Productivity Thread

How to be better at your job !
I compiled my personal list of soft skills I think everyone should apply at work

about me:
I've been working for 7+ years in the gaming and esports world, notably on Blizzard and Twitch projects, at @ESL & @freaks4ugaming

1/ NEVER assume anything – MOST IMPORTANT

quick tip: ask the question “do you think or are you sure”, if you think, find an answer.

don’t assume because you wrote a mail / chat, that it will be done for sure, so poke people. Better be safe than sorry

2/ In case of doubt: CALL

no email, no “maybe that’s gonna be ok”, poke via private message, if no answer CALL

3/ Save your butt: Client approval is BAE

Before sending something, make sure you have all approvals
Don’t forget the holy trinity: your manager / your client / 3rd party

I work in gaming, and games belong to publisher, so if I do something with a game => publisher approval

Written Confirmation is crucial. If something important is approved/rejected in a call, add it when you write the notes you share with the client, either'‘as discussed we’ll do X, or “please confirm”.

4/ Be better than 90% of the people:
Clear recap after each meeting/ calls with action point and deadline

After each call or meeting, do directly after a recap with all stakeholders in mail (or your project management tool you have in your company, for me it's jira)

It look like this
1/ what has been said per category in the call
2/ actions points with:
a) responsibilities - WHAT
b) the person in charge - WHO
c) deadline with a DATE (not “next week”, but “January 23rd”) - WHEN.
If you work with several time zone, specify

5/ Have a Timeline / Retro planning shared internally/externally

Do a retroplanning to have a clear overview of deadlines, approvals loop, and make sure everyone has the right information

Get a written confirmation of any changes in the timeline (and share it with your partner, or internally if your client changes something).
=> Be sure to ALWAYS give yourself some time buffer, as there are always some “unexpected” challenges.

6/ Bring Experts with you

You’ll discuss video creation with the brand? bring your video team. A talk with the social media team of your partner? bring CM.

There are many points of expertise we don’t know as project managers that will be cleared if the expert is with you.

Learn from your experts and listen to their important pain points or information they need, you’ll be better prepared for future call, especially for the next times you are alone.

You can already pre shoot questions you know your departments need, also see possible challenges

7/ BE CURIOUS and interested in the different departments you work with

Your job as project manager is to coordinate different departments where you don’t’ have a full expertise on. Therefore, you need to learn what they do and how they do it.

Understanding the needs of a department will save you time and energy (and avoid mistakes). Ask the department “in a perfect world what would be the process for you? What do you need and why.

Question tip: ask your department to talk to you like you are 4 years old, so they’ll explain things that are obvious to them, but not for you.

This also goes for the client, don’t parternize them, but explain why A is better than B and why you would do certain thing different

8/ BE CURIOUS about people

Being nice and curious in people is always good. You never know what can happen.

From the intern to the VP, you should give love to any person that work at your client.

We have always seen in the past interns or junior being gaming ambassadors and convince their managers to work with us.

Also, if you develop a personal relationship with them, it will always make things easier, and be a nicer environment for you. win win !

Pro tips: checking your partner socials can help you finding shared hobbies or discussion points. (you worked in this company? me too! you did your Erasmus in Sweden? me too! You see they liked a book/ movie / serie you enjoy too ? great. I call it "positive stalking"

9/ Check what the competitions is doing – CREATIVITY COMES FROM INSPIRATION

Stay up to date on the market (through twitter / linkedin / whatever tool you need) and you’ll have a great knowledge, and you will be seen as an expert to your partner. (because you are hopefully haha)

if you can tell them what their 5 competitors are doing and what you think about it, that's great VALUE

Not everyone is creative, but 90% of creativity is taking something that exists, do a tweak and make it into something new.

10/ BE BOLD

Brands are coming to us because we are experts. Be the professional your partner expects. Express your opinion, get the feedback from our experts also. Be a trustworthy person to the other one, while keeping a good tone.

ex: I think this won’t be the best strategy because of X/Y/Z, if you absolutely want, we can help, but as your advisor, I am strongly against this.

I would do that in a different way because of A/B/C. How do you feel about it ?

11/ Beer with your partner increases the probability of signing by 25%
Majority of deals are decided at bars / restaurant, Close personal relationship and TRUST are essential. It’s Corona time, but if you have the chance to get your partner outside of the work environment, do it

12/ Just do it:
personal take here: Do instantly tasks that take you less than 3min to do

if a task takes you less than 3 min to do, do it instantly. Slacking 2/3h to send a fast email to get an answer should be done instantly in my opinion.

That's all for me ! Please let me know what you think, and if you have some golden rules I'd love to hear them !

@nicolasborri @niiicolo @RomainBigeard @Drijoka @kimaphan @profgalloway @RagingCherry @FreshFriendz @LoBayle @MrLacs @AliAbdaal @FishStix @CarlosR

and if you liked it, help me to spread the love !