A minimalist studio management framework for indies, with implementation instructions.
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“You do not rise to the level of your ambitions. You fall to the level of your systems.” —James Clear
After more than 15 years in the games industry, I've come to believe that most indie studios are more like project groups than they are 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.
I still think that’s mostly true, but I also think there are a best practices that indie devs can borrow from the world of management to increase their 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 still need to be managed.
The easiest way to do so is to use the FIRM framework, which will let you run your company in less than 90 minutes per week using just two one-page documents.
The core of all management is to create focus, alignment and accountability. This is the smallest possible framework I’ve managed to create that still lets you do all three.
Future is vision, both long term and shorter term, your plans for the year
Issues is a big shared list of any issues you come across, so all the cards are on the table
Rocks are your top priorities, the things that MUST get done each quarter
Your Meetings determine the rhythm of your company. You should meet weekly, quarterly and annually.
Your vision informs the Rocks you set, and the issues you encounter.
Issues of sufficient size can become Rocks if you so choose, and any Rock that is not on track to be finished becomes an issue on the Issue List.
Weekly meetings track Rock progress and are where issues pertaining to the quarterly goals and work are discussed. Quarterly meetings are were Rocks are reviewed and new Rocks are set, and bigger issues are discussed. Annual meetings are where a new yearly plan is formed, and Rocks for the first Quarter are set.
This framework was made by taking best practice frameworks for running a company, and ruthlessly eliminating everything that is not of immediate value to an indie game studio. It’s “minimal effort, maximum result”, anchored strongly on the “minimal” part of that equation. This is the absolute minimum you can do, while still getting a lot of the benefits of a larger, more complex system.