- My role
- Senior Product Design Manager
FanDuel Casino - My contribution
- Vision, cross-functional alignment,
roadmap influence, and team leadership - The ambition
- Connect individual promotions
into ongoing customer progression
“A customer should always feel like they are progressing toward something.”
01 / THE OPPORTUNITY
From a transaction to a reason to return.
Casino generosity was largely transactional: bet something, get something; deposit something, get something. Loyalty offered progression, but the wider experience gave customers fewer connected reasons to return.
I saw an opportunity to connect promotions, rewards, and discovery into a more coherent experience—one where customers understood their progress and the value ahead.
THE STARTING POINT
Bet / deposit → receive an offer → stop
THE DIRECTION
Participate → progress → earn value → return
02 / SETTING THE VISION
Make progression a shared product direction.
I led a Design Sprint on the future of Casino Generosity, bringing stakeholders together around customer journeys and experience pillars. Gamification emerged as a priority, with progression as the organizing principle.
My role was to turn that direction into decisions: which opportunities belonged together, which capabilities we needed, and how the roadmap could build toward an ecosystem.
- 01
Understand the customer journey
- 02
Agree the experience pillars
- 03
Prioritize connected opportunities
- 04
Shape the roadmap together
03 / THE ECOSYSTEM
One principle. Different roles in the experience.
Each experience needed a purpose within the whole: an entry point, a reason to participate, visible progress, or a meaningful reward. The map connected existing products with the direction we were building toward.
The experience principle
Always
progressing.
Participate → progress → receive value → return
Launched
Loyalty
Status, levels, and lasting progression
Launched
Rewards Machine
A daily return loop with weekly progress
Launched
Free-to-Play v2
Participation that delivers useful value
Tested / In Development
Challenges / Ladders
Tasks build toward milestones
Launched
Reward Box
A recognizable reward-delivery moment
Launched
Promos as Rewards
Offers customers can understand and use
Future Vision
Welcome Week v2
Discovery through a seven-day journey
Future Vision
Reward Drops
A future part of the reward ecosystem
Loyalty → Machine + Box
Level-specific presentation makes status visible.
Challenges → Reward Box
Tested concepts connect milestones to reward fulfillment.
Welcome Week → discovery → Box
Future onboarding connects discovery and progression.
04 / LEADING ACROSS TEAMS
The vision needed an operating model.
8
Product Designers
2
Researchers
5
Product Managers
3
Frontend Engineering teams
Approximate initiative scope, supported by Analytics, Marketing, Brand, Operations, and Games partners.
Set direction
I allocated designers, brought Research in early, and used pre-discovery workshops to challenge requirements against the wider experience.
Connect the work
I helped shape the roadmap, surface dependencies, and secure Engineering investment in capabilities that could serve multiple workstreams.
Build alignment
I aligned Product, Engineering, Brand, Marketing, CRM, Analytics, Operations, and Games around the vision while navigating compliance and competing priorities.
05 / CONNECTING WHAT EXISTED
Build on familiar loops. Give them a shared language.
Rewards Machine predated my time at FanDuel and was inspired by Sky Vegas. Its daily return loop and weekly progression gave us a foundation. We evolved it through seasonal skins, Double Your Reward, Epic launches, motion, and loyalty-specific experiences.
Loyalty made status visible. Reward Box gave reward delivery a recognizable identity. Together, they showed how distinct products could reinforce the same experience principle.
Launched · existing foundation
A daily return loop
Launched
Progress becomes status
Launched
A recognizable reward
Free-to-Play v2 · Launched
Play → receive value → return. When budgets tightened and rewards reduced, the loop became less compelling. Mechanics cannot substitute for rewards customers value.
Promos as Rewards · Launched
Deposit Boost, Bet Boost, Loss Back, and Bet Back initially created confusion. Research led us closer to the familiar Sportsbook token model, improving comprehension.
06 / FROM FEATURES TO PLATFORM
Build the capabilities behind the loop.
Challenges and Ladders exposed the platform underneath the experience: eligibility, task completion, progress tracking, reward fulfillment, and dynamic states. Reusable UI, motion, and CMS configuration could support these patterns across journeys.
I pushed the conversation from bespoke delivery toward an evergreen platform. This was the capability direction, not a claim that every piece was complete.
Challenges: Tested · Ladders: In Development
Challenges and Ladders
Future Vision
Welcome Week v2
Motion became one enabling capability within this wider strategy. Read how I helped build and scale it →
07 / CUSTOMER EVIDENCE
Let understanding shape the system.
Recognition is earned
Customers valued Rewards Machine even when they did not recall its name. Reward Box was recognized by name; Loyalty generated a strong response to status and progression.
Test before extending
Challenges concepts tested strongly for usability and engagement before launch. Promos as Rewards showed why familiar mental models mattered more than novel mechanics.
Measurement framework—not reported results: opt-in, completion, reward usage, Average Player Days, GGR, Perceived Generosity, Level 2+ retention, and Free-to-Play participation.
08 / THE DECISION FILTER
A stronger test for every new idea.
- 01Does this loop fit the wider ecosystem?
- 02Can customers see their progress?
- 03Are rewards relevant and useful?
- 04Is it understandable before it is clever?
- 05Is it clear how value is earned?
- 06Does the customer know what comes next?
09 / WHAT CHANGED
A vision that could shape what came next.
The organizational shift was in the questions we asked: how does this fit the ecosystem, what does the customer progress toward, and how should the reward feel? That brought dependencies into view earlier and gave teams a clearer basis for roadmap alignment and reuse.
Later, I partnered with another Flutter company to study its reward ecosystem. That informed Ultimate Rewards—a future vision for a unified system answering: where am I, what am I working toward, what comes next, and what value have I earned?
My contribution was to establish the direction and help the organization move toward it. The designers, researchers, and cross-functional teams brought the individual experiences to life.
The leadership lesson: a useful vision changes both the experience you build and the decisions teams make along the way.