Feature Goal

The goal of this feature was to encourage high-tier players to use more of their earned bingo balls, leading to more spins and longer play sessions. As the Product Designer, my focus was to create an enticing progression system that incentivizes players at the gold tier, thereby enhancing overall game engagement and offering a more immersive experience to our most active players.

Final Version:

Design Process

We began with the clear objective of adding a new bingo tier to enhance player engagement. The challenge was to introduce an element that was more exciting than just another prize tier. Initially, we considered offering higher-tier prizes with greater rewards. However, focus group feedback indicated this approach might not achieve the desired impact. This led to comprehensive competitive research, which ultimately resulted in the development of the reward wheel concept.

Competitive Research

One significant challenge was identifying a twist to the bingo feature that would resonate with our daily active users (DAU), who have been familiar with bingo since its introduction in 2012. Extensive competitor research and numerous focus groups were conducted to identify mechanics that would blend well with our existing bingo feature.

A breakthrough came with the realization that our DAU enjoyed wheel-based mechanics. This insight led to the inclusion of a reward wheel, featuring a special Jackpot Bingo wedge. To enhance player engagement, we designed the wheel with static wedges, meaning once a player wins a wedge, it's removed, increasing the odds of hitting the jackpot. This aspect was particularly well-received, as the jackpot amounts were significant.

Prototyping

I utilized Adobe XD for prototyping and conducted several focus groups to gauge player reactions. These sessions were crucial for understanding player preferences and fine-tuning the feature based on their feedback.

Mocks:

Collaboration

As the Product Owner and Key Stakeholder, my role extended beyond design. I was responsible for writing user stories and guiding them through the development process. This task required close collaboration with various teams:

• Customer Service (CS) and VIP Teams: Assisted in conducting surveys and focus groups.


• Art Team: Provided assets and collaborated on the visual design of the feature.


• CRM Team: Provided valuable feedback from social media interactions.


• Configuration Team: Partnered to test different iterations of the feature and ensure balance.


• Product Managers: Collaborated to ensure the feature was aligned with the overall product roadmap.


• Production Team: Collaborated with producers to follow agile methodologies, conducted story pointing, refinements, dependency mapping, stakeholder reviews.


• Development Team: Collaborated to ensure the feature was delivered on time and within scope.

Iteration and A/B Testing

Changes based on feedback from key-stakeholder and focus groups. We conducted A/B testing to determine the optimal number of wedges, jackpot amounts and different way to present the feature to the players. Something we notice through research was that players were not understanding that there was a reward wheel, based on that feedback we change the art bundle to highlight the wheel more. We also tested different ways to present the feature to the players, we tested a promo dialog, a main dialog and a reward dialog.

Promo Dialog:

Main Dialog:

Reward Dialog:

Outcome and Impact

Jackpot Bingo can be considered a resounding success. It not only met but exceeded our expectations in terms of enhancing player engagement, lengthening session times, and contributing to revenue growth. This achievement highlights the feature's alignment with player interests and the effectiveness of the design and implementation strategy.