Gamers aren’t shy about sharing their opinions. But just because our customers are vocal doesn’t mean Electronic Arts (EA) can rely solely on customer feedback to refine our products. Using surveys as a single source of data increases the risk of developing a biased or incorrect view of a product because not all survey respondents are truthful. We can’t afford to do that. EA is one of the top game publishing companies worldwide and has produced such blockbusters as Madden NFL, FC, Battlefield, and The Sims, to name a few. Making decisions based on poor user data at that scale could be disastrous, leading to developments that don’t reflect what players want.
As senior research manager on the UX team within EA’s AI and Insights organization, I work to find better ways to collect user feedback so we can continue to deliver outstanding developer, employee, and player experiences globally. I love my work, most of which involves gaining a deeper understanding of our diverse player groups. Amplitude is what I consider to be the “Mercedes-Benz” of analytics for this purpose. Using surveys as a singular source of data increases the risk of developing a biased or incorrect view of a product. We can’t afford to do that.
Unlocking collaboration and development
I’ve championed Amplitude at my last three companies and continue to champion it at EA because I’ve seen it transform teams’ perspective on product performance and make roadmap planning and execution more effective. Today, EA’s Research and Product teams are Amplitude power users. My team meets with Design and Engineering teams regularly to understand their most important metrics and research questions, and then we create a plan to help them track their performance with Amplitude.
This method of behavior tracking is the gold standard because you can see what users do in real time rather than relying on what they say. We rely on Session Replay for user activity review and knowledge sharing. I create a weekly list of themes I’ve noticed and bring it to a collaborative meeting with the Product, Design, and Engineering teams. We are able to quickly identify users’ problems and develop solutions when we watch live sessions together. Tracking via Session Replay is the gold standard of user behavior.
Even our executive team have become Amplitude users. When execs got their first taste of behavioral data, it was like the first potato chip—they couldn’t stop. They began to advocate for the shift to a more evidence-based framework after seeing the insights that were discovered with Amplitude. Another marker of Amplitude’s impact is the speed of development and opportunities to refine our workflow. Amplitude’s AI functionality allows me to monitor the performance of new features or updates without having to create a dashboard because I can just prompt it to surface what I want to know. It’s basically product development on hyperspeed.
EA has an advantage in both innovation and opportunities. EA’s main business challenge is innovating to grow market share, and we relish that challenge. Continually wowing a diverse, global user base means we have to understand how users interact with our many products.
One way we do this is through the EA Creator Network, a marketplace where influencers can participate in content development opportunities for studios. My team is responsible for the Creator Network, and we’ve worked to understand what kinds of opportunities resonate with creators, where we should recruit more creators, and how to increase awareness of our games and live content.
The Creator Network ought to have been an excellent location for gathering feedback due to the large number of direct user interactions. However, when I joined the company, we only had basic analytics, so every user action was like a black box.
In one instance, we could see the number of people joining opportunities fluctuate. Was there a problem with our onboarding? Was there some friction point that stopped users from converting? Would adding features make the experience more seamless? We couldn’t say.
The game was changed by behavioral analytics from Amplitude. Using Amplitude’s funnel analysis showed us the exact friction points in our onboarding process. Then, turning to Session Replay, we reviewed those interactions and iterated on solutions to make the process more seamless, including providing more user guidance and tool tips. As a result, we decreased onboarding time by 30%.
Supporting an inclusive approach
Amplitude also stands out for its capability to help us explore behavioral differences across demographics. With this data, we can surface product insights that reflect a broad and diverse user base, effectively driving innovation through equity and inclusivity. This capability has been a big boost to my efforts to further inclusive design practices and demonstrate the ROI of inclusive research over the years:
By incorporating neurodiverse-friendly design elements at Crowdstrike, we noticed a 40% increase in feature usage compared to projects that did not prioritize neurodiverse design considerations, underscoring the tangible impact of inclusive design on user engagement and validating the importance of centering neurodiversity in product development.
Recognizing that two-thirds of the global population with low vision resides in key markets for business messaging, I led an extensive study at Meta involving users with low vision. This research drove internal awareness of the retention risk these issues posed and secured significant enhancements.
In 2020, I led one of the nation’s first dedicated inclusive design research teams. I continue to instruct others on how to effectively replicate this research model and incorporate inclusivity into design practices because this team has become a model for other organizations that want to focus on underrepresented groups. Winning together on co-op mode
This work requires a fair amount of support, and I’ve found it with Amplitude.
If I’m ever on a game show, I might call Meg Duggan from our Amplitude customer success team as my lifeline. Meg has been our rock. She understands my dedication to inclusivity and how EA’s business differs from other companies, so her recommendations are always on point. To be honest, everyone at Amplitude has been amazing. Whoever I speak to is always aware of where we’ve been and where we’re going as an organization, and I know we’re in good hands.
It’s great to have that support, especially with the challenge of serving a big, diverse user base like ours. We don’t always get it right the first time, and Amplitude allows us to refine our products quickly. Instead of letting features languish after launch, we can modify product roadmaps based on user behavior. This ensures a better experience for all of our players while also saving time and money. Partnering with Amplitude upleveled EA’s maturity to become a more evidence-based company.
From the start, Amplitude gave us the benchmark metrics to track our progress, something we couldn’t do before. Looking at the big picture, Amplitude has allowed us to delve deeper into our product and our users. It’s made us more flexible and iterative, and it’s given us impressive results.
EA’s maturity increased as a result of our partnership with Amplitude, which provided us with the resources necessary to transform into a business that is more evidence-based. With access to behavioral analytics, everyone has aligned around the metrics that will bring us closer to our goals.
