51: Dealing with Tension Between Product Engagement and Monetization in the Gaming Industry

In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board member Soumeya Benghanem welcome David Lau (Mojang Studios) and Raul Salcedo (Fluent, Inc) to talk about what makes a good PM in the gaming industry. A good PM is someone who is intellectually curious and one who consumes the products because being a PM in this field means you are dealing with consistency in product engagement and formulating strategies to sell within the game.  

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What to Listen For:

• 00:00 Intro
• 04:10 Why should somebody outside of gaming care about this conversation?
• 06:07 Tracking metrics for gaming customers
• 15:44 The minimal lovable product
• 21:51 Tensions between engagement and monetization
• 30:10 Good PMs understand engagement, acquisition, and monetization
• 38:44 The 80/20 rule when developing apps
• 44:12 Setting different types of thresholds when people are overplaying  
• 53:08 Our concluding thoughts