The role of product manager in free-to-play mobile gaming industry

Abstract

The purpose of this Master's thesis is to investigate how mobile game companies are trying to use the role of the product manager in their operations and how this role differs from the role of the product manager in the software industry. Traditionally, the product manager has been responsible for enabling the technical implementation of the product and maintaining the vision, but the research revealed that the roles differ somewhat across industries. For the study, nine industry professionals were interviewed from a number of mobile games companies across Europe. The study was conducted as a semi- structured interview due to the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic via video link. All product managers interviewed agreed, among other things, that the product manager should be dedicated to prioritising and designing game features together with game designers. In contrast, the product managers interviewed were of the opinion that in the mobile games industry, the product manager should not necessarily be involved in user acquisition but should focus more on the aforementioned product development and the refinement and testing of its functionalities. In addition, the interviews revealed that, compared to the role of the software product manager, many of the tasks directly comparable to the role of the software product manager in mobile games were divided between the product manager, the producer, and the game lead, allowing for a clearer focus.