初創團隊最重要的是什么

by Yan Cui

崔燕

我從一家出色的初創公司工作中學到的最重要的教訓 (The most important lessons I learned from working at an amazing startup)

I recently left Space Ape Games after a won-der-ful year. I learnt a lot, and worked on some chal-leng-ing tech-ni-cal prob-lems.

美好的一年之后，我最近離開了Space Ape Games 。我學到了很多東西，并從事一些具有挑戰性的技術問題。

Here are seven lessons that I learned from one of the most well-run companies I have encountered in my 13 year career.

這是我從13年職業生涯中遇到的最運營良好的公司之一中學到的七個教訓。

定義您想要的文化，并組織自己進行優化以實現該文化 (Define what culture you want, and organize yourself to optimize towards achieving that culture)

Lots of com-pa-nies talk about how great their cul-ture is, but few talk about what their cul-ture actually is. Worse yet, I sus-pect most end up with a cul-ture they don’t want, because the cul-ture grew organ-i-cal-ly and with-out guid-ance.

許多公司都在談論他們的文化多么偉大，但很少有人談論他們的文化實際上是什么 。更糟糕的是，我懷疑大多數人最終會擁有他們不想要的文化，因為這種文化是有機增長的，沒有指導。

To this day, the Net-flix cul-ture deck from 2009 is still the one of the best things you can read about cul-ture.

時至今日，2009年以來的Netflix文化平臺仍然是您可以閱讀的有關文化的最佳內容之一。

Real com-pa-ny val-ues are the behav-iors and skills that we par-tic-u-lar-ly val-ue in fel-low employ-ees.

真正的公司價值是我們特別重視員工的行為和技能。

— Reed Hast-ings

—里德·黑斯廷斯

Be clear about the culture you want to build from the start. These are the characteristics and skills that we value in each other at Space Ape:

從一開始就明確要建立的文化。這些是我們在Space Ape中彼此珍視的特征和技能：

Pas-sion-ate: you have a pas-sion for games, and you want to build games that are fun and engag-ing.

激情：你對游戲的熱情，并且要構建游戲的樂趣和吸引力。

Cre-ative: you are not afraid to stray off the beat-en path and try some-thing new. You accept the risks that come with cre-ativ-i-ty. You won’t let fail-ures stop you from suc-ceed-ing.

創意：您不怕迷路，嘗試新事物。您接受創造力帶來的風險。您不會讓失敗阻止您成功。

Judge-ment: you make smart bets. You bal-ance the risks of cre-ativ-i-ty with method-i-cal analy-sis of the poten-tial rewards to make smart bets.

判斷：您下注明智。您可以通過對可能進行的明智獎勵進行有條不紊的分析來平衡創造風險。

Depend-able: you are depend-able and trust-wor-thy. We believe in small, autonomous teams. For this to work, we need to be able to depend on every indi-vid-ual in the team.

值得信賴：您值得信賴。我們相信小型自治團隊。為此，我們需要能夠依賴團隊中的每個人。

Focus: when required, you can put aside per-son-al projects and focus on delivering the best game pos-si-ble.

專注：在需要時，您可以擱置個人項目，專注于提供最佳游戲。

Mas-tery: you are a mas-ter of your craft. You want to become the best ver-sion of your-self and are always look-ing for ways to improve.

- ：您是手藝高超的人您想成為自己最好的人，并且一直在尋找改善的方法。

Col-lab-o-ra-tive: you work well with oth-ers. You are will-ing to make sac-ri-fices and com-pro-mis-es for the greater good of the com-pa-ny. Game mak-ing is an inher-ent-ly cre-ative and col-lab-o-ra-tive process. We need peo-ple that can thrive in a col-lab-o-ra-tive envi-ron-ment.

合作：你與他人相處融洽。您愿意為公司的更大利益做出犧牲和妥協。游戲制作是一個固有的創新和協作過程。我們需要能夠在協作環境中蓬勃發展的人員。

Inclu-sive: you wel-come oth-ers for who they are. You treat oth-ers equal-ly and fair-ly, the same way that you expect to be treat-ed.

包容性：您歡迎其他人的身份。您將平等，公平地對待他人，就像您期望得到的對待一樣。

Reit-er-ate this vision regularly. We find that if it is not reiterated at least once every couple of months, then it starts to slip through the collective consciousness.

定期重新 確立這一 愿景。 我們發現，如果沒有每隔幾個月至少重申一次，那么它就會開始漏掉集體意識。

Make sure new employ-ees are imbued with your vision. And remind employees of their duty to main-tain your culture.

確保新員工充滿您的遠見。并提醒員工他們有責任維護您的文化。

文化由您雇用和解雇的人生死 (Culture lives and dies by the people you hire and fire)

This shared under-stand-ing of cul-ture needs to filter through to every hir-ing deci-sion.

對文化的這種共同理解需要過濾到每個招聘決定中。

“Cul-ture fit” is often used to enforce exist-ing bias-es, especially when said culture is nev-er defined up front to begin with. Fortunately, this has nev-er been the case in any of the hir-ing com-mit-tees I have sat on. When-ev-er “cul-ture fit” is raised as a con-cern, you must give clear exam-ples from your inter-ac-tion with the inter-vie-wee.

“ 文化契合度”通常用于加強現有的偏見，尤其是在從未從頭開始定義所述文化時。幸運的是，在我任職的任何一個招聘委員會中，從來沒有這樣的情況。每當提出“文化適應性”問題時，您必須從與受訪者的互動中給出清晰的例子。

At the same time, you shouldn’t hire some-one who might be detri-men-tal to your cul-ture — not even when you are des-per-ate for anoth-er pair of hands on deck!

同時，您不應該雇用可能對您的文化有害的人-即使當您迫切需要另一副手時也不要！

The cost of a bad hire to your cul-ture is too great.

對您的文化而言，糟糕的聘用成本太高了。

The founders also act as the van-guards for your cul-ture. They watch from afar, but they’re nev-er afraid to step in when they see the dan-ger signs. If a long time employ-ee starts to show signs of self-enti-tle-ment, then expect a gen-tle reminder about the company’s com-mit-ment to inclu-sion and fairness.

創始人還充當您文化的先鋒。他們從遠處注視，但是當他們看到危險信號時，他們從不害怕介入。如果長期工作的員工開始表現出應享的權利，那么請期待有關公司對包容性和公平性承諾的溫柔提醒。

Even when you have built a great culture, you can’t afford to take it for granted. It’s the duty of everyone involved to keep that culture strong.

即使您已經建立了良好的文化，您也無法將其視為理所當然。 維護這種文化根深蒂固是每個參與者的責任 。

人是您最重要的產品 (People are your most important product)

This is true for most com-pa-nies, which is why it should be a no-brain-er to invest in the peo-ple and help them grow.

對于大多數公司而言，這都是正確的，這就是為什么對人才進行投資并幫助他們成長應該是不費吹灰之力的原因。

Offer train-ing bud-gets to every-one, and pro-vide man-agers with man-age-ment coach-es. The results will be well worth it.

向所有人提供培訓預算，并為經理提供管理教練。結果將是值得的。

創始人需要公開，清晰且經常地傳達公司愿景 (Founders need to communicate the vision of the company openly, clearly, and frequently)

Avoid impres-sive-sound-ing but vague mis-sion state-ments. Vague goals that do not define clear, action-able tar-gets are hard to fol-low and apply. Collaboration suf-fers when peo-ple do not have a shared under-stand-ing of the com-pa-ny vision.

避免聽起來令人印象深刻但含糊其詞的任務陳述。無法定義和制定可行目標的模糊目標很難遵循和應用。協作患有當人們沒有公司愿景的共識。

Our founders reit-er-ate the com-pa-ny mis-sion at every quar-ter-ly com-pa-ny meet-ing. The rep-e-ti-tion has been impor-tant in rein-forc-ing the shared under-stand-ing of the goal. I recent-ly also saw Ryan Cald-beck, the CEO of Cir-cle-Up, say the same thing on Twit-ter.

我們的創始人在每個季度的公司會議上重申公司使命。重復已經在增強目標的共同理解很重要。我最近也看到了瑞恩Caldbeck，CircleUp的CEO，說在Twitter上同樣的事情。

Our mis-sion state-ment is “to build a top gross-ing mobile game by own-ing a genre.” Sim-ple, unglam-orous, but easy to under-stand.

我們的使命宣言是“通過擁有一種流派來打造最暢銷的手機游戲。” 簡單，簡單，但易于理解。

對利益沖突誠實 (Be honest about conflict of interest)

Man-agers usu-al-ly have the best inten-tions when they set out per-son-al objectives for their charges. Every-one gets a set of objec-tives that align with the company’s goal. Where is the con-flict of inter-est?

經理制定收費目標時通常會有最好的意圖。每個人都有一套符合公司目標的目標。利益沖突在哪里？

Things seldom work out as you expect, though. What usually hap-pens is that some projects will go more smooth-ly than oth-ers. At the same time, some projects deliv-er more val-ue to the com-pa-ny than oth-ers.

但是，很少有事情能像您期望的那樣進行。通常發生的情況是，某些項目會比其他項目更順利。同時，某些項目為公司帶來了比其他項目更多的價值。

Nod if this sce-nario sounds famil-iar.

如果這種情況聽起來很熟悉，則點點頭。

You’re work-ing on project X, and your end of year pay raise, bonus, and promotion hopes are all rid-ing on the suc-cess of project X.

您正在進行X項目，而您的年終加薪，獎金和晉升希望都取決于X項目的成功。

A col-league is work-ing on project Y, and he needs you to work on some-thing to unblock his project. Project Y is more valu-able to the com-pa-ny, but help-ing this col-league means los-ing progress on project X.

一位同事正在進行項目Y，他需要您進行一些工作才能解除他的項目。項目Y對公司來說更有價值，但是幫助這位同事意味著項目X上的進度會損失。

What do you do?

你是做什么？

Do you do the right thing by the com-pa-ny and help this col-league? In the process you might lose the pay raise, bonus, and pro-mo-tion that you have worked so hard for.

您在公司做正確的事，并幫助這位同事嗎？在此過程中，您可能會失去為之努力的加薪，獎金和晉升。

Or do you put his request in the back-log and focus on project X?

還是您將他的請求放在積壓中，并專注于項目X？

Hel-lo, con-flict of inter-est.

您好， 利益沖突。

If you think this only hap-pens in poor-ly-run com-pa-nies, then you’re wrong. Even Google is not immune to this con-flict of inter-est, as is evi-dent in Michael Lynch’s arti-cle on why he quit Google.

如果您認為這僅在經營不善的公司中發生，那您就錯了。邁克爾·林奇(Michael Lynch)關于他為何辭職谷歌的文章中也清楚地表明，即使是谷歌也不能幸免于這種利益沖突。

Team-work requires will-ing sac-ri-fice.

團隊協作需要愿意犧牲。

In foot-ball, a “team play-er” car-ries the con-no-ta-tion of being will-ing to sac-ri-fice themselves for the team. Be it risk-ing injury in a 50–50 chal-lenge, or pass-ing to a team-mate who’s more like-ly to score.

在足球比賽中，“團隊球員”的涵義是愿意為球隊犧牲自己。是在50–50的挑戰中冒受傷的危險，還是傳給更有可能得分的隊友。

How do you trans-late this to the work place? How do you encour-age peo-ple to make will-ing sac-ri-fices for the good of the com-pa-ny?

您如何將其翻譯到工作場所？您如何鼓勵人們為公司的利益做出自愿的犧牲？

You have to start by being hon-est about this con-flict of inter-est.

您必須首先誠實對待這種利益沖突。

Your employ-ees are not saints, they are flesh and blood with real world problems. What if they need the pay raise to start a fam-i-ly? And what’s wrong with want-i-ng career pro-gres-sion?

您的員工不是圣人，而是有現實世界問題的骨肉。如果他們需要加薪來組建家庭怎么辦？想要職業發展怎么了？

Employ-ees have every right to act in their best inter-est. It is your job as employ-er to cre-ate an envi-ron-ment where employ-ees are not penalized for mak-ing self-sac-ri-fice.

員工有權為自己的最大利益行事。作為雇主，您的工作是創造一個環境，使員工不因自立而受到懲罰。

You can do this in sev-er-al ways.

你可以做這有幾種方式。

The biggest, most effective way is to sep-a-rate per-son-al objec-tives and 360 reviews from performance and salary reviews.

最大的，最有效的方法是分離 的個人目標和績效與薪酬的評論360條評論 。

Per-son-al objec-tives are for your per-son-al devel-op-ment only. Your man-ag-er can help you decide what areas to improve on, but the final deci-sion is yours. You’re encour-aged, but not required, to set per-son-al objec-tives.

個人目標只是為了您的個人發展。您的經理可以幫助您確定需要改進的地方，但是最終的決定權是您自己決定的。我們鼓勵但不要求您設定個人目標。

360 reviews are also for you and you alone. You choose from whom you want feedback, and how to pro-ceed with the feed-back you receive.

360條評論也適合您和您一個人。您可以選擇要向誰反饋，以及如何進行收到的反饋。

The feed-back is anonymous, and only the man-ag-er of the review-er knows who delivered that feedback. This is main-ly to mit-i-gate any unnec-es-sary ten-sion from ill-considered feed-back.

反饋是匿名的，只有審閱者的經理知道誰提供了該反饋。這主要是為了減輕由于考慮不周到的反饋而引起的任何不必要的緊張。

Your man-ag-er and the founders are also there to help you process the feedback if you need their help.

如果您需要他們的幫助，您的經理和創始人也會在這里幫助您處理反饋。

Per-for-mance and salary reviews are based on what you actu-al-ly con-tributed, not some arbi-trary tar-gets that were set months ago.

績效和薪水評估基于您的實際貢獻，而不是幾個月前設定的一些任意目標。

For us, this unusu-al way of work-ing start-ed with a frank dis-cus-sion about this conflict of inter-est. It has been iter-at-ed upon over time and will con-tin-ue to evolve. It’s been such a fresh breath of air for me to work for a com-pa-ny that not only rec-og-nizes the prob-lem but active-ly seeks to tack-le it.

對于我們來說，這種不尋常的工作方式始于對這種利益沖突的坦率討論。隨著時間的流逝，它會不斷迭代，并將繼續發展。在一家不僅認識到問題而且積極尋求解決問題的公司工作的過程中，我感到非常新鮮。

將創造力與所有權相結合 (Marry creativity with ownership)

Cul-ti-vate cre-ativ-i-ty from the whole com-pa-ny using game jams and hackathons. But remember that cre-ativ-i-ty needs to be guid-ed, and hypotheses need to be test-ed.

使用游戲果醬和黑客松來培養整個公司的創造力。但是請記住， 創造力需要得到指導，假設需要進行檢驗。

We use a creative funnel to guide ideas from hypothesis to production.

我們使用一個創意漏斗來指導想法從假設到生產。

The game jams gen-er-ate ideas to feed the top of the funnel. Every-one can come up with ideas for new games. You have the own-er-ship and responsibility to pol-ish your idea and pitch it to the rest of the com-pa-ny.

游戲卡紙會產生想法，以吸引渠道的頂部。每個人都可以提出新游戲的想法。你有所有權和責任擦亮你的想法，并將其推銷給公司的其他部門。

Teams form organ-i-cal-ly around ideas that they’re excit-ed about and believe can be top-gross-ing. This is NOT a top-down deci-sion.

團隊圍繞他們興奮的想法并相信可能是最賺錢的想法有機地組成。 這不是自上而下的決定。

The founders are there to offer guid-ance and help with per-son-nel move-ment. Whilst your idea might be great, the founders can guide you on shap-ing the idea to fit your mis-sion.

創始人在那里為人員流動提供指導和幫助。盡管您的想法可能很棒，但是創始人可以指導您塑造想法以適合您的使命。

Is it eco-nom-i-cal-ly fea-si-ble to build?

建造在經濟上可行嗎？

What is the mar-ket com-pe-ti-tion like? Is the genre sat-u-rat-ed with high qual-i-ty offer-ings already? Does this genre have top gross-ing poten-tial?

市場競爭如何？ 該類型是否已經充滿了高質量的產品？ 這種流派是否有最賺錢的潛力？

Do we have the tech-ni-cal exper-tise to build it? If not, how dif-fi-cult is it to hire someone with that exper-tise?

我們是否具備構建它的技術專長？ 如果沒有，那么雇用具有這種專業知識的人有多困難？

The teams that form around an idea focus on pro-to-typ-ing and iter-at-ing on the idea. The idea becomes a playable game, and the rest of the com-pa-ny then plays and pro-vides feed-back.

圍繞一個想法形成的團隊專注于原型設計和迭代該想法。這個想法變成了一種可玩的游戲，然后公司的其他成員參與其中并提供反饋。

The team owns the idea, and is trust-ed with mak-ing the deci-sions to keep going or kill it if they no longer believe in it. Again, this is NOT a top-down deci-sion — the deci-sion is made within the team.

團隊擁有這個想法，并且如果他們不再相信它，則可以做出決定繼續下去或殺死它。同樣， 這不是自上而下的決定，而是在團隊內部做出的決定。

Which brings us to the next point.

這將我們帶到了下一點。

認識到創造力需要錯誤 (Recognize that creativity requires mistakes)

Cre-ativ-i-ty needs fail-ures to suc-ceed.

創新需要失敗才能成功。

Being cre-ative and exper-i-ment-ing with new ideas means tak-ing on risks. If you don’t risk, you will not win big — at least not with-out the mar-ket-ing bud-get and brand that goes with estab-lished franchises.

富有創造力和嘗試新想法意味著要承擔風險。如果您不冒險，那么您將不會贏大錢-至少要有沒有與既定特許經營相匹配的營銷預算和品牌。

To let teams take on risk, and to trust them to make the right deci-sion on the company’s behalf and kill a pro-to-type, is hard.

讓團隊承擔風險，并信任他們代表公司做出正確的決定并殺死原型是很難的。

For this to hap-pen, you need an envi-ron-ment where employ-ees are not penalized for mak-ing sacrifices.

為此，您需要一個不因犧牲員工而受到懲罰的環境 。

We do this by cre-at-ing a safe-ty net for jobs.

為此，我們建立了工作安全網 。

Your job is not tied to the pro-to-type. If a team decides to kill its idea, then the team mem-bers move into oth-er game teams, or they’ll stay togeth-er and pro-to-type anoth-er game idea.

您的工作與原型無關。如果某個團隊決定終止其想法，則該團隊成員將轉入其他游戲團隊，否則他們將團結在一起，制作另一個游戲想法的原型。

To prove this approach works beyond our scale, con-sid-er Super-cell and Clash Royale. The team behind Clash Royale was work-ing on anoth-er idea before they came up with that one. The idea test-ed well in beta, it had good reten-tion and mon-e-ti-za-tion stats. But it was not great, cer-tain-ly not on par with Clash of Clans.

為了證明這種方法的作品超出了我們的規模，考慮超級單體 ， 沖突皇家 。 Clash Royale背后的團隊在想出另一個主意之前正在研究另一個主意。這個想法在Beta版中測試良好，具有良好的保留率和獲利統計數據。但這并不好，當然不能與《部落沖突》相提并論。

The team made the deci-sion to kill the idea because they believed they could do bet-ter. So they took the learn-ings from the previous game, iter-at-ed on the ideas fur-ther, and they cre-at-ed Clash Royale.

該團隊決定終止這個主意，因為他們認為自己可以做得更好。因此，他們借鑒了先前游戲的經驗，進一步迭代了這些想法，并創建了Clash Royale 。

Rec-og-nize that peo-ple and their tal-ents are your great-est assets. Hire and keep great peo-ple rather than hiring for and keeping certain roles.

認識到人和他們的才華是您最大的財富。 聘用和留住優秀的人 ，而不是雇傭并保持一定的作用。

結論 (Conclusions)

So there you have it. Seven things that I learned from my time at Space Ape Games.

所以你有它。我在太空猿人游戲中學到的七件事。

What stood out most for me is that a company needs to have a clear identity — it needs to know who it wants to be, and it needs to orga-nize itself to become that com-pa-ny.

對我來說，最突出的是，一家公司需要有明確的身份-它需要知道自己想成為誰，并且需要組織自己成為該公司。

And while I love the ethos on small autonomous teams, and the flat hierarchy structure, it also has a downside: at this stage of my career, I am accus-tomed to hav-ing a wide range of respon-si-bil-i-ties, and I crave it.

而且，盡管我喜歡小型自治團隊的風氣和扁平的層次結構，但它也有一個缺點：在我職業生涯的這一階段，我習慣于承擔各種各樣的責任，并且我渴望這樣做。

As time went by, I felt that itch for more respon-si-bil-i-ty creep-ing back. When my old friend Bruno Tavares pitched me the idea of join-ing DAZN to work on all the great things they’re doing, it was hard to say no.

隨著時間的流逝，我感到渴望更多責任的渴望逐漸消失。當我的老朋友布魯諾·塔瓦雷斯 ( Bruno Tavares)向我提出要加入DAZN從事他們正在做的所有偉大工作的想法時，很難拒絕。

With a heavy heart, this is my farewell let-ter to Space Ape Games and the great peo-ple with-in. You guys are awesome! And I hope the lessons I’ve learned there help others as well.

懷著沉重的心情，這是我給太空猿游戲公司和其中的偉人的告別信。你們真棒！我希望我從那里學到的教訓也能對其他人有所幫助。