Learn from Leaders Podcast : Recent Episodes
Favro
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
In this episode, the Patric Palm & Benjamin Carcich dive into the challenges of game production, discussing leadership struggles, inefficiencies, and the need for better management practices that balance creativity with process.
(00:00) | Intro
(00:44) | Challenges within Games Production Today
The conversation moves to the broader challenges in game production, including leadership struggles, inefficiencies, and the need for better management practices that balance creativity with process.
(07:04) | Efficiency vs Effectiveness
Ben highlights the industry's tendency to prioritize efficiency over effectiveness, explaining that while efficiency is measurable, true effectiveness comes from meeting or exceeding goals, which often requires a different approach.
(11:49) | Aligning Incentive Structures
The duo explores the importance of aligning incentive structures to support the right behaviors and outcomes, emphasizing how incentives can drive both positive and negative outcomes within production teams.
(19:53) | Simple & Advanced Tools in Production
The episode wraps up with a discussion on tools in production, focusing on how simplicity in tools can enhance collaboration and creativity, while also recognizing the need for advanced functionalities that stay "under the hood" to avoid overwhelming teams.
(32:54) | Outro
Guest: Benjamin Carcich has spent the last few years helping leaders at studios of all sizes, and recently led the creation of a training for game producers called "Succeeding in Game Production: What You Aren't Taught". Before that, he spent almost a decade at Riot Games shipping champions, tools, maps, and various platform and backend systems, and ended up leading discipline efforts around hiring and the role of production while teaching agile fundamentals around the world. His first job after college was as a Combat Arms officer in the U.S. Army.
Host: Patric Palm – Favro ceo and founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, film, SaaS, AI, deep tech, and functional foods. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility.
Learn from Leaders podcast 🎙️ series focus on Tech & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best teams have overcome them.
Visit 👉 www.favro.com for a free trial or personalized demo of the worlds most modern collaborative management platform. Make work flow with Favro.
In this episode, Patric and Benjamin discuss the key challenges and lessons in game development leadership, focusing on the role of producers in driving both creativity and efficiency. The conversation covers:
00:00 - 11:47 | Being Thrown Through the Wall of Your Own Naiveté
Benjamin reflects on a pivotal moment in his career where political realities in a company led to his departure. This experience taught him the importance of maintaining self-worth independently of external validation.
11:47 - 24:52 | The Importance of Focus and Strategic Decision-Making
Benjamin emphasizes the value of prioritizing focus over multitasking, sharing how he learned to concentrate on one team to drive meaningful progress, rather than spreading himself too thin across multiple projects.
24:52 - 35:25 | The Role of a Producer in Articulating the Vision
Patric and Benjamin discuss the producer's role in helping articulate and communicate the creative vision. Benjamin stresses the importance of fostering alignment within teams through effective communication and iteration.
Guest: Benjamin Carcich has spent the last few years helping leaders at studios of all sizes, and recently led the creation of a training for game producers called "Succeeding in Game Production: What You Aren't Taught". Before that, he spent almost a decade at Riot Games shipping champions, tools, maps, and various platform and backend systems, and ended up leading discipline efforts around hiring and the role of production while teaching agile fundamentals around the world. His first job after college was as a Combat Arms officer in the U.S. Army.
Host: Patric Palm – Favro ceo and founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, film, SaaS, AI, deep tech, and functional foods. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility.
Learn from Leaders podcast 🎙️ series focus on Tech & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best teams have overcome them.
Visit 👉 www.favro.com for a free trial or personalized demo of the worlds most modern collaborative management platform. Make work flow with Favro.
Mark explores the challenges of leading and recruiting for distributed teams in the gaming industry.
He discusses the difficulty of assessing cultural fit through remote interviews, the need for self-driven team members, and the impact of remote work on leadership.
Mark also addresses broader industry issues like rising development costs, market saturation, and the evolving role of AI in game development. He emphasizes the importance of continuous improvement and adaptability in achieving success.
Guest: Mark Peterson has worked in games and IT since 2007. During his 15+ years, he has worked on projects for companies like T-Mobile, HP, Rovio, Porsche, and Lufthansa and co-founded three studios. From creating Top 10 games for the iOS and Android app stores to working on VR & AR titles as early as the first Occolus DevKit, he has been involved in all aspects of the industry. He has co-founded SPECTARIUM as a fully remote studio working with 35+ team members, with successful VC rounds led by Bitkraft. They are currently working on their co-op cross-platform Action RPG 'MYTHS'.
Host: Patric Palm – Favro ceo and founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, film, SaaS, AI, deep tech, and functional foods. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility.
Learn from Leaders podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, and practices.
John unpacks the intricacies of managing and collaborating in a remote-first work environment.
He shares tips on fostering trust, establishing clear expectations, and maintaining open communication as crucial elements for success.
John also explores collaborating with external partners in game development, highlighting how to achieve upfront alignment and establish clear communication channels.
Guest: John is a Senior Team Lead and Producer who has been in games since 2007 after joining Harmonix Music Systems. His career spans 17 years spent at Harmonix, Runic Games, teaching at Rochester Institute of Technology, and now at Unknown Worlds. He has worked on the Rock Band, Dance Central and Subnautica series of games, with experience on PC, console, mobile and VR. He aims to grow and empower individuals and teams, and leads with an attitude of tolerance and humor. He is a passionate supporter of growing the industry's next wave of diverse talent.
Host: Patric Palm – Favro ceo and founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, film, SaaS, AI, deep tech, and functional foods. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility.
Learn from Leaders podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, and practices.
Could Carl's approach to game design, emphasizing responsive AI and emergent technologies, be key to replicating the success of Helldivers 2?
Carl delves into the success factors behind Helldivers 2, dissecting its core appeal. He emphasizes the game's satisfying co-op gameplay and its tongue-in-cheek, satirical world that fosters a strong sense of community.
Carl highlights how the game's design encourages role-playing and a shared language among players, fueling a sense of belonging.
He also observes how this approach aligns with his work, which uses AI and emergent technologies to create dynamic in-game experiences that react to players.
Guest: Carl Kwoh is the Co-founder and CEO of Jam & Tea Studios, a new multiplayer game startup focused on building player connections. He’s experienced in tabletop, web, mobile, PC, and console games. Before Jam & Tea, Carl developed the product management discipline at Phoenix Lab as the VP of Products. In 2017, he founded Ghostly Bear Games after spending six years as Riot Games’ Head of Talent Operations and Systems. Carl is deeply passionate about social design in games, fostering team dynamics, and elevating disenfranchised voices within the gaming industry.
Host: Patric Palm – Favro ceo and founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, SaaS, AI, and deep tech. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility.
Learn from Leaders podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies have overcome them.
What are the insights regarding the game industry's talent cycles, remote work challenges, and the impact of layoffs on studios?
Jenny discusses historical trends in talent acquisition, the challenges larger studios face in embracing external talent, and the impact of COVID-19 on remote work acceptance.
During the talk, our guest covered how Game Boost faces remote contractors and the increasing trend of individuals wanting remote work flexibility. The discussion delves deeper into industry layoffs, attributing them to various factors, including studio closures, canceled projects, and potential cost-cutting strategies by larger companies.
Jenny provides excellent insights into the evolving dynamics of talent management and remote work in the game development industry.
Guest: Jenny’s career has been a journey of diverse experiences, from entrepreneurship in web development and home renovation to her pivotal role at Paradox Interactive, where she spent over six years as a Studio Manager, contributing significantly to the gaming industry. Her current venture at Game Boost Sweden as a Game Contractor Supplier reflects her dedication to fostering talent and matching the right expertise with projects that shine through in her work, reflecting her passion for driving success within the gaming ecosystem. Simultaneously, she fosters leadership qualities in her leadership role at GREAT LEADERS.
Host: Patric Palm – Favro ceo and founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, SaaS, AI, and deep tech. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility. Learn from Leaders podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies have overcome them.
Past, present, and future: what are the significant changes in marketing strategies in the gaming industry?
Matthew talks about the transformative journey of games marketing, a decade's shift from skepticism toward influencer culture to fostering authentic collaborations. The conversation delves into the widening divide between indie and AAA games due to faster marketing cycles, balancing creativity with the potential of AI to augment creative workflows rather than replace human input.
Listen and learn more about the crucial role of marketing in embodying a game's fundamental essence amidst the dynamic evolution of game development approaches.
Guest:As the founder and CEO of NoodleHaus, Matthew Stainner is responsible for the small army of writers, art directors, animators, editors, and artists required to light up screens around the world. Over the past 30 years, Matthew has consistently created entertaining visual content. His credits and awards span a vast array of games, marketing, and events. The brands that have benefitted from his contributions include some of the most successful video games and franchises in the world, like Call of Duty, World of Tanks, Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater, Assassin’s Creed, Rocket League, and Fortnite to name a few. His work has been an integral part of countless events and shows, from Comicon, to GamesCom, from LA Live to Liverpool he’s literally traveled the globe to produce the content our audiences love.
Host: Patric Palm – Favro ceo and founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, SaaS, AI, and deep tech. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility. Learn from Leaders podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies have overcome them.
Why does the games industry still have big issues in production management and what can be done about it?
Ben and Aaron discuss typical issues related to how game companies are managed today, specifically leadership in production.
They advocate for how a paradigm shift in leadership can help studios bring better games faster to the market at a lower cost.
Listen to learn more about how to embrace uncertainty, encourage a more adaptive, collaborative approach, and how producers can go from being stuck with task management to being facilitators of alignment.
The discussion also addresses why studios get stuck in old practices at a time when increased live services make the evolution of management more needed than ever.
This episode is truly great for both new and senior game industry leaders who want to take their production practices, team leadership, and studio management to the next level.
Guests:
Benjamin Carcich has spent the last few years helping leaders at studios of all sizes, and recently led the creation of training for game producers called "Succeeding in Game Production: What You Aren't Taught". Before that, he spent almost a decade at Riot Games shipping champions, tools, maps, and various platform and backend systems, and ended up leading discipline efforts around hiring and the role of production while teaching agile fundamentals around the world. His first job after college was as a Combat Arms officer in the U.S. Army.
Aaron Smith got his film degree in southern California and started doing production work, only to realize this wasn't his tribe. He joined a tiny company called "Riot Games" and worked his way from intern to director over a decade- shipping dozens of products small and large. Now, he's a Co-Founder of Building Better Games - a company focused on helping studios scale and ship unique products by instilling leadership and quality production practices. BBG also serves game leaders looking to build their game production skill set.
Building Better Games Newsletter: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/newsletter
Building Better Games Podcast: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/podcast
"Succeeding in Game Production: What You Aren't Taught" course link: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/succeeding-in-game-production
Guests:
Josiah Kiehl, with a background in software engineering, started his career at Oracle, focusing on business software, before transitioning to Riot Games. There, he played a crucial role in scaling the delivery of the viral game League of Legends to a global audience, working extensively on automation and infrastructure software. After a successful stint at Riot, Josiah briefly worked at Google on large-scale distributed systems before realizing his passion for game development once again, leading him to co-found Sprocket Games.
Andrew Woo, Head of Production at Sprocket Games, began as a software engineer in financial services at companies like Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse. Seeking a more fulfilling path, he transitioned to game development at Obsidian Entertainment, working on titles like Neverwinter Nights 2. After continuing at Riot Games, Andrew's experience as a C++ gameplay engineer and game producer brought him valuable insights into the industry. His decision to join Sprocket Games after 15 years at Riot was motivated by the exciting opportunity and innovative project presented by the studio.
Guest: Carl is a Leadership/Agile Development Expert, having decades of hands-on experience as an entrepreneur, manager & leaders across a diverse range of industries. He is also as one of the global SAFe Fellows an official contributor to the SAFe Framework and one of the key people behind the Release Train Engineer (RTE) certification course.litator. The founder of leadership & agile advisory firm We Are Movement and one of the people behind the sustainability firm Naturgruppen and the biodiversity foundation Rädda En Art.
Guest: Jon Lawrence has been in the games industry since 1998 after joining Bullfrog Productions. A career in games for 25 years spent at Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Natural Motion, Digit Games studios, and now at Tencent games. Have managed a mixture of internal and external projects on PC, Console, and mobile and worked on many successful titles, including Harry Potter, Formula 1, Need For Speed, and Crysis. Now part of the Nexus team based out of Liverpool and working with 5 second party studios, Inflexion, Sumo, Splash Damage, Sharkmob, and Tequila Works.
Guest: Alan McDairmant is Head of Studio Operations at Fuse Games, a former member of the Criterion studio leadership team, worked for EA for over 17 years as a leader on the Need For Speed games. He moved into leadership project management roles quickly and has always embraced a collaborative, servant leadership approach to working with teams to help enable people and projects achieve their goals.
Guest: Carl is a battle-scarred entrepreneur and investor who has seen many sides of the tech ecosystem. He runs Creandum’s San Francisco office and invests across consumer internet, and b2b software. Carl started his career in management consulting and went on to co-found the digital ad network AdProfit, bootstrapping the business into one of the leading digital channels for b2b advertising in the Nordics. Following this, he co-founded Wrapp, a consumer gifting app that became a portfolio company of Creandum, Greylock and Atomico, where Carl was responsible for scaling the company internationally across 18 markets.
Guest: Teis Mikkelsen is the CEO and Co-founder of Multiscription. He has a passion for the mobile games industry, and it shines through his 15 years of experience managing games and digital product development. Teis and his co-founder Martin got the idea for Multiscription from experiencing both sides of the subscription model: the problem and the solution side. They started the company in December of 2018, and it has seen tremendous growth ever since.
What will the future of management in the games industry look like? What is changing, and how it affects culture and management? Tune in to hear the thoughts of two inspiring industry leaders.Guest: For the past 18 years, Zoë Curnoe has held production positions at a range of companies that include working with artists in the Canadian Rocky Mountains at the Banff Centre, as well as working with smaller independent companies and large powerhouses, such as Riot Games and Electronic Arts. In 2021, she left her role as Production Director of the Story Campaign for the massively popular Gears of War franchise at The Coalition to found Timbre Games, where she took on the role of Studio Director.Guest: Kevin Johnson is a Game Producer with over 14 years of management experience and 3 years of design experience working on high-profile AAA console and PC titles as well as premium mobile titles.
What will the future of management in the games industry look like? What is changing, and how it affects culture and management? Tune in to hear the thoughts of two inspiring industry leaders.
Guest: For the past 18 years, Zoë Curnoe has held production positions at a range of companies that include working with artists in the Canadian Rocky Mountains at the Banff Centre, as well as working with smaller independent companies and large powerhouses, such as Riot Games and Electronic Arts. In 2021, she left her role as Production Director of the Story Campaign for the massively popular Gears of War franchise at The Coalition to found Timbre Games, where she took on the role of Studio Director.
Guest: Kevin Johnson is a Game Producer with over 14 years of management experience and 3 years of design experience working on high-profile AAA console and PC titles as well as premium mobile titles.
For Antti Sartanen, CEO of Return Entertainment, part of the charm is solving problems nobody has touched before. With that mindset, he’s stepping out to the gaming frontier and aims to make cloud-native gaming accessible. In this episode, Patric and Antti discussed the differences between cloud gaming and cloud-native gaming, the prospects of the latter, as well as democratizing gaming and handling uncertainty. Tune in to also hear their thoughts on Stadia's flop and Nordic companies’ key to success.
Game Production Leader Frank Fay stayed with us for another podcast episode, where we discussed the benefits of async work and building a remote team culture. Being forced to be “always online” and respond immediately to your distributed teams leads to undesired multitasking, decreased productivity, and increased stress, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Tune in to hear Frank’s take on meetings, daily standups, retrospectives, and involving executives. It’s all about being more effective at work without becoming inhumane and cutting off all connections.
In this episode, we look beyond game development and explore the ever-present issue of burnout with Frank Fay. Having worked in the video game industry for three decades, Frank understands the challenges of stress, crunch, and maintaining a work-life balance. “When someone has burnout, it’s already too late,” he says and shares his checklist of what employees and managers can do to avoid it.
In this episode, gaming industry executive and entrepreneur Brian Graham joined us to discuss best practices around game production. Having brought over 40 Game SKUs to market, he certainly knows the drill. He shares his tips on getting more productive, overcoming common frustrations, embracing failures, as well as managing investor expectations. "Make sure you're scheduling unscheduled time" and be ready for pivoting, says Brian referring to the fact that the gaming market is constantly changing. His industry insights will be inspiring for battle-tested and junior producers alike.
In this episode, Viktor Nyblom, CTO at Baby Journey and angel investor, talks about the current investment climate and the challenges startups face at each growth stage. He also shares his thoughts on what he looks for when choosing to invest in startups, especially in the B2B space. “I need to see that founders are enough of a 'hustler' to get something out in the world,” says Viktor.
If you're an entrepreneur or a startup founder, tune in to this episode to learn more about how to get investors' attention and what to watch out for when scaling your startup.
In this episode, we invited Hannah Meiton, Co-Founder & Partner at Ampli Ventures, to join us and share her insights both from an investor's and a team member's point of view. This time we talk about the trends in SaaS and what growing pains companies should be ready to face. Hannah also shares some good indicative metrics that she has found useful in her career and how to align objectives between the team and board members.
In this episode, we invited Christina Seelye, CEO of Zordix AB, as well as founder and CEO of video game publishers Maximum Games and Modus Games, and development team Modus Studios, to join us and share her views on changing teams' mindsets towards work and how to approach it with a "gamer's lens." If you're on a quest to find new ways to empower your team, tune in to the podcast!
Adrian is the co-founder and CEO of Black Forest Games, joined us to talk about team empowerment and how he discovered its best practices. “We’re on a journey now; we’re not there yet. But I would do this earlier next time.“
Ola Sars joined us for a great talk about his insights from the music-tech space. Ola shares how Soundtrack Your Brand helps customers do better business with their customers and why music is often undervalued.
Our guest talks about the learnings and failures in his career and the best tips on scaling your organization: "all teams need to own customer-based KPIs as well. When you get all engineering teams feeling like they’re part of driving actual revenue, rather than thinking they're just a coder, it's an amazing feeling."
Patrick LaBine joined us for the fifth episode of Learn from Leaders. He talked about how working in small, achievable increments of value helps drive productivity. "We keep the metrics very light. We try to be outcome-based," says Patrick.
Listen to the full episode and hear tips on how to challenge your team, engage with them and show the right kind of support.
Kasper has joined us to talk about the lessons he has learned when creating world-leading products. "You need to treat people the way they want to be treated, so you get the most out of them, " he says, mentioning that this perception has helped him when working in a team.
Kasper also discusses the importance of trust, creating a safe space, and working with passionate people. Listen to the full episode and don't forget to take notes!
John Elvesjö, Managing Partner at node.vc shares his tips on picking the right investors for your company: “I see it more as choosing a partner than choosing an investor.” John talks about why it’s important to share the agenda with your investors but to keep in mind that you’re still going to do most of the work yourself. Listen for more tips!
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, and practices.
In this episode of Learn from Leaders, Jenny Muhlwa has joined us to share her experience on how working remotely has changed her day-to-day life.
As people are now working in many different ways, from many different places, it is essential to realize that there's no right way to do your job. We should use that to our advantage. How can introverts and extroverts work well together in the same space? How can you get the most out of working from home? Listen to the full podcast and find out.
For the first episode of season 3 we invited Markus Halttunen to join us and tell us more about his experience of building a successful culture.
“The team members are the experts, so the decisions should be made by them, and not the managers. The processes should never get in the way of actually getting things done,” says Markus. Markus shares why having junior people on the team is beneficial for everyone, and how Small Giant Games ensure the values they have are reflected in the organization.
During the sixteenth episode of Season 2, Mark Kyle joins Patric Palm to discuss events, and how to organize them better, whether it's a company get-together or a global film festival. Mark talks about why digitalization is not only about being able to be more flexible and work from home but to increase productivity.
Throughout his career, Mark has brought agility and creativity to an impressive range of industries, from game development to ski resort maintenance to film festivals, and has led small and large teams. Mark has held former executive-level and consulting roles at EA Sports, LucasArts, and Vail Resorts and is a process efficiency guru currently utilizing Favro on a variety of projects to influence positive global change and climate science awareness.
In this episode, Alexey talks about tackling de-learning challenges, the importance of collaboration, and implementing new methods and tools in an organization. “The trick is to try to implement agility as a culture in your company. So when you create the processes, you derive the processes from the culture, they’re agile by foundation, because you started by creating an agile culture,” says Alexey. Listen to the full podcast to learn the secrets of improving a company's workflow.
During this episode, Patric Palm together with Martin and Mind discuss the idea behind RHoK, a hackathon that helps non-profit organizations. Both Martin and Mind were voted as Best Collaborators, and in this podcast, they talk about what it means to be a collaborative team player and how to achieve it. There’s often a tendency to rush too quickly into the how, when there’s often more work thinking about the why. Listen to the episode and find tips on how to create a more collaborative environment within your team to achieve better results.
During the thirteenth season 2 episode, Patric Palm together with Joe Nickolls share the secrets to building a company culture of fun while making fun customers’ experiences. Joe is committed to building Timbre into a new kind of studio for Vancouver, with a team of some of the best leaders in the industry. Timbre’s focus being diversity, inclusion, and equity for all.
Learn from Leaders is a 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series that focuses on SaaS & Game industry leaders, challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
During the twelfth Season 2 episode, Patric Palm together with Brian Graham discuss the do’s and don’ts of building a sustainable foundation for developing great games, and how things in production management have changed over the last 15 years. Brian has been in the gaming industry for over 20 years and shares his experience of using agile methods and creating team autonomy.
Learn from Leaders is a 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series that focuses on SaaS & Game industry leaders, challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
During the eleventh Season 2 episode, Patric Palm interviews Tommy Palm, CEO and founder of Resolution Games, and discusses the fundamentals of scaling a VC-backed studio from 2 to 10 games in development. Listen to the tough realizations Tommy has come to while working in the industry and how it has helped him pick the right talent for his teams for maximum growth.
Learn from Leaders is a 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series that focuses on SaaS & Game industry leaders, challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
During the tenth Season 2 episode, Patric Palm interviews Martina Johannesson, Co-Founder of Random Hacks of Kindness CPH, and Jarūnė Preikšaitė, Chairwoman at Women Go Tech and Chief Marketing Officer at Favro.
With a passion for inclusion in tech, Martina Johannesson has been an active contributor to the Nordic tech startup scene since the age of 16. Commonly seen moderating discussions on access to venture capital for female entrepreneurs, her most recent testament to her passion for impact-tech is the organization Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) Copenhagen. RHoK recently held their first hackathon weekend, addressing real digital problems of NGOs by applying local tech talent.
Jarūnė always wanted to try as many things as possible. Studying two subjects at university simultaneously, leading youth organization AIESEC Lithuania, doing an internship at a business consultancy company, etc. Jarūnė understood that communication is what unites and is the most exciting part for her. She founded and successfully led digital communication agency bigNow, was Head of Marketing at B2B SaaS startup Whatagraph, and now leads Favro Marketing operations. She has been a board member of Women Go Tech for 6 years, the first mentorship program for women wanting to succeed in the tech sector.
Learn from Leaders is a 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series that focuses on SaaS & Game industry leaders, challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
During the ninth Season 2 episode, Patric Palm interviews Ryan Snyder, Head of Production at Kongregate Studio.
Before joining Kongregate in the summer of 2021, he also held production and management positions at Iron Galaxy, Phosphor Games, and Disney - Wideload. Ryan has been in production and development for over 17 years, getting his start in audio engineering and TV production on the X-Games before moving fully into game development and production.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
During the eighth Season 2 episode, Patric Palm interviews Kevin Johnson, Director of Development at Double Fine Productions.
Kevin began his career in Production at Electronic Arts and has worked at Realtime Worlds, Pendulum Studios and Telltale Games. Process improvement has always been a strong motivator for him as well as dedication to enabling teams to become greater than the sum of their parts.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
During the seventh Season 2 episode, Patric Palm interviews Erik Werner, a Marketing professional with over 10 years of experience, working in the intersection of digital sales, marketing, and product development and leading agile teams in a wide variety of organizations and industries.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
During the sixth Season 2 episode, Patric Palm interviews Sam and Adam Coster, Co-Founding brothers at Butterscotch Shenanigans.
Adam's love for science carried him through a PhD in Cellular & Molecular Biology. Turns out it wasn't science he was into, but solving hard problems in general. Building a company from scratch in the highly-competitive and rapidly-changing games industry certainly fit that bill, and so Adam joined the team immediately after defending his dissertation. Adam creates all of the web technology that powers our games and studio, crunches numbers to figure out how the industry works, leads our business development efforts, and makes sure that the team has what it needs to make great games.
Sam always wanted to know how to do as many things as possible. This made early life frustrating since everyone was trying to force him to choose a career path. He participated with his brothers in a game jam (a weekend spent making a game from scratch) and they had such a blast that Sam said, "HEY, what if we just... did this? For a job?" True to form, he wasn't worried that none of them knew how to make games. And so, Butterscotch was born. At the time, co-founding brother Seth was a better programmer, so Sam said, "I guess I'll be the artist," took up a stylus for the first time in his life, and then spent every waking moment making art. Our classic Bscotch art style is fully Sam's doing. Sam was selected for the Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2017.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
Guest: Adrian Fiechter, Head of IT at Wolt.
During the fifth episode of Season 2, Patric Palm interviews Adrian Fiechter. This is a conversation about IT in a cloud-native fast-growing company, and its role to empower people working from anywhere across multiple time zones.
Adrian has more than 18 years of experience in various IT roles with the main focus to bring business and IT together to deliver efficiently more value.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
Guest: Johan Crona, Founder & Managing Partner at Cloud Capital.
During the fourth episode of Season 2, Patric Palm interviews Johan Crona and discusses the top trends in SaaS industry.
Johan is an entrepreneur with a background within software companies since 1999. Started and developed several bootstrapped and venture-funded companies, exited several of them. Founded and raised a seed fund in 2009 ("Första Västmanlandsfonden"). Started at Almi Invest 2010 and focused on early-stage B2B SaaS investments. Left Almi 2017 to start Cloud Capital, a private investment company, together with a few business friends. Since its inception, they have invested in 11 companies, ie, Scrive, Storykit, Kundo, Pinmeto, Kognity, &Frankly, Loop54. Some of them already exited.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
Guest: Zoë Curnoe, Studio Production Director (recently changed role to Studio Director) and Co-Founder at Timbre Games, Leadership and Executive Coach.
During the third episode of Season 2, Patric Palm interviews Zoë Curnoe, Studio Production Director and Co-Founder at Timbre Games, Leadership and Executive Coach.
For the past 18 years, Zoë has held production positions at a range of companies that have spanned working with artists in the Canadian Rocky Mountains at the Banff Centre, from smaller independent companies to large powerhouses such as Riot Games and Electronic Arts. In 2021 she left her role as Production Director of the Story Campaign for the massively popular Gears of War franchise at The Coalition to found Timbre Games where she has taken on the role of Studio Production Director.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
Guest: Jason Savopolos, a lead producer at Frost Giant Studios.
During the second episode of Season 2, Patric Palm interviews Jason Savopolos, a lead producer at Frost Giant Studios.
He began his career in game development in 2007 at Electronic Arts as a QA tester, working his way up the ranks of the quality assurance department until serving on the Command & Conquer franchise team as a development manager. After nearly six years with EA, he left the company to take on project management and production roles at other game studios, including a three-year stint as senior project manager on Creature Quest at VC Mobile Entertainment. In 2018, he joined Blizzard Entertainment, where he served as a senior producer on StarCraft II, Warcraft III: Reforged, and Hearthstone.
Host: Patric Palm - Favro ceo & founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, SaaS, AI, deep tech. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
Guest: Don Daglow, game designer and industry pioneer.
During the first Season 2 episode Patric Palm interviews Don Daglow, three-time Inc. 500™ CEO, a pioneering game designer, and 2008 Technical Emmy® Award recipient whose career spans the history of Silicon Valley. Teams have shipped over $1 billion in-game products under his leadership. He is the only executive in the history of the games industry who has held leadership and/or creative positions on every generation of video game consoles, from 1980 to the present day. In 2003 he received the CGE Award for "groundbreaking achievements that shaped the Video Game Industry." Together they explore talent development and career paths in the game industry.
Host: Patric Palm - Favro ceo & founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, SaaS, AI, deep tech. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
Guest: Mark Kyle
Mark Kyle has brought agility and creativity to an impressive range of industries, from game development to ski resort maintenance to events and film festivals. Mark has held former executive-level and consulting roles at EA Sports, LucasArts, and Vail Resorts, he is a process efficiency guru currently utilizing Favro on a variety of projects in the visual, performance, and musical arts to influence positive global change and climate science awareness.
During the episode we will cover:
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Challenges of leading creatives in small and large, remote or hybrid, organizations,
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Doing more with less,
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How to not mess up agility in large organizations,
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How to maintain team autonomy while aligning everyone towards the same goals,
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Leading creative work ranging from game development to organizing a film festival.
Host: Patric Palm - Favro ceo & founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, SaaS, AI, deep tech. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
Guests: Jérôme Franck-Sætervoll and Halldor Skattebo
During the episode we will cover:
Media companies need to adapt to survive and thrive. In addition, the Covid pandemic made organizations distributed by necessity, and now many companies are planning to go back, not to normal, but a new normal being a hybrid workplace. In this webinar, we discuss these challenges in detail and what adapting means in practice.
Host: Patric Palm - Favro ceo & founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, SaaS, AI, deep tech. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
Guest: Patrik von Bergen, Management Consultant at P. von Bergen AB
Patrik provide services focusing on implementing agile go to market methods, aligning business objectives and he helps organizations take control of their marketing technology stack. Tackling the ongoing change in B2B sales and marketing will prove to be increasingly important. To help, Patrik has developed a toolkit, combining 25 years of sales and marketing experience, in both start-ups and mature businesses, passion for agile work method and his never ending interest in martech.
During the episode we will cover:
In this episode, we'll explore the benefits of fully remote and distributed organizations. From startups to global enterprises, the world of work has changed, and many have realized that this is a change for the better. We'll also discuss the inherent challenges to remote first organizations based on real-world experiences and how some of the most forward-thinking companies have overcome them. As we enter a new normal, both processes and tools are more critical to business success than ever. With remote work done right, the advantages far outweigh the negatives. We'll show you a proven combination of powerful techniques and tools to ensure your organization continues to thrive.
Host: Patric Palm - Favro ceo & founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, SaaS, AI, deep tech. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
Guest: Daniel Tabar, President at Atomontage Inc.
Built and led game development teams distributed with members in ten countries on four continents, before co-founding Atomontage Inc. in 2017, where he manages product, charts strategy, raises funds, and wears many other hats.
During the episode we will cover:
In this webinar, we'll explore the benefits of fully remote and distributed organizations. From startups to global enterprises, the world of work has changed, and many have realized that this is a change for the better. We'll also discuss the inherent challenges to remote first organizations based on real-world experiences and how some of the most forward-thinking companies have overcome them. As we enter a new normal, both processes and tools are more critical to business success than ever. With remote work done right, the advantages far outweigh the negatives. We'll show you a proven combination of powerful techniques and tools to ensure your organization continues to thrive.
Host: Patric Palm - Favro ceo & founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, SaaS, AI, deep tech. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
Guest: Michael Verrette, Development Director @Unknown Worlds Entertainment.
Experienced Producer with over 16 years of game development experience from Iron Lore to Harmonix to Unknown Worlds.
During the episode we will cover:
We'll explore the benefits of a fully remote and distributed game studio. We'll also discuss the challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios in the world have overcome them. As we enter a new normal, both process and collaboration tools are more important than ever. With remote work done right, the advantages far outweigh the negatives. We'll show you a proven combination of powerful techniques and tools to ensure your studio continues to achieve the extraordinary.
Host: Patric Palm - Favro ceo & founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, SaaS, AI, deep tech. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
Guest: Carlos Sanchez, Principal Program Manager for Product Led Inclusivity, Xbox Gaming for Everyone @ Microsoft.
Executive Producer focused on building game impacting inclusivity. Co-lead of the Xbox Latinx community. Former production leader at Turn 10 Studios, Bungie, and EA. Passionate about bringing diversity, inclusion, and opportunities into the leadership levels of the games industry.
During the episode we will cover:
We'll explore the benefits of a fully remote and distributed game studio. We'll also discuss the challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios in the world have overcome them. As we enter a new normal, both process and collaboration tools are more important than ever. With remote work done right, the advantages far outweigh the negatives. We'll show you a proven combination of powerful techniques and tools to ensure your studio continues to achieve the extraordinary.
Host: Patric Palm - Favro ceo & founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, SaaS, AI, deep tech. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
Guest: Samuli Syvähuoko, an early pioneer of the Finnish game industry.
Samuli started his career in 1995 by co-founding Remedy Entertainment. Since then he has co-founded six other game studios (Fathammer, Recoil Games, Helsinki GameWorks, Armada Interactive, Lightheart Entertainment and Return Entertainment).In 2014, Samuli co-founded Sisu Game Ventures, an investment company focused on the Nordic game industry that has 51 portfolio companies.
During the episode we will cover:
We'll explore the benefits of a fully remote and distributed game studio. We'll also discuss the challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios in the world have overcome them. As we enter a new normal, both process and collaboration tools are more important than ever. With remote work done right, the advantages far outweigh the negatives. We'll show you a proven combination of powerful techniques and tools to ensure your studio continues to achieve the extraordinary.
Host: Patric Palm - Favro ceo & founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, SaaS, AI, deep tech. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
Guest: Matthew Ott, Development Director, Avatar: Pandora Rising.
During the episode we will cover:
We'll explore the benefits of a fully remote and distributed game studio. We'll also discuss the challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios in the world have overcome them. As we enter a new normal, both process and collaboration tools are more important than ever. With remote work done right, the advantages far outweigh the negatives. We'll show you a proven combination of powerful techniques and tools to ensure your studio continues to achieve the extraordinary.
Host: Patric Palm - Favro ceo & founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, SaaS, AI, deep tech. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
Guest: Alli Óttarsson, Video Games - Investor, Strategic Advisor, Consultant, and Mentor at A Ottarsson Consulting.
He has led large organizational changes to accelerate the delivery of two iconic video games - EVE Online at CCP, and League of Legends at Riot Games. Currently, he is investing in and advising video game startups.
During the episode we will cover:
We'll explore the benefits of a fully remote and distributed game studio. We'll also discuss the challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios in the world have overcome them. As we enter a new normal, both process and collaboration tools are more important than ever. With remote work done right, the advantages far outweigh the negatives. We'll show you a proven combination of powerful techniques and tools to ensure your studio continues to achieve the extraordinary.
Host: Patric Palm - Favro ceo & founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, SaaS, AI, deep tech. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
Guest: Sigurlína Ingvarsdóttir, Production at Bonfire Studios.
One of the world’s top Game Producers, Sigurlína Ingvarsdóttir has been at the forefront of AAA game development for 15 years, from Senior Producer at CCP, makers of EVE Online, to Senior Producer of both Star Wars Battlefront and FIFA at Electronic Arts, to her current role at Bonfire Studios.
During the episode we will cover:
We'll explore the benefits of a fully remote and distributed game studio. We'll also discuss the challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios in the world have overcome them. As we enter a new normal, both process and collaboration tools are more important than ever. With remote work done right, the advantages far outweigh the negatives. We'll show you a proven combination of powerful techniques and tools to ensure your studio continues to achieve the extraordinary.
Host: Patric Palm - Favro ceo & founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, SaaS, AI, deep tech. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
Guest: Kyle Anderson, Operations Manager at Garage Beer Co.
The former head of Lifecycle Marketing for FoxNext Games, and current Operations Manager for Garage Beer Co. An ardent supporter of efficiency, open communication, and cutting out the middle man.
During the episode we will cover:
We'll explore the benefits of a fully remote and distributed game studio. We'll also discuss the challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios in the world have overcome them. As we enter a new normal, both process and collaboration tools are more important than ever. With remote work done right, the advantages far outweigh the negatives. We'll show you a proven combination of powerful techniques and tools to ensure your studio continues to achieve the extraordinary.
Host: Patric Palm - Favro ceo & founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, SaaS, AI, deep tech. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.
Guest: Niko LaTorre, Pipeline Manager at Mindshow.
She enjoys building processes that empower teams to own their creative decisions. A former game producer at thatgamecompany on Sky: Children of the Light and Riot Games in R&D and on League of Legends' Champions, she recently joined Mindshow to make 3D animation more Agile.
During the episode we will cover:
The benefits of a fully remote and distributed game studio. We'll also discuss the challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios in the world have overcome them. As we enter a new normal, both process and collaboration tools are more critical than ever. With remote work done right, the advantages far outweigh the negatives. We'll show you a proven combination of powerful techniques and tools to ensure your studio continues to achieve the extraordinary.
Host: Patric Palm - Favro ceo & founder. Serial entrepreneur and tech investor. Mostly games, SaaS, AI, deep tech. Passionate about hyper-performing teams and business agility.
Learn from Leaders 30 min Podcast 🎙️ series focus on SaaS & Game industry leaders. Challenges from real-world experiences and how some of the best studios and companies in the world have overcome them.
Visit 👉 https://favro.com and learn the best collaborative planning, business agility, working-from-anywhere, project management, culture & leadership, practices.