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Dan Sturman谈从业状态和Roblox的远程办公

发布时间:2020-09-11 08:59:31 Tags:,

Dan Sturman谈从业状态和Roblox的远程办公

原作者:Matthew Forde 译者:Willow Wu

游戏行业为许多不同类型的人才提供了栖息之地,小到画师、程序员、叙事设计师,大到工作室负责人。

然而,胜任这些职位需要具备各种不同的的复杂技能,精通职业所在领域的专业知识——尤其是在当下这个复杂的时期。

为了让大家了解这些屏幕背后的杰出工作,以及世界各地的人们是怎么适应远程工作的,PocketGamer.biz将会采访一些对游戏行业有重要贡献的人,收录在我们的Jobs in Games:Remote Working专栏。

robloxship(from gamasutra)

robloxship(from gamasutra)

本周我们要采访的是Roblox首席技术官(CTO)Dan Sturman。

PocketGamer.biz: 能够谈谈你现在的职位吗?它的具体职责是什么?

Dan Sturman: 我现在是Roblox首席技术官,我负责领导与Roblox平台构建相关的工作。这包括用户在玩Roblox游戏时使用的游戏引擎、虚拟角色生成器、物品目录和匹配等服务,让用户可以顺利地和朋友一起玩游戏。

还有Roblox Studio,我们的开发者工具,允许创作者在平台上设计新的体验。

-你是怎么进入游戏行业的?怎么走到这个位置的?

Roblox是我在游戏行业的第一个栖息地。我是从研究人员做起的,负责大型分散式系统的研究工作。从那以后,我转到了产品开发和管理部门,一直从事跟大型系统相关的工作。

了解到Dave(首席执行官兼联合创始人David Baszucki)的愿景是通过游戏将世界联系在一起,我对Roblox就产生了浓厚的兴趣。打造一个能够通过实时互动体验将世界各地的人们聚集在一起的系统,这似乎就是我期望做的,一份很令人无比兴奋的工作。

尤其是在这样的特殊时刻,我们真的能感受到平台的影响力,我们非常重视搭建人与人之间的联系桥梁。

-你认为人们对你的专业领域存在什么误解吗?

计算机技术工作和游戏开发经常被认为是一种孤单的活动。事实上,这种说法错得不能再错了:制作精妙的系统或游戏,它本身就是一种基于团队的社会活动。通过结识其它领域专业人士,其实我认为计算机技术人员是最需要团队精神的职业之一。

这一点我们从Roblox的工作模式中就可以看出,管理团队花了很多时间来确保团队之间保持紧密合作,这样他们很容易就能做到随机应变,搭建出一个优秀的平台。我们的开发者社区也是如此。

Roblox绝大多数的热门游戏都是团队智慧的结晶,而不是个人的产物,他们利用Developer Studio中的Team Create进行合作。如果我们任何一个人都能单枪匹马完成任务,那干脆直接让全公司的人在家工作,这样管理起来不是更容易一些?

-对于想寻找同类工作的人来说,你有什么其它的建议?

在Roblox,我们拥有相当独特而有趣的文化,这也是我们平台成功的重要原因之一。在设计新特色时,我们希望你能够不局限于短期方案,往长远思考,这就是我们想要寻找的伙伴。

要记住,开发社区很可能会利用我们设计出的任意功能,在遵循一定原则的同时用我们从来没想过的方式构建出令人眼前一亮的东西。

Roblox平台涉及的技术种类繁多,包括复杂的渲染、物理引擎、全球分布式云端,以及有效保护未成年用户的可靠安全系统。

在同一家公司里你很难看到这样的技术组合,所以我们的工程师一定要是热衷于接受新的挑战,带着积极解决问题的态度,不惧怕技术挑战,喜欢在工作中学习新技能。

-公司办公变为远程办公,对你这个职位有什么影响——如果有的话?

在这个月之前,Roblox一直都秉持着“总部办公”的公司文化,我们的团队大部分人都聚集在加州的圣马特奥。当然最近几周我们得迅速做出调整。

我们通知所有人改变原来交流方式,使用同一套通讯软件。开放式沟通对任何公司都是十分重要的,尤其是在目前这种情况下。我们通过每周一次的全体会议和每周简报,加强了与高管团队之间的沟通。

这个变化对刚来公司不久的新人而言是个很麻烦的问题。我没办法通过办公室内走动或者跟不同的人一起吃饭来结识同事。

为此,我在午饭时开了一个“随便问我什么”的会话窗口。在过去的几个星期里,我每周都会做两次——这是一个让我们彼此互相了解的好方法。

-远程工作的日子,你一般都是怎么安排的?

有趣的是,就算是远程工作,日常任务也是跟之前在办公室里差不多的。事实上,我觉得保持平时的做事方式对工作效率的保证很重要。不一样的地方就是我们得把这个日程计划跟日常生活合理结合。当然,会议都是通过视频进行的。从一个会议到另一个会议,你会发现自己的自然休息时间,以及在这段时间内跟别人的非正式互动都没有了。

于是,我就会尝试在白天跟其他伙伴展开短暂的休闲互动,并鼓励他们也这么做。有一个挑战是,现在很容易就会把一天的活动安排的满满当当。我想尝试多休息几次,不要一直呆在办公桌和屏幕前。

-你认为远程办公的最大优势和劣势分别是什么?

首先,我要感叹一下近年来这些远程办公软件的飞速发展。即使就在四年前,我们都还在用电话会议,通过电子邮件发送附件、进行对话,而不是通过如今这些功能强大的通讯软件。这个世界真的发生了很大变化。

在疫情环境下,除了在家办公,还有另外一些真正不寻常的挑战。这些协作软件基本上无法帮助我们应对同时承担的多项工作——比如说照顾孩子和亲人,以及想方设法让我们的储藏室有充足的物资。

当然,最大的缺点是没有偶然性或随性的对话——每一次的互动在一定程度上都是带有计划性的。虽然我们很难评估这件事所带来的影响,但之前我所参与的一些最新颖、冲击力十足的创新点子,都是在厨房或咖啡间的偶然对话中产生的。

相比之下,在家办公的最大优势就是很容易就能把人们召集在一起。比如说,如果你想组织一个临时的全公司会议,这毫不费力就能做到。面试的时间安排变得简单多了,因为现在没有那么多了。

-有什么事情是你希望在转为远程办公之前就了解的吗?

有,就是跟我一起工作的所有人的姓名和职位!因为我是团队中的新成员,还没完全认识所有人。这就延伸到一个观点:工作关系中最大的挑战是建立密切的人际关系。

就我个人而言,我的方法是主动去接近别人,即使只是为了很小的事情。很幸运的是Roblox的团队成员都很热心,我发现在交流的时候其他人也会很想要参与进来。

-对于那些正在努力适应远程工作的人,你能给一些建议吗?

我的建议是,与人合作的过程中,要非常谨慎。你们现在的对话基本上都是计划性的,即使是视频交流,也会比面对面时更容易误解对方。

主动向他人伸出援手。不要犹豫不决,用快速的视频通话来回复一封收到已久的邮件。在讨论过程中,要特别注意做一个好的倾听者和沟通者。

-等到疫情结束后,如果可以选择的话,你会偏向于继续呆在家里办公还是回去公司?

我认为Roblox的公司办公文化为我们带来了一些重要的优势,我并不想失去它们。鉴于当前所获得的增长,我们已经在思考如何扩大Roblox的市场覆盖面。考虑到这一点,我认为Roblox团队在学习成为一个更分散式的团队的过程中,已经有了很大的领先优势。

本文由游戏邦编译,转载请注明来源,或咨询微信zhengjintiao

The games industry plays host to a colourful cast of diverse individuals, from artists and coders to narrative designers and studio heads.

The skills to pull off these roles, however, are complex and differing, with each position requiring mastery in its field – especially in these complex times we are all living through at the minute.

To highlight some of the brilliant work that goes on behind the scenes as well as how employees around the world are adapting to the life of remote work, PocketGamer.biz is reaching out to the individuals who make up the games industry in our Jobs in Games: Remote Working series.

This week we spoke with Roblox chief technology officer Dan Sturman.

-PocketGamer.biz: Can you tell us about your current role and what it entails?

Dan Sturman: I’m the chief technology officer for Roblox, which means I’m responsible for leading our efforts to build the Roblox platform. This includes the game engine users enjoy while playing a Roblox game, supporting services like the avatar builder, item catalogue and the matchmaking service, that enables users to play games with their friends.

It also includes Roblox Studio, our developer tool that allows creators to build new experiences on the platform.

-How did you first get into games and how did you progress into this role?

Roblox is my first stint in the game industry. I started my career as a researcher, working on large-scale distributed systems. From there I moved onto product development and management, always working on large-scale systems.

Roblox intrigued me because of Dave’s (David Baszucki, the CEO and co-founder) vision of bringing the world together through play. Building a system that could bring so many people together through a real-time interactive experience seemed like the most exciting and impactful thing I could work on next.

The impact of platforms like this is really felt at times like this, and we take our role in connecting people very seriously.

-Do you think there are any misconceptions, public or professional, surrounding your area of expertise?

Computing and game making are too often perceived as solitary activities. In reality nothing could be further from the truth: building great systems or games is inherently a team-based, social activity. Knowing professionals in a range of other fields, I actually think computing is one of the most team-oriented careers you could pick.

We see this in how we work at Roblox, where the management team spends a lot of time ensuring teams are well-connected so they can move quickly and build a great platform. We also see this in our developer community.

The vast majority of our top games are written by teams, not individuals, using features like Team Create in Developer Studio to collaborate. If any of us could get real work done by working alone, having the entire company working from home would be a lot easier to manage.

-What advice do you have for someone looking for a job in this profession?

We have a pretty unique and interesting culture at Roblox and that’s a big part of what makes our platform work. We tend to look for team members who will think beyond the short-term fix and instead think about the long-term when building out new features.

We have to keep in mind that our development community will probably use any capability we think up in ways we’ve never imagined, and build things in a principled way.

The Roblox platform involves an incredibly diverse range of tech, including a sophisticated rendering and physics engine, a world-wide distributed cloud, and a trust and safety system to keep kids safe.

This combination of technologies in a single company is quite rare, so we need engineers who are passionate about taking on new challenges, bring a proactive, problem-solving attitude, who aren’t afraid of technical challenges, and who enjoy learning new skills on the job.

-How has the shift from office to remote working impacted your role, if at all?

Up until this month, Roblox very much had a ‘work-from-headquarters’ culture, with a significant majority of our team being centrally located in San Mateo, California. In recent weeks this has, of course, had to change, and quickly.

Across the company, we’ve rapidly shifted our communication patterns and standardised a small set of communication tools. Clear, open communication is important in any company, but this is doubly the case in the current situation, and we’ve increased our communication from the executive team with weekly “town hall” meetings and a weekly newsletter

This change has been particularly tricky as a relative newcomer to the company. It’s become impossible for me to meet new people by walking around the office or sitting down for lunch with a different group of people.

To compensate, I’ve been running a series of ask-me-anything sessions at lunch. I’ve been doing two of these a week for the past few weeks – it’s been a great medium for employees to get to know me, and a good way for me to find out what’s on my colleagues’ minds.

-What does your typical day look like when working remotely?

Interestingly enough, the day’s schedule hasn’t changed much while working remotely. In fact, I find the usual routines important in keeping myself productive. What has changed is how we work that schedule into our days. Meetings are all over video of course. Notably missing are the natural breaks you find yourself taking as you go from one meeting to another, and the less formal interactions that happen during that time.

To compensate, I’ve been trying to reach out informally during the day and encouraging the team to do the same. One challenge is that it seems it’s gotten even easier to pack the day! I’m trying to be more diligent about taking a few solid breaks and stepping away from my desk and screen.

-What do you think are the biggest advantages and disadvantages of remote working?

Firstly, I think it’s pretty amazing how far technology tools for working from home have progressed in just a few years. Even just four years ago we would have all been on conference calls, emailing attachments around and trying to have conversations over email instead of through sophisticated messaging software. The world really has changed.

That said, with the pandemic, there are some really unique challenges that go beyond working from home. Collaboration technology does little to address the multiple jobs that many of us find ourselves undertaking at once – taking care of our kids and loved ones, for example, and figuring out how to keep our pantries well-stocked.

The biggest disadvantage is of course that there are no accidental or casual conversations – every interaction is to some degree planned. While it’s hard to measure the impact of this, some of the most novel and impactful innovations I’ve been part of started with a chance conversation in a kitchen or over coffee.

In contrast, the biggest advantage is how easy it is to intentionally get people together. Physical logistics – say if you wanted to organise an impromptu all-company meeting – are, for the time being, not a concern. Interviews have become much easier to schedule, as we no longer have to worry about a continuous schedule on a single day.

-Is there anything you wish you had known before moving to remote working?

Yes, the names and roles of all the people I work with! The biggest challenge for me has been being new to the team and not yet knowing who is who. That goes to a broader point that the biggest challenge in working relationships is building close human relationships.

I’m addressing this by proactively reaching out, even about the small stuff. I’m lucky that the team at Roblox is incredibly welcoming and warm, and I’ve found that people are really eager to engage and chat when I reach out.

-Do you have any advice for others who are struggling to adjust to remote work?

My advice would be to be very deliberate in how you work with others. Conversations won’t happen by accident, and even with video, it can be a lot easier to misunderstand one another than it might be face-to-face.

Be proactive in reaching out to others, and make yourself as available as possible to others. Don’t hesitate to resolve an email thread that has gone on for too long with a quick video call. And when you are in a discussion, be particularly mindful of being a good listener and communicator.

-After the pandemic ends and if you were given the choice, would you prefer to continue working remotely or go back to working in an office?

I think our in-office culture has some important advantages I wouldn’t want to lose. That said, given our growth, we were already in the process of thinking about how we might expand our geographic reach. With that in mind, I think Roblox has a big head start on what we need to learn as we become a more distributed team.

(source: pocket gamer


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