Creating Memorable

Experiences:

Amitt Mahajan

Who Am I?

• Serial Entrepreneur and Angel Investor

• Founder/CTO of MyMiniLife (FarmVille tech)– Acquired by Zynga in 2009

• Created and launched FarmVille with Zynga– Lead development team from 2009-2010

• Founder/CEO of Toro– SaaS growth hacking products

– Acquired by Google in 2015

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Why Focus on the User?

• Higher engagement & retention

• Greater word of mouth distribution (NPS)

• Delighted users have a higher chance of becoming paying customers

• Foundation of some very successful companies (Amazon, Google, Uber, etc.)

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A Brief History of FarmVille

• Launched the game in June 2009

• 1M daily active users after 4 days

• Peak of 32M daily active users

• Grossed over $1B in revenue

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Takeaways

• Go beyond the function of your product and delight your users

• Even small moments of joy can create emotional connections to your product

• Social experiences can leave a lasting impression

• All of the above applies to products outside of games

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Blow Past User Expectations

• Create a product that’s not just functional

but that the user enjoys using

• Sweat small details

– FarmVille action queueing

• Anticipate user needs ahead of time

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Create Moments of Joy

• Random, small delights

– Zappos was known for randomly providing

free shipping

• Mysteries work really well

– What’s in the gift boxes?

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Try to Hit All Emotions

• A variety of emotions cause conflict which make your experience more interesting

• Sympathy, disappointment, and relief were common themes

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Find a Voice

• All of our dialog was written in a “Farmer”-slang voice; including our blog posts

• Each animal had a different personality, adding to the relaxed attitude of the game

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Visual Design has Market-size

Impact

• Mismatched visual design can alienate a

segment of your market

• FarmVille’s art style was carefully chosen

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Be Mindful of User Context

• Build your product to fit the user’s lifestyle

• In FarmVille, most users play Monday

morning at work

– Short 5-minute sessions fit this type of user

• Make it easy to get in the flow (click-zen)

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Example Click-Zen

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Stay Playful

• Experiment and break conventions

• Sometimes it won’t work but it keeps the

experience interesting

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Collaboration Creates Memories

• Users start to view your product as a way

of socializing

• Emergent gameplay will occur

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Follow the Community’s Lead

• Added user play-style specific features

• Makes community feel part of the process

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Run Regular Events

• Provides TV-like watercooler moments

• Weekly feature launches and events

– Farm of the Week

• Holiday events

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Don’t Let Tech Get in the Way

• Tech issues kill retention and engagement

• Pay attention to load-times & performance

• Optimize for the user with the worst setup

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Conclusion

• Aim to not just provide a functional product but one that’s a delight to use; moments of joy can help

• Find a voice that defines your product

• Lasting impact can be found by facilitating social experiences and involving your community

• Keep content fresh and interesting through periodic events and experimentation

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Thank You!

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Q & A

amitt.com