Product Management Through Behavioral Psychology

Three months after June's Journey launched, I told the executive team it would hit $100M in annual revenue.

I could see eyebrows raise... It seemed impossible.

We hit it in under a year.

Not because I had a crystal ball. Because I saw patterns converging that others hadn't connected yet: an underserved demographic with significant disposable income, exceptional product quality, rare technical stability, and a team that gave a crap. Most product leaders might see these as independent variables, but I see them as a system.

Dots to be connected.

Over 15 years, I've operated products at every lifecycle stage: launch, hypergrowth, maturity, decline. All across multiple industry cycles: Browser gaming's maturation and decline, mobile gaming's rise, F2P, Web3, now AI. That perspective has taught me to recognize patterns that aren't always obvious at first.

The products I've worked on—June's Journey, Plants vs. Zombies, CSR Racing, and many others have generated billions in revenue. But what's stayed consistent across all of them is something simpler: users behave remarkably similarly everywhere. Gaming, finance, learning, fitness, gastronomy.

The same cognitive biases.

The same behavioral psychology.

The primary difference is how quickly you can observe and iterate.

Building with AI and Systems Thinking

What I've learned is that building great products requires balancing the creative and the business; the art and the science. It starts with staying open to signals from users, markets, and teams. Then synthesizing those signals into a clear vision and executable roadmap. Then measuring business outcomes to understand what's actually working.

These days, I also build with AI in ways most don't yet. Not AI for automation (that's so 2025!), but AI for synthesis—connecting disparate data that humans struggle to hold in working memory. Multi-agent systems with orchestration layers and production interfaces. Because I believe agentic AI is the future, and I'd rather build toward it than wait.

What You'll Find Here

I write here about cycles, behavioral economics, game theory, product strategy, and building products people actually use. The posts reflect what I've learned from expensive mistakes, unexpected successes, and 15 years of trying to understand why users do what they do instead of what they say.

If you're a PM, you might find the frameworks I write about useful (I believe in less is more), just a few good frameworks applied in the right context can change everything. If you're a founder, know that 95% of what you're facing is identical to what others face (it's the 5% context that makes it feel isolating). If you're a gamer, I've spent a significant part of my career building experiences I hope you've enjoyed. And to anyone else, I hope I can simply add to your perspective in an interesting or fun way.

Thanks for reading.

Want to discuss product strategy, agentic AI, or behavioral economics? Email me at patrick@pmnotebook.com I'm always interested in connecting with people building interesting things.