Today, I want to share a rather special story from my career: the journey of becoming a Product Owner for a project that combines both AI and Gamification, starting from absolute zero!
Previously, I worked in Product Marketing, where my main responsibilities were competitor and market research. So, when my boss offered me the chance to switch to a PO role for an "AI Agent" project - I honestly felt a mix of excitement and anxiety.
I was excited for the opportunity to challenge myself in a new role, especially on a trendy project involving AI and gamification. But I was also anxious because... I had never been a PO before. My knowledge of AI was vague, and I had only ever experienced gamification as a "user," not a "builder."
But then I thought, opportunities like this don't come around often. I decided to just start, learning as I went.
What is Oppy?
In short, Oppy is an AI that our team plans to develop and integrate into OplaCRM for our users (salespeople) to use.
(The name Oppy is a play on the word "Opportunity," and the "Op" also comes from "OplaCRM," which is why our team finalized this name.)
How We Built Oppy
From the very beginning, we determined that Oppy had to deliver a truly unique experience. Instead of using existing gamification platforms, the team decided to custom-build the entire game mechanic from scratch. We drew inspiration from several sources:
- Pet Raising: The idea of allowing users to "raise" Oppy from an egg, watching it grow, and change based on their work performance. You might recognize this concept from games like Mole's World (I was super into that game back then TT).
(An interesting point: a few weeks after our team started the project, TikTok released a similar feature, also involving raising a pet by maintaining a streak. This just goes to show how critical time-to-market is in product development. An opponent releasing a feature just one sprint or even one week ahead of you can give them a huge advantage.)
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Duolingo: Our team also studied and looked to Duolingo as a model for increasing an app's User Engagement, particularly in creating personalized messages and a daily mission system for users.
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Shimeji: We wanted to create an Oppy that could move around on the screen and have fun interactions with the user, similar to the Shimeji you can find as Chrome Add-ons.
Our team's goal was to make Oppy a natural and ever-present part of a salesperson's workflow, thereby becoming their genuine buddy, unlike any other chatbot.
Visually, Oppy was sketched as a wise and extremely curious egg. Since our team didn't have a dedicated animator, we decided to outsource the design and animation to bring Oppy to life. I searched for a suitable artist on Fiverr (a platform for finding freelancers).
What Can Oppy Do?
To make it easier to visualize, I've divided Oppy's main features (Phase 1) into the following groups:
Interaction
- AI Buddy: Oppy doesn't just sit still. It can run, jump, and express emotions like joy and sadness right on your CRM screen, creating the feeling of having a little companion always by your side.
Gamification
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Raising Oppy: When users perform positive actions in OplaCRM (e.g., completing tasks, updating customer information, hitting KPIs...), Oppy receives "experience points" and gradually "grows up," changing its appearance from an egg to more mature forms.
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Duolingo-Style Missions: Every day (or every week), Oppy will present a list of specific tasks directly related to the sales work that needs to be done in the CRM (e.g., "Create 2 new leads today," "Call 5 potential customers," "Update the status of 3 sales opportunities").
Upon completing these missions, users receive rewards like experience points for Oppy, achievement badges, or virtual items.
Challenges and How I Overcame Them
Being a PO for the first time, especially on such a complex project, I admit I faced quite a few difficulties:
Misaligned Communication
Initially, because I was new and didn't have a deep technical understanding, I wrote rather vague user stories. The dev team would read them and have to ask questions back and forth (This is why I learned to create prototypes using AI). Then, each stakeholder had a different opinion. Some features had to be revised several times because the initial requirements weren't clear.
- Solution: I realized that User Stories alone were not enough for complex features, so I learned to write more detailed BRDs (Business Requirements Documents). A BRD helps to clearly describe the context, objectives, processes, and use cases, which allowed the dev team to better understand the "what" and "why" of the task, while also having a reference document when needed (Using AI to create prototypes, which I've shared about before, is also a great way to visualize requirements).
Besides that, I continued to maintain regular grooming sessions with the team and stakeholders.
Working with the Artist
Working with an artist for the first time also had its own set of challenges. There was a time when the animation didn't quite match what I had in mind, requiring several rounds of feedback.
- Solution: I started preparing a very thorough mood board and reference images before assigning the work. I also made sure to have frequent, short check-ins via chat to ensure the artist correctly understood my vision.
Estimating Workload
As a new PO, I didn't have a good feel for estimating the complexity of tasks. There was one sprint where I was a bit too ambitious and took on too much work, causing the team to become overloaded.
- Solution: I learned to trust the dev team's estimations more, to listen, and not to push the team to overcommit. I also learned how to break down large features (epics) into smaller user stories to make them easier to manage and estimate.
Measuring Outcomes
How do you know if gamification is really effective? How do you measure engagement? I was quite confused about this at first.
- Solution: I worked with the dev team to extract data and define the key metrics to track (e.g., daily mission completion rate, interaction time with Oppy, number of users unlocking items...). Although we didn't have immediate results, defining these metrics early on was crucial.
Lessons from the Project
These are perhaps two of the biggest lessons I've learned in the PO role, especially when facing the harsh realities of product development.
From Messy Ideas to a Clear Roadmap
Initially, when I looked at Oppy with its countless ideas for AI, gamification, and interactions, I truly felt a bit "overwhelmed." What should we build first? What comes later? How could I help the dev team understand the long-term vision without getting confused? How could I explain the plan to my boss and other stakeholders?
I realized that I couldn't just list a long series of features and tell the team to build them. I learned to adopt a "top-down" approach:
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Define Objectives: First, I had to identify the major strategic goals Oppy needed to achieve over a longer period. For our team, that was to make Oppy an indispensable part of the daily workflow for OplaCRM users.
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Break Down into Features: From those large objectives, I broke them down into more specific feature groups. For example, to increase the task completion rate, we needed features like "Daily Missions," "Achievement Badges," "Leaderboards," and so on.
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Write Detailed User Stories: Finally, each feature was broken down further into specific User Stories, small enough for the dev team to understand, estimate, and complete within a single Sprint (usually 2 weeks).
This approach helps both me and the team see the big picture (the quarterly or yearly roadmap) while also knowing exactly what to focus on in each short-term sprint. It also makes it easier for me to communicate with and get feedback from stakeholders.
When Oppy Had to "Take a Backseat" for Customers
Your "pet project" isn't always the top priority. There were sprints where Oppy's development was moving along smoothly, and then suddenly, a request would come in from a major client, or we'd need to immediately build an integration with another system to serve the company's overall strategy.
The first time Oppy was put on "hold," I honestly felt quite disappointed and a little frustrated. But then I realized that this is an inevitable part of a PO's job. The product is built to serve overall business objectives, and sometimes those objectives change, or more important, unexpected tasks arise.
The lesson here is flexibility in managing the Product Backlog and the skill of continuous prioritization:
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The backlog isn't a fixed plan: It's a living list that is constantly being updated and reordered based on the company's needs.
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Prioritize based on value: Not every cool or interesting feature is the most important. I learned to assess priority based on multiple factors: the value delivered to the user, business value (revenue, customer retention), urgency, requests from key stakeholders, technical complexity, and more.
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Clear communication: When priorities have to change, it's crucial to clearly explain the reasons to the dev team and relevant parties to avoid confusion or the feeling that their effort has been wasted.
Having to pause Oppy a few times, while it slowed progress a bit, taught me a practical lesson about balancing the long-term vision of a product with the short-term demands of the business.
(P.S: Of course, during this downtime, I was relatively free. Combined with the joy I found in product work, I was assigned to support tasks like researching and creating wireframes for features like Global Search and RBAC (Role-based Access Control), which I will cover in future posts.)
Other Lessons I've Learned
Besides the two major lessons in Product Management—creating a roadmap and managing the backlog—I also accumulated quite a few other experiences:
Don't be afraid to ask (and proactively seek help)
As a newcomer, it's normal not to know things. It's better to ask early than to let a problem get too far. I asked the dev team and my boss a lot of questions.
Specifically, when I had to work with multiple stakeholders at once and was still clumsy with processes like Sprint Planning or Sprint Review, I proactively approached our BA and my direct manager to ask if my methods and workflow were correct and effective. By doing so, I avoided many unnecessary mistakes and gradually became more confident.
Communication is key: Talking frequently and clearly with everyone (devs, designers, stakeholders, artists) helps minimize misunderstandings and keeps everything on the right track.
The Joy of Seeing Your "Brainchild" Come to Life
There's one memory I'll never forget: when my boss asked me to create a two-year development roadmap for Oppy. For a complete novice like me, especially dealing with AI, just hearing it sounded exhausting. I was very uncertain at first, but as I began to research and gradually define the development stages, I felt much more confident.
And the moment Oppy's first features were released, seeing it work, and then seeing it being welcomed and used by the sales team... it was truly joyful and meaningful. That has been the biggest motivation for me to keep trying.