communication scaling matthew allen, monolith productions

Communication Scaling

Matthew Allen, Monolith Productions

Overview

• This talk is focused on communication within a large team and the role of the “producers” on that team

• What is a large team?• What the talk won’t be

Quick Poll

• How many folks will you have on your team at peak size?– Under 20?– 20 - 40?– 40 – 80?– 80+– Just for the hell of it • 150?• Less than 10?

Defining a producer

• A producer’s work product is a finished feature/task or final product

• Their primary tool for completing this task is their ability to communicate

Defining a producer

• Who do they communicate with?– Within a functional group– Across groups/disciplines to other functional

leaders– Across teams within multi-studio organizations– Upwards to management

Defining a producer

• Who within your organization is responsible for this stuff?– Most likely they don’t all have the word producer

on their business card– At Monolith they are• Leads• Senior folks• Even a couple straight outta Digipen

Defining a producer

• It’s very important to identify the 2 types of folks within the your organization who get shit done– The Glue, those who do everything in their power

to assist and support the Do-ers– The Do-ers, those who are directly responsible for

getting shit done• Often your producer types are Glue, but I have

first hand knowledge of them being both

A history lessonor why the hell is this guy talking to me?

• Lead artist• Technical/ FX

• Concept art• Lead character art• Only game animator

• Producer???• Hell no!• Primary art lead

A history lessonor why the hell is this guy talking to me?

9

A history lessonor why the hell is this guy talking to me?

15

A history lessonor why the hell is this guy talking to me?

22

A history lessonor why the hell is this guy talking to me?

Other Internal TeamsCore Tech

Technical Design

Vendor Relationships

Team Leads

Tools Team

Outsourcing

Art Leads

Senior Management

History Lesson part DeuxHoly crap your team got big!

Effective Communication

• Core rule set for effective communication– Know your subject– Trust– Consistency– Up & down– Adapt– Efficiency– Full team involvement

Core Rules

• Know your subject– This one is a no-brainer, right?– If you don’t know what you are talking about• stop fucking talking about it• get the people who do know together

Core Rules

• Trust– If there is no trust in the communicator, folks will

either go around them, or go somewhere they can get trust

– How do you build trust?• Be honest• Be as transparent as possible• Treat your audience with respect• Follow up!

Core Rules

• Consistency– Get your communicators on the same page• It’s perfectly OK to disagree, but in the end the task can

only be finished one way at a time

– Inconsistency is one of the fastest ways to break trust

Core Rules

• Up & down– You need the people in the trenches moving

forward at all time, so you have to make sure they are in the loop

– You need upper management in the loop so they don’t keep messing with you• This is really the #1 issue most producers screw up

Core Rules

• Adapt– You are dealing with lots of different types of

people• Do really think they all communicate the same way?• Figure out the styles of the folks you are working with

and cater to them

Core Rules

• Efficiency– Get to the point as quickly as possible– Summarize at the start, move on to the meat later• This is important when managing down since you don’t

want to waste the time of the Do-ers• Equally important when communicating up, as the

amount of data received grows exponentially when moving up a hierarchy

Core Rules

• Complete team involvement – Include as many people as possible as often as

possible• This doesn’t mean giant meetings, this means an

efficient communication network

Targets?

• Core evangelists– The conduits for communication to flow up and

down– Leads, producers, senior team members– Folk who have earned trust with the team

• The communication path must start and end with your Do-ers

Classifying Communication

• Active communication vs. passive communication

• Active, or pull– You are going out to get data– Web, Facebook, forums, Flickr

• Passive or push– Data is getting sent to you– Email, IM, face to face meetings

Types of communication

• Face to face – One-on-ones– Meetings

• IM• Email• Prioritized hit lists• Play throughs• Confluence• Status updates

Types of communication

• Face to face– One-on-ones– Meetings• Goal oriented• Send out the agenda first • Keep ‘em short• If it has to go longer, adjourn•

http://tobytripp.github.com/meeting-ticker/• Follow up is brutally necessary

Types of communication

• IM – Great way to quickly ask a single question,

get a fast answer, and keep working– All external IM clients are not secure or

private

Types of communication

• Email – I don’t really need to explain– Things to think about• Be concise, put the meat at the end or attached• Know your audience• Don’t let them become noise• They are not a permanent, traceable, or searchable

record

Types of communication

• Prioritized hit lists

Types of communication

• Play throughs– Goal oriented– Send out the agenda first• What are we playing• What are evaluating• What type of feedback is required

– Keep them as short as possible– Look familiar? Treat them like meetings

Types of communication

• Wikis – In the olden days we called this “documentation”– Great way to communicate to those outside the

strike teams– Confluence• Forums• Push notification• embedded Excel and Word docs

Types of communication

• Status Update Emails– Aww crap that’s huge …

Types of communication

• Status Update Emails– Executive summary• Key personnel• Key dates• Upcoming dates

Types of communication

• Status Update Emails– Updates• Key updates from last

summary

Types of communication

• Status Update Emails– Issues and risks• Summarized and only the

urgent level risks

Types of communication

• Status Update Emails– Key dates• Key dates for the entire

projects– Milestones– Vertical slice– Alpha, Beta– Street date

Types of communication

• Status Update Emails– Discipline updates• Very detailed updates per

discipline

Types of communication

• Status Update Emails– Strike Team Updates• Functional team updates

Types of communication

• Status Update Emails– Detailed risk list• Go into much further depth

with the risks to the projects• Include mitigations and

escalation dates

Types of communication

• Status Update Emails– Next Milestone• List of all deliverables

Types of communication

• Status Update Emails– Aww crap that’s huge …– But completely manageable, and totally worth it

FEAR 2

• FEAR 2 team is huge, game needs to get done• Key stake holders identified• In face to face meetings and play throughs– Identify missing features and functionality– Discuss strategies for attacking and completing

those features• Post all notes to Confluence and encourage

forum discussion

FEAR 2

• Once features were identified, strike teams were formed– Strike teams took full ownership of the feature– Smaller more manageable communication paths– Decisions were not bottlenecked with a few key

individuals– Not everyone is created equal, the need for an

approvals process

FEAR 2

• Main push: level strike teams– 4 level strike teams– Permanent mix of design and art– Daily face to face meetings and play throughs,

generating hit lists that lived on Confluence– Moved the team members into the same area to

expedite communication

FEAR 2

• Main push: level strike teams– Floating content strike team• Containing FX, animation, tech art• Consultants• “Contractors”• Hit lists, IM, Confluence, some face to face

FEAR 2

• Main push: level strike teams– Had to be self sufficient and self motivated• A good mix of junior and senior folks

– A good proving ground for senior people wanting to try out being a lead

FEAR 2

• Main push: level strike teams– The approvals process• Play throughs of level

– Predetermined intervals – Key contributors

• One-on-ones with principal designers if issues popped up• Weekly a level was singled out for the team to play

– Hit list, Confluence, face to face if issues were big enough

FEAR 2

• Other strike teams– Weapons– Characters– UI– Core combat

• A smaller team for each AI type, 4 AI engineers• A larger group for core AI functionality

– Clichéd scary girl moments– Really anything that could be broken into a

functional group, and could be owned

FEAR 2

• Let’s talk about the owners– Usually called strike team leads– Face to face every morning• Triage cross group issues, moved to Confluence• Who was finished?• Who was needed?

FEAR 2

• End game– Different strike teams• Still level based• Polish team• Performance• Memory• Certification

– Daily game play throughs, both as a group and as individuals

– Lather, rinse, repeat, ship.

FEAR 2 What did we learn?

• Spread responsibility as wide as possible– Empowerment!• Give people the tools and support they need to make

cool shit

– Core individuals as shit filters and course correctors

FEAR 2 What did we learn?

• Commonly used tools and techniques– Daily play throughs– Forum feedback centers– Small agile cross-discipline strike teams– Internal IM client– Email– Internal wiki

• Hit list• Support for Excel • Strong ties into our bug database

FEAR 2 What did we learn?

• Commonly used tools and techniques– Identify and rely on key individuals (Do-ers)• Trusted by the rest of the team• Small leadership roles• “Pony express”

– Trenches camaraderie + ownership = high morale on a project that could have been very painful• Also created very strong cross team/company

communication pathways

The Futurewhat are we doing on our seekrit project?

• Team size about 80 people• Things are different depending on the phase.

• Figuring shit out phase• Trying out some shit phase• Getting your shit done phase• Really getting your shit done phase• Polishing all your awesome shit phase• Shipping your awesome shit phase

The Future what are we doing on our seekrit project?

• Exciting pre-production!– Flame the fires of involvement– Cultivate “Pull” communication

• Forums• Wikis• Optional brainstorming meetings with follow

ups and owners

The Future what are we doing on our seekrit project?

• Strike Teams– New features– Core production

• Animation• Environment art• Characters

– Combat– AI behaviors– UI– Vertical slice specific strike teams

The Future what are we doing on our seekrit project?

• Daily hit list meetings• Lots of “what are we doing?” meetings– Follow the meeting rules!

• Heavy forum involvement– Brainstorming– Quick idea generation and vetting

• Status reports are HUGE!

The Future what are we doing on our seekrit project?

• What didn’t work?– Remember core production from a couple of slides

ago?• Discipline based• Not many mixed groups

– We tried mixed environment groups, and it wasn’t needed• Combat, UI and others are still mixed

– We got used to not having meetings• Lots more pre task meetings• And even more review meetings

The Futurewhat are we doing on our seekrit project?

• Each part of the production cycle has its own communication needs and drivers

• FEAR 2 was a great test case for– Production– Polish– Bug fix– Ship

• The core communication values still apply– Implementation is going to be different– Be flexible– Make mistakes and learn from them– Keep focused on the core communication values– A happy team will follow

Questions?