The AHA Moment: Find Out Who Your People Really Are

The AHA Moment

Three decks. Three kinds of relationships. One question: Did nobody else see that?

You know that moment when someone says something at dinner and the entire mood changes?

Or when a coworker gets credit for an idea that wasn't theirs?

Or when your friend says, "I'm fine," and you know they're absolutely not fine?

Yeah. That moment.

The one everyone notices but nobody quite knows what to do with.

I built a card game about it.

Actually, I built three.

Meet the AHA moment.

A card game about the very human moments we experience at work, with family, and among friends.

Not a trivia game. Not a personality test. And definitely not another box of conversation starters asking you to describe your perfect Sunday.

This is a game about what we do when being human gets complicated.

How did we get here?

Hi, I'm Simay Simon, founder of Human as is.

I've spent more than a decade working in human resources, employee experience, and organizational behavior. Which is a very professional way of saying I've spent a ridiculous amount of time watching people be people.

The awkward silences. The unspoken expectations. The moments when someone clearly has something to say but decides against it.

And for a long time, I thought I was just unusually interested in things everyone else seemed comfortable walking past.

Then, at 30, I received a late neurodivergent diagnosis.

Suddenly, a lifetime of paying attention to human behavior made a little more sense.

I had spent years learning how to read rooms, navigate expectations, and understand the things people weren't saying out loud.

And I started wondering:

What if we could make noticing those moments something people actually practice together?

Not through another lecture.

Not through a PowerPoint presentation.

Through play.

That's how theAHAmoment began.

It started with the workplace, where I'd watched small human moments turn into much bigger problems.

But here's the thing.

People don't stop being human when they clock out.

The same dynamics follow us home. They show up in our friendships, around dinner tables, and in relationships with people we've known our entire lives.

So one game became three.

Meet the three editions

WORK

For the people you work with.

Two teammates get promoted. You did more of the visible work.

What do you do?

The WORK edition explores the everyday decisions, tensions, and unspoken expectations that shape our working relationships.

Because sometimes the most important thing happening in a meeting isn't on the agenda.

FAMILY

For the people you grew up with.

Family comes with history, expectations, traditions, and a remarkable ability to push buttons nobody else even knows exist.

The FAMILY edition brings those familiar dynamics into play.

Because loving people doesn't automatically mean understanding them.

FRIENDS

For the people you chose.

Friendships have their own unwritten rules.

Loyalty. Honesty. Boundaries. Belonging. And the occasional situation where you wonder whether saying something is worth making things awkward.

The FRIENDS edition explores what happens when those rules are tested.

Because even the people we choose can surprise us.

So, how do you play?

Here's the fun part.

You don't need to be good at reading people.

You don't need to agree with everyone.

And you definitely don't need to have the right answer.

Each edition includes 24 double-sided cards across six themes:

• Fairness
• Honesty
• Feelings
• Belonging
• Courage
• Responsibility

Every card presents a relatable human situation, three possible responses, and a question that invites you to dig a little deeper.

The experience follows three simple steps:

1. PREDICT

Read the situation. Think about what you'd do.

2. PLAY

Choose your response. Hear what others would do.

3. COMPARE

Discover where your instincts align, where they differ, and what those differences reveal.

Sometimes you'll agree. Sometimes you'll be genuinely concerned about your friend's decision-making. And sometimes you'll realize that someone you've known for 15 years sees the exact same situation completely differently.

That's the AHA moment.

There's no timer. No pressure to share more than you want. And no single correct way to be human.

Just real situations, different perspectives, and conversations that might stay with you long after the cards are back in the box.

Why Kickstarter?

Because I've already done the part where an idea becomes a game.

Now I want to turn it into something you can actually hold, shuffle, gift, and bring to the table.

The three editions have been developed, with their scenarios, response choices, and questions prepared.

The product designs and manufacturing specifications are also underway.

But creating a beautiful physical card game takes more than printing cards.

Your support will help fund:

• Manufacturing the first production run of all three editions.
• Producing premium, rounded-corner boxes with soft-touch finishes, embossed details, and velvet lettering.
• Printing the cards and instruction booklets.
• Creating and approving physical production samples.
• Quality testing, packaging, and preparing rewards for fulfillment.

Each edition is designed to feel like something worth keeping, not something that disappears into a drawer after one game night.

The WORK edition comes in deep Ink, FAMILY in warm Clay, and FRIENDS in earthy Sage.

Three different identities. One family of games.

Our next steps are to finalize manufacturing, approve physical samples, confirm production costs and timelines, and begin the first run once funding and production requirements are in place.

I'll share progress and production updates with backers along the way.

What makes this game different?

There are plenty of games that help people talk so I wanted to create one that helps people notice.

Notice their assumptions. Notice how differently someone else interprets the same situation. Notice how easily we mistake our own perspective for the obvious one.

And maybe, recognize those moments a little sooner the next time they happen in real life.

The purpose is not to teach everyone to think alike. This game is about discovering what happens when we don't.

And having a little fun while we're at it.

Who's behind the game?

I'm Simay, founder of Human as is, a company built around a pretty simple belief:

Making life more human starts with noticing the moments we usually walk past.

My background is in communications, employee experience, and human behavior.

I'm also a wife, a mom of two, a first-generation immigrant, and someone who has spent a lifetime trying to understand why humans do the things we do.

Sometimes that curiosity has been professionally useful. Sometimes it's made family dinners significantly more interesting.

Either way, it brought me here.

I've spent years helping organizations understand people.

Now I want to bring that same curiosity beyond the workplace and into everyday life.

Not as another self-improvement assignment. As a game.

The risks and challenges

This is our first physical production run, and manufacturing a premium card game involves challenges.

Our proposed finishes include custom rounded boxes, embossed branding, velvet lettering, and tactile card details. These require physical testing and manufacturer approval.

Production costs, lead times, packaging, and shipping arrangements will need to be finalized before manufacturing begins.

We plan to reduce those risks by reviewing manufacturer samples, testing the finished materials and card handling, and confirming production specifications before approving the full order.

We'll communicate changes or delays openly with backers.

One last thing.

I don't think we need another game that tells us how to be better people.

I think we need more opportunities to understand the people we already are.

• The complicated ones.
• The awkward ones.
• The ones who say "it's fine" when it absolutely isn't.
• The ones who surprise us.
• The ones we love.
• The ones we work with.
• The ones we choose.

Human as is.

If you've ever walked away from a conversation thinking, "Wait, did we all just experience the same thing?"

This game is for you.

Help bring theAHAmoment to life.

Let's put being human on the table.