The best product builders and product managers are in this industry below.

Before I dive in, yes — “best” is subjective. I have drawn the most inspiration from these product managers personally. If you truly want to learn about some of the greatest product leaders, keep reading. ⬇️

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The gaming industry has some of the best product builders. Why? 🎮

1) They have to create transformative experiences: video games are a great source of inspiration for user experiences and overall product design. 🔮

Gaming product builders are held to high standards when creating products and end-to-end user journeys. The product managers, designers, and engineers behind these games spend immense effort thinking about the nuances of how to create memorable and nostalgic experiences. They must attract players into their games, convince players to keep playing, get their friends to play, and more. There are several incumbents that have created everlasting brands over the past decade.

Think about the first or last time you picked up a PC, Nintendo, Xbox, PlayStation game. You likely invested minutes or even hours into their experience. TikTok, arguably the most captivating app of this decade, averages 45.8 minutes of watch time per day. If you ever played an FPS, Action-Adventure, RPG, MMORPG, Racing, Battle Royale, Sports, or any other game — you have probably sunken hours into that game at some point in your life. The bar for a successful video game is high, and newer video game creators have to truly create different or disruptive games in order to stand out. Players have to enjoy playing the game. It has to be fun and exciting, challenge you, or make you feel something.

2) Video games are built on community: gaming product builders are some of the most impressive product builders ever. 🧙

Consumer products are the hardest to grow. If you have ever built a consumer product, you know how challenging they are to build. Building and retaining communities over months and years are some of the hardest problems to solve for. Getting from 100, to 1000, to 10,000 users is challenging for any consumer social app. Imagine doing it for a video game. Or if you do already have an established brand, imagine how difficult it is to retain thousands or millions of users for years on end. The best products are almost free for you to study: look at The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, Call of Duty, Fortnite, Minecraft, and many more timeless brands. For any product you create, you have to create a distribution machine around it. Well-known video games are examples of great products with strong distribution.

3) Gaming product builders are masters of retention and growth loops: video games are great case studies on user retention. 📈

As mentioned before, you have to grow a community and keep it over time. Acquiring users is the first part, but keeping them over time — and having them refer other users is the second part. Gaming product builders have to think through ways to constantly retain users over time. Have you ever heard of quests, leveling up, multi-player experiences, and in-game achievements? Have you ever told a friend about a game you played because the game was so much fun or you wanted them to play with you? Video games are complex journeys of built-in “aha” moments over time.

These are all growth loops and levers that these product builders use for user retention. It's constantly about user retention, from the onboarding experience to single player experiences to multiplayer experiences. Growth loops are always built in games to encourage sharing achievements, working with friends, and helping people create content for games.

4) Gaming product builders understand LTV deeply: gaming product builders are experts on lifetime value. ♾️

Lifetime value is the amount of $$ a customer will generate over time in the form of revenue. Have you heard of Fortnite/Call of Duty skins, 2K VC, memberships, upgrades, etc? Have you played a sequel of video games? (ie multiple Pokémon games) These are all levers that these gaming product builders use to increase LTV of video games. Short term, gaming product builders allow customers to engage in microtransactions to either upgrade their account or find a boost in-game. Long term, gaming product builders create a timeless brand that encourages a loop of current and new customers to keep coming back for more.

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