Associate Product Manager | Initial

Written Test
Objective:
Test for a candidate's potential rather than their existing skill set or capability to
do the work we seek. Having said that, this test will require self-motivated
research, study, and determination to understand and complete for most
candidates.
Our evaluation process will be pretty comprehensive. After the written section,
we will also require 2-5 follow-up live interviews.
I’ve designed this test such that most of you should quit before you complete this
test. Good luck!

Notes:
Before starting, make sure you believe that LILA's values and culture fit what you
are seeking. If you haven't already, please thoroughly research our company
before taking this test: LILA Company Information.
If you are not hired, we can send you the test of the candidate we wound up
hiring if you request a follow-up.
You can also always check for weekly updated open roles here: The GameMakers
Letter
Write your answers in a separate document - format of your choice.
Return your test results in whatever document type and format you believe can
best represent your answers. Email your results to: jk@lilagames.com and +cc
ryan@lilagames.com
Thanks!

I. Modeling
You should be able to develop sophisticated spreadsheet models that are clear,
compact, and elegantly simple to understand, at least to the degree that a
spreadsheet can be.

Crafting Systems
Many free-to-play games include a crafting system. Examples of crafting systems in
popular games include Last Day on Earth: Survival, Rust, Minecraft, Vigor, and many
others.
Imagine we are designing a crafting system for a mobile game with the following
properties:
8 basic materials (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H) are used for crafting various permanent
items that cannot be lost such as guns and cosmetics. Further, consumable
items (eliminated after usage) like healing items can also be crafted.
Recipes are used in the game to craft different items: 10 guns, 20 cosmetics, 5
consumables.
Every recipe requires some combination of basic materials and soft currency e.g.,
AK-47 could require 10A, 12B, 5C, and $300 in soft currency.
There is a crafting table that restricts the development of items based on a
crafting table level. The crafting table level increases based on gameplay
experience points gained via gameplay.

Q1:
Make any assumptions you need to, but state them clearly.
Create a template for a model in Google Sheets that models the typical duration of
time before all recipes are unlocked and players will stop progressing against the
crafting system. State all assumptions with reasonable values you will need in order
to complete this model.

Q2:
Assume that now every recipe must be found in gameplay rather than being
instantly available. Show your model template again but with this change to your
model. As before, state all assumptions with reasonable values you will need in order
to complete this model.

Staffing Model
Q3:
Imagine we wanted to build a game similar to Clash Royale. Using reasonable
assumptions build a staffing model. Meaning a spreadsheet that describes the
number of people needed by role on a monthly basis over say a 24 month
development cycle.
Build the staffing model to the best of your ability researching as much as you can
for kinds of roles and the number of people you think you’ll need. I will not evaluate
your model for correctness, but you should state all of your assumptions and try to
create a model that can be driven by key assumptions. So basically try to create a
model that is clean, simple, and able to be driven by assumptions without a lot of
hardcoding.

II. Feature Review

As a PM, you will need to understand the competitive landscape of games extremely
deeply.

Q4:
In as simple and clear way as possible, explain the primary differences between the
top 3 mobile shooter games in the market today.

Q5:
Pick a single feature from one of the top 3 mobile shooter games that you studied
from the previous question. Create a 2-3 page summary of the feature breaking it
down and explaining the impact of the feature to the game, and why the feature is
effective.

III. Analysis
As a Product Manager, you will be required to think DEEPLY and from first principles
on a number of complex topics.

Battle Pass
A “battle pass” is one of the most popular features in free-to-play (F2P) gaming
since it was popularized in the shooter game Fortnite.
Imagine we launched a free to play mobile shooter game that did not initially
include a battle pass, and then after 3 months of launch we included a monthly
battle pass.
The battle pass includes daily reward items primarily comprising cosmetic items
such as clothing but also includes some hard currency items called diamonds.
Players purchase battle passes on a season to season basis for $4.99 per season.
Each season consists of 30 calendar days.
Based on our initial analysis, let’s assume a curve for average revenue per user to
date looked like the following:
Q6:
We want to estimate the impact to player ARPU after introducing the battle pass
system.
How would you think about modeling the impact of the battle pass to ARPU
before introducing the battle pass?
How would you measure the impact of the battle pass to ARPU after introducing
the battle pass system?

Q7:
Any game system can be thought of as a number of inputs, outputs, and control
levers into the system. If you were modeling the battle pass that we introduce into
the game what would you consider as the primary inputs, control levers, and outputs
for our battle pass?