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What can product management learn from video games?

How to make dying more fun.

In this episode, we talk to a household name in tech that you might already know — Aakash Gupta, founder of product-growth.com.

Aakash has done it all: from founding his own companies, to working in game development, to becoming VP of product at a unicorn. He shares several case studies on how to do low-lift product discovery both as a founder and as an established PM.

Because he knows what PMs are going through, Aakash has pragmatic advice on how to talk to customers as an overburdened, burnt out PM. :)

We also talk about how we can apply video game psychology (e.g. dying gameplay) to everyday product development. Take a listen!

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Product Discovery and Akash Gupta

01:36 Akash's Journey into Product Management

05:03 Defining Moments in Akash's Product Leadership

09:09 User-Centric Product Discovery at Rap to Beats

18:23 Impactful Features and Gamification in Product Development

31:43 Insights from Epic Games and the Psychology of Gaming

40:50 Enhancing Player Experience through AI and Matchmaking

43:52 The Psychology of Failure and Game Design

47:29 The Importance of Playtesting in Game Development

51:04 Navigating User Research in Large Organizations

54:13 Leveraging Data for Product Discovery

58:21 Building Effective Customer Feedback Loops

01:01:43 The Role of Research in Product Management

01:05:01 Democratizing User Research for Product Managers

01:09:18 Balancing Analytics and Customer Conversations

01:13:49 Creating a Continuous Feedback Loop with Customers

Where to find Aakash:

* LinkedIn

* Aakash’s newsletter at Product-growth.com

* Aakash’s podcast

* Book: The Ultimate Guide to Getting a PM Job

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.jingjingtan.com