Alessandro Penno

Jagex Games Studio

London

Alessandro Penno is an experienced product manager and Lead Instructor at General Assembly, specializing in product development, UX/UI design, and gaming. With a strong background in the gaming industry, he has contributed to major projects at companies like Jagex, Playwind Games, and Electronic Arts. As a Lead Instructor, Alessandro equips both aspiring and experienced product managers with the skills needed to thrive in the industry, focusing on agile practices, user-centered design, and product development frameworks. He brings real-world insights into the classroom, creating an engaging and collaborative learning environment. Throughout his career, Alessandro has led cross-functional teams, managed product roadmaps, and conducted user research to deliver impactful solutions. His passion for mentorship and commitment to innovation drive his approach to both teaching and product management.

What is your favorite technical skill to work with on your own projects and why?

Coming from games, especially live products like MMORPGs, my favorite technical skill is persona-driven design and journey mapping. In games, every player shows up with different motivations. Some chase mastery, some explore, and some just want to hang out with friends. The same principle applies in any product or business: your users aren’t a monolith. I love identifying distinct user personas and mapping out how they experience a system, where they find value, where they drop off, and what emotions they associate with each step. That flow-based thinking helps me design features and experiences that feel intuitive, motivating, and scalable. Whether it’s building a new player tutorial or launching a feature in a SaaS tool, it always starts with empathy and ends with clarity..

My favorite technical skill to teach is user research, especially turning raw insights into structured understanding through affinity mapping. It’s one of those practices that feels simple at first but completely reshapes how students think about problem thinking. When they learn how to interview real users, extract meaningful signals, and cluster themes visually, something clicks. They start seeing their product not just as a set of features but as a response to real human needs. That’s the moment they move from guessing to building with purpose. Affinity mapping helps them find clarity in the chaos, and that’s where good product thinking starts.

The most important part is making the technical feel human. I’m not trying to turn every student into a data scientist or engineer. I’m helping them build enough fluency to lead teams, ask better questions, and make decisions with confidence. My goal is for them to walk away knowing that numbers aren’t something to fear. They’re something to collaborate with.

Start with curiosity, not pressure. You don’t need to master everything overnight. You just need to build momentum with work you are passionate about. Pick one small project and one problem that genuinely interests you. Whether it’s understanding player retention in a mobile game or building a personal website, use that as your anchor. Skills stick better when they’re tied to something you want to solve. Everyone can be a Product Manager. The discipline is moving away from the ivory tower filled with consultants and MBAs. Quite the opposite.

Outside of the classroom, I lead product strategy on a live MMORPG with millions of players. That means I deal with everything from mobile app performance to plugin APIs to community governance. I spend a lot of time working with engineers, designers, and data analysts to ship features that respect player time, scale technically, and create long-term value. It’s a constant balancing act, and it keeps me sharp for the classroom too.

WHAT [Alex’s] STUDENTS ARE SAYING...

"Alex was great! So enthusiastic, so knowledgeable and ALWAYS willing to go the extra step to make sure we had help/were supported."

https://youtu.be/Lj1-HxH1ypU?t=460