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.     Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.   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