Tell us a little about yourself and your experience.
My educational background is in Computer Information Systems and Business Administration from the University of North Georgia. I started out in the game industry as a Technical QA Analyst at Blizzard Entertainment back in 2012. My initial years were spent as a scrum master and QA on the Battle.net client, which players use to isntall, patch, and play Blizzard games. I spent some time learning to test all of the games I could get my hands on. It was an awesome experience! I was also one of the QA leads on Overwatch and got certified with ISTQB as a Test Manager, which really allowed me to level up myself as well as my team on quality standards for our games. After that, I went back to Battle.net as a Producer on the Shop team, where I got my hands dirty in buidling a team, establishing development processes that could scale across the department and learning what it was like to be on-call for a live service. It’s quite refreshing and keeps you on your toes!
In 2015, I took on an opportunity at Riot Games as a Development Manager working with various teams on creating 2D and 3D content for League of Legends initially and then moving onto feature development teams. I’m currently focusing on leveling myself up as a leader as well as growing leaders around me. Just as important, I’m learning how to grow teams that deliver consistently at a high quality bar in a sustainable way. The culture at Riot is palpable, and the focus is clear - the player. We’re all players at Riot as well, and I’m loving every moment of building awesome experiences within a live community of gamers.
What drove you to choose your career path?
Ever since I was a child, I loved gaming. That’s the cliche answer right? Call it what it is - this was just as true for me. I didn’t just want to play games, I ensured it was always a pivotal part of my life. What I learned to love professionally was working with people. Marry the two together, and you have a Producer/ Development Manager. You are the glue that helps keep the team together and fill in all gaps that arise during development. It’s been clear to me that’s what I want to be ever since I saw a video about game production back in high school. I chose it as a career because it involved people, leadership and never ceases to be challenging.
How did you go about getting your job? What kind of education and experience did you need?
I was a retail sales manager post-college and had racked up 2 years of web development prior to that. With the recession, I was happy to have a steady job while searching for opportunities in the gaming industry. Most of the research focused on my current skillset (my degree, web development, and sales management), so I applied for those spots. On top of that, I was only applying to Blizzard as that is definitely where I wanted to be at the time. My wife initially landed a spot with Blizzard as a Business Analyst and referred me soon after for a few managerial positions. After multiple denials, I received an interview and proceeded to fail it, lol! I had the manager skills, but not the game industry experience - totally understandable. So, I kept in touch with my initial recruiter for any entry level positions that may come up and a Technical QA Analyst spot opened up that I jumped on immediately. Around 3 months, 4-5 interviews, and a game analysis report later, I got the spot!
Experience and educational needs can be difficult to describe across the board for video game production. It really depends on what kind of games and teams you work with. Focus on having a firm understanding of various software development methodologies, get your hands on as many types of games as possible, and learn how to work with different personality types. Experience can be gained from leading teams (doing anything really) and learning how to fail fast and learn from your failures while owning them at the same time. Hard skills can be learned on your own now online. Soft skills require actual experience in day-to-day interactions over time with people.
What do you actually spend the majority of your time doing?
Listening. I listen to my team, stakeholders, and the organization around me to get a clear understanding of what’s going on and what to expect next. In doing so, I’m able to focus actions into steps that can help in the moment as well as proactively prepare for the future. There is no day-to-day for production staff at a game company. Outside of the daily stand-up, planning, and retrospective type meetings, you really have to be ready for any blockers and emergent work that needs to be addressed by your team or anyone else’s. The “doing” in this case can be sending out communication, facilitation of conversations, or presenting. Outside of that, I spend a good bit of my time growing leaders around myself, which means I’m in various 1:1 settings where I coach and mentor individuals on my team and across the organization.
What misconceptions do people often have about your job?
“Producers just take notes, get coffee, and make gantt charts right?” Nope. You may start out in the world of production as someone who does those tasks and still grow to a more senior level and continue to do some of them if they provide value for your team. However, you quickly learn that maximizing value for your team means learning about each individual as well as the holistic group to really become useful. It’s not always about what you’re building or even how you’re doing it as much as who is involved in building it. Producers have to be completely tuned into each part of their team to ensure everyone is in step as a unit. And they must always be ready to inspect their environment and adapt to new situations. Though, donuts and coffee are quite vital to the game development process sometimes :)
What are your average work hours?
They vary based on what part of a project my team is on. Generally, my day starts at 9:30-10AM and ends around 7PM. I’m on call and check email/ chat throughout the day as well, so you’re never really off of work unless you go off the grid. There is a strong focus on work/ life balance though and I’m more than empowered to take personal time when I need it.
What personal tips and shortcuts have made your job easier?
Tips
● Focusing on people over anything else
● Learning to take full ownership of problems and failures
● Asking for help from those around me
● Establishing a brand for myself and sticking to it
Shortcut - we live in a world with immense amounts of information at our fingertips. Go research what you want to be online and get a clear understanding of what you need to do to get there. It’s a shortcut around waiting for the right opportunity to show up that requires very little preparation. That is a magical unicorn that most likely does not exist.
What do you do differently from your coworkers or peers in the same profession?
Much of this is personal preference. You can be successful by doing things differently as long as it’s what your team needs. I personally index higher on growing people over process and product. That means, I’ll spend extra time in 1:1’s, analysing retrospective notes, and trying to understand how we can grow ourselves rather than focusing on how we do something or what we’re working on in particular.
Do you have any advice for people who need to enlist your services?
I’m fully enlisted with my current company, but there are producers everywhere you look. Just look for strong leaders that know how to grow people!
What's the worst part of the job and how do you deal with it?
The worst part has to be the hard fact that you can’t please all of your players. It’s a reality of any game that has a playerbase of passionate, and enthusiastic players. Whatever you do, it should focus on maximizing player value with the caveat that there will always be new opportunities and problem spaces to explore as your players evolve. I deal with that in knowing that there are always more challenges ahead and use that as fuel to focus myself and my team.
What's the most enjoyable part of the job?
Interacting with players and talking about games! There is no greater joy than just geeking out over any game and seeing what players love about what’s out right now. There are so many epic games to get excited about in the industry and the list just keeps getting bigger! Same goes for my team. We’re always super deep into new game(s) or a classic we can’t put down.
What kind of money can one expect to make at your job?
It varies based on company and what you’re responsible for. Glassdoor and similar sites aren’t that far off. It’s a good reference point to use regardless of what position you’re going for.
How do you move up in your field?
Deliver results and make them visible. Grow with your team(s) rather than alone. Grow leaders around yourself and you’ll realize what kind of leader you will eventually want to become.
What advice would you give to those aspiring to join your profession?
Be relentless in achieving quality results and making them visible - regardless of what you are currently doing. I used the same principles in various retail and tech jobs and they’ve never failed me personally. Be the first one to jump on change and move forward rather than sitting and complaining because things aren’t easy. Finally, know that your world will be different than the one I grew up in. You will face new problems that I can’t fathom. You will have to learn to fail as a leader and take full ownership for it before you succeed. And when you succeed, let your team own that