EA Sports Madden NFL 20

Project: ‘EA Sports Madden NFL 20’ — the 2019-2020 installment of EA Sports’ annual NFL simulation franchise, introducing new gameplay systems, expanded “Franchise” mode features, and the debut of the “Face of the Franchise: QB1” career mode.

Final Role / Title: Embedded Quality Assurance Analyst II (contract) — contributed QA insights and systems-level validation during early roadmap and feature planning for ‘EA Sports Madden NFL 20’, supporting designers and engineers with risk assessment, acceptance‑criteria definition, and early feature scoping across gameplay, UI/UX, and progression systems.

What is EA Sports Madden NFL 20?

‘EA Sports Madden NFL 20’ is the 2019-2020 edition of the ‘EA Sports Madden NFL’ game series developed by EA Tiburon for EA Sports. ‘EA Sports Madden NFL 20’ was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows in August 2019. ‘EA Sports Madden NFL 20’ released with a standard and “Superstar Edition” of the game, both of which feature Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes as the cover athlete.

Key features of ‘EA Sports Madden NFL 20’ include:

  • ‘QB 1’ Personalized Career Campaign Mode

  • ‘Superstar KO‘ Mode

  • New and updated accessibility features for blind and visually impaired users

Role & Responsibilities

  • Provided systems‑level QA insight during early feature planning for ‘EA Sports Madden NFL 20’, partnering with designers, gameplay engineers, and producers to define acceptance criteria, identify risk areas, and shape early scoping for “Franchise” mode and other core systems.

  • Supported cross‑functional teams with targeted validation and exploratory testing, helping designers evaluate new mechanics, UI flows, and progression systems introduced during the pre-production and early production phases.

  • Collaborated with engineers and project managers to refine test strategies for new features, ensuring that planned work aligned with technical constraints, platform requirements, and the annualized development cadence.

  • Contributed to early roadmap discussions by providing structured QA feedback on feature feasibility, systemic dependencies, and potential quality risks, helping teams prioritize work for the ‘EA Sports Madden NFL 20’ dev cycle.

  • Maintained clear communication channels across distributed teams, ensuring that insights from the ‘EA Sports Madden NFL 19’ dev cycle were carried forward into ‘EA Sports Madden NFL 20’s planning, particularly around “Franchise” mode stability, user experience, and systemic edge cases.

Challenges, Learnings, & Career Impact

Supporting the early planning and feature-definition phase of ‘EA Sports Madden NFL 20’ challenged me to operate at a more strategic level than in previous roles. Instead of focusing solely on validating existing features, I had to learn how to evaluate systems before they were fully formed - identifying risks, clarifying ambiguous requirements, and helping designers and engineers understand how new mechanics might behave once integrated into the broader “Franchise” mode ecosystem. This shift required a deeper understanding of progression systems, user flows, and the technical constraints of an annualized sports title like ‘EA Sports Madden NFL‘.

Because our Austin-based QA group was contributing to a project still in pre‑production, we often worked with incomplete tools, evolving documentation, and rapidly shifting priorities. This environment pushed me to become more proactive in my communication - asking precise questions, surfacing systemic risks early, and ensuring that insights from the ‘EA Sports Madden NFL 19’ dev cycle were carried forward into ‘EA Sports Madden NFL 20’s planning. It also further taught me how to collaborate effectively with remote teams, aligning expectations across time zones and disciplines while maintaining momentum on early feature scoping.

This experience strengthened my ability to translate ambiguity into actionable guidance, a skill that has become central to my work as a Senior Producer and Technical Program Manager. It reinforced the importance of systems-level thinking, cross‑functional empathy, and structured workflows - especially when supporting teams during the earliest, most fluid stages of development. My time contributing to ‘EA Sports Madden NFL 20’s planning cycle helped lay the groundwork for my later success in other roles where clarity, alignment, and early risk mitigation were essential to shipping high‑quality products.

Where to get EA Sports Madden NFL 20

‘EA Sports Madden NFL 20’ was officially released to all major physical and digital video game retailers in August 2019 (current availability may vary).

EA Sports Madden NFL 20 - Links & Media