Clarification – Are we talking about an online gaming product in general ? – Yes

Objective – Help FB users to use facebook as a platform for playing online games, spend time on Facebook and connect with each other.

Assumption – Feature will be part of Facebook App or FB.com

User Segments 

1. Active Gamers (Gamers who play online games actively as Professional, ex – on Twitch etc.)

2. Passive Gamers(Games who play online games individually for fun and to pass time)

3. Social Gamers(Gamers who play online games with friends and families to socialize)

I would like to focus on the 3rd segment. It aligns with FB’s mission of bringing the world closer and building community. Also I think on FB this user segment is comparatively larger than the other 2 segments.

Needs or Pain Points

1. Discovery Pain takes time to search for games.

2. Sharing game results, updates and storing past data.

3. Multi-user gaming are mostly advanced and not every user is at same level

4. Finding time to play in groups(Busy Schedule, Different Timezone etc)

5. Engagement during a game(Emotional connection missing)

6. Online gaming is unorganized with multiple websites, multi registrations etc.

I would like to prioritize 1,2,3 and 4. I feel these 4 pain points are most important for my user segment and will have the highest impact.

Solutions

1. Search – 

   1. Games Tab on FB App or FB Web (with list of games that can be searched based on categories, interests, type, age, # of users etc)

   2. Games can be searched from the FB home search bar.

   3. Games can be recommended to individuals with friends or families based on interests, availability etc.

   4. Play now recommendation with a friend or family member online and available to play.

2. Game Calendar

   1. Every user have a game calendar and availability

   2. Users can be sent gaming invitations from their families or friends. They can accept or decline or propose a new time for a gaming event.

   3. The invitation goes with some details about the game, character , assign roles etc.

3. Analytics

   1. Store data related to past games, Earn Badges. Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze

   2. Some high level analytics based like charts and graphs for users based on performance in a game like Levels , points earned etc.

   3. Users have options to share game results, data points, points . badges etc on their timeline with others in their network, with links for users to join FB Games.

Prioritization and Tradeoffs

1.a and 1.b are basic attributes and essential for the gaming product.

1.c is a high effort feature but we can look to leverage already existing FB recommendation algorithms.

1.d is a delighter can be skipped for MVP version

Solution 2 is a high effort feature but does have some redundancy with FB Events. Hence I feel we don’t need to build it for our MVP version rather would like to explore if we can enhance FB events for this solution.

3.a and 3.b are delighter features, both are medium impact and high effort features.

3.c is a Low Effort and High Impact Feature since this will increase the awareness of FB Games and will help in achieving our primary objective of engagement.

So I would build the MVP with 1.a, 1.b, 1.c and 3.c.