Rebuilding Yahoo Games for Scale
Turning a fast MVP into a scalable product system across Yahoo
Yahoo Games launched quickly as an experimental product, but scaling it required stronger foundations. As a Principal Product Designer, I helped evolve the experience across Search and News by shaping platform design, discovery, navigation, design system adoption, and mobile gameplay improvements.
The work contributed to Yahoo Games growing from roughly 20 to 30K DAU to 100K DAU, including Yahoo IQ updates that increased mobile engagement by over 60 percent and improved completion rates by 10 percent.
Initial Yahoo Games launch in 2023
Initial Yahoo Games launch in 2023
Initial Yahoo Games launch in 2023
Unified design system implementation in 2025
Yahoo Games launched quickly as an experimental product, but scaling it required stronger foundations. As a Principal Product Designer, I helped evolve the experience across Search and News by shaping platform design, discovery, navigation, design system adoption, and mobile gameplay improvements.
The work contributed to Yahoo Games growing from roughly 20 to 30K DAU to 100K DAU, including Yahoo IQ updates that increased mobile engagement by over 60 percent and improved completion rates by 10 percent.
Initial Yahoo Games launch in 2023
Initial Yahoo Games launch in 2023
Initial Yahoo Games launch in 2023
Unified design system implementation in 2025
From Momentum to Product System
Yahoo Games had momentum, but the experience needed stronger foundations to support more games, more surfaces, new partner integrations, and a growing design system.
I helped turn that ambiguity into product direction across platform structure, navigation, discovery, mobile gameplay, and system alignment so the team could move forward with more clarity.
Yahoo Games launched quickly as an experimental product, but scaling it required stronger foundations. As a Principal Product Designer, I helped evolve the experience across Search and News by shaping platform design, discovery, navigation, design system adoption, and mobile gameplay improvements.
The work contributed to Yahoo Games growing from roughly 20 to 30K DAU to 100K DAU, including Yahoo IQ updates that increased mobile engagement by over 60 percent and improved completion rates by 10 percent.
From Momentum to Product System
Yahoo Games had momentum, but the experience needed stronger foundations to support more games, more surfaces, new partner integrations, and a growing design system. I helped turn that ambiguity into product direction across platform structure, navigation, discovery, mobile gameplay, and system alignment so the team could move forward with more clarity.
Key Workstreams
1. Platform foundation and design system adoption
Yahoo Games started as a fast moving MVP and needed to mature into a more cohesive product experience. As the product moved across organizations and grew under News, the design work shifted from launching individual pieces to creating a stronger foundation for scale. I served as an early launch partner for Yahoo’s unified design system, testing and implementing new patterns in Yahoo Games while providing product feedback that helped refine system adoption across teams.
Unified design system implementation in 2025
2. Discovery and navigation
As Yahoo Games expanded, users needed clearer ways to understand what was available, find games they liked, and return to games they had already played. I shaped discovery patterns across mobile and web, including content rows, game cards, navigation models, entry points, and homepage experiences. The goal was to make Yahoo Games feel easier to browse while supporting stronger pathways into gameplay.
3. Mobile gameplay and retention
Yahoo IQ had strong potential, but the mobile experience needed clearer gameplay flows, better result moments, and stronger retention cues. I redesigned key parts of the mobile experience to improve usability, reduce friction, and make the game feel more rewarding to complete and return to. These updates increased mobile engagement by over 60% and improved completion rates by 10%.
4. Visual cohesion across game styles
Yahoo Games included a mix of first party games, partner games, branded experiences, and inherited visual systems. The challenge was to create cohesion without stripping away the personality that made individual games feel fun. I worked across design, brand, marketing, and product partners to explore how Yahoo Games could feel more unified while still allowing each game to have its own energy. This helped create a clearer foundation for future visual and experiential updates.
5. Future state exploration through AI prototyping
After the Puzzmo acquisition, the team needed to explore how new capabilities like leaderboards, streaks, profiles, activity feeds, and social systems could shape the future of Yahoo Games. I partnered with design and engineering to prototype future state Yahoo Games experiences using Cursor, Figma MCP, and AI accelerated workflows. This helped the team move from abstract roadmap conversations into interactive product direction, making it easier to evaluate ideas, discuss technical constraints, and align around what could be built next.
Key Workstreams
1. Platform foundation and design system adoption
Served as an early launch partner for Yahoo’s UDS design system, testing and implementing new patterns in Yahoo Games while providing product feedback that helped refine system adoption across teams.
2. Discovery and navigation
Shaped discovery patterns across mobile and web, including content rows, game cards, entry points, and navigation models that helped users find and return to games more easily.
3. Mobile gameplay and retention
Improved the Yahoo IQ mobile experience by refining gameplay flows, result moments, and retention focused interactions, contributing to a 60 percent increase in mobile engagement and a 10 percent lift in completion rates.
4. Visual cohesion across game styles
Worked across first party, partner, and branded game experiences to balance platform consistency with the personality of individual games, helping Yahoo Games feel more cohesive without flattening the fun.
5. Future state exploration through AI prototyping
Partnered with design and engineering to prototype future state Yahoo Games experiences after the Puzzmo acquisition, using Cursor, Figma MCP, and AI accelerated workflows to explore leaderboards, streaks, profiles, activity feeds, and social systems in weeks instead of months.
Unified design system implementation in 2025