Ron Gilbert talked about Maniac Mansion in a classic game postmortem at GDC. I've watched the recording for a second time now. Aside from the obvious fact that Ron is an excellent story teller, there's a few learnings and notes that I took away again. Some of the things he learned and mentioned were processed … Continue reading Learnings from Maniac Mansion
I asked ChatGPT a few very relevant questions…
And it did well, I think: Until it tried to sell me quotes from the Beetles:
Product Management gone missing
I follow the unfolding Twitter story with great curiosity. I am shocked there's this many layoffs, and many people that helped grow the company and the social platform were let go. I won't go into detail, but I am not buying the narrative that all those that were let go were "bloat" or "unessential" or … Continue reading Product Management gone missing
Give me my tech map
I am playing this new game that's a city builder. The idea is that you build... a city. A very modern, complicated Sim City. Think "the settlers" or "Anno", but newer. It's "Farthest Frontier" - find it on your favorite game distribution site. I mostly like it, 10 hours or so in. What I am … Continue reading Give me my tech map
Speaking engagement
I had the pleasure to speak in front of ~120 very skilled security professionals the other day. I am not a very experienced speaker, so these types of engagements wear me out until after the presentation is over - and then I feel energized. The talk wasn't about a feature or component I work with … Continue reading Speaking engagement
Bucketizing backlog
I am trying to bucketize things. Structure helps me reduce chaos and tackle things and get things done efficiently. Buckets help with clarity. At least for me. When I look over the backlog, and what to focus on next - and this is for product work as well as for structuring my day, I am … Continue reading Bucketizing backlog
The crawling, walking, running thermostat
One of the classic tricks of Product Management and design thinking is the "crawl-walk-run" approach of breaking down a larger project in to smaller, digestible and easier-to-tackle work packages. Like a small human child, a new product isn't born immediately running, but will take time to crawl on all fours. After, the child will learn … Continue reading The crawling, walking, running thermostat
What sucking adventure games tell product managers
I am reading a lot of blogs and papers that people write about their thought processes for the craft their good at. Not all are strictly product management, some are from similar fields. I consume a lot of adventure game content these days, and if you look at game design for adventure games, there's a … Continue reading What sucking adventure games tell product managers
Achievements and customer engagement
One of the things that I find intriguing about modern games, coming from a 80s/90s gaming past, is that there's a few new concepts that can elevate the experience you have with a game, giving you a few more benefits for the money you put in. A concept I quite liked playing Return to Monkey … Continue reading Achievements and customer engagement
Building communities
I have been a communities person for a long time. Not necessarily in the sports club type, but in the learn from one another, sit and discuss type. I started my professional career reading, learning and then contributing back to newsgroups. It's been technical newsgroups at first, so people would post their problems and challenges, … Continue reading Building communities
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