A deep analysis of Wooga's Independent Team structure

1. Saying No to the CEO
Adam Telfer
@adamwtelfer
Product Lead, Wooga GmbH
www.mobilefreetoplay.com

2. all@yourcompany.com
Dear Everyone,
Effective Immediately:
No matter what,
Teams can work on whatever they want.
Any Product they want.
Using any technology they want.
Management cannot stop you.

5. Independent Teams
build better People
build better Products
build better Businesses

8. 1
How & Why
2
Challenges
3
Benefits

9. 1
How & Why
2
Challenges
3
Benefits

16. I’ll fix
everything!

17. BIG
FEATURES!!!

18. Woops...

19. You take
care of
this...

21. Teams make their own decisions.
On what to start
On how to execute it
On if/when to stop it
Teams have full autonomy

22. Enter me, 2012
I can do whatever I want?

24. Monthly Reviews

25. 1st Review
It’s okay...
Huzzah!

26. 2nd Review
Not good
enough...
YOU CAN’T
STOP ME!!!

27. 3rd Review!

28. I made the call to stop.

29. I asked:
“Why didn’t you tell me to stop it in the
beginning?
We could have saved 3 months of effort!”

30. Autonomy Culture
>
Cost of 3 Months

31. Why?

32. Hit Driven Business

33. How are Mobile Hits Made?

34. Unpredictable
Unpredictable

35. Small Teams

36. 66 10

37. Great Games are built around
Small, Creative, Autonomous
teams
Our process was built
with this in mind.

38. 1
How & Why
2
Challenges
3
Benefits

39. 3Challenges

40. #1Stuck on
Repeat

41. No
Shared
Tech

42. Repeated
Mistakes

43. Agility &
Ownership
Saved Time
>

44. No
Shared
Tech?

45. (Optional)

46. #2
Hiring

47. 20 Game Teams
300 People
200 Art, Dev, Design

48. PROJECT 1
PROJECT 2
PROJECT 3
PROJECT 4
PROJECT 5

50. +People!
+People!

52. Where can
I move to?
Where can
I move to?
Where can
I move to?
Where can
I move to?

53. MORE
PEOPLE!!

54. Resource
Waves

55. Where can
I move to?

56. Different Cultures,
Different Genres,
Different Tech

57. Generalists
vs
Specialists

58. Lab
Time

59. Lab
Time
(but not for too long)

60. Resource
Managers

61. #3Killing
Games

62. Killing your
own idea

63. Can you be
Objective?

67. Us
Against
Them

68. Failure is
Acceptable

69. 3Challenges
Stuck on Repeat
Hiring
Killing Games

70. 1
How & Why
2
Challenges
3
Benefits

71. 3Benefits

72. #1Adapting

73. Adapting to
Technology

76. Adapting to
New Genres

78. 12 Teams
8 Teams

79. Less Politics
#2

80. Meetings
aren’t for
Selling

81. Executives
Influence,
Not Command

83. #3Ownership

84. Creative Control
Commitment,
Confidence
Quality

88. 3Challenges
3Benefits

89. Reinventing
Hiring
Killing
Adapting
Politics
Ownership

90. all@yourcompany.com
Dear Everyone,
Effective Immediately:
No matter what,
Teams can work on whatever they want.
Any Product they want.
Using any technology they want.
Management cannot stop you.

91. It’s time to hit send.

92. Thank You!
Adam Telfer
Wooga GmbH
@adamwtelfer
mobilefreetoplay.com