Pants Optional Scaling a Virtual Company by Gabby Dizon Boomzap Entertainment Casual Connect Asia 2013

The Pants Optional Manifesto The traditional workplace is an offshoot of the factory model of the 19th and 20th centuries. You had to gather lots of people into a factory, who would work together to build widgets: cars, radios, TV sets, and service companies like telephone companies and power plants. So it made sense to gather everyone under one roof and carefully supervise what each was doing, so that the widget could get made. 1950s

The Pants Optional Manifesto Fast forward to the 21st century. We’ve had wonderful inventions like the personal computer, the Internet, and the smartphone, and how are we working? In almost exactly the same way. We’ve been bound by tradition, tethered to our desks by conventions that are centuries old. 2000s

TODAY Today, virtual companies are more commonplace and there are some companies pushing the envelope in a 100% remote work model. The challenge is in scaling a virtual company so that the model works while your company grows.

Who are We? 85 developers 7 countries 0 office And that is what Boomzap has done. Boomzap was founded in 2005 with one Norwegian guy in Singapore and an American guy in Seattle who moved to Japan, and hired their first employee from Malaysia. None of them were willing to move locations but they wanted to work with each other, so the company had to figure out the 100% virtual model from Day 1. Fast forward 8 years later, Boomzap now has 85 developers in 7 countries – we still have no office and never intend to have one.

Games We’ve Done 6 #1 games Last 12 games -Top 10 on BFG

Benefits 98% of all costs = labor The rest is just plane tickets, food and booze. We are able to draw from a larger talent pool that those that are clustered around any one geographic location. There are plenty of smart and talented game developers in Singapore alone, but we’re drawing our talent from all over Southeast Asia and even Eastern Europe. Very low attrition rate

How to Scale a Virtual Office? 2010 – 20 people 2011 – 45 people 2012 – 70 people 2013 – 85 people So OK. You’re convinced. Maybe you’re even a virtual company yourself, with a handful of people already hired. The big question is, how do you scale it as your company grows? A lot of people start virtual and then look for an office space to become a “real company”’. Others cannot comprehend how to manage people if they cannot look over their shoulder Well, it can be done. In the last 3 years alone we’ve grown from a 20-man to an 85-man company, working on as many as ten projects simultaneously. We’ve kept same principles when Boomzap was a 3-man company and taken it to 85 people, and we’re here to tell you how to make that work.

Company Culture is #1 For us, culture is defined as having everyone in the company having a shared purpose The company leaders set the tone and the define values that stand for the company The rest of the company follows IF they believe in those values Hardest part about culture = empowering the rest of the company If the culture is right, it scales with the company As we’ve grown organically, we’ve made sure that most recent hires were instilled with the Boomzap culture before hiring new ones so that the common sense of purpose can flow down straight from the company founders down to the latest hire. If you can do this, then you can grow without losing your sense of purpose and identity as a company. So what does Boomzap stand for? Boomzap stands for making great casual games in any platform while giving its team members the freedom and flexibility to live life however they choose. We’ve empowered everyone in Boomzap to choose where and how exactly they want to live, and no one else makes that decision for them. The only requirements we have are a computer and a decent internet connection.

Real-Time Interaction In a virtual environment, real-time feedback is key Company is split into teams using HipChat’s chat rooms as primary channel per team There are also chat rooms per discipline and across countries Everyone in the company gets to talk to each other

Constant Feedback Cycle We have core hours where people are expected to be available for discussion People are expected to be reachable for discussion about tasks and feedback within the day (10am-4pm SG time) People can do the actual work when they want

Boomzap’s 2 Iron Laws Daily Reports Daily Builds

Use the Right Tools

Meet Up, Have Fun! Building a connection in person helps us work together virtually Puts faces to names

Complainypants It’s only for small teams It will never work for us Real companies have offices So, what are the usual complaints of people with pants who insist on commuting to an office for up to four hours every day?

The Pants Optional Association

Final Words