Strategy question
How would you increase the monetization of Farmville over and above the current features by 10-15%?
- Meta
- Strategy
- Medium
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What this question tests
Monetization strategy for a specific mature freemium game, tied to real game mechanics and player segments.
How to approach it
- State the current monetization model, likely virtual currency purchases, time skip purchases, and limited time item sales.
- Identify the highest leverage lever, since a small percent of players typically drive a large share of revenue in freemium games, focus there first.
- Propose a specific tactic, personalized limited time offers triggered by player behavior, offering a relevant time skip purchase right when a player is blocked waiting on a long timer.
- Propose a secondary tactic, expanding social or competitive features, since friend based competition is a proven driver of spend in this genre.
- Define the target and guardrail, aim for the stated revenue increase while watching for a rise in uninstall rate or negative reviews citing pay to win frustration.
What a strong answer includes
- Targets the highest leverage segment explicitly, top spending players, with a specific mechanism, behavior triggered personalized offers at natural friction points like a blocked timer.
- Names a second concrete lever grounded in the genre's known dynamics, social competition features like leaderboards driving spend through peer comparison.
- Sets both a revenue target and an explicit guardrail, uninstall rate or negative review sentiment, showing awareness that overly aggressive monetization can backfire.
Common mistakes
- Proposing generic add more purchases ideas with no tie to specific player behavior or segment.
- Ignoring the risk that aggressive monetization tactics can increase churn or hurt brand sentiment.
- No guardrail metric alongside the revenue target.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you identify which players are close to becoming a top spender?
- What would make you pull back a monetization tactic after launch?
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Learn the skill behind it
Chapters of the AI PM course that teach what this question tests.
- Chapter 4: Discovery and strategy for AI products
- Chapter 9: Prove it paid off: outcomes, economics, and pricing
- Chapter 14: Get the job: the AI PM interview loop