Panco is a game-first social platform that blends voice, video, text, and interactive games into shared social spaces. When I joined, the product had early traction but lacked a cohesive product strategy and scalable experience. My role initially started as Product Design Lead, but very quickly evolved into leading the overall product direction — shaping both vision and execution across teams.
One of the first areas I focused on was growth through user sentiment and visibility. By designing a contextual rating system that prompted users at the right moment—right after a positive in-app experience—we were able to significantly improve our presence on the Google Play Store. This relatively small but well-timed intervention increased our rating from 4.0 to 4.4 within two months, directly impacting acquisition and organic growth.
From there, I shifted focus toward retention and long-term engagement. I introduced a series of gamified systems including daily rewards, seasonal passes, and competitive mechanics such as medals and cups. These features were designed not just as engagement hooks, but as part of a broader behavioral loop. Over time, and through multiple iterations, these efforts increased retention across the user lifecycle by up to 25%, fundamentally strengthening the product’s core.
Beyond engagement, I led several initiatives that directly impacted monetization and conversion. Features like “Who Viewed Me,” with controlled visibility and premium unlocks, created natural upgrade paths without disrupting user experience. At the same time, introducing a guest mode significantly reduced onboarding friction and improved conversion rates by 28%. Alongside this, I helped establish a scalable in-app economy with over 50 digital items, turning the product into a meaningful revenue-generating platform.
At a system level, I focused on building long-term product capabilities. I introduced structured A/B testing frameworks and scalable design systems that allowed teams to experiment quickly and ship with confidence. This shift toward data-informed decision making enabled faster iteration cycles and more predictable outcomes across squads.
These combined efforts resulted in substantial growth. During my time, Panco scaled from around 200,000 downloads to over 3 million, with daily active users increasing dramatically and revenue growing nearly 90 times. More importantly, the product evolved from a collection of features into a cohesive, scalable social platform with a strong foundation for future growth.
