The Brief
Shift Leaders play a key role in restaurants, directly impacting the Crew and customer experience. Leading a shift in an omni-channel environment has become more complex and fast-paced than ever before. McDonald's Global challenged us to enhance the Shift Leader Curriculum to include the Shift Sim – introducing Shift Leaders to the principles of decision-making in a safe, mobile friendly virtual environment before going on the floor, so that they feel confident and job-ready faster.
The Solution
- Provides consistent learning through an engaging, rewarding, and fun environment.
- Invites learners to make their own connections between choice and consequence.
- Allows for active practice in real-life situations.
- Is accessible to all learners - anyone can pick it up and play.
- Plays in quick, simple game loops.
- Is reductive in visual design for simplicity and globalization.
- Complexity increases across levels while in-game guidance decreases.
The Outcome
In 2025, Lumanorth successfully completed the development of a mobile-friendly simulator for McDonald’s Global. The finished product has since launched in over 50 countries and languages and has been an overwhelming success.
This simulator was created in close collaboration with the McDonald’s Learning & Development team along with input from restaurant managers around the world. Together, we designed a simulation experience that reflects real-life operational scenarios encountered in McDonald’s restaurants around the world.
Many of the scenarios included in the simulator were sourced directly from feedback provided by McDonald’s managers through a global survey. These contributions helped ensure that the simulation addresses the most relevant and high-impact situations teams face on the ground.
- Gained New Applicable Knowledge
- 91%
- Empowered to grow as a leader
- 91%
- Found the learning impactful
- 89%
The SIM has been nominated for a Brandon Hall Excellence Award 2025
Congratulations on the launch of Shift Sim earlier this month. Thank you so much for all your hard work throughout the project.
I hope you have taken a moment to pause and celebrate you and all the great work you did.
Many thanks for all the passion, dedication, and effort you put into making Shift Sim great!
I wanted to take a moment to thank you for all your hard work and partnership over the last two years on the Shift Sim. We’ve been on a long journey together and it has certainly ended in success. Learners and stakeholders alike are excited about the sim, and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
Together, we created something that is not only impactful from a learning perspective, but also feels new and innovative from an experience perspective. There’s no other training quite like it at McDonald’s. We couldn’t have gotten where we are today without you.