For an hour Mike Capps, president of Epic Games, talked about building the perfect team and the audience paid attention. Capps has an impressive track record, despite being relatively new to the industry.
In 2000 he started the America’s Army project, building a team from scratch while maintaining operational secrecy. Following that project he moved to Scion Studios and, according to him, “beat Epic at their own game†with Unreal Championship 2. Scion merged with Epic in 2004 and Capps has since led the combined company as president.
One of the key aspects to building a team, Capps said, was visualizing success - knowing what the end goal is. While “team dynamics†and “culture†were discussed a lot during the two day conference, “what we really want is to have people be more productive than usual and work hard on the same thing.â€
“We want a team with unity of purpose and a willingness to sacrifice for that purpose,†Capps said.
He noted that this sacrifice does not mean your family. It means that you must be willing to sacrifice the inefficient things that get in the way of that purpose. Namely things like petty squabbling, territorial behavior, random web browsing and random “research projects.†He warned of tasks that looked like progress on the surface but didn’t help to ship games.
In addition to having a common goal the team needs to believe in you, the leadership. They need to feel confident that you’re always looking out for them and are making the right decisions. Leaders must not be perfect, Capps said, and, in fact, you can’t be. But the leader must earn their confidence. When mistakes happen acknowledge them and move on.
Building a team requires hiring new people so Capps spent a good deal of the session discussing the hiring process at Epic. It seemed a long and difficult process but, in the end, they came away with people who felt luck to be at Epic and people there were confident were good fits for the company and culture.
The hiring process begins with Epic’s HR department screening resumes. This is a critical time saver as Epic receives well over 1000 resumes each month. Following the HR screen resumes are reviewed by “experts†within the company, leads for each discipline.
Should a resume pass the expert test the candidate is required to take a skills test. One interesting thing to note here was that no one passes the test the first time. Part of taking the test is to learn how the candidate deals with feedback.
HR calls and does a quick screen of the candidate following the skills test and then the candidate proceeds to talk by phone with the experts in the company.
If they pass a reference check the candidate then comes for an on-site interview. The on-site is a large investment in time at Epic, with 20 or more people talking to the candidate. Given the expense involved in an on-site interview Epic tries to bring only the cream of the crop in.
The final step in the process is a background check. Capps said he was surprised at how many companies skipped this step, given the relatively small cost. It could save you from bringing in talented artist… but one who had stolen from their previous 3 employers.
Capps also spent a good chunk of time discussing how to reward your team. “Rewards are dangerous,†he said. “People will do what you reward them for whether it is the right behavior or not.â€
Capps talked about the “infinite defect†loop that can grow if people are rewarded for finding and fixing bugs. Or giving people a pat on the back for staying late, even if that, unbeknownst to you, is covering up for too much web browsing during the day.
To avoid this Epic bases their rewards on performance reviews, which happen twice a year. They base these reviews on both the feedback of the lead as well as a randomly selected group of peers. Ratings are straight forward: meets expectations, exceeds expectations or doesn’t meet expectations.
They pay attention to a number of key items, each weighted equally. Communication and teamwork are weighted doubly for leads.
- quality and attention to detail
- creativity and problem solving
- communication and teamwork
- work ethic
Inevitably reviews aren’t always positive, so it is sometimes necessary to say goodbye.
It was somewhat odd that a session about building a perfect team spent so much time talking about the right way to remove an unproductive member. Punishing unwanted behavior and firing unproductive workers is critical, though, to maintaining team trust. In addition, nothing demotivates the rest of the team like working next to someone who isn’t pulling their weight.
Capps suggested keeping the initial discussions with an under-performer informal, perhaps just a discussion by the lead to probe for reasons that might explain it. Following this it is time to make the process quite formal. Capps recommended a formal meeting with manager(s) and HR along with a formal letter, stating that the employee must show “immediate, significant and ongoing improvement†in order to keep their job. The period for improvement should be short - just two weeks. People will either do a great job and improve or they will immediately fail.
Putting this in such stark and formal terms might be enough to help some people turn it around. Capps said his success rate was around 60 percent.
Should you need to terminate an employee Capps recommended telling the team immediately. Being open and honesty about a termination is important to building the team’s trust in you as a leader. Most likely these team will not be surprised.
Capps ended the discussion saying that there was not trick to building the perfect team. There were many necessary conditions but no “sufficient†conditions. Most often, he said, good teams come from good luck… but they can also come from diligent planning.
