We sat down with Project Coordinator Elena-Raluca Matei, who has been working at the studio for over four years now, to learn more about her daily work and her role in our games – such as being part of the team at the studio working on Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Mobile, a project led by Ubisoft Montreal.
From development testing to project coordination
As project coordinators contribute to the development process on multiple fronts, they have ample opportunities to bring their valuable insights to the project. Diverse backgrounds are certainly a benefit in providing unique perspectives or expertise – before moving to her current role, Elena worked in development testing at the studio. This experience has helped her drive effective project coordination and better understand different disciplines and roles within game development.
“In my opinion, probably the most crucial part of project coordination is to manage the availability of people. People have vacations and are busy with different things. I use a timeline I’ve built to follow how the projects develop and who is working with what, to keep track of the advancement of the game projects”, Elena says.
Collaboration and effective communication are essential in project management. Elena says this applies especially to meetings – and knowing when one is not needed.
“We used to have daily meetings, but at some point, I realized that a daily stand-up thread in Teams works better for our team and is often more effective. We do have face-to-face meetings on top of those of course, and we use messages and chats a lot in general”, she explains. “And grabbing a coffee or a snack together when the team is at the studio is valuable too.”
“My own specialty is sending gifs when I need someone’s attention – they are, at least in my opinion, fun and easier to notice”, Elena laughs.
Collaboration, communication, and (positive) challenges all the way
Smooth communication makes handling risks easier during development. At the studio, we aspire to foster a culture of psychological safety and teamwork, where issues are openly shared and fixing them is seen as a collective challenge. Elena sees this very concretely in her work.
“It is much better to know about issues as soon as possible before small problems possibly grow into big problems. If any issues arise, I flag them to the producer of the project. Then we discuss together and find the best possible solution”, Elena explains.
Coming together as a team like this – also when things can get tricky – is something Elena appreciates a lot in her work.
“I am lucky to have great teammates, who raise problems to me automatically, and then we can find the answers together”, she says.
Elena also says that her previous experience in development testing has helped her in project coordination. The fact that she has experience in different roles from before helps her to step into other people’s shoes. An additional bonus is that, if needed, she can still occasionally help colleagues in other roles.
“I have helped with development testing a few times, even after moving into project coordination. It is fun to work on different things and for me, it keeps things fresh”, Elena says.
“I have been very grateful working at Ubisoft, since I’ve received the needed support, courses, and certificates to move between positions. In general, I feel that the culture at Ubisoft recommends people try something new. Then we try to accommodate changes so that everyone can work in a role where they feel happy and content – and challenged in a positive way, too”, she says.
Thank you, Elena, for sharing your thoughts with us!
Article written by Ilari Hauhia