Category: Work

General management, recruiting, people management, and other work-related topics

Book: Patrick Lencioni “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team”

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I’ve already written about Patrick Lencioni and my introduction to his books two years ago, so there’s no need to repeat myself. In that same review, I mentioned that the first book of his I read was the bestseller The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, written in his favorite genre—a business novel. To briefly remind you what that genre is: the book is presented as a work of fiction, but it addresses a specific business problem, and throughout the narrative, it shows how the fictional characters solve that problem. At the end, the author usually summarizes the key points in a more straightforward, business-like manner.

Recently, during a discussion, I found myself referring to several of Patrick’s ideas from this book. I decided to open it again to find the exact quotes, and the book immediately pulled me in. I read it over just two or three evenings before bed, even though I was already familiar with the content. However, I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting the concepts, applying them to my own experience and the realities of several of my clients (as I now work as a management and process consultant). I think I may have appreciated the book even more this time than when I first read it.

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Book: Sid Meier “Sid Meier’s Memoir! A Life in Computer Games”

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In the video game industry, there are trendsetters, visionaries like Steve Jobs, and other legends. And then there are the gods. I’m not afraid of this comparison—Sid Meier can be counted among the gods of game development. Because it’s impossible not to know him, and his creations have forever changed the industry, setting the course for a significant number of genres and franchises. Even players who may not recognize his name almost certainly know at least one of his games, and that game is Civilization.

There are people whose names became their calling cards. Their games were bought without question, their name alone enough of a guarantee, because they had already created masterpieces in the past. But I can’t readily recall anyone else whose name was consistently placed directly in the titles of their games. With Sid Meier, this happened multiple times, starting with that very Civilization, officially titled Sid Meier’s Civilization (though the idea of adding his name to the titles didn’t actually come from Sid Meier himself).

Why can he be called a god? Precisely because, with resources modest by today’s standards, he managed to create an entire world with its own nations, a world that grew and evolved according to the rules set by its creator. He made his own Earth, where every player could also feel a bit like a god, guiding their chosen group of people from the dawn of time to the era of space exploration (in the original game, humanity’s journey to Alpha Centauri was one of the possible endings).

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What Did You Study and What Was Your Job?

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I came across Alex Exler’s post about the “What Did You Study and What Was Your Job?” flash mob (the post is in Russian). It’s a fun idea, so I decided to write about myself and also find out about others.

So, I graduated with a degree in “Computer Science” from the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science (ФПМИ in Russian) at Belarusian State University (BSU). According to my diploma, I’m a “mathematician-systems programmer,” though I’ve always felt we leaned more towards applied programming than systems programming. But that’s what the diploma says.

Now, as for “what jobs I’ve had,” that’s much more entertaining. By “work,” I mean only activities for which I got paid. If I did something for free, it doesn’t count.

Here’s the list:

  • Janitor (my very first job where I earned money)—there’s a photo above, though it’s of poor quality, and I’m not in it because I was the one taking the picture. Still, you could call it our little gang of janitor-trainees back in 1987 (yes, in the fourth grade).
  • Electronic text typist (typed handwritten texts onto a computer).
  • Programmer (even before officially earning the title).
  • Journalist (wrote a few articles for the teen newspaper Perekhodny Vozrast (Teenage Years), for Computer Gazette, and some small pieces for sci-fi magazines).
  • TV scriptwriter (for the TV program Five Wonders on Belarusian television; my wife later took over the baton).
  • Translator of fiction books from English to Russian (I got paid for two; one was published).
  • Writer (I earned some pennies for my book, so it counts).
  • Blogger—like this blog, for instance. I’ve received a few donations for it.
  • And the rest is in my main profession:
    • Programmer
    • Software architect (not of buildings)
    • Analyst
    • Technical writer
    • Project manager
    • Manager at various levels
    • Management and process consultant (this is what I currently do, and my full professional history can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/knari/)

What about your experience?

Book: Richard Knaster, Dean Leffingwell “SAFe 4.0 Distilled”

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It’s impossible not to know about Agile development nowadays. Heaven forbid someone catches you unaware—it’s practically a career-ending move. I’m joking, of course, but the fact remains: every developer and manager in IT can talk at length about how they’ve implemented Scrum, Kanban, sprints, and plenty of other fancy terms in their teams. However, in practice, it turns out that very few people actually know how to make all this work properly (and the author of these lines harbors no illusions about his own expertise, even though I’ve been working in this field for a long time). While these methodologies have been actively used for many years, it eventually became clear that in their pure form, they work well for small teams, but when applied to projects with a large number of participants, the results are less impressive. That’s when the next wave of development began, as people started thinking and experimenting with how to scale these practices.

A lot of new methodologies emerged—some faded away, while others developed through trial and error and found their use. Among them are Scrum of Scrums, LeSS, and SAFe, though there are many others as well. It’s hard to say which one is clearly the best, but SAFe has recently gained a lot of followers and seems to be leading the pack statistically. At some point, I couldn’t ignore it because every methodology has its advantages. Even if it doesn’t fully take root for you or your team, you can always borrow some elements, implement them first, then move on to the next… and so on, as long as it genuinely improves quality, transparency, and, of course, the final result.

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Consulting: Company Analysis

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I have often heard opinions that the work of a consultant is useless and lacks prestige. Something like, “They show up, give a bunch of advice, and leave, without caring about what happens next.” Such an approach to work has always been unacceptable to me, and now that I myself work as a consultant, I want to briefly describe one type of task I have performed at the request of several CEOs, whose feedback on the results was positive.

With experience in both software development and operational management, I can take an external view of a business and evaluate different aspects of its work. As a result, analyzing existing processes—everything I can get my hands on—has proven to be in demand. (Sometimes this is called an audit, but I prefer the term “analysis” as this term has a less negative connotation.) I begin high-level examination of a company by interviewing its CEO: why they reached out, what they want to achieve, what they are dissatisfied with, and what their key products, departments, and people are. Then I compile a list of individuals and competencies that can provide insight into internal processes. It’s crucial to identify who will be available and as open as possible for discussions. During several interviews, I try to understand what the person’s work entails, what motivates them, how they interact with and perceive their colleagues, and so on. Simultaneously, I ask to join key meetings of managers and leads, simply to listen to how they discuss topics, set agendas, conduct meetings, and follow through on decisions. Of course, I also gather relevant documentation about products and processes for further study.

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Book: Minako O’Hagan, Carmen Mangiron “Game Localization”

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In game development (and software development in general), there is one discipline that, in my opinion, receives far too little attention. Yet it is extremely important and can significantly impact both the perception and the sales of a product. This is localization—the process of preparing a product for another market, which is often understood simply as translating it into another language.

I can talk quite a lot about the topic of localization in general and game localization in particular (and, if all goes well, I’ll share more separately), as I spent many years as the head of several service departments at Wargaming, including the Localization Department. This is precisely why any materials on this subject are always of interest to me.

One of my former colleagues recommended the book Game Localization, where the authors decided to take an in-depth look at this phenomenon from the perspective of a scientific approach to translation in general.

The scientific approach is both a strength and a weakness of the book. The strength lies in its thorough exploration of the topic, its study of the history of the issue, and its examination of many aspects of localization. The weakness lies in the same excessive scientific rigor: countless references to other academic works on translation, an overwhelming number of quotes from analytical studies by other authors… in short, all the hallmarks of a scholarly work that tend to be too tedious for the average reader. Such readers are usually more interested in understanding the essence of the topic rather than the various methods for preparing academic research.

The authors begin their narrative from afar, discussing the history of video games in general and their localization in particular—covering the period from the mid-1980s to roughly the present day (the book was published in 2013, and much has changed in the industry in the past eight years). They then delve into the essence of the game industry (GameDev), explaining key terminology, genres, the role of narrative elements, the industry structure, and so on.

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Book: Kiril Egerev “This Button Needs Text”

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The discovery of the past few months for me is the book This Button Needs Text by Kiril Egerev. It likely would have gone unnoticed if Alexey Arefyev hadn’t recommended it in his Telegram channel about product management.

Kiril Egerev is a seasoned copywriter who has worked in many online publications, both as an author and as an editor. Recently, he has been working as a UX writer at Russia’s Sberbank. For those unfamiliar with professional terminology, let me clarify: a “copywriter” is someone who professionally writes various types of non-fictional texts. These can include advertising copy, descriptions, official letters, and so on. UX stands for “User eXperience,” which essentially refers to how users interact with your product and what emotions they experience during this interaction. A UX writer (or UX copywriter) is a specialist focused on creating product texts. Here’s a direct quote from the book:

“UX writers are typically the ones who write clear and non-annoying texts for error messages, buttons, switches, and all other interface elements. They help develop the product’s voice, compile style guides, ensure consistency and adherence to typography requirements, and often handle user emails as well.”

In his book, Kiril aims to explain “briefly and clearly” what his work entails and why it is essential for any product, countering the common misconception of “who cares what we call the buttons; everyone will understand anyway.” In IT, there is also a role known as UX specialist (often called a “UXer”). In practice, the line between a UX specialist and a UX writer is very blurred. It’s generally accepted that the former focuses more on the overall interface and interaction (proper arrangement of elements, creating an intuitive design), while the latter specifically handles interface texts. However, in reality, one doesn’t exist without the other. As a result, the tasks often fall to either a team of two specialists with narrower roles or a single person who does it all.

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Book: Vasiliy Sabirov “The Numbers Game”

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about Alexey Savchenko’s book Game as Business, which provides an excellent description of the gaming industry from the perspective of production and working with publishers. However, it says almost nothing about what comes next. Especially if your game is designed to last for years: how to work with users, how to study their behavior, and, ultimately, how to make millions.

That’s why Vasiliy Sabirov’s book Game by Numbers, which was also published last year, serves as a perfect complement. Its subtitle, How Analytics Helps Video Games Thrive, speaks volumes.

But first, a bit about the author. Vasiliy Sabirov is an analyst with extensive experience. Over the course of his career, he worked as an analyst and head of the payment solutions department at Xsolla (one of the largest players in the gaming payment market), as a lead analyst at the gaming company Alternativa Games, and then moved on to the emerging devtodev (now the largest gaming analytics service in the Russian-speaking game development sector). At devtodev, he worked as head of the analytics department and also served as an evangelist for both the service itself and its educational platform, where he released a course, including one on gaming analytics. In 2020, he made a major life change, transitioning (and relocating) to work as a lead analyst at the gaming company Easybrain (also one of the major players in the mobile gaming market). In other words, Vasiliy knows what analytics is and how it works. I would even say that if you’re talking about game analytics in Russian-speaking companies, Vasiliy Sabirov is the first name that comes to mind.

Now about the book and game analytics. If people around you are throwing around strange terms like MAU, LTV, ARPPU, and others, and you find yourself staring blankly, it’s time to read this book. Because behind these intimidating acronyms lie concepts that aren’t all that complicated. Learning how to work with this data properly, however, is the next step. But let’s take it one step at a time.

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Book: Esther Derby, Diana Larsen “Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great”

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When I wrote about Alexey Krivitsky’s book Agile Retrospective Kickstarter a month ago, I mentioned that much of his work is based on the work of Esther Derby and Diana Larsen (as he openly acknowledges in his book). At that time, I also promised to write separately about the book by these women facilitators. So here I am, fulfilling that promise.

I read the book in English, although in 2017, it was also published in Russian by Dmitry Lazarev Publishing under the title “Agile Retrospectives: Turning Good Teams into Great Teams.”

Why do teams need retrospectives? I’ve already written about this in detail elsewhere, but here’s a brief reminder: retrospectives help teams learn from their mistakes and grow. Without them, no Agile methodology can operate at full capacity.

Esther and Diana explain how to make such meetings as productive as possible, drawing from their many years of experience and unique insights. It is in this book that they propose the five-stage format for retrospective meetings, which Alexey Krivitsky actively adopts and promotes in his own book.

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Book: Alexey Savchenko “Game as a Business”

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Alexey Savchenko is a name well-known in the Russian gaming community, and not just there. For some time, he officially held the position of Evangelist for the Unreal game engine, and even now, many still refer to Alexey by that title. Open in communication, always ready to help—a remarkable colleague. When he announced that he was planning to release a book about the gaming business, I had no doubt that it would be worth purchasing and reading.

Although Alexey is now primarily involved in working with business partners, he has had a long journey and knows game development from many different angles, including as the owner of his own studio. In his book Game as a Business, he set out to describe all aspects of the gaming industry and project development—”from dream to release,” as the subtitle states.

Alexey structured the book along this very path, beginning with “I have a dream… I want to make games.” From there, he meticulously yet accessibly explains what awaits an aspiring game developer on the road to creating their dream game and, ideally, achieving fame and fortune.

It is evident that the author has a deep understanding of the subject, and the book is both accessible to industry newcomers and engaging for professionals. Despite my many years in the gaming industry, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

One of the most valuable aspects is how Alexey begins his advice by helping newcomers understand what lies behind their dream. Does the aspiring developer truly want to create their own game? Are they ready for the challenges this path entails? This guide is specifically for people who have decided to start their own business and are willing to risk their time, money, family relationships, and ambitions. Because if all you want is to make games, then joining an established studio is also an excellent path to consider.

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