team, not only your roadmap.

Action
Hotfix
Squash 2 bugs on the product
Lesson 03

Fixing is a feature.

In the gameHotfix earns zero stars but squashes two bugs.

At workThe fix that keeps a customer rarely looks like a win.

Action
Feature Flag
Switch off a feature before your customer churns
Lesson 04

Build the off switch first.

In the gameA Feature Flag switches off the card that would break everything.

At workThe safest releases are the ones you can undo.

Action
Stakeholder Ask
Pick a player. Next turn they must build
Lesson 05

Pushing scope onto others sinks you too.

In the gameA Stakeholder Ask forces a teammate to build more. It can backfire.

At workPassing your risk along doesn’t remove it from the product.

Action
Dashboard Alert
Reveal the next card to everyone
Lesson 06

Open data changes the decision.

In the gameOne Dashboard Alert shows the next card to the whole table.

At workData and insights can help you make smart product decisions.

Keeps getting better

New cards every quarter.

Each new season swaps in cards that teach something new. They unlock on their own, so the game never gets heavier.

Launch

The base deck

Feature FlagHotfixStakeholder AskMerge ConflictA/B TestDashboard Alert
Season 2

Debt and pivots

Tech Debt

+3 stars now. A hidden bug lands two turns later.

Pivot

Reverse the turn order.

Season 3

Design and testing

Design Review

The next Big Bet brings only one bug.

Usability Test

Peek at the top three cards and rearrange them.

Season 4

Scope and freezes

Scope Creep

Your target’s next build draws two features.

Code Freeze

Skip the next player’s turn.

Why I built it

Product lessons are easy to say and hard to feel.

So I turned a few of them into a game you can finish at the end of a sprint. It’s part of my farewell to the amazing Salla team!

Everything in the game is made up: the names, the numbers and the cards. No real data, no roadmap, no metrics.

Sprint’s over.
Play one round.

Free. Share a room code and go.

Play free