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MWG Advisory

Built by operators.
For builders.

Live service growth strategy for games and apps.

I work with developers and founders on the growth problems that compound — user acquisition, retention, monetization, and live operations. Senior strategy and guidance for execution.

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Start here

Start where it hurts.

Most teams arrive knowing the symptom, not the cause. Find yours below — every engagement opens with a diagnostic that works out where the gaps actually are.

“We’re paying more and more for the same players.”

3-week UA & payback diagnostic

Channel-level payback map, ranked spend reallocations, and the reactivation opportunity nobody has sized.

“Players install, play once, and never come back.”

3-week retention & onboarding diagnostic

Cohort drop-off map and the five interventions worth doing, ranked by effort against impact.

“DAU is holding but revenue is flat.”

3-week monetization & economy diagnostic

Payer segment model, offer architecture redesign, and a read on where the economy has drifted since launch.

“The live ops calendar runs us. We’re on a treadmill.”

4-week live ops operating review

A calendar thesis, a real split between run-the-game and change-the-game capacity, and named owners.

“We ship constantly and nothing moves the metric.”

3-week product operating review

Decision-rights map, a prioritization mechanism that actually kills work, and the instrumentation gaps behind the arguments.

“We grew fast and the way we work didn’t.”

4-week org & operating design

Pod and ownership design, PM role definition and leveling, planning cadence, and 90-day sequencing.

What I work on

Two kinds of gaps. They look identical from the outside.

A live service business can stall for one of two reasons, and often both at once. There may be gaps in how the product is designed. There may be gaps in how the team operates it. Most advisors are set up to look at one or the other — so that is where they find the answer.

If the gaps are in the product

Growth & live service strategy

The player funnel and the economics underneath it. What you ship, who it is for, and what it earns.

  • Acquire — channel mix, payback windows, UA financing, creative strategy
  • Engage — core loops, onboarding, progression pacing
  • Retain — D1–D30 cohort diagnostics, lifecycle, reactivating the lapsed base
  • Monetize — payer segmentation, offer architecture, web and DTC, economy design
  • Live ops as a growth lever — calendar thesis, event economics, room to test

If the gaps are in how you operate

Product operating model

The machine that produces the product. How decisions get made, by whom, on what rhythm.

  • Operating cadence — planning horizons, review rhythm, retros that change something
  • Decision rights — who calls it, who is consulted, what escalates
  • Prioritization with teeth — a mechanism that actually kills work
  • Team & pod design — ownership boundaries, PM roles and leveling
  • Instrumentation — whether the team can see what it is doing
  • Capacity — separating run-the-game from change-the-game

Live service games are not launch-and-forget businesses. They’re operating machines. That cuts both ways — a machine can have gaps in how it was designed, and gaps in how it gets run. Flat retention might trace back to a first session that doesn’t land. It might equally trace back to a funnel no one owns end to end. Working out which, and how much of each, is worth more than any recommendation I could hand you on day one.

How I work

Three ways in.

The same three steps whichever problem you have. Most engagements start at the first and stop when the team has what it came for.

Diagnose

What’s underperforming and why.

2–4 weeks · fixed fee

Findings, a prioritized opportunity map your team can act on immediately, and a straight answer on where the gaps are — and how much of each you are dealing with.

Design

Strategy your team can build from.

2–4 weeks · fixed fee

UA architecture, funnel and offer design, reactivation playbooks, or operating and org design — specific enough to assign on Monday.

Guide

A senior operator in your corner.

retainer · fractional · investor

Monthly advisory retainers, fractional product growth leadership, and investor advisory for funds and portfolio companies that need a gaming operator at the table.

Mike Wong, Founder of MWG Advisory

About

I'm Mike Wong. For the better part of two decades, I supported and led product growth strategy at Electronic Arts — scaling live service games for hundreds of millions of players worldwide across iconic franchises including Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes.

That meant operating every lever of the growth stack, simultaneously, at scale: paid acquisition and UA financing, web monetization and DTC webshop infrastructure, live ops design, direct spend programs, and retention from D1 through D30 and beyond.

I spent years inside one of the best of those machines — learning how growth compounds when you get the strategy right, and how fast it unwinds when you don't.

MWG Advisory is what I do now.

I work with game studios and app companies on the growth problems that compound. The ones where the wrong call at the strategy level costs months of execution. I advise on strategy. Your team builds.

Works best for

  • Studios without VP-level growth leadership who need senior expertise on demand
  • Founders who want a trusted sounding board with deep live service experience
  • Funds performing diligence on gaming or app investments

Get in touch

Ready to talk growth?

Engagements are structured as project-based work, monthly advisory, or investor relationships. Reach out to discuss what fits your goals.