Hello friends,

Greetings from Utrecht!

I'm in the middle of a busy couple of weeks, having just come back from Reboot and leaving for Nordic Game in two weeks.

Interestingly, I'm finding that while this takes time away from regular work, it's doing wonders for my creativity. The increase in activity is opening all sorts of registers in my brain that are leading to exciting new ideas and projects, some of which I will be able to share with you soon.

Today, I'm happy to share the end result of a coffee chat I had with Vincent van Gils a while ago. While discussing a possible talk at INDIGO about EOS (which I've talked about before), we landed on a handful of management elements that even the most management-averse indie devs can use to their benefit. After some polishing, I've turned those elements into a minimalist management framework for indies, called FIRM.

I presented the framework in a talk at Reboot, the full recording of which you can see below. I've also included the slides.

And most importantly, I'm sharing for the first time the full, free Notion template that you can use to implement the framework at your own company.

Today at a glance:

• Video: my talk on indie company management from Reboot 2023
• My presentation slides from the same talk
• A full (and free) Notion template for implementing the FIRM framework at your own company

Company management for indies

After more than 13 years in the games industry, I've come to believe that most indie companies are more like project groups than they are actual companies.

You’re a small group of likeminded individuals, all that matters is that the game gets finished, and you really don’t have to bother with most of the additional management hassle that comes with running a more fully fledged company.

At the same time, I've always felt that there are a best practices indie devs can borrow from the world of management that will increase your odds of long-term success.

After all, you still need to have a shared understanding of where you’re going, what you’re doing to get there, and solve problems along the way. These things are bigger than the game you’re working on, and they need to be managed.

The problem is that most out-of-the-box frameworks are too unwieldy for small, creative companies like your typical indie studio.

So I created something more suited to the needs of indie studios.

FIRM

By taking everything I do with my clients and reducing it to the bare essentials, I've developed a minimalist, four-pronged management framework for indie development: FIRM.

Sure, it's not as robust as a more complex framework, but it'll get you focus, alignment and accountability at a fraction of the time investment.

The framework consists of just four elements:

• Future: define your company vision and plan for the year
• Issues: structurally collect, discuss and solve all company issues
• Rocks: define and commit to the right priorities each quarter
• Meetings: adopt a set of meetings to set the pace

By committing to these practices, you can get a head start on the all-important company management stuff before it catches you unawares.

I laid out the full framework in terms of Pokémon during my recent talk at Reboot, which you can watch here:

Full slides are here.

And if you're ready to dive in and give the framework a try, you can find the completely free Notion template, including much more information, context and step-by-step implementation instructions, on my website.

If you do try the framework, let me know any questions or comments you might have—I will continuously update the template, and share additional insights in my newsletter and on socials.

Thanks for reading!

If you found this helpful, the best way you can support my work is by sharing this with someone who you think would benefit from these insights.

See you in two weeks!

Martijn

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