A “virtual organization” is simply one that does not have central geographical location and exists solely through telecommunication tools. While that may sound simple enough, the ramifications of maintaining such an organization can be quite broad and complex.
Although the best collaboration and teamwork often exists in an office setting—where there is a level of synergy that is hard to capture virtually—the virtual team concept has too many perks and advantages to be dismissed altogether. In the 17 years since I started Say Design, I’ve learned a few things about how to make a virtual organization work.
Motivations
Two major turning points in my life motivated me to look more seriously at the virtual organization concept: when I got married, and when I became a dad. It’s amazing how much these events motivate you to want to maximize the quality (and quantity) of time available for life outside of work. Even so, I wanted to build cool games while increasing work productivity, inventiveness, and efficiency in an industry that tends to take up a lot of time. Knowing that I wasn’t the only one with a desire for a better quality-of-life, I decided to establish and maintain a completely virtual structure which would provide the opportunity for talented people from across the globe to combine their passion and excitement for games—and perhaps do some incredible things together.
I began to see more clearly the win-win this direction would create for Say Design. For one thing, it would bring together people with great talent and vision who are looking for the higher quality of life and career satisfaction that only a small virtual game design team can provide. What’s more, it would promote the limitless creativity and innovation that results when a strategically diversified and culturally rich team is brought together with the aid of technology. I also sensed that a virtual structure would permit us to become an organization that never sleeps, a phenomenon sometimes expressed this way: “As the world turns, the innovation never ends.”
At the 2007 Vancouver International Game Summit, Jason Della Rocca, Executive Director of the IGDA was on a panel for a discussion named “Workforce Optimization: Investing in Human Capital.” He floored everyone with this statistic: The average work span of game industry professionals is about 5.5 years . . . after which they move on to another industry! Now whether you believe that statistic or not, you have to acknowledge that work/life balance issues are one of the main reasons people leave our industry. In addition to losing that initial investment into experienced people, the long-term downside for game companies also includes the constant challenge of finding new people to train while maintaining a high level of teamwork and productivity.
Challenges
When I started my virtual studio, working with a virtual team was easy because the games were small and few. However, as our games became more complex and more numerous, major challenges arose.
As we started to increase production, projects began to suffer setbacks—due primarily to a. breakdown in communication. Those breakdowns challenged us to either find a solution or declare the virtual team a failed experiment which simply couldn’t map to more complex and simultaneous projects. But we were not about to give up that easily. Immediately we began looking for better collaboration tools to help bridge the gap—but we knew that was merely one piece of the puzzle. We also needed to expand the leadership core of the team—a pivotal step in our evolution as an organization. We needed someone who not only had experience directing virtual talent, but who also shared the existing vision and management style. Ultimately we hired a producer from one of our clients who had worked with us before and shared our passion for game innovation and collaborative teamwork.
One obvious challenge that no doubt worries many who contemplate the virtual team has to do with accountability of team members whose daily work cannot truly be monitored. Early in our venture down the virtual team path, we made the mistake of allowing too much time to go by without requiring proof of productivity. In one case, months went by without an update. Even when we made periodic requests for progress, we were told that more time was needed to show a presentable build. It turned out that the virtual producer had been working on a book and other “side-jobs” and had put our project off for a planned last-minute crunch. As a consequence, the trust was broken and the member dismissed—but not before he had caused permanent damage to that client relationship.
From that experience, we learned two valuable principles: (1) Production doesn’t lie; and (2) While you should dignify team members with your trust, at the same time you must let them know that it is up to them to nurture that trust through updates and periodic status reports. Subsequently, we instituted weekly time reports to better gauge productivity and also to help each virtual team member to maintain a sense of accountability. Our intent was not to micro-manage, but rather to better enable them to be truly productive.
Advantages
Because virtual teams by nature become proficient in online collaborative tools and remote communication, they are much better positioned to integrate well with external studios. As partnerships are forged with select studios all over the world, the virtual game studio can match key proficiencies and strong-points of each studio to a specific game. The end result is really a meeting of the minds, a convergence of specialties that I believe produces superior results—provided, that is, that the virtual team assembling these disparate resources reinforces a common vision and remains the driving force behind the project.
Aside from partnering with external studios (both domestically and overseas), we also believe strongly that the virtual core team can benefit from identifying key areas or cities within which it can expand. Although each person still works from a home or nearby office, having co-workers in proximity can be very advantageous, especially when they are assigned to the same projects. There are many great advantages to this strategy, including:
- Proximity allows for weekly face meetings at which the local team can collaborate and discuss sticky issues. These get-togethers can be held at someone’s home (make it a BBQ!), in a leased conference room, or even at a Starbucks.
- With a majority of the virtual team within a few days of travel of each other, executive staff can meet face-to-face with team members on a regular basis as necessary.
- From time to time, team members can throw parties or picnics to help the team forge friendships that can contribute to more willing and eager collaboration when back in virtual mode. The importance of such social interaction in an otherwise virtual operation cannot be overstated.
The Right Stuff
We’ve learned that one of the secrets to success is finding the right people to bring on board. Most people like to have a flexible schedule. They prefer to have little or no commute and to not have to deal with office politics. Even so, not everyone has the self-discipline, motivation, and responsibility necessary to be an effective member of a virtual team. Accordingly, we’ve learned to carefully describe the challenges of working virtually during the interview process.
For example, those who see the workplace as a key area for socializing and making new friends may find it difficult to work on a virtual team. The same is true for those who do not deal well with confrontation inasmuch as it is so easy to let problems fester rather than dealing with them and moving on. Such people are likely to do better in a traditional shop where there is greater social interaction. Although our team spends a great deal of time on the phone brainstorming ideas, resolving management challenges, and even collaborating with the aid of virtual whiteboard tools, we don’t have the advantage of seeing one another’s facial expressions and body language.
Some strategies we use to assure higher levels of success are similar to what any company looks for when hiring, and they include:
- Find out if a candidate has any past work experience in similar structures. What were the challenges they faced when working with remote co-workers, and how did they deal with those challenges?
- Check out all references to better understand how self-sufficient and self-motivated the candidate is. How much management effort have they required in the past?
- Use a three-to-six-month evaluation (test) period to gauge whether a new hire can really be productive in the virtual setting. See if this person is going to be a good contributor to the overall entrepreneurial spirit, work ethic, tone, and level of passion you desire to maintain.
- Assess how coachable a candidate is. How well does a prospect take direction and criticism? How willingly and effectively does the candidate help out on tasks that may not map to his/her core competencies?
These and other areas are of high concern to the virtual team builder. Each one can dramatically affect the culture, productivity and ultimate success of the team. When all parties work in unison, with a high level of mutual respect and cooperation in improving the overall structure, the virtual team can become a highly efficient unit.
John Say is the Founder of Say Design, which is now in its 17th year of operation. Say started as a graphics and interactive studio. In the past eight years, Say has been focusing on game design and development for Web (Flash & Shockwave), PC Download and most recently, XBOX Live Arcade, Nintendo Wii / DS, and a variety of other platforms/devices. John can be reached at j.say@saydesign.com.
