Project Management
What is a project manager ?
Creating projects and successfully organizing teamwork is the biggest challenge I have faced. Communication, creative process development and risk management are my qualities to be a better project manager. Every new challenge brings me the same passion: to perfect my expertise and continue learning with my colleagues in order to become an expert in my field. So every opportunity allows me to help a team move towards their goal and refine my strategy to increase productivity.
Communication
Good communication is essential to the success of a project. For this, I participate in the implementation of daily scrum that offers a speaking time and the possibility to speak blocking.
In addition, participating in the sprint planning, with leads and managers, allows to keep an overview of the project and anticipate future problems.
Creative process development
Offering a creative process of development has the great advantage of being able to adapt to any situation. Using a database that is tailored to the objectives and people is my method of providing the right amount of information.
Also, documenting these processes is an important step to ensure everybody have a good understanding of the tools that I am putting in place.
Risk managment
Risks are part of any project. To avoid them, it is necessary to have a good organization. I usually add automatic alerts for important events (deadlines, meetings, priority tasks...) in order to always anticipate the future of a project.
Moreover, working in a creative environment requires the implementation of protocols adapted to each constraint. My priority when creating them is to allow users to be guided until their final choice.
How do I work ?
In order to offer the most appropriate service for a problem, I always take the time to talk with the team and identify constraints. Then, I take stock of the situation by listing elements, make researches, or asking for more details. The implementation of activities in team allows the problem to be solved. Finally, I do an analysis of this process to document the results and be able to improve the process next time.
1-What's the problem ?
To identify the problem, I talk with the team and take time to understand their roles. This helps me to have a starting point that includes all the expectations related to the problem.
2-How to figure it ?
All the information collected will then allow me to understand the element that blocks the process. This starting point allows me to do targeted research.
3-The strength of teamwork
The purpose of creating an activity is to assist decision-making. The activity can take different forms, such as the use of post-it notes, the confrontation of a new idea in front of the expectations of future users, a re-organization of a working method, competitor analysis...
4-Analyze to be better
The last step for me is to document the results of the activity. It is important to ask for feedback from participants so that we can improve it next time. This process allows for tested and improved solutions that allow a satisfactory resolution of the initial blockage.
Here an example
This is an unannounced project from the Sloe Burn Games studio, with whom I worked.
1-What's the problem ?
The game is an adventure where the player have to explore the rooms for find ressources.
A problem we've find is to select a point of view for the camera.
2-How to figure it ?
In order to find which camera will be the best fit, I started by taking note of a list of mechanics already present in the game and the genre. Afterwards, I looked for comparable games.
3-The strength of teamwork
The activity we did was to find and look at other similar games and place our close ones like it. Then we looked at the cameras used.
The second part of the activity was to try out the game with the different cameras identified. Once this was done, one of the camera tried was liked by the majority. So the camera could be chosen.
4-Analyze to be better
In the feedbacks I've been informed that the research for comparable games was not a good idea because it take too much time. If I have to do this activity again I will present a choosen list.
The test in the second part was the best moment. Everybody have experimented the game feel and the final choice was easier to do.