The Rocket Games company culture
- 1. THE ROCKET GAMES CULTUREWho we are and what we want to be
- 2. Culture is a set of shared behaviors, symbols, systems, practices and norms. What is CULTURE? beliefs, values working language,
- 3. Once a culture has formed, it is hard to change. Whether you plan for it or not. And culture spreads. It is generational, and is passed on to new employees. Culture HAPPENS.
- 4. IF YOU DON’T MANAGE YOUR CULTURE, YOUR CULTURE MANAGES YOU.
- 5. The best organizations understand that culture can be the most sustainable source of competitive advantage.COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE.
- 6. CULTURE eats strategy for breakfast. PETER DRUCKER
- 7. To make our CUSTOMERS happy we have to make sure our EMPLOYEES are happy first. ZAPPOS
- 8. OUR GOAL IS TO NURTURE A CULTURE THAT CAN SERVE AS A GUIDE ON OUR LONG- TERM MISSION.
- 9. A bit of who we’d like to be. A bit of who we are. This document is US.
- 10. A people without the knowledge of their past history, origins and culture is like a tree without ROOTS. MARCUS GARVEY
- 11. WE’RE PLANTING THE SEED FOR THOSE ROOTS TODAY.
- 12. OUR MISSION IS TO BUILD AN ENDURING GAMES BUSINESS
- 13. mission, and reinforces our shared values. Culture orients us towards our long-term What role does CULTURE play?
- 14. What do we value?VALUE?
- 15. We value the 4 Ps.4 Ps.
- 17. THE 4 Ps MAKE (OUR) WORLD GO ROUND.
- 18. PEOPLE. Only hire the best. Continue to invest in them. It all starts with great people. Empower our people, and give them autonomy to operate. 1.
- 19. PROCESS. Eliminate wasteful practices. Develop the right processes to maximize productivity. Continually improve by questioning the “why?” 2.
- 20. PRODUCTS. Build games our customers will love. Build the right games for the right markets. 3.
- 21. PROFIT. Develop and operate each game we make profitably. Balance creative appetite with business needs. Re-invest profits for the long-term success of the business. 4.
- 22. THE 4 Ps SERVE AS THE SHARED LENS THROUGH WHICH WE VIEW THE WORLD.
- 24. 1PEOPLE We want to work with great
- 25. What makes someone a great person? What makes someone great for Rocket Games? But what are GREAT PEOPLE?
- 26. Great people are diverse and complex. 3 But there are traits in particular that we look for.
- 27. IMPACTFUL. An impactful person gets stuff done. An impactful person focuses on results. An impactful person always finds a way. Personality trait #1:
- 28. Despite famously acknowledging that he “invented nothing new,” Henry Ford’s undeniable impact was far-ranging. By 1918, half of all cars in America were Model Ts. At the same time, Ford was a pioneer of “welfare capitalism,” doubling worker wages and introducing the 40-hour week, making car ownership accessible to factory workers. He even had time to found the Kingsford Company, making charcoal from factory waste wood scrap, which to this day enjoys 80% market share in the US!
- 29. A humble person speaks of the “we,” not the “I.” A humble person admits mistakes and learns from them. A humble person shares the credit. HUMBLE. Personality trait #2:
- 30. If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of GIANTS. ISAAC NEWTON
- 31. A curious person pursues activities that improve body & mind. A curious person takes smart risks. A curious person is always asking “what if?” CURIOUS. Personality trait #3:
- 32. There are KNOWN KNOWNS. These are things we know that we know. There are DONALD RUMSFELD KNOWN UNKNOWNS. That is to say, there are things we know we don’t know. But there are also UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS. There are things that we don’t know we don’t know.
- 33. Curious people relish in figuring out the unknown unknowns. FIGURING OUT
- 34. Curious people thrive outside their comfort zone.COMFORT ZONE.
- 35. A ship in a harbor is safe. SHIPS ARE BUILT FOR. But that is not what UNKNOWN
- 36. We like interesting people.INTERESTING
- 37. We want to work with people who have a lot of interests OUTSIDE OF WORK. People do better work when they have lives of their own.
- 38. We don’t tolerate BRILLIANT JERKS.
- 39. The wrong people are TOXIC TO CULTURE. A toxic culture will cause your best people to leave.
- 40. And when your best people leave, that KILLS THE COMPANY.
- 41. Never COMPROMISE on people. Hiring the wrong person is 10X more expensive than not hiring the right person.
- 42. And talking about 10X…10X…
- 43. In procedural work, the best are 2X NETFLIX CULTURE DECK better than the average. In creative/inventive work, the best are 10X
- 44. Great people need to be empowered. And empowerment means trust. EMPOWERED. TRUST.
- 45. TRUST goes both ways. For great people to reach their full potential, you need to trust them 100%. And they need to trust that you will allow them to do their jobs. And remove obstacles in their way.
- 47. Recognize some of THESE? Unnecessary meetings, too many Arbitrary manager approvals, MVPs designed Pointless policies, forms to fill in, TPS reports. decision-makers, email justifications. for execs instead of customers.
- 48. WE PREFER TO DO WORK RATHER THAN TALK (OR WRITE) ABOUT IT.
- 49. If you could just go ahead and do that BILL LUMBERGH from now on, that’d be great, mmmkay?
- 50. Do the RIGHT THING. That’s our only policy. Do what’s best for the customer. Do what’s best for the company. Do what’s best for your team.
- 51. Make GOOD MISTAKES. Don’t try to avoid failure. Instead, embrace it. Fail fast, fail often, and learn.
- 52. Great people need to be informed.INFORMED.
- 53. The more you KNOW. We believe employees make the best decisions when they have all the available information. We believe employees feel more empowered when they understand why we do what we do.
- 54. A lack of TRANSPARENCY DALAI LAMA results in DISTRUST and a deep sense of INSECURITY.
- 55. That is why we make pretty much every bit of information about the company available to everyone at the company. INFORMATION AVAILABLE
- 57. 2PROCESS We value the right
- 58. OK! Great people, trusted, empowered and informed, where now?WHERE NOW? OK!
- 59. Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they SOUGHT. MATSUO BASHO
- 60. Seek to understand the WHY. “Why” is such a powerful little word.
- 61. QUESTIONING As children, we are constantly the world around us.
- 62. But as we grow up, we stop questioning.STOP QUESTIONING.
- 63. And we start to accept that the answer is “just because.”“JUST BECAUSE.”
- 64. We start to accept the status quo.STATUS QUO.
- 65. We believe it is never “JUST BECAUSE.” We believe you should always question the status quo. We believe you should always question “why?”
- 66. Only by challenging the status quo can we get better. CHALLENGING
- 67. (Seriously. The definition of status quo is “the existing state of affairs.”) SERIOUSLY.
- 68. I go to the past for research. I need to know what came before so I can BREAK THE RULES. VERA WANG
- 69. “BEST PRACTICES” aren’t always that. Each product is unique. Each market is unique. Understanding why something worked somewhere else is much more important than imitating it. Each team is unique.
- 70. He who stops being better stops being GOOD. OLIVER CROMWELL
- 71. Only through continuous improvement at the individual level can the entire organization stay nimble enough to navigate change. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
- 72. And as we all know…
- 73. The only constant is CHANGE. HERACLITUS
- 74. In a changing market, it is critical to know which direction to head in.WHICH DIRECTION
- 75. There is nothing so USELESS PETER DRUCKER as doing efficiently that which should not BE DONE AT ALL.
- 76. This is why we try to work lean.LEAN.
- 77. What does LEANreally mean? Lean software development is an adaptation of lean manufacturing principles, based on the It is designed to eliminate waste Toyota Production System. through continuous improvement.
- 78. Lean development adheres to 7 key principles.7 KEY PRINCIPLES.
- 79. Anything that does not add customer value is waste. Unnecessary functionality is waste. Managerial overhead is waste. Defects and lower quality are waste. ELIMINATE WASTE. Lean principle 1 of 7:
- 80. We hold regular retrospectives to identify and eliminate waste from our processes, in order to continually improve the products we put in the hands of our customers. Lean principle 1 of 7: ELIMINATE WASTE.
- 81. Minimum viable product Unnecessary functionality = waste* *Sure, it is sweet, sweet waste. But waste nonetheless.
- 82. AMPLIFY LEARNING. Development is a journey in discovery to see what works, while production is Development is like creating a recipe while production is like making the dish. an exercise in reducing variability. Lean principle 2 of 7:
- 83. We believe that practice makes perfect and that the best products are built when their creators iterate and learn from what customers love. Lean principle 2 of 7: AMPLIFY LEARNING.
- 84. We are what we repeatedly do. EXCELLENCE, ARISTOTLE then, is not an act, but a HABIT.
- 85. 3-Michelin star restaurant El Bulli was only open 6 months of the year. The other 6 months were spent by chef Ferran Adria devising, practicing and perfecting the following season’s recipes.
- 86. DECIDE AS LATE AS POSSIBLE. Lean principle 3 of 7: The best decisions are based on fact, not speculation. The longer you wait to commit, the more information you have. Conversely, the earlier you commit, the less flexible you can be.
- 87. DECIDE AS LATE AS POSSIBLE. Lean principle 3 of 7: We build the capacity for change into our systems and processes, and try to keep as many options open as possible.
- 88. The Empire probably committed a little TOO SOON to their flawed design. Not a lot of OPTIONS left here.
- 89. DELIVER AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. Lean principle 4 of 7: Speed is critical for learning – the shorter the feedback loops, the more can be learned and the better our decision-making. Speed also assures that customers get what they need now, not what they needed yesterday.
- 90. DELIVER AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. Lean principle 4 of 7: Our approach is informed by data (but not driven by it), and we strive to get better and better products in the hands of customers quickly, regularly, and at high quality.
- 91. Blockbuster, failing to realize it was in the video DISTRIBUTION business and not the video STORE business, could not compete when Netflix was able to deliver products to customers FASTER, CHEAPER and more CONVENIENTLY.
- 92. EMPOWER THE TEAM. Lean principle 5 of 7: World-class execution lies in getting the details right. And only those closest to the product have all the details. We hire the best people and let them get on with their jobs.
- 93. EMPOWER THE TEAM. Lean principle 5 of 7: We use “pull” techniques to coordinate work from within the team, rather than employing managers to “push” orders from above.
- 94. The symbol of lean manufacturing, the andon cord EMPOWERS (or button) all employees, especially those closest to the product, to take ownership over QUALITY.
- 95. BUILD INTEGRITY IN. Lean principle 6 of 7: When a customer squeals with joy and shouts, “Yes! That’s exactly what I wanted, how did they know?” – that’s perceived integrity. When your software scales and evolves gracefully with customers and time – that’s conceptual integrity.
- 96. BUILD INTEGRITY IN. Lean principle 6 of 7: We try to maintain integrity, both perceived and conceptual, by focusing on customer needs, keeping things simple and eliminating waste wherever we find it.
- 97. HOW SPOTIFY BUILDS PRODUCTS NOT LIKE THIS LIKE THIS HOW SPOTIFY BUILDS PRODUCTS Not like this Like this!
- 98. SEE THE WHOLE. Lean principle 7 of 7: The whole is always more than the sum of its parts. But it is only natural to highlight your own team, or push your own agenda ahead of others.
- 99. SEE THE WHOLE. Lean principle 7 of 7: We try to optimize for the whole, think for the long-term, and prioritize CUSTOMER > COMPANY > TEAM > SELF.
- 100. Some of the ingredients might be nice on their own but we’d rather eat CAKE.
- 102. 3PRODUCTS We want our customers to love our
- 103. We are all GAMERS. We hate sucky games. We hate games that sell you too hard. We hate games that were designed by committee.
- 104. Choose a job you love, and you will NEVER WORK CONFUCIUS a day in your life.
- 105. We try to treat our customers with respect.RESPECT.
- 106. Only one other industry call its CUSTOMERS UNKNOWN USERS – drug dealers.
- 107. We are CUSTOMER CENTRIC. The term “users” is so abstract. We prefer the term “players.” Or, simply, “customers.”
- 108. We like the term “customer” because it implies a formal relationship, and an expectation that we deliver value.VALUE. FORMAL RELATIONSHIP,
- 109. The best GAMES, made by GAMERS. We obsess over customers, not competitors. We listen to customer feedback. We act on customer feedback.
- 110. We are our own customers. And we are our own harshest critics. OWN CUSTOMERS.
- 111. Keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an AUDIENCE, PIXAR’S RULES OF STORYTELLING not what’s fun to do as a WRITER. They can be very different.
- 112. We try to anticipate what the customer wants. ANTICIPATE
- 113. You need to get to the FUTURE MARC BENIOFF and be ready to greet them when they ARRIVE. ahead of your customers,
- 114. This is a Golden Age for gaming.GOLDEN AGE
- 115. WHERE OUR CUSTOMERS PLAY GAMES IS CHANGING RAPIDLY.
- 116. HOW OUR CUSTOMERS PLAY GAMES IS CHANGING RAPIDLY.
- 117. And we want to be where the CUSTOMER is. We embrace new platforms. We embrace new form factors. We constantly try new things.
- 118. We are platform- agnostic.PLATFORM-
- 119. WE DON’T PLACE BOUNDARIES ON OURSELVES.
- 120. And how do we know if our customers love us? KNOW
- 121. They tell us.TELL US.
- 122. I was really losing all hope in finding any honest, fair, not greedy devs on here & you proved me wrong! I would buy things from them, because they aren't stingy with treating me well. I think I may have found my new favorite pastime. Game is awesome, great graphics. No glitches, its fast-paced fun and addicting and doesn't rip you off. Awesome sauce!Fun & refreshingly different. I would recommend this game along with all other Rocket Games. Customer Support is fabulous.
- 124. 4PROFIT This is not a dirty word.
- 125. Our mission is to build an enduring games business, that will outlast any of us.BUSINESS,
- 126. So how will we ENDURE? We need to balance great game-making with the business of game-making.
- 127. But all too often “profit” used in conjunction with creative works (like games) is treated like a dirty word.DIRTY WORD. “PROFIT”
- 128. IT’S A BALANCING ACT.
- 129. We treat our games like INVESTMENTS, on which we expect to make a RETURN. They take capital to make. They take time to make. They might succeed or fail.
- 130. And just like investing, we believe the best way to approach game-making as a business is to diversify our portfolio.PORTFOLIO.DIVERSIFY
- 131. NEVER PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET.
- 132. Every portfolio benefits from BONDS, SUZE ORMAN they provide a cushion when the stock market STOCKS hits a rough patch. But avoiding completely could mean your investment won’t grow any faster than inflation.
- 133. We want to build a BALANCED PORTFOLIO. A mix of long and short, risky and safe. The more experience we develop, the bigger the investments we are prepared to make.
- 134. PRACTICE makes PERFECT. The more games we make, the better we get at making games.
- 135. To become a chess grandmaster also seems to take about 10 years. MALCOLM GLADWELL And what’s 10 years? Well, it’s roughly how long it takes to put in 10,000 HOURS OF HARD PRACTICE. 10,000 hours is the magic number.
- 136. So to recap…
- 137. OUR MISSION IS TO BUILD AN ENDURING GAMES BUSINESS
- 138. To do that we believe you need great people and the right processes to make world-class products that generate a profit. PROCESSES PRODUCTS PROFIT. PEOPLE
- 139. THE 4 Ps MAKE (OUR) WORLD GO ROUND.
- 140. And our shared values can foster a culture that serves as a guide on our mission.
- 143. WE WERE DEEPLY INSPIRED BY: The Netflix Culture Deck (Patty McCord & Reed Hastings) The Hubspot Culture Code Deck (Dharmesh Shah) How Spotify Builds Products (Henrik Kniberg) Buffer’s radical transparency The Toyota Way The Valve Employee Handbook “Certain to Win” (Chet Richards) “Lean Software Development” (Mary and Tom Poppendieck) “The Lean Startup” (Eric Ries)