Hello friends,

Greetings from Utrecht!

As you may have noticed, today is the day I finally grew tired of my decision to number these newsletters in binary. I thought I was so clever, but I didn't really think more than one year ahead. Now we're already at seven characters of your precious inbox real estate, just to obliquely hint at which edition you're reading. No thanks, 2020's Martijn.

On a personal note, I finally managed to catch a screening of Everything, Everywhere All At Once last week. I'm not exaggerating in the slightest when I say that this is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time, maybe ever. I won't spoil anything, but I will say that if you have any interest in cinema whatsoever, you should do yourself a favor and go see it.

Gotta love Michelle Yeoh

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Today at a glance:

• New essay: Defining your core processes
• Media and influencer outreach template
• The Mere Urgency effect
• Exploring the problem before the solution

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​Create clarity by defining your core processes​

As your company grows, it becomes more and more important to document and structure parts of it. Focussing your efforts and doing things in a predictable, repeatable way makes you more efficient, and more effective.

A big part of this is documenting your core processes.

Why you should document your core processes

Documenting your core processes has two important benefits.

Having a handful of processes that are followed by everyone ensures efficiency, and removes friction. When you lock down the basics, the time and effort that used to go to the coordination of those basics can now go into more important, higher level problem solving. And because everyone follows the same process, there’s less room for costly communication errors.

Having your processes written down also makes it easier to onboard new people. Instead of trying to download your knowledge into a new colleague in time-intensive one-on-ones, you’ll have the most important info to get them up to speed all written down, ready to go. Now, time can be spent on finessing their understanding of your processes, rather than getting them up to speed.

Three simple steps to document your core processes

So what is a good way to document these processes? How much detail do you include?

I like to use the method below. I have adopted it from the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) as described in the books Traction and Get A Grip by Gino Wickman. EOS is a comprehensive, practical system for managing SMB’s. In my experience, it lends itself extremely well to the light management style preferred by many videogame companies.

1. Identify

The first step is to agree with your team on what the core processes in your company are. You want to get a broad perspective here to ensure you’re not leaving anything important out. Try not to get into the details to much yet, and focus on identifying the 6-10 high level processes that drive your company.

These processes will differ per company, but you’ll likely end up with at least a few of the processes below:

• Development process
• Marketing/Sales process
• Finance process
• HR process
• Operations process
• Customer support process

In addition, you will probably have to add some that may be unique to your company or company type. For example, if you work with outsourcing companies, it may be helpful to define the outsourcing process. Or if you’re a publisher, you’ll want to include the process for scouting and signing new titles and partners.

2. Document

With the list of core processes agreed upon, it’s time to define their contents. Don’t worry, it’s not necessary to write down every little detail. You want to document the 20% of the process that drives 80% of the output. This way, it should be possible to summarize the main steps for each process in one page.

3. Collect and share

Finally, collect the pages for each process in a short manual, or make them part of your employee manual if you have one. Make this document easily available to your employees (something like Notion is great for this), and emphasize that the processes should be followed by all.

With your core processes defined, documented and followed by all, you’re taking the guesswork out of a big portion of the work happening in your company. Be sure to review the processes regularly and update them if needed.

Next steps

Here are some next steps you can take if you like what you’ve just read:

• Read summaries of Traction, Get a Grip and more business and management books by getting Better Book Notes for Busy Game Professionals.
• Get the books on Amazon. Traction describes the system in more detail, Get A Grip is written in narrative form and is more easily digestible.
• If you really want to dive in, I help leadership teams build better videogame companies using methods like the one described here, and I can help you too. Schedule an introductory meeting through my calendly page and let’s see if there’s a fit!

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​
The Best Bits

​Media & influencer outreach template: Canadian PR firm Evolve PR has helpfully provided a template for keeping track of media and influencer outreach. If you're a small(ish) studio doing your own PR, definitely check this out.

​The mere urgency effect: You might be familiar with the Eisenhower Matrix, which helps distinguish between tasks that are either urgent or non-urgent, and important or unimportant. This paper, shared by @emollick, demonstrates how we fall pray to urgent yet unimportant tasks: “People behave as if pursuing an urgent task has its own appeal, independent of its objective consequence.”

​Collaboration in the problem space: You've probably heard the adage "don't come to me with problems, come to me with solutions!" This essay explores why it can actually be better to take time exploring the problem first, and suggests a model for moving from problem to solution.

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See you in two weeks!

Martijn

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