GameMakers

What are the skills and kind of personality required to be a winning product manager?   

In particular, what do you need to become a "needle-moving" PM instead of a minor cog that doesn't actually make much of a difference?  

High-level outline 

1. Organizational differences we often see in different gaming studios and talk about some of the ways in which, therefore - certain skills and personality traits would be more critical than others.   

2. General discussion about what are the kinds of skills PMs should have in order to be effective.  

3. Talk about personality. In particular, specific traits good PMs should have.   

4. Just for fun, we talk and potentially argue about what is most critical if we’re prioritizing different skills or personality traits for a PM to be #winning 

SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS: 

- Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/

- Don't miss an episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/GameMakersStudio

We discuss the current state of mergers & acquisitions in the games industry.  

Topics: 

0:00 Introduction 

4:13 Activision to Microsoft 

12:16 Zynga to Take-Two 

25:30 Current M&A Landscape 

39:25 Potential Targets 

48:17 Playtika Acquisition 

51:52 Carve-Out Opportunities 

1:01:03 Predictions  

Speakers: 

- Saad Choudri, CEO at Miniclip 

- Michael Metzger, Partner at Drake Star Partners 

- Chris Petrovic, Chief Business Officer at FunPlus  

👇 CHECK IT OUT  

Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/

GameMakers Podcast: https://anchor.fm/gamemakers 

😃 —CONNECT WITH ME! —  

• MY INSTAGRAM → @jokim1 

• TWITTER → @jokim1 

• LINKEDIN → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/

Some context: 

- IDFA deprecation has created a -30% margin compression for many game studios against their game revenue 

- With the deterioration of lookalike audiences CA submits that contextual and interest-based targeting will be more performant 

- Consumer Acquisition performed over 25,000 multivariate tests on Facebook, Google, Tiktok, and Snap and have learned that 85-95% of new creative concepts fail to outperform the best ad in an existing portfolio. Hence you may need 20-50 new concepts to find your next winning creative.  

To address the current market, Zynga's Creative Director Bradly Bifulco and Consumer Acquisition CEO Brian Bowman discuss how a structured process to creative development is absolutely critical to generating performant ad creatives.  

Read about it in the GameMakers newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/

EPISODE LINKS:

- Malcolm Gladwell on "Choice, Happiness, and Spaghetti Sauce"

A deep discussion on how we think about employee motivation to work. How should we think about it?   

We cover topics such as key factors that contribute to higher motivation, the importance of desperation, how it's important to help some employees tie potential outcomes to the work they do, and the importance of creating the right incentive systems to align work motivation.  

Read about it in the GameMakers newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/

We discuss the best and worst of game dev in 2021.  

Our awards crew:  

Javier Barnes, Lead Game Designer at King 

Josh Burns, Founder at DigitalDevConnect 

Shannon Chang, Head of Operations at Trading.TV 

Niklas Herriger, Executive Coach at 8 Bit Coaching 

Matthew Kanterman, CFA, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Bloomberg LP 

Eric Kress, Principal at Gossamer Consulting Group, LLC K

en Landen, Lead Product Manager at Scopely 

Brian Peganoff, Ex. Senior Director, Corporate Development & Strategy at Glu Mobile  

AWARDS CATEGORIES:  

Biggest winner: Which games industry company was the biggest winner in 2021?  

Biggest loser: Which games industry company was the biggest loser in 2021?  

Best Game (HD or mobile)  

Worst Game (HD or mobile)  

Biggest Surprise   

Biggest Comeback  

Biggest Missed Opportunity  

Biggest News  

Game or Big Game Update You're Most Looking Forward To

We talk about some of the biggest trends and lessons of 2021:  

1. Rise of Personal Brands (and everyone now jumping on) 

2. Power and Importance of Relationships 

3. The Duality of Existence and Human Nature 

4. The New New Thing  

Read about it in the GameMakers newsletter

Today we discuss one of the most important topics for the success of a games studio, especially for startups and those working on new game projects: RECRUITING!  

GUEST: 

- Tayber Voyer, VP of Product - A Thinking Ape

HOSTS: 

- Joseph Kim, CEO at LILA Games

- Brett Nowak, CEO at Liquid & Grit

Read about it in the GameMakers newsletter

Bill Walsh, the Hall of Fame NFL coach, had a number of incredibly insightful and effective leadership philosophies as discussed in his book "The Score Takes Care of Itself."  One philosophy Walsh discusses is something he calls "Make Friends, Not Enemies."  

We discuss this concept and as always the nuance and specific application. Check it out!  

HOSTS: 

- Joseph Kim, CEO at LILA Games 

- Brett Nowak, CEO at Liquid & Grit

Read about it in the GameMakers newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/

An in-depth discussion on how to technical leads at gaming companies can become great!   

Super far-ranging conversation from the scope of work, biggest problems, transitioning from individual contributor to manager, how to spend day to day, biggest lessons learned, and more!  

SPEAKERS:     

- Niklas Herriger, Executive Coach, Founder of 8 Bit Coaching     

- Tommy Krul, CTO Super Evil Megacorp     

- Avinash Pandey, CTO LILA Games  

HOST:    

- Joseph Kim, CEO, LILA Games.   

Read about it in the GameMakers newsletter!

Companies globally require new ways of managing as they grapple with new working conditions from the coronavirus pandemic. As companies adapt to greater work-from-home environments, new problems have arisen.   

Brett believes in a new world of remote work where those who don't adapt will not survive, JK believes that for "complex work" and for companies that are working in complex work environments especially those working on 0 to 1 products, in-office environments are best.  

Hear both sides including specific nuance, trends, themes, and analysis of remote vs. office work.  

What will be the future of work?  

HOSTS:

- Joseph Kim, CEO at LILA Games

- Brett Nowak, CEO at Liquid & Grit

LINKS:

Read about it in the GameMakers newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/ NEW VIDEOS EVERY WEEK! ***Click the notification bell so you don't miss any!***