The counterintuitive brainstorming rule that made Exploding Kittens a global hit.

How do you lead a team that kills thousands of ideas - and still keep everyone excited to create again the next day? 

That’s business as usual for Elan Lee, co-creator and now CEO of Exploding Kittens. You might not know his name, but there’s a good chance you’ve played one of his games. 

Exploding Kittens became one of the most backed Kickstarter campaigns in history - raising nearly $9 million from over 200,000 backers in just 30 days - and has since sold more than 60 million games worldwide. 

In this episode, Elan and I dive into how he’s built a creative culture that thrives on iteration and honesty. He shares the psychology behind turning casual players into superfans, why creative constraints beat blue-sky brainstorming every time, and how his team’s “no, kill it” rule turned chaos into innovation. 

Elan and I discuss: 

• How Exploding Kittens became one of Kickstarter’s biggest success stories 

• The psychology behind turning casual players into superfans 

• Why creative constraints spark better ideas than “blue-sky” brainstorming 

• How Elan runs design retreats that generate thousands of ideas in days 

• The “no, kill it” rule that keeps creativity high and egos low 

• Balancing creativity with commercial success - knowing when to walk away 

• How a single question - “Do you want to play again?” - determines when a game is done 

KEY QUOTES 

“Games shouldn’t be entertaining - they should make the people playing them entertaining.” 

“Every great idea starts out terrible. You just have to give it room to evolve.” 

“We don’t use ‘yes, and…’. We use ‘no, kill it,’ because we know we can generate a thousand more ideas.” 

Explore Elan’s games at explodingkittens.com and connect with him on Instagram, X (Twitter), and LinkedIn.  

If you haven't already, listen to the bonus episode where Elan talks about how he uses AI to unlock creative ideas here

 

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Get in touch at [email protected]  

   

Credits:  

Host: Amantha Imber  

Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler 

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