How Scopely shares knowledge across its teams

Employing more than 2,300 across a highly successful games portfolio, Scopely has had to build up a system of knowledge sharing within the company to ensure learnings don’t get lost. Or worse, that developers across the firm make the same, avoidable mistakes.

Speaking at Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco, Scopely president of games Steve Huff delved into the company’s ‘learning machine’ philosophy designed to support its teams across its portfolio. The firm’s titles include the likes of Monopoly Go, Stumble Guys, Star Trek Fleet Command and Marvel Strike, among others.

Huff explained how Scopely uses lessons and insights gained from each individual studio to help its teams refine gameplay, live service strategies and engagementment across its games.

“There’s a lot of things we’ve learned over the years that are applicable to all teams,” said Huff.

Leadership summits and meetings

He stated that teams at Scopely are able to prioritise their own roadmaps and invest in areas they deem appropriate. In his role, Huff sometimes steps in to point studios to other teams that have already done what they are working on, with lessons on how it worked out, or why it didn’t.

Huff used the example of one team doubling down on customer care, which he said yielded “massive results”. These learnings were shared with the rest of the company, helping improve overall player satisfaction across its portfolio, he claimed.

Another way Scopely aims to share knowledge throughout the firm is through learning sessions each month amongst GMs. It also hosts a summit for technical directors to talk through the most pressing issues they are trying to solve, while also generally encouraging knowledge sharing through Slack.

“That just facilitates a conversation amongst senior leadership,” he said.

Huff added, however, that while knowledge sharing is good, it doesn’t work unless there is a company culture interested in learning and sharing information.

“You can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.”