Problem

I identified a dominant incumbent, Flow Free, monopolizing the connect-matching-colors sub-genre and earning 83% of all in-app purchase revenue across the entire genre. This game’s outdated UX forced players to navigate menus between levels, prompted users with ambiguous choice, and lacked modern gameplay features like daily challenges and chapter rewards. Regardless, it still earned an estimated $3.5 million in revenue from its established player base (AppMagic, 2025).

Solution

I designed and shipped a mobile game achieving 25+ minutes of average engagement time among active users by innovating on Flow Free’s outdated UX and gameplay flaws. I built the full product from zero as sole product owner, directing a cross-functional team across two geographies. The design decisions, playtesting methodologies, and analytics telemetry that produced these results are documented below.

Role

I was the product owner for the entire app, serving every function and discipline -except engineering- to bring this game to fruition. Some of my core accomplishments in developing this product:

• As UI/UX designer and game designer, I created early mockups and paper prototypes, conducting playtests and gathering user feedback.
• I hired early talent to build the game through its various stages of completion:
  • MVP - 1 Senior Game Dev Engineer
  • Soft Launch - 2 Senior Engineers, 1 Project Manager, and 1 QA Tester.
  • Full Feature Launch - Team of 7 including: 1 Senior Engineer serving as engineering manager and technical advisor, 1 Game Designer to create levels and consult on feature development, and 1 Senior Backend and Tools Engineer, plus the original Soft Launch dev team above.
• Served as sole project manager across all development phases, directing cross-functional teams totaling 9 contributors across domestic and outsourced functions.
• Managed growth and user acquisition by capturing and editing creatives and publishing ad campaigns via Facebook Ads Manager.

Process

Comprehensive Product Audit

Before jumping into design, I conducted a structured, comprehensive audit of Flow Free using the Fogg Behavioral Model to identify specific addressable friction points across UX, gameplay, and monetization.

• Analyzed Flow Free app with the Fogg Behavioral Model, diagnosing issues such as:
  • Poor prompting - Some animations and cues in the game were poorly telegraphed, resulting in players not knowing where to go next or what to do.
  • No meta gameplay features - A lack of additional challenge and meta-mechanics meant players were not motivated to play for extended periods of time.
  • Unnecessary user interface complexity - players were forced to navigate game menus and experiment with vague level difficulty selections in order to find their desired difficulty level and initiate game play.
• Deconstructed flow-free monetization model to understand game design and game economy dynamics:
  • Outdated Freemium Model - A large swath of core puzzles are free; additional puzzles can be purchased for micro-transactions.
  • Minimal Ad Touch-Points - As a hyper casual game this title was lacking reward systems and gameplay opportunities to convert players on high-value ad impressions.
  • Minimal Store SKUs - the game was lacking diverse SKUs to cater to different player spend profiles and did not use additional levers (price anchoring, daily rewards) to drive players to the store and increase conversion at higher price points.
• Analyzed app reviews and documented common praises and friction points, then synthesized directional insights to drive gameplay innovation:
  • Ads are served after every 5 levels and hard to close.
  • The UI is frustrating; some users cite hitting the hint button accidentally, others mention frustration with not being able to preview a level (have to enter and exit instead).
  • The levels are too easy.

Planning & Design