Hello friends,
As some of you already know, I’m an Associate Producer and I’m currently trying to build myself a plan of becoming a Producer. The first stage of this process is to compile a matrix of all the essential skills that every Producer has.
So, I went into the details of all the open positions for Video Game Producers I could find and came up with the following list of skills required for all (or most) Producer positions regardless of the company.
So, without further ado, let’s dig in!
Small disclaimer
Before we do this, I just wanted to mention that this list is not at all one-size-fits-all and shouldn’t be treated like one. As I mentioned several times before, the role of a Producer depends on the company, the projects, the organizational structure and the needs of an organization.
Also, only the company and the hiring team know what they are looking for regarding the discussed skills. For example, “extensive Jira knowledge” may mean different things to different companies. So, the details behind each skill are my best guess of what they entail and not the single source of truth.
1. Understanding of Agile and Waterfall development processes
EA Games (Producer): “Is well-versed with waterfall and agile development processes.”
Smoking Gun Interactive (Game Producer): “Well-versed experience in project management practices, agile development, and software project management software packages”
To work in software development, you have to know how the software is made and these two methodologies are the ones that are being used the most.
These are all pretty straightforward and if you have at least some experience working in a software company, you probably already know enough about sprints, backlogs and burn-down charts.
But there are a few “advanced” things to know here. Like Velocity, Capacity, different subclasses of Agile and so on. But the image above should sum up most of them.
2. Game Development Process
WB Games (Producer): “Strong understanding of game development cycle from pre-production to release”
Frima (Senior Producer): “ Good understanding of all aspects of game development as well as the interrelationships between the various trades”
Now it’s time to get into the specifics. Games are just another type of software, but it has a lot of specifics.
This is the closes thing I could find that at least somewhat similar to most of the projects I’ve worked with. As you can see, it’s much more linear in its entirety, but trust me, each stage has A LOT of iterations inside.
That’s why you need to know both Waterfall and Agile but know when to combine the two and which things to pick up from which methodology.
3. Planning
Amazon (Game Producer): “Coordinate release schedules and plans, and coordinate with various teams”
WilsonCTS (Producer): “Milestone planning, execution, and evaluation.”
This is the place where you put those first two things to good use.
A good chunk of the Producer’s job is about either making plans or adjusting plans. Maybe even more of the latter than the former. Because we all know that plans rarely work out.
It doesn’t mean that we don’t need to do them. It’s more about establishing the baseline, knowing when certain things need to happen and monitoring the overall progress regularly against the said plan. But you also need to be always prepared with plans B, C and all the way through Z.
4. Technical Knowledge and Communication
Epic Games (Producer): “Demonstrated technical aptitude”
Amazon (Game Producer): “Excellent technical communication skills, capable of articulating complex concepts to non-technical team members”
I was a bit surprised by how many positions require a person who understands techy stuff and who is able to communicate it to non-techy people.
But I get it. As a Producer you have a lot of stakeholders. You have publishers, studio and company management, C-suite, 3rd party partners and on it goes. You need to be able to explain to them everything that’s going on with your project, from status updates to any changes in the project schedule. But it’s also for your benefit. Whenever you are talking with your team, the more things you actually understand, the more clarity and control you have over the outcome.
And you need to do it in a way that doesn’t cause them a headache ideally or that doesn’t require an extensive technical background.
5. Risk Management
Sony (Technical Producer): “Keep stakeholders informed, aware of risks, and trade-offs.”
Smoking Gun Interactive (Game Producer): “Continuously assess risk and keep scope of the project in line with budget and schedule”
I have a bit of a mixed experience with Risks. But they are indeed important.
Your ability to anticipate problems and come up with solutions in advance makes a real difference. Of course, you won’t be able to come up with all the plans on your own. This is something that requires a lot of cooperation and buy-in from both the inside and outside of your team. But you need to be cautious about when to sound the metaphorical fire alarm.
PMI has a lot of useful materials on Risk Management.
If you haven’t subscribed yet, this button is just for you ⤵️
6. Tools
Frima (Senior Producer): “Very good knowledge of management tools such as Jira, Confluence, Excel/Google Sheets or others”
Cloud Chamber (Executive Producer): “Deep understanding of production tools such as JIRA, Confluence, Excel.”
Jira… It’s a tool that every PM and Producer that I’ve ever worked with (including myself) has the same relationship with as Golum has with the One Ring. We love and hate it at the same time.
But it’s now an industry standard, so you need to know at least the most basic stuff. Like creating custom boards, statuses, and workflows, building the most basic charts and creating new issues.
Another thing that’s worth mentioning is that you need to be flexible in your own perceptions of an “ideal board” as I haven’t seen 2 projects with the same Jira setup. What I mean by that is that you need to be mindful of your team. An “ideal” workflow might not work for a specific team or will be inefficient. So, you need to know when to push for the process and when it would be an unnecessary distraction.
As one of the developers once told me: “If it works, don’t touch it”
7. Flexibility and Adaptability
Ubisoft (Game Producer): “Critical thinking, curiosity, resourcefulness, and plenty of flexibility”
WB Games (Producer): “Strong level of agility and adaptability.”
Game Development is all about flexibility.
You have to be ok with changing plans, reprioritizing stuff and letting things go. Focus on the big picture. This is something that I have to work on, to be honest. Even the most perfect plans and expectations may not work out, so you need to be able to adapt, improvise and adjust depending on the situation. A very hard thing to measure IMO and is only noticeable in times of crisis.
To misquote a great TV Series: “We are Producers and we take what is offered”
8. Leadership
Eidos (Senior Producer): “Leadership and sense of responsibility;”
WilsonCTS (Producer): “Excellent communication, presentation, and leadership skills”
Another thing that’s hard to define by yourself, but can easily be spotted by others.
There are a lot of courses and materials about how to develop leadership skills and all of it revolves around influencing others based on some sort of hierarchy level. But it’s often about more than just your title. It’s about creating a strong vision and enabling individuals to work together to achieve results that they couldn’t achieve alone.
If you already know how to be a great leader, I’m always open to advice, as most of the great leaders that I know don’t know how they got it 😅
9. Understanding the market
Ubisoft (Game Lead): “A solid understanding of the market & a (fiery) passion for video games”
WilsonCTS (Producer): “Knowledge of the current market”
Well, that’s why I started this newsletter.
I wanted to get better at understanding the market. I know that it’s not only about the loudest news in the industry, it’s also about understanding trends, KPIs and the reasons for their fluctuations.
But with our constantly changing landscape, you need to know what’s happening in the world and what players are leaning toward to fulfil their needs. And it’s the same for any business.
10. Interpersonal Skills
Eidos (Senior Producer): “Ability to lead, mobilize and influence a work team to achieve high quality deliverables;”
Cloud Chamber (Executive Producer): “Excellent communication, interpersonal, organizational, and time management skills.”
This is a bit simpler to develop than leadership skills in my opinion.
But it still requires quite a lot of effort and goes hand in hand with leadership. You need to be able to build strong relationships with your team and your stakeholders and it’s something that can only be achieved over time. You don’t need to be friends with everybody and you probably won’t be.
But you are going to be a part of the team, and a leader, so you need to learn how to work collaboratively with a diverse development team, showing respect and empathy for your colleagues at all times without a single exception.
Ok, but that’s not it, right?
Exactly.
The other things that are universal for most of the Producer-related positions are Experience and Portfolio. Essentially, these two are the ways and means how you can back up the list above.
Almost every Producer position requires X years of experience. Sometimes it’s just a general number in Game Development as a whole and sometimes you need X years of experience in a particular niche. For example, MMO RPGs, Mobile or VR/AR.
And for higher leadership positions, like Executive Producer or Lead Producer, you need to have X titles under your belt. For example, companies that are focused on AAA games require you to have at least 1-2 AAA titles under your belt.
Now, I don’t know if it’s something that companies can be flexible with, but it’s definitely not an easy task to fit those criteria.
I hope this info was as useful for you as it was for me, now it’s time to get started improving those skills!
If you feel like supporting me and my work, consider Powering-Up GameDev Relay 🎮
Have a great week!
Alex from Gamedev Relay