Interview

Speaker Spotlight: SYBO's Astrid Lamhauge on creating a culture of high-performance

"If we want long-term success and longevity, we need to become better bosses and better at creating and cultivating great company cultures"

Speaker Spotlight: SYBO's Astrid Lamhauge on creating a culture of high-performance

Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019 will take place on January 21st to 22nd. To give you a taste of what to expect, we'll regularly be publishing interviews with the speakers at the show.

For more details on PGC London and to book a ticket, head to the website here.

In today's Speaker Spotlight we're talking to Sybo Games senior games producer Astrid Lamhauge ahead of her talk on how to rapidly grow a high-performance culture.

While studying for a master's degree from the IT-University of Copenhagen, she specialised in adapting Scrum for game development, which is where her passion for high-performance strategies ignited.

Since then she has fine-tuned her approach while working with companies around the globe including Gameloft, LEGO, Egmont and CO’RO in Canada, Saudi Arabia, Spain and Scandinavia.

PocketGamer.Biz: Why did you want to work in the games industry?

Astrid Lamhauge: I have always been a gamer but never really interested in making them until, by a fluke, I took a university elective in game design and unexpectedly, in the most literal sense, fell head over heels in love with project managing games.

I work in the Games industry because I want to contribute to making it a better industry for the people in it as I believe that if we are happy and fulfilled while making the games that is something that ultimately will lead to greater games for our players.

What advice would you give to anyone looking to get into the industry?

1. Treat everyone you meet with respect and kindness, even your most obnoxious co-student who you would vote most likely never to succeed might one day be the guy who is reviewing your case at your dream job.

2. Don't bother with aiming for easy entry jobs first. Go straight for the job you want. Focus on the skill you are uniquely talented and passionate about.

Even if people say that is not a "starter-job," you are better at that skill, and thus your chances are higher at breaking through with that.

What are your thoughts on the industry in the last 12 months?

The main thing I have thought about is that with what we are seeing with the consolidations of the industry, the closures of well-known studios and the outcry for unions and better working conditions means that it is no longer sufficient to make games that employees and players can be "passionate" about.

SYBO's Subway Surfers is the most downloaded game of all time on Google Play

If we want long-term success and longevity, we need to become better bosses and better at creating and cultivating great company cultures.

What major trends do you predict for the next 12 months?

Besides more focus on culture and working conditions, I think that at least in the Mobile industry we are going to talk more about performance marketing than ever before.

All the big mobile studios have been doing performance marketing for years, and while they do not talk much about it, it is as obvious a need to them as it is that gravity exists.

However small and medium-sized companies are going to have to get on-board as well and how are they going to find the funds for that?

How has the games industry changed from when you first started?

Well in many, many, many ways but most significantly for me is the relationship the industry has with my craft, producing.

When I first started in the industry, I spent an enormous amount of time justifying why we needed producers and project management at all!

However, in the last few years, HR-people always tell me about how impossible it is to hire the right producer because it is such an important role on a team.

Which part of Pocket Gamer Connects London are you looking forward to most and why?

The Talks & Cocktails. The best part of any conference for me is where you get to hear and connect what other people in your field are doing and getting inspired by how they are trying to solve their challenges as well as some vigorous debate on the craft.