Since 2015, Opopoï has connected research, play and facilitation. Meet Hélène Michel and Mathias Salanon, and discover the story behind the name.
01 / Our conviction
A complex question does not always lack answers. Sometimes it needs another way of looking.
Founded in 2015, Opopoï puts innovation and entrepreneurship research to work inside organisations. Methods become experiences that teams can practise, discuss and connect to their challenges.
Scenarios, simulation, metaphor, construction and storytelling: the tools change, the intention remains. Create the conditions to understand together and choose what comes next.
02 / A founding complementarity
Research × facilitation.
Two paths, one shared practice: research becomes concrete when it is facilitated, and facilitation gains depth when it is grounded in research.
Cofounder — Research × Design × Method
Hélène Michel
A professor at Grenoble École de Management, Hélène Michel directs the MSc Innovation & Design Management. A management sciences researcher, she holds an HDR (Habilitation à diriger des recherches — the French accreditation to supervise research, Université de Savoie, 2009) and designs serious games that put knowledge to work on innovation. She created Cubification, a method that makes innovation levers tangible, and authored a book on the approach. A certified LEGO SERIOUS PLAY facilitator (The Association of Master Trainers in the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Method, 2016), she also contributes to the public debate, from The Conversation to France Culture. At Opopoï, her research becomes the raw material of every workshop: methods whose mechanisms, limits and conditions of use are understood.
Professor, Grenoble École de Management
Holds an HDR (Habilitation à diriger des recherches — accreditation to supervise research), Université de Savoie (2009)
Certified LEGO SERIOUS PLAY facilitator — The Association of Master Trainers in the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Method (2016)
Mathias Salanon co-founded Opopoï in 2015. He holds a Research Master in Innovation from École Polytechnique (2017–18), was a visiting researcher at MIT (2016–17) and a research assistant at the MIT Media Lab, working on game design and user empowerment. At Grenoble École de Management (master’s, 2014–16), he had joined Hélène Michel’s Serious Games for Innovation chair as a research assistant. He later supported studios through Ubisoft’s startup programme and publishing at Voodoo, before co-founding Adzap, an a16z-backed venture. At Opopoï he designs and facilitates: methods become working experiences for your group, from the first question to the final synthesis.
Opopoï co-founder since 2015
École Polytechnique — Research Master in Innovation (2017–18)
MIT — visiting researcher (2016–17), research assistant at the Media Lab
Grenoble École de Management — Serious Games for Innovation chair
Certified LEGO SERIOUS PLAY facilitator — The Association of Master Trainers in the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Method (2016)
Raymond Queneau — Conte à votre façon · English rendering
In this story, the reader chooses the route the narrative takes. As with Queneau and Oulipo, a rule can open up possibilities and a constraint can become a creative starting point. That tension between structure and freedom captures what we look for in a workshop.
SCIENCE × CONSTRAINTS × CREATIVITY × PLAY = OPOPOÏ
The next question is yours.
You bring the question. We give it form.
A question to clarify. A team to bring together. An idea to put to the test. Let’s start with a conversation.
