Our team members have vast amount of expertise from various topics and fields, which is why we came up with our peer-learning initiative, the ShareLynx Sessions, where our team members get together weekly to share their knowledge and learn from one another.
The sessions are open for everyone at our studio and the topics vary from mobile to HD projects. At the core of our sessions is to share the best practices, tools and systems, our team members’ success stories, case examples, failed experiences and faced challenges that can be learned from.
The #ShareLynx sessions exceeded all expectations
Our Talent Development Specialist, Johanna Pätsi, who runs the program shares that there’s a lot of hunger within the studio to learn from their peers from other teams and disciplines. Some sessions have reached about a third of our studio members to tune in. Our Project Coordinator and Graduate Emil Dewald has participated in almost all of the sessions:
“It’s amazing to hear about my colleagues’ expertise and their experiences. I can use their knowledge to avoid the same mistakes or use the same learning and tips in our current project.”
First, the sessions were supposed to take place once a month, but their popularity exceeded everyone’s expectations: the topics and presenters started pouring in, and so we’re currently hosting the sessions on a weekly basis.
Development Quality Control Lead Alexandru Rosu notes that the sessions are a good way to get to know your colleagues, and that it’s important to be aware of what’s happening in other projects:
“It’s important to participate in the sessions since they provide information about topics that are relevant for all projects and important for the company, like live operations, sunsetting a game, and how those procedures happen.”
Improving skills and developing in your career
Apart from our presenters gain valuable experience in public speaking, the sharing sessions provide new perspectives on one’s own work and spark discussions with colleagues.
“I like to challenge myself and improve my presenting skills to a level where I can be confident, and that people can gain value from. I got some great feedback from my peers and a lot of follow-up discussions. It was rewarding for me and I was very happy to provide value to others through my presentation,” our Technical Art Director Antti Veräjänkorva, who held a session this fall, shares.
Our Senior Business Intelligence Analyst Kimmo Hirvonen held a presentation to the RedLynx team last fall on what our Business Intelligence team is working on and how they can help our projects:
“We have a relatively big studio [150+] and there’s always room for transparency and communication around what we’re doing. These sharing sessions help understand what other people do and respect their work,”
Kimmo comments, and adds: “They also show how much variety we have in this company, what kind of expertise we have and who you can turn to when you need help in a specific topic.”
You can also look at our sharing sessions as a career development tool: showcasing your expertise, activity and the fact that you want to be a part of dev the studio can have a big impact when you want to progress in your career.
Future development: collaboration with Ubisoft studios worldwide
There are already great testimonies to learning from other studios, such as the one by our Associate Producer Tiina Mäkelä, who spent her second Graduate year at the Ubisoft HQ in Paris. She recently shared her experiences about what we can learn from life at other studios:
“Collaborating with other studios really brings visibility to how different teams, projects and the whole Ubisoft ecosystem work. We have a lot to learn and give to other studios: post-mortems are always amazing and it’s important to hear about any challenges certain studios have had and how they overcame them so that we can avoid and learn from them.”
The initiative gained so much popularity during the fall that it will be developed further by including other Ubisoft studios.
“Collaborations around the globe brings more versatile opportunities for our team members to learn from other projects and teams about things that we haven’t done here and vice versa.”
Johanna shares and continues: “We’re somewhat pioneers in this initiative and are looking to start collaboration with other studios to improve the sharing culture within the larger organization.”