3. Guest
mack@tapstream.com | @tapstreamApp | #UAisHard
Tayber Voyer
Designer/Producer: A Thinking Ape
Founder: Vancouver Mobile Social Games
Consultant: Social/Mobile growth
5. Challenges of Growth
Finding new sources of GOOD users.
(Good because they spend money.)
(Good because they bring friends.)
First day retention.
Long term engagement.
Reengaging lost users.
mack@tapstream.com | @tapstreamApp | #UAisHard
6. 41 Shades of Blue
Yes, it’s true that a team at Google couldn’t decide between
two blues, so they’re testing 41 shades between each blue to
see which one performs better. I had a recent debate over
whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was
asked to prove my case. I can’t operate in an environment
like that. I’ve grown tired of debating such minuscule design
decisions. There are more exciting design problems in this
world to tackle.
- Douglas Bowman
http://stopdesign.com/archive/2009/03/20/goodbye-google.html
mack@tapstream.com | @tapstreamApp | #UAisHard
9. Implications
You should incorporate user feedback into your
product roadmap but you shouldn’t let player feedback
steer the roadmap.
Test your assumptions and player behaviour against your
data, and align both with your business objectives.
mack@tapstream.com | @tapstreamApp | #UAisHard
12. KAW Example
Hypothesis
Social behaviour drives our player
engagement and combining that with limited
time promotions would help encourage players
to play.
mack@tapstream.com | @tapstreamApp | #UAisHard
13. Feature
We ran new promotions every day for a month.
Everyday someone would manually change the
time the promotion started and ended. We used the forums
to communicate the promotions to the players. We ‘hacked’
it in.
If it was successful we would build a promotion tool to
automate the process.
mack@tapstream.com | @tapstreamApp | #UAisHard
16. New Content
mack@tapstream.com | @tapstreamApp | #UAisHard
We tried cloning the
effective promo based on
metrics but without looking
at the context of why it was
popular.
17. Results
No Luck. Small boost in engagement metrics
but nothing compared to when we put a promo
on our best Epic Battle.
We realized that a promo tool wouldn’t be effective and
cloning the Epic Battle didn’t work either.
As result we wasted very little resources.
mack@tapstream.com | @tapstreamApp | #UAisHard
18. Make it Social
mack@tapstream.com | @tapstreamApp | #UAisHard
What if we gave
players the power to
start an Epic Battle
for their clan?
19. Implications
We kept the idea of promotion but
we allowed players to use rare drop
items or a premium purchase to run the promo
themselves for their clan.
We never would’ve found this solution
without the context of player feedback.
mack@tapstream.com | @tapstreamApp | #UAisHard
25. Dedicated Beta Testers
Low risk
Pros
focused feedback, you can build a diverse group of beta testers
Cons
low reach, potential for abuse, no testing at scale, requires a lot of organizing
Best used for testing mechanics that aren't easy to predict on a large scale.
mack@tapstream.com | @tapstreamApp | #UAisHard
26. Full Beta Test
Medium - high risk
Pros
testing at scale, volume of player feedback is large, compensation for problems
not always required
Cons
Feedback is not focused, beta test affect player expectations, players aren't
honest about competitive play, player behaviour in beta features is not the
same as a normal feature
mack@tapstream.com | @tapstreamApp | #UAisHard
27. Hidden Beta Test
High risk
Cons
player feedback is not focused, if something goes wrong you have to apologize
and offer compensation, volume of feedback is huge, player expectations are
higher.
Pros
Feedback and data tend to be more accurate.
mack@tapstream.com | @tapstreamApp | #UAisHard
28. Recap
1. Balance design assumptions with player feedback and
data to understand the context of your features.
2. Player feedback part of your core product cycle.
3. Optimize around local maxima, use data and community feedback to find
new local maxima.
4. Use Minimal Viable Features to test your hypotheses before implementing
robust feature sets.
5. Collect feedback and build community.
mack@tapstream.com | @tapstreamApp | #UAisHard
30. Round of Applause!
mack@tapstream.com | @tapstreamApp | #UAisHard
Thanks Tayber!
@tvtayber
Stick around to hear how
Tapstream can help you grow
organically.
31. How to Grow
Your Game
Organically
#UAisHard Webinar with Tayber Voyer