What shaped these games

Michael D. Watkins · Harvard Business Review Press (updated ed., 2013)

The definitive book on role transitions. Its core ideas: accelerate your learning before acting (avoid the “action imperative”), match your strategy to the STARS situation (Start-up, Turnaround, Accelerated growth, Realignment, Sustaining success), secure early wins, and negotiate success through five conversations with your new boss.

In the game: Career Climb adds a Watkins-framed “First 90 Days” decision at every promotion — each one a different STARS situation as you climb. The same framework powers our free First-90-Days plan generator, which turns the Five Conversations and FOGLAMP checklist into prompts you can actually use.

Richard P. Rumelt · Crown Business (2011)

Rumelt’s “kernel” of good strategy: an honest diagnosis of the challenge, a guiding policy to address it, and a set of coherent actions to carry it out — and a warning against “bad strategy” (goals dressed up as plans).

In the game: Clinic Quest’s tradeoffs are built so there’s no costless option — every choice spends one resource to protect another, the heart of strategy. Our executive case-study guides apply Rumelt’s diagnose → guiding policy → coherent action structure to real FQHCs.

Nerial · Devolver Digital (2016)

The swipe-left/swipe-right decision game that made “one card, two choices, watch four meters move” a beloved mobile mechanic — every choice trades one value against another.

In the game: Our day-in-the-life simulators are explicitly Reigns-style swipe decks. Clinic Quest and Career Climb borrow the card-and-meters loop and the binary-tradeoff discipline, then ground every card in real community-health work.

NACHC · BLS OEWS · UHC Solutions · CPCA

Career Climb’s six paths — titles, the four real levels each, the P25/P50/P75 salary bands, the regional cost-of-living multipliers, and the certifications unlocked at each level — are the same data behind our Career Roadmap and Salary Intelligence pages.

In the game: Only the decision scenarios are fictional. The ladder you climb, the salary that grows with each promotion, and the credential you earn are real California FQHC data.

CA Business & Professions Code · CA BBS / BRN / DHCS · Watkins (adapted)

Career Climb’s “know where your license ends” moments and its 90-day transitions draw on our scope-of-practice data (every California role + delegation rules) and our role-specific First-90-Days plans.

In the game: When a card asks you to stay top-of-license or to plan your first 90 days, the underlying rules and plan content are the real tools — one tap away.

Government · NACHC · CPCA · CHCF · KFF · LAO · DHCS · HRSA

Clinic Quest’s twelve months are the real 2026 FQHC calendar: the UIS Medi-Cal freeze, the July 1 UIS-PPS cut, the SB 525 wage steps, the adult-dental rollback, the MCO-tax cliff, the November election, and the December 31 “triple cliff.” Every “Real Story” card cites a primary source we track in our live intelligence pipeline.

In the game: Months through June reflect what actually happened; later months follow what is scheduled in law; genuinely uncertain outcomes (election night) are fictionalized per run and labeled as such. SB 525 wage rates come from our canonical schedule, never hardcoded.

FQHC Talent (built on HRSA UDS, IRS-990, payer-mix data)

Clinic Quest’s four clinic meters — Team, Access, Compliance, Trust — and its final grade echo the five dimensions of our Resilience Scorecard, which scores 213 real California FQHCs on workforce stability, program diversity, data maturity, quality, and financial positioning.

In the game: Career Climb’s four personal meters — Skill, Wellbeing, Standing, Impact — are the individual analogue, with the same finding baked in: a sustainable pace beats heroics, because burnout, not pay, is the top reason people leave.

200+ primary sources · academic, government & policy

Behind the games sits the platform’s 200+ source bibliography and a 66-entry academic research archive — primary-care foundations, CHW effectiveness, integrated behavioral health, value-based payment, and more.

In the game: If a card sparks a question, the research archive is where to go deeper — every entry sourced, with the researchers and journals named.