Craft
Why game product is different
Product management in games is not “PM, but with screenshots.” It is leadership shaped by live loops, player psychology, economies, content cadence, and the commercial reality of free-to-play and long-lived titles — including while you are still in development, testing with real people, and finding fit.
Generic SaaS roadmaps and consumer-app playbooks break under seasonal calendars, soft currency, and multi-year retention. We built Yardstick around that fact. Waiting until “live” to care about year model, economy sustenance, and retention after novelty is how soft launches become expensive lessons.
What “good” looks like here
- Loop ownership — core loop, meta, social, and monetisation as one system — designed for sustenance before scale.
- Live as the product — seasons and events sit inside a longer horizon; they are not the whole job. Soft launch and real-people tests are part of that product, not a side quest.
- Player value, not only DAU — Attention through Resilience (AFITMRR™), not a single engagement score.
- Economy as design — sources, sinks, and gacha are UX and fairness, not only balance numbers.
- Commercial honesty — ARPDAU, retention, and burn in one conversation with product.
Where transplants fail
- Feature factories without a live health model.
- OKRs that optimise short spikes and burn year-two trust.
- Analytics as reporting theatre instead of weekly decisions.
- Monetisation bolted on when the free loop is weak.
The reverse order works better: measure what forces a decision, retain after novelty, monetise when motivation is high.
How we show up
We partner as product and live leaders who have shipped across mobile, PC, and multi-platform catalogues — then adapt to your title’s stage: in development, near market test, finding fit, or live. Free tools sample the craft (business model, economy, populations) before and after scale; partnership installs the rituals, maps, and people. See Services and how partnership works.
Want this craft on your team
Product, live ops, analytics, talent — hands-on, with capability left behind.