Staff Spotlight: Project Management

Our interviewee this time is Nik Muhammad from the Project Management Team!

He's been with Bandai Namco Studios Malaysia since its founding and today, we'll be interviewing him on his professional work style.

About the Job        

What do you do here at BANDAI NAMCO Studios Malaysia?

I’m in charge of the scheduling and backend portions of various projects.

Although our projects here at BANDAI NAMCO Studios Malaysia mainly focus on producing art assets, the Project Managers focus on backend work, administration, schedules, various different aspects of management.

Since the projects mainly focus on art, the artists have to focus on creating said art. However, if they’re preoccupied with administrative work, then they can’t focus on making art. That’s why we at the PM section take over and handle all these things so that the artists can focus on what they do best: Making art.

What difficulties are there in your work?

Just as how a shabby bridge is unreliable, one must be a reliable bridge between both parties or else you won’t be able to become a Project Manager.?

What are your happiest moments?

Since we have various projects, there will always be problems that occur, right? When these problems happen, everyone, not just the Project Managers, comes together to figure out how to solve them, like who do we talk to regarding the issue we’re facing, or how should we solve the issue. I feel satisfied when our clients come to us with a problem and I’m able to connect them to the right person and help adjust various things to solve their problems.

I’m not saying that I want problems to occur, though. It’s more like I feel a sense of accomplishment when I’m able to solve a natural-occurring problem.

Tell us what career development is there as a Project Manager.

There are Junior and Middle positions for Project Managers, but you take on more responsibilities when you become a Senior Project Manager. And when you become a lead, you’ll be put in charge of projects and you’ll also be able to manage a small team of Junior Project Managers under you.

Although your responsibilities grow heavier as your position goes higher, the rewards for doing so increase as well, so I do want the Project Managers to step up.

About Game        

What are your favourite games?

AAA Open World Games. I love single player games with story elements and am hooked on Ghost of Tsushima. Besides that, I play PS4 games as well as PC games. I can’t play much due to being very busy these days, but I gamed quite a lot 2-3 years ago.

The first game console I ever owned was the NES when I was a kid. After that, I had the PS1 when I finished primary school and the PS2 after that. The PS3 came out when I was studying in Japan. I played on the PlayStation quite a lot.

You’re working in a Game Development Studio. Do you have any thoughts about that?

I never thought I’d see my own name in the credits of a game. Even so, being able to see my own name in a game gives me a sense of accomplishment.

I’d say my thoughts would be “I’m also working on the game along with the artists.”

About Bandai Namco Studios Malaysia        

Why did you decide to join BANDAI NAMCO Studios Malaysia?

Truth be told, I knew that BANDAI NAMCO would create a branch company here in Malaysia. I saw the news and it was always stuck in a corner of my mind, so when the chance came, I went “Now’s the time!”. I worked in a recruitment agency previously and I got the information about BANDAI NAMCO Studios Malaysia from a colleague. I went, “I want to apply.” and went through the interview. I decided pretty quickly because I didn’t want to let the chance slip away.

Did you have any concerns about working in a Japanese company?

For Japanese companies, a lot of things run on a Japanese mindset, don’t they? Even so, it’s difficult to work with such a mindset even in Malaysia.

Everyone shared a similar mindset when I was studying in Japan so there weren’t any problems, but I was concerned about how it would turn out trying to introduce a Japanese method of doing things to the Malaysian mindset.

But in reality, when I started working here I found that the company respects the Malaysian mindset.

What makes you say so?

There’s always this image with Japanese companies that the work hours are long, right? The whole “Work late into the night.” thing. However, there’s no such thing in BANDAI NAMCO Studios Malaysia. Well, it does happen when necessary, but it doesn’t happen all the time. Some people do choose to work overtime, but the company doesn’t have a vibe that says “Let’s all work overtime together!”

What are the good points about BANDAI NAMCO Studios Malaysia?

I think one of the best parts about BANDAI NAMCO Studios Malaysia is the flexibility. Continuing from what I mentioned earlier, the work hours are fixed, but if you have to settle some errands and will be late by an hour, the managers will understand if you tell them in advance. You will be working one hour later than usual, but that level of flexibility is an option.

Also, if there’s anything you need for your work, the company will prepare it for you if you ask for it. Us Project Managers need to handle a lot of communication, so when we told upper management, “We want better headsets.”, they bought them for us. It’s the same for software as well. If there are any necessary software and it’s within the budget to do so, the company will purchase them for the staff.

Do you have any memorable events throughout your time here?

The business trip to Japan. I feel like Project Managers have a lot of trips to Japan because they’re involved in various projects. In fact, I went to Japan 3 times in 2019. I studied in Japan during my university years, so it felt a little nostalgic.

In Japan and University        

What did you study at the university in Japan?

I studied electronic engineering at Hachioji and Muroran.

Engineering isn’t really related to your current job, does it?

You might think that’s the case, but the things I learned in university can also be applied to my work as a Project Manager. I’m not talking about the science parts, but the logical thinking. You need to calculate, estimate, and analyse. There are a lot of cases whereas a Project Manager, you have to analyse the situation and give out instructions. That’s something I’ve done when I was studying engineering. I’m aiming to deliver good quality work utilizing what I’ve learned in university.

Why didn’t you become an Engineer?

After I finished my studies in Japan and went back to Malaysia, I didn’t really want to become an engineer so I went back to school in Malaysia. This time, I spent 2 years at a Sound Engineering course learning media and film. After finishing my studies again, I worked at an audio-related company. I basically went to live events and did the setup for the sound systems. It was pretty rough and I did it for 2 to 3 years, but it wasn’t very profitable. It was then that I thought of looking for a different job and entered a recruiting agency.

I’ve also worked at beautician companies, cosmetic development companies, and then marketing companies before I arrived at BANDAI NAMCO Studios Malaysia.

Here, it feels like “I’ve finally found where I belong.”

COVID-19 TIME        

Has the COVID-19 situation impacted your work in any way?

I wasn’t able to go out much during the Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia. Because of that, I wasn’t able to move my body much, leading me to gain 10kg. The lack of exercise is a bad thing, so I’m thinking of exercising again. While I wasn’t really affected mentally, working from home did feel impossible to me at first. Still, I can do a lot of things working from home now.

How do you stay motivated working from home?

By not having to worry about the daily commute to the office. It’s seriously a pain, plus it’s hot here in Malaysia. There’s also the commuting time. I usually finish work at 7.30 pm and go home, but the commute back is extremely tiring. However, in the case of working from home, I can immediately log off and play with my kids as soon as I’ve finished work, which is really great.

About the Team        

What are some appealing points about your team?

The biggest appeal is that everyone can speak Japanese. We have a team of fluent Japanese speakers. Because of that, you can brush up your Japanese skills even further by joining this team. There are many people who speak Japanese here in Malaysia, but there aren’t many who are fluent enough to work at a Japanese company. I’d say about 1% make the cut, which is very little. My team is full of members who have N1 on the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. On top of that, they’re not just good at a writing test, they’re good at speaking too.

They also need to stand in as interpreters when there are no interpreters available for meetings, so they’re definitely highly capable. If there’s any case of misinformation, there’ll be a lot of problems, such as telling the artist the wrong thing by mistake, leading them to create the wrong art asset. If that happens, that’s a lot of time lost.

Even so, humans aren’t perfect, right? It’s not like Mr. A will definitely understand what Mr. B is saying. That’s already difficult between Japanese speakers, but when English gets added to the mix, that’s where the Project Manager comes in. There might be a bit lost in translation, but that has to be reduced to the lowest possible amount. We work on the mindset that our interpretations cannot be any less accurate than 90%.

Have there ever been problems occurring from miscommunication?

Many times. Furthermore, we catch wind of many of these problems after they happen. For example, a misinterpretation of our client’s feedback or the like. Because of that, it took a lot of time to fix it since we had to check and find out where the misunderstanding occurred.

What are some things to keep in mind for communicating?

Our counterparts in Japan don’t understand English, so you don’t have someone from that side that can check what’s being said is correct. On top of that, there are also people who aren’t good at communicating.

If you translate what those people say directly, the team on our side definitely wouldn’t understand what they mean. That’s why we don’t just translate what they say but rather, we interpret the message and filter it. This is a job that requires a lot of brainpower.

Is everyone on the team good at communicating?

That’s a difficult question to answer. There are a lot of people on the team who are good at it. While everyone starts off with a lack of confidence in themselves, they slowly gain experience and become better. For example, the Project Manager is always the one running the meeting, but this is an important factor. Moderating the meeting is very difficult and not something that can be done by a person who isn’t good at communicating or lacks confidence. For Junior and Middle Project Managers, they can be forgiven for not being good at it, but that’s where the Senior Project Managers train them to have more confidence and become better at communicating.

So is it a job where you handle a lot of communication and meet a lot of people?

You can say that. I didn’t know anyone at all when I became a Project Manager, but now I know over 50 people. The fact that I’ve worked with some big names also became a source of confidence, allowing me to moderate meetings even better.

What kind of people would you like to work with?

People who take the initiative. People who don’t wait for orders but are able to act on their own. For example, I’m not talking about people who can report every single problem and come up with solutions or people who wait for advice, I’m talking about people who can report on those problems and share their own thoughts on the matter. You need to work flexibly in this job because there are all sorts of problems. Maybe solution A will work for case A, but it won’t work in the case of project B, and such. I’d like to work with people who understand that it’s a different case every time and find that fun.

Any last comments for those reading?

Games are about having fun, right? I find it a lot of fun being able to get involved with producing art and games. When I first entered the Games Industry, there were a lot of things I didn’t know, and there were a lot of difficult things like technical terms and such. However, the fun for me is being able to learn all those things.