Always several steps ahead: 
 10 mistakes in product management [email protected]

Perspective:

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F2P mobile games

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Highly competitive international market

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Focus: User acquisition, retention & LTV

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Best practises changing when the market evolves

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Game development / mobile sw consulting background

1. Fall in love 
 with your 
 brilliant idea

1. When & what to kill (whole product vs. a feature, approach…),
 what can you afford to kill without killing the company)?
 2. Get rid of ”tunnel vision” - question your decisions and 
 change roles within a team to see the product from 
 new perspectives

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2. Emotions have
 nothing to do with
 our product

1. Motivational factors & emotions as drivers of user 
 acquisition & engagement
 2. Make a phenomenon = bigger theme / topic to stand out from 
 the competition, something that moves people

3. I am the best example of a (paying) customer 1. It is easier than ever to get instant feedback from thosands of users worldwide - use it from the very beginning of the product development process
 2. Keep your senses open. Your quess about the target audience might be wrong which has dramatic impact to the product development.

1. Come out of the box: Use methods that feel crazy and make you look loony


4. Senior designers come up with 
 2. The ”wisest ones” are not the most always the wisest & most awesome ideas

experienced ones when it comes to product development

1. Long tail social engagement is done through activations 
 (community, social media, communication)
 2. Lifetime planning: development (updates) and marketing 
 (community events, campaigns, activations…) extend the 
 lifetime of a product

5. Done is DONE

Innovation is…

…differentiation, which leads to success.

6. 1. What is new or innovative enough (totally new approach vs. incremental change or a new combination of existing ideas)
 2. Instead of coming up with innovative products or features it is sometimes more valuable to focus on process or marketing innovation instead

1. Quantitative is not enough, also use qualitative and make a connection with the users / players / customers
 2. Be very critical when choosing KPIs you can measure everything but do not lose the focus 3. When dealing with big data, do not get lost with average values (focus on cohorts, segments)

7. Metrics is 
 the answer

8. If you book them, they will come 1. Social = cheap way to 
 acquire and engage users
 2. Social is not just a FB group or a Twitter babble. It is about sense of belonging, competition, dialogue with and among the players, rewarding, activating, involving..
 3. So many things happening at the same time: you need to remind your customers to get back to the game

9. Successful product launch = SUCCESS! 1. Lifecycle view to the product management: some user acquisition methods are available only once in a lifetime of a product
 2. Even if launch fails, there
 are many things to do to change the course

10. I need to fail early because everyone says so

1. Make sure someone REALLY has the last word on product 
 decisions (in start ups everyone has opinions and money at stake but compromises or long debates are not good for you)
 2. Getting funded does not mean that you are not in hurry to fail. (As PM) question your teams’ decisions constantly to ease the failure
 3. It is difficult to fail early: it is good to fail later, too - as long as 
 it serves the purpose (save money, pivot product, find markets)