All Product Managers Need to Play Pokemon Go
If you are passionate about product, download and play Pokemon Go right now.
Yes, right now.
Pick up your phone and download it. Sign up with your Google account.
In terms of product, what’s so interesting about Pokemon Go? Why should a product manager care?
Tremendous Growth
Within three days of its launch, the game had already beat Twitter in terms of daily active users. Users are spending more time in the game than all social networks, including Facebook and Snapchat.
This is the type of growth all product managers dream of. A launch this successful is very rare, but exactly what a PM would hope for when planning a launch. What did Niantic do right? The timeline for the release is an interesting document. Beta was opened on May 29th, over a month before the actual launch. A Superbowl commercial was released well before that. Screenshots were available prior to the launch in order to build excitement for the game. This release benefited from excitement that had developed among fans over a period of several months. Once the app was available, a number of fans were ready and waiting to download and start playing.
Location, location, location
Pokemon Go lives on top of Google Maps and a GPS is a requirement for the game. More people are going on walks, including with their dogs, because Pokemon Go requires outdoor movement in order to advance. This game is impacting lives in a positive way and the energy around the game is in the air.
Pokemon Go could potentially be a huge win for location-based advertising. It’s a fun game, where players are highly motivated to go to certain locations, such as PokeStops, especially with lures, where they can catch more Pokemon. Some restaurants and bars are getting in on the action by purchasing a few lures to attract players to come and catch more Pokemon at their establishment.
Play Pokemon Go to see how location can be a powerful tool in an application, as well as how it can lead to successful monetization.
User Psychology
Users are very motivated to play this game and were very excited for it. As a result of brand loyalty, players have been very patient. Servers are consistently crashing and onboarding is nonexistent. Players are not explained how to do a number of basic game play actions: How do I catch Pokemon? Where are they? What do I do with an egg? How do I evolve Pokemon? None of these actions are explained. Luckily, I had a friend to explain how I could advance in the game, but for a non-connected player, the experience is much poorer.
Because so many players are familiar with Pokemon and the game concept, onboarding wasn’t as much of a necessity. Users were highly motivated to play and learn the game. By downloading and playing this game, you’ll have the opportunity to interact and discuss this game with highly engaged users.
Download This Game
While not quite AR, the game provides an introduction to augmented reality that many haven’t experienced before. In the near future, when augmented reality games and apps become more common, Pokemon Go will fondly be looked back upon. For the time being, this is a mobile app with the highest engagement around and everyone is using and talking about it. It’s exciting to be a part of something like this. It’s energizing to see people happy about technology. So what are you waiting for?