Caesars Digital
Senior Product Manager, then Product Manager: registration, identity and first payment across four brands
2022 – presentGonzalo Aguilar / Product & interaction
Ideas you
can touch.
Product manager. Nine years making products that people understand, and finish, instead of giving up halfway. You do not have to rebuild everything: it starts small.
Take a look around
Who this is for
This is you: a jar half full.
Being found on Google and on ChatGPT. And people who reach your site actually finishing: buying, signing up.
It is half full because nobody used technology to bring people in, or to see why the ones who arrive leave.
What goes in it1 of 3
What I do
Who I am, in five points
- Nine years designing and building digital products, and the strategy behind them.
- Today: getting people signed up, proving who they are, and paying for the first time. In a sector where the law requires checking every customer. Four brands, 22+ states.
- Before that: Carnival Cruise Lines, Spirit Airlines, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection and Office Depot.
- AI I keep running: assistants that do real work, a system that recommends from 815,000 past cases, and the alerts for when it gets it wrong.
- English and Spanish, remote.
Measured results
What got better, and by how much.
Four things that got better, with the number each one moved. Every one of them is a market where money changes hands, so a point is not a point.
- The hard one: nine months stuck
- 39% → 73%
- More people finish signing up
- 75% → 92%
- More people get to actually use it
- 1% → 7%
- Good people the system was turning away
- 1 in 7
A new rule knocked completed sign-ups down from 90 out of every 100 to 39, and there they stayed for nine months. I changed the order in which people are asked for their documents. The day it shipped: 73.
The same change in a second market took completed sign-ups from 75 out of every 100 to 92. Without it, at the same traffic, the business would be taking 20 to 40 per cent fewer paying customers.
After paying for the first time, almost everybody stopped there. I reordered what happens right afterwards: seven times as many carried on.
The company checking identity was shutting out real customers. We changed it: of every seven people who used to be left out, one got in. And nobody got in who should not have. It is rolling out across 22 states and two countries.
How many sign-ups I went through, and how much of it turned out to be bots, is private: it is my employer’s figure, not mine. Ask me and I will give you the number.
No jargon
What I can do for a product
I find where people are slipping away
I go through your product like a customer and mark where they give up.
With numbers, not opinions.
See an example
A real case
At an airline people dropped out at seat selection: the price showed up after they picked, so they went back, and many never came in again. I put the price before the choice and the step stopped being a surprise. In a repair shop or a clinic it is the same thing, with the form that asks for your phone before saying the price.
And what the technical people call it
- funnel analysis
- heatmaps
- session recordings
- friction points
I check your competitors, and what the internet says about you
What they publish, and what shows up when someone looks you up.
Almost nobody knows what a customer finds right before deciding.
See an example
Which words they show up for, and what a customer finds right before calling you.
A real case
I collect what is public about your competitors and about you: pages, reviews, social accounts. Also what Google and the AI assistants answer when asked about a business like yours. Out comes a map of where they are, where you are, and which gap is still open.
And what the technical people call it
- competitive analysis
- web scraping
- online reputation
- presence audit
- market research
I tell you how many people do each thing
Right now there is no way to know. I leave it counted and explained.
Most people measure what is easy, not what decides.
See an example
What to measure, where to put it, and what the number means when it shows up.
A real case
Plenty of businesses have Google Analytics installed and not one answer. I mark every step that matters, with the same names everywhere, and a report that says what changed this week and why.
And what the technical people call it
- analytics
- GA4
- Search Console
- events
- dashboards
- reporting
I tell you what works and what does not
Every change gets re-checked after a week, and again after two.
Of 160 with a verdict: 74 worked, 78 did nothing, 8 made it worse.
See an example
A real case
Almost nobody goes back to see whether the change they made did anything. I keep the date, the number before and the number after. When something did not work I say so and we take it out, even when it was my idea.
And what the technical people call it
- A/B testing
- experimentation
- cohort analysis
- Mixpanel
- Amplitude
I test the work before it ships
And the test keeps running afterwards, not just on the day.
Being wrong is not the strange part. Hearing it from a customer is.
See an example
A real case
This site checks itself three times a day. It opens every page like a phone, plays the games and measures whether the text can be read. If something broke, it speaks up. It costs nothing and does not depend on me remembering.
And what the technical people call it
- automated tests
- QA
- regression tests
- production checks
- alerting
I take an idea and turn it into something that exists
From the napkin to the first real user.
I have done it end to end, alone, more than once.
See an example
What gets built, in what order, and what gets left out.
A real case
This site. An assistant that qualifies leads and answers on its own. An engine that recommends over 815,000 past records. I designed them, built them and I run them. I do not have opinions about building products from the outside.
And what the technical people call it
- 0 to 1 product
- discovery
- minimum scope
- prototype
- launch
- operating it
I get people to finish signing up
Signing up and reaching the first payment without dropping out.
It is what I have done for nine years, and where my hardest numbers are.
See an example
Including proving you are who you say you are.
A real case
On a regulated platform you had to leave the sign-up to send your document, and many people never came back. I moved the document check inside the sign-up itself. The share who got to the end went from 75% to 92%, and the queue of people waiting fell 64%. In a small business it is the same story, with the form that asks for too much too early.
And what the technical people call it
- registration
- identity verification
- KYC
- onboarding
- user acquisition
- two-factor
- account recovery
I design the screens, on phones and computers
How it looks, what order it appears in, and what happens when you touch it.
On paper first, so the wrong ideas die before anyone builds them.
See an example
A real case
Before a line of code I draw every screen and the arrows between them. A three-week argument gets settled in one afternoon by pointing at paper, instead of by building it twice.
And what the technical people call it
- UI/UX
- wireframes
- prototypes
- flow diagrams
- responsive design
- design systems
- motion
I build the cart and the moment of paying
Choosing, booking, paying, and changing it later without calling.
It is where the most money falls through if something is off.
See an example
A real case
At an airline I rebuilt check-in, flight changes and bag buying, on the phone and on the airport kiosks. Checking in went 40% faster. In a shop with five products the problem is identical: one step too many between wanting and paying.
And what the technical people call it
- e-commerce
- cart
- checkout
- booking flow
- self-service
- add-on sales
I build the booking and appointments side
Pick a time, pay, and get told on your own if someone cancels.
No calls, no messages at odd hours.
See an example
And the customer can move their appointment without calling anyone.
A real case
At a clinic, appointments came in by WhatsApp and somebody spent the morning copying them into a calendar by hand. Slots went missing and hours got double-booked. With the calendar wired to payment, the slot locks on booking and the reminder goes out by itself the day before.
And what the technical people call it
- scheduling
- availability
- reminders
- cancellations
- payment gateway
I build the panel where everything gets run
See what comes in, change it, and let your team use it without asking you.
The place your people work, not the one customers see.
See an example
Who can touch what, and a record of who changed each thing.
A real case
At a shop the owner was the only one who could change a price, so every change went through him and nothing moved at weekends. With a panel and per-person permissions, the manager changes the price and it is written down who did it and when.
And what the technical people call it
- admin panel
- permissions
- roles
- audit log
- back office
I automate the steps you do not need, and you pay less
Programs and assistants that do the repetitive work on their own.
Fewer steps, and fewer tools on the invoice.
See an example
The kind of thing that used to need somebody watching a screen.
A real case
I run 130 assistants and close to 500 scheduled jobs doing work that used to be a person: searching, writing, checking, raising a flag. Every tool you stop paying for because one of these replaced it is money that stops leaving every month.
And what the technical people call it
- automation
- AI agents
- scheduled jobs
- integrations
- cost reduction
I organise your contacts, and reply for you
Who comes in, what stage they are at, and who went quiet.
And it knows when to hand you to a person.
See an example
The messages, the campaigns and the bookings, in one place. And it chases whoever did not answer.
A real case
A business got two hundred messages a month and answered forty. The rest went cold. Now it answers all of them in seconds, follows up three times, and only interrupts a human when someone actually wants to buy.
And what the technical people call it
- CRM
- ManyChat
- conversation automation
- SMS and email campaigns
- customer and lead database
- lead stages
I give them a reason to come back tomorrow
Progress you can see and earn. No casino tricks.
Getting someone back costs less than finding a new one.
See an example
Streaks and real progress, with no fake countdowns.
A real case
A shop had no reason for you to return the next day. I gave it a daily streak: you come in, mark the day, and see how many you have in a row. The same thing your language app does, and it works for the same reason: you do not want to break it.
And what the technical people call it
- retention
- streaks
- progress meters
- rewards
- game mechanics
I build the points and the rewards
What people earn, how often, and what actually brings them back.
No casino tricks, no hidden expiry dates.
See an example
Rewarding what you want repeated, not what they did anyway.
A real case
A coffee shop gave a stamp per visit and the tenth coffee free, and people forgot the card. Moving it to the phone and telling them when two stamps were left meant the last visit stopped depending on remembering.
And what the technical people call it
- loyalty
- points programme
- tiers
- rewards
- retention
I get Google and the AI assistants to quote you
No tricks: the page plainly says what it is.
Two audiences now read the same page.
See an example
In both languages, with the hidden notes those readers look for.
A real case
When someone asks ChatGPT about a business like yours, the answer comes from pages written so a machine can understand them. If yours is not, you do not rank low. You are simply not there.
And what the technical people call it
- SEO
- GEO
- structured data
- schema.org
- llms.txt
- sitemaps
- hreflang
You can write to your customers without getting in trouble
Who said yes, to what, and when. And an unsubscribe that works first time.
One message without permission can cost you more than the whole campaign.
See an example
And not writing at hours that annoy.
A real case
A bought or stale contact list looks like free money until the first complaint. I set up the record of who agreed and when, a one-tap unsubscribe, and hours when the system simply does not send. On the day someone asks, the answer is already on file.
And what the technical people call it
- consent
- opt-in and opt-out
- compliance
- audit trail
- identity verification
I leave a system, not a favour
Adding the next site is one line, not a new project.
It has to work when I am gone.
See an example
A real case
If you have to call me to change a price after I leave, the work was done badly. I write down what I built. And I leave checks that run on their own and speak up when something breaks, without anyone having to remember to look.
And what the technical people call it
- documentation
- automated tests
- continuous deployment
- monitoring
I leave the thing that holds it all up
Where it lives, how it ships, and what shouts when something falls over.
So it does not depend on anyone remembering.
See an example
With backups somebody has actually tried restoring.
A real case
A business had its website on a former employee's computer and nobody knew the password. Moving it somewhere with automatic deploys, an alert when it goes down and a daily backup took one afternoon, and shipping stopped being scary.
And what the technical people call it
- infrastructure
- deployment
- monitoring
- alerts
- backups
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The work
Where the work happened
Nine years, three sectors.
Nine years of product work inside regulated gaming, travel and retail. Every one of these is on my LinkedIn with the same dates.
Carnival Cruise Lines
Product management consultant: guest-to-guest messaging inside the Carnival HUB app
2022 – 2024
Spirit Airlines
Product Manager, mobile and kiosk: check-in, flight changes and extras
2020 – 2022
The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection
Everything a guest does before sailing: booking, loyalty, payment and checkout
2016 – 2020
Office Depot
Marketplace: pricing, inventory and sell-through
2016 – 2020Free, no sign-up
Take an AI trick with you.
Six practical things: how to talk to it, how to design with it, and why there is nothing to fear. Tap a block and it is yours.
Selected background
13 projects, at the level where the decisions are still visible.
Notes on product decisions. No organizations, no dates and no private data: just the problem, the decision and what I learned.
Touch any illustration: every one answers to your finger.
Applied AI
Open the case→When an agent should stop
I explore how a chat assistant can recognise its limits and hand over to a person.
- Claude API
- FastAPI
- Supabase
Customer experience
Open the case→Ask less, explain more
I explore the order of questions in account creation.
- iOS
- Android
- Mobile web
Applied AI
Open the case→Automate without losing control
I explore how to make an automated system’s actions and limits visible.
- Agent orchestration
- Release gates
- GitHub Actions
Local commerce
Open the case→A catalog that helps people decide
I explore how to present changing information without creating false expectations.
- Next.js
- Vercel
- Inventory feed
CRM and lifecycle
Open the case→A CRM for a business that had never had one
Lead capture, lane attribution, a customer database, SMS campaigns and automated follow-up for a small business that had none of it.
- Next.js
- Supabase
- Twilio
Forecasting
Open the case→Design for uncertainty
I explore how to present a prediction without making it look certain.
- FastAPI
- React
- Supabase
Privacy-constrained product
Open the case→Measure while respecting privacy
I explore what can be learned without collecting unnecessary data.
- iOS
- Identifier-free analytics
Guest experience
Open the case→A messenger that had to work at sea
An in-app messaging platform for the Carnival HUB app, built for guests on a ship with almost no bandwidth.
- iOS
- Android
- Real-time messaging
Self-service
Open the case→Check-in, changes and the cart, on a kiosk
Mobile and kiosk redesign at Spirit Airlines: check-in, itinerary management, booking changes and buying the extras that come with a seat.
- Mobile
- Kiosk
- A/B testing
Commerce
Open the case→A marketplace that had to sell what it had
Marketplace pricing, inventory and how fast stock moves at Office Depot, where daily revenue grew roughly threefold.
- E-commerce
- Marketplace
- Pricing
Onboarding
Open the case→Everything a guest must do before they arrive
Everything a guest has to do before they sail, digital booking, loyalty and checkout at The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection.
- Digital booking
- Payments
- Loyalty
Identity
Open the case→Changing the engine without stopping the car
Changing the company that checks people are who they say they are, on a live product, with a switch we could flip back in seconds.
- Identity vendors
- Config-only
- Instant rollback
Growth systems
Open the case→
Sites that have to be found, and then believed
Bilingual sites, and the hidden notes that tell Google and the AI assistants what a page is about. Analytics and publishing loops, built and run for small businesses.
- Next.js
- Vercel
- Supabase
Move the bar
The same function.
A different feeling.
The bar at the bottom is yours: move it with the mouse, or drag it with your finger. Use it to return the ball and put it through the goal at the top, which also moves. Miss once and the score goes back to zero. The same thing twice: one answers your gesture, the other does not.
The lines follow your gesture. Each bounce responds. Switch to “Without details” and compare the feeling.
Why is there a game on this page?Tell me
- Action, then response. When an interface answers your gesture, you understand it without a tutorial. That is most of my job.
- Try both buttons. “Without details” and “With details”: the task is exactly the same, and only the response changes.
- Then ask yourself two things. In which one do you understand what is happening? And in which one do you want to stay?
3 of 3
Try it yourself
A half-minute game
Charge up, or jump now?
Your ship charges up beside a black hole. The longer you charge, the sooner you arrive. Wait too long and you lose everything. That is every decision a product makes, and here it takes half a minute to feel it.
YOU DECIDE WHEN TO JUMP
Tap to charge. Tap again to jump.
A made-up journey, not a physics simulation. What changes each time is the moment you decide to jump.
What is on my desk.
I review the things on my desk: keyboard, monitor, headphones, adapters. 18 reviews, on their own page.
See the deskWhat I have learned, in cards
Open a pack. The whole idea is inside.
Nine packs across three topics. Each pack holds one idea in three cards. The first says what usually happens. The second, what to do. The third, the number you will see it in. You can open three packs without paying or leaving your email.
Why it is built this way
I broke it into pieces on purpose.
Not everyone reads the same way.
- For some, a wall of text brings anxiety. That is why there is a game between each block: to breathe.
- Others have dyslexia. That is why the sentences are short, the text is large and it reads in sunlight.
- And most of us are one-handed and in a hurry. That is why the long parts stay folded until you open them, nothing moves on its own and the buttons are big.
If any of this felt easy, it was not luck. It is the half that is usually missing, and it is the half I do.
This very page
What I do, done here.
This page does not describe what I can do: it is doing it while you read. Four things, and how each one is built.
Getting found on Google
Search is the door. If Google cannot tell what a page is about, it does not show it.
Here that is 118 pages, each with its own title, summary and proper address. The two versions, Spanish and English, declare each other the way they should, and there is a map of the site with every one.
Getting named by the AI
More and more people ask ChatGPT instead of searching. For it to name you it has to be able to read you, and most modern sites only exist once the browser runs the program.
This page carries 21,364 characters of text written into the HTML itself, so they are readable without running the program. Plus 80 questions and answers in the format those machines understand, and a file at the root telling them who I am.
Not losing people halfway
Reading is tiring. A long page gets abandoned before it reaches the part that matters, and then it does not matter how well it is written.
Between the reading blocks there are 4 things to play with, and none asks for an email or a payment. They are not decoration: they are what gets you down this far.
Finishing what they came for
Arriving is no use if they get stuck. People almost always get stuck in one specific place, and it is almost never the one you would guess.
Here there is one button at the end, not five scattered about. And every piece reports when it gets used, all in the same language. So you can see where people actually stop, instead of having opinions about it.
And none of it ships without being checked. Every time I touch this site, more than 600 automated checks run. They open every page as if they were a phone, play the games and measure whether the text can be read. If one fails, it does not publish.
Still here?
You made it to the bottom, which almost nobody does. What is missing is one sentence from you: what you sell, and what is getting stuck.
Want to connect, or have me send you more ideas?