It’s no secret. A lot of companies over-hired during Covid, and the costs are coming back to bite them. In fact, in the growing climate of weak financials leading to widespread layoffs, the risk to your team of being ineffective or inefficient is serious. Even dire. Axes are falling all over.

Even if you’re one of the so-called “lucky ones” who doesn’t get laid off, what it means is you and what’s left of your team have to pick up the work from the “unlucky ones” and do it all AS WELL AS your own work. There was never a more important time to be highly buttoned-down and efficient.

That’s where the Game Dev PMO can help.

It can help you solve the 9 killer mistakes I mentioned earlier:

(1) Failing to Vet and Green Light Ideas – you absolutely must align new ideas with your strategic objectives, or the work you’re doing will fail to add enough value. This exposes you to risk.

(2) Failing to Prioritize and Manage Initiatives – doing the highest-value work first is the only way to ensure your team’s roadmap is always seen as essential. If you don’t do this, you’re taking a big chance.

(3) Failing to Navigate Change with Confidence – things shift a lot in the dynamic world of game dev, and you must have a Change Control function that lets you adapt to more-valuable changes and reject less-valuable ones. If you don’t, you’re asking for trouble.

(4) Failing to Execute Flawlessly – when times are tight, there are no do-overs. One strike and you’re out. An Execution Framework such as a stage/gate or Scaled Agile model gives you a way to manage carefully. It’s not something to take lightly.

(5) Failing to Optimize Game Dev Methodologies – gone are the days the company can be accommodating with “pure Agile” dogma. Now you absolutely must embrace the right hybrid blend of Agile and Waterfall to meet the needs of the business, while keeping the team engaged.

(6) Failing to Manage Operations and Support Seamlessly – it’s often the same set of people who need to support live operations as well as build the next release of the product. If you haven’t set up an Operations and Support model properly, you’ll kill the dev team’s productivity. That’s a disaster.

(7) Failing to Structure Your Org Roles Properly – sometimes org structure can be taken for granted, but roles and responsibilities always matter. If you get these even a little bit wrong, work slips between the cracks, and eventually heads roll. Make sure your org is airtight.

(8) Failing to Allocate Resources Efficiently – let’s face it, resources are scarce just now. Money is tight, headcount is dwindling. The days of massive hiring are over. You need a mechanism to ensure the critical needs are met. It’s the only way to stay in business and stay employed.

(9) Failing to Follow an Efficient Operating Model – it’s cliché to say “do more with less” – and yet, that’s exactly what’s expected of leaders across the board. Having a clear and efficient cadence and plan for how you operate across your organization is the only way to keep your sanity and produce results.

The Game Dev PMO course is the ticket to addressing these 9 critical mistakes, and to gaining an operating system for your game dev projects now and into the future. You will experience the freedom to focus on strategic goals, supported by a set of lightweight routines handling the background tasks.

In addition to solving the burning problems of the day, this is your path to becoming part of a high-performing team, where “A” players thrive and drive the success of strategic initiatives.

Even if your organization cannot afford to send you to this course at this time, please scroll down and download the FREE Game Dev PMO Blueprint. It will at least help you approach each of the 9 areas properly and give you some valuable tips on how to operate efficiently. There has never been a more important time to be buttoned-down.