Frequently asked questions

1. Why kittens?

Product thinking is by definition enormous, so I wanted to create a simple pattern that can be expanded upon, and that everyone can recognize.

To make business value, you need to create customer value. And to make the product trade-offs felt, I needed to create a representation of customers experiencing the product value and friction.

Pixel kittens work well for this. They are cute - so you feel a bit sad if they get a bad experience. And they scale well - from individual customers in start-up products, to the flowing water of a high-growth product.

Plus, kittens don’t take themselves too seriously. I like that.

2. I’m stuck on level X, how do I get through?

Kitten PM is designed to simulate learning by doing, it’s completely normal to fail and is part of the learning loop. That said, getting truly stuck without learning is frustrating and teaches nothing.

Pay attention to the tips box at the end of each level. This provides contextual suggestions based on how you played (or failed), and will hopefully nudge you in the right direction.

If this still doesn’t help, please provide feedback on where you got stuck, & I’ll try and help you out.

3. Why is the game desktop only?

According to the webstats, approx 50% of traffic to kittenpm.com is on mobile, so yes this is a bummer.

Honest answer: I wanted to ship on mobile, but I scoped it out to reduce complexity, launch quicker and test whether the core concept works.

You can sign-up to be informed if it goes live.

4. How do I load a level?

Go to the main splash screen, select ‘load level’ and type in the name of the level that you’d like to load.

The level names are displayed at the beginning of each level, they’re also displayed at the top of the KPI panel.

5. How do I get my Kitten PM certificate?

You can earn a very special product management certificate by completing all the levels. Look out for a giant ‘View Certificate’ button on the level 8 completion screen.

Once you’re on the certificate screen, enter your name (optional) and press ‘Issue Certificate’, and your certificate will be digitally issued. This is a free service.

Your data is not stored, and the certificate lives entirely in its own web-address - so bookmark this page when it appears.

From this screen you also have the option to download your certificate, or add it to LinkedIn.

6. I’ve lost the link to my certificate, what do I do?

Kitten PM is stateless and does not store any personal data, and each product certificate can be issued exactly once. If you misplace your certificate, replay level 8 to generate a new certificate URL, and bookmark the page.

7. But wait product-mechanic Y doesn’t work like that? & what about feature X?

Yes, probably. The mechanics & features of the Kitten PM product model are simplified to make it buildable and playable.

Sometimes it has been necessary to exaggerate a product mechanic to make cause & effect more explicit and immediate.

But on the whole, I’ve tried not to invent new product rules. Every mechanic in the game ‘should’ be a real product mechanic simplified and made playable. So if a rule feels wrong or you have strong opinions please do tell me what you think.

8. Does this site use cookies? Shouldn’t you have that cookie box thing?

I’m pleased you noticed. Kitten PM doesn’t use cookies, as I wanted to emulate the stateless pattern of early computer games. Also I wanted to see what technical limitations this would impose on a modern website.

FYI - I can recommend umami.is if you’d like analytics without the cookie clutter.

9. Why did you build Kitten PM?

The essence of product management is: managing trade-offs to deliver value to the business, by delivering value to customers. The trade-offs are endless and deep, and often difficult to communicate to non-product people. But perfect source material for a sim game.

Product books are great & provide a useful vocabulary, but tend to talk in frameworks, or new jargon (solutions!), rather than studying the underlying trade-offs or loops.

I wanted to see if there was an interactive way to share my experiences, and mimic the learning loops that you only get from doing. If you understand the first principles then everything else can follow ..

10. How did you build Kitten PM?

I took a fairly standard product manager role, but used AI as my product team, which allowed me to build Kitten PM solo.

AI continues to mature massively, and my ways of working changed continuously over the course of making Kitten PM. Giving me the opportunity to fail and experiment with new techniques and see what sticks.

LLMs are pattern-predictors, they work best where there is existing precedent. To my knowledge this is the only kitten product management sim, so it required building up from first principles.

11. Hasn’t Kitten PM’s workshop model already been outdated with AI?

Yes, possibly. But I’m not sure the new way of working is truly defined. Maybe I’ll make an easter-egg level with a robot team, maybe I’ve already made an easter egg (I haven’t).