5 minutes with… Helen Smailes
Helen is a Senior Games Producer based in West Yorkshire. She started her career in e-commerce project management over 15 years ago before realising she could use her organisational powers in the world of games. Helen loves introducing teams to the possibilities and benefits of Agile approaches for their projects. She is currently working on the mini open-world adventure game, Walkies.
This article was originally posted on LinkedIn in June 2023 and Helen has kindly given permission for the content to be added here.
Why did you choose a career in game development and project management?
It actually chose me! I graduated college with a degree in English and Fine Arts, and went straight into working on the web as a writer and producer. I learned everything I know about the web, video production, and procProject management was somewhere that I just felt comfortable. Looking back, when I was undertaking group projects at college and university, or working on personal projects with friends, I always seemed to fall into the role without realising it. My aspirations as a student weren’t to become a project manager or producer, and it wasn’t until I was in my final year of university, when a lecturer pointed out my abilities in that area, that I realised that maybe they were on to something! When it comes to games production that’s a no-brainer, I have loved games since I played Chuckie Egg on the Amstrad CPC, so being able to work in the industry is fantastic.
What advice would you give someone starting out in the industry?
Be brave and remember that others working around you won’t always see the things that you do. Your team is your greatest resource, they have the knowledge and experience to do the work needed, but you will often have a view of the project that they don’t. It can be daunting, when you’re starting out, to lead a project but trust your team and trust yourself and don’t be afraid to say (or look it up!) when you don’t know something. Even industry veterans don’t know everything!
Have you ever worked on a particularly difficult project? Why was it rubbish/tough/hard?
I think every project has its difficulties. I’ve found that the hardest ones are either when communication is failing or there are unrealistic expectations, either with the processes themselves or with what is possible (scope/time/budget/etc). One of my hardest projects was when policymakers wanted the company to be ‘Agile’ but didn’t want anything to change at a high level. It was a challenge to get to the root of what they wanted and get them to understand what that change would look like. But once they were fully onboard, it was easier to get buy-in from the team leads and consequently the teams themselves.
What do you think are the most important skills for a delivery or project manager to have?
Communication. Communication is everything.
Always do your best to ensure that communication across the team (including yourself) is clear and effective. Often I am also the person who is translating between technical and non-technical (and vice versa) to ensure everyone understands where we stand.
Related to communication is the ability to listen. You don’t need to know how to do other people’s jobs, but you do need to know how to listen and take what they’re saying and use it to do your job.
Also, the ability to think outside the box to help solve problems. I’ve had some great meetings (yes, I said great meetings!) where myself and others have been spitballing ideas to try and solve specific issues facing a project.
What do you think are the biggest challenges facing delivery and project managers today?
Two things spring to mind.
The first is the idea that ‘Agile’ is a magical unicorn that swoops in and fixes everything. It’s not.
The second is crunch culture. While many games companies have started to do their best to move away from this, it still seems to be something that many in the games industry expect. There’s often an outdated idea that if you love your job and you love games you should work 12-hour days, 7 days a week, and there can be not only a lot of pressure from management but also sometimes social pressure from colleagues. It’s bad for people and it’s bad for the business.
What projects would you have loved to have been involved in?
I've been lucky to have worked on many projects, with many different teams across a variety of projects. If adult me could go back in time, I think it would have been interesting to have been involved in Super Mario 64. Not only because it was by Nintendo but was a seminal 3D platformer and I would love to know what it was like to work on and what game production was like!
This post is from the ‘5 minutes with’ series of articles from people in the delivery management and project management space.