Product Management

What do data science teams at games studios do anyway?

Today we speak to Andre Cohen, Head of Data Science, at games publisher Tilting Point to find out.

Specifically we talk:

#1. what is the role of data science within a games studio?

#2. What are the primary applications data science is being used for?

#3. What does a data science team look like in terms of structure and team size?

#4. How to hire the data science team

#5. Biggest mistakes made with data science teams

#6. The future of data science in game studios

Find out what 99% of all games executives don’t know!

To be successful with F2P games, it’s important to have fairly deep technical infrastructure with a number of capabilities: sales & merchandising in particular being a key component.

At the GPM (Games Product Managers) Forum event in Vancouver earlier this year, I spoke about my thoughts in terms of best practices. I talk about the techniques and approach I’ll be taking to build out this capability for the new studio I’m trying to get off the ground.

What a journey! Paul Bellezza responded to a Craigslist ad for a humble games start-up called Riot Games in Los Angeles as Employee #6 in 2006. Since then, he’s lived through the meteoric rise of Riot Games and the massive growth of the company from the game League of Legends.

Paul serves as Product Manager: R&D working on new game concepts at Riot and he talks about his experience as a product manager and what that role means at Riot.

What does it mean to be a PM at Riot?
How does Riot think about PM for new game designs/concepts?
What can we expect in the future from Riot from a product perspective? From a PM perspective?
The Origin Story behind Team Fight Tactics!!!
How did Paul get hired at Riot?

Content Overview:

• 0:12 What Is It Like to Work at Riot?
• 2:30 History and Origin of Riot Games
• 6:20 How is The Company Structured?
• 9:18 The Product Manager Role at Riot
• 11:25 What Are the Key Roles at Riot?
• 13:30 What Does Your Day to Day Look Like?
• 14:55 Skills to Be Successful Live Ops vs New Games PMs
• 17:45 New Game Development at Riot
• 20:27 How Did Team Fight Tactics Come About?
• 23:32 How Surprised Was Riot at Success of TFT?
• 25:40 Emerging Trends and Changes to Riot in the Future
• 28:03 How Did You Get Hired at Riot?

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Learn more about Mobile Games F2P Product Management from Victor Wang who is a PM on the hit F2P game Jurassic World Alive.

Content Outline:
1:18 What Does a F2P Product Manager Do?
2:48 Day to Day Activities
6:08 PMs vs. Producers
8:57 KPI Analysis
10:50 Role of PM at Different Companies
13:34 PM Role by Game Dev Phase
16:48 How to Analyze Revenue Decline
20:16 Most Important PM Skills
21:40 Do You Need an MBA?
22:50 Working With Dev Studios
25:13 Why NBCUniversal?
26:51 Advice on Breaking Into the Industry
27:54 Specific PM Skills
28:35 Evolution of PM
30:04 Victor’s Career Trajectory

Note: Joseph Kim works at NBCUniversal with Victor Wang in the Games & Digital Platforms group. All opinions expressed in this video are his own and do not represent the views of NBCUniversal.

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