GDC 2025 Session Viewer

People are often put in charge of projects because they mastered a core discipline like art or game design, but leadership is its own skill. People are complicated, and when people are working in a group to do something highly complex and novel, like make a video game, the people-complication puzzle expands exponentially. Project and people leaders can often feel at a loss to understand why their team isn't collaborating effectively or why a project seems stuck in an endless churn loop. In this talk, I will provide three "mindset shifts" that I have seen work time and again at multiple companies to increase team velocity and drive collaborative creativity. These mindset shifts have been derived from my extensive personal experience, reading, and leadership training.

Takeaway

Attendees will take away:
- Three frameworks they can immediately apply towards improving the performance / output of their team.
- Actionable insights for developing their skills as a project or people leader.
- A list of recommended resources for further learning

Intended Audience

This talk is for you if you:
- Lead a studio
- Are a people manager for a team of any size
- Are a project leader, producer, or project manager
- Aspire to be any of the above in the future