Topps Digital Director of Product on Personalizing the User Experience

How can product leaders personalize the user experience? In this episode, Neha Shah meets with Topps Digital Director of Product Rudy Saldivar to discuss his career journey from investment banking and private equity into gaming product management. Rudy speaks on his early role helping bring analytics to Blizzard and how his personal gaming experiences shaped his perspective. He also covers how he considers accessibility and diversity in product design today, and sees potential for AI to help people with disabilities through personalized experiences.

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Show Notes

1. Rudy Saldivar has experience in investment banking, private equity, and the gaming industry.
2. He was one of the first analysts on the strategy and operations team at Blizzard who worked on Hearthstone.
3. He brought analytics and finance skills to the gaming industry, which was new at the time.
4. He read forums and joined guilds to understand player experiences.
5. He had a disability with their left hand as a child and found gaming accessible.
6. Gaming experience gave Rudy a unique perspective on product design.
7. He worked make data accessible and not intimidating at Blizzard
8. Product leaders should consider diversity in product design, including accessibility.
9. Examples of accessibility features in games include colorblind modes.
10. AI has potential to help people with disabilities through personalized experiences
11. AI could help customize learning.
12. As a product leader, follow your passion and lean into your strengths.
13. Product management combines creative and quantitative skills.
14. The concept of “easy to learn, hard to master” makes games accessible to all levels of players
15. Games should have difficulty settings and customization options to accommodate different abilities
16. Data science allows product teams to infer broader conclusions and identify opportunities through limited datasets on accessibility.
17. Data privacy, governance and protecting user information are crucial.
18. Directly playing games helped Rudy intuitively understand metrics and player behavior to personalize the user experience.