Why Riot loves entrepreneurs

A few weeks ago I talked about what makes Riot a Great Place to Work for Rioters. Today I want to focus on some of the ways life experiences become abilities and skills that we look for and hire here at Riot. Being part of the high-stakes world of video gaming takes a ton of innovation to keep being on the forefront and creating awesome, resonant experiences for our players. This requires a blend of skills which, when put together, may sound a bit counterintuitive but for some special reasons, this mix really works at Riot.

First, let’s talk about entrepreneurship. Many Rioters are former or current business owners/partners and have dedicated countless hours, energy and brainpower to create something new. Even when some of these startup experiences have ultimately failed, former owners or employees who bet on a project benefit greatly from their experience and are able to develop a psychological resilience to embrace mistakes as learning opportunities. Being a former startup with many of those traits, but now considered large enough to capitalize on its size, Riot has recruited multiple creative, hands-on, free spirits who would rather be their own boss if they didn’t work for Riot. Why does this work? Because Rioters are often encouraged to conceive new projects, put new ideas into motion and invest time into initiatives where they can add the most value. An example of this is a company event called Thunderdome in which Rioters gather to work on some new project that has to be shipped within only a couple of days.

Another key feature has to do with being a 10xer. The term 10xer has its origin on Frederick Brooks' book The Mythical Man-Month, which states that the best programmers are ten times more productive than the worst programmers, and having Engineering as one of its strong pillars, it was no surprise that the term was strongly adopted at Riot. When recruiting and interviewing for Riot, I look for people who have certain traits and manage to deal with life and work challenges on a very specific way: they may only be a single person, but it feels like there is ten or more of them! This omnipresence (not to be mistaken by micromanagement) is one of the traits of a 10xer: a Rioter has to be able to shape direction, guide and build products and solutions that will eventually function without them. That usually means working with partners, vendors or a network of support resources that can get the day-to-day work done; it’s about allocating time and energy on strategy and high-level tactics, while overseeing execution and delivery. When a Rioter avoids focusing on operational work, a lot of time can be dedicated to conjuring up more awesome products and managing the people and processes needed to make them a reality. The second trait I interview for is resources management, particularly in situations of pressure or when the actual resources are limited or non-existent. Growing up in Brazil, I remember the old expression “producing milk out of stones” which basically meant being resourceful. The phrase was usually used to refer to a woman (sometimes a family spearhead) who would have to work outside the home, while also taking care of the household and raising kids with limited money and time. The same applies here: in moments of crisis, how has this person dealt with the lack of resources? There is a wide gap between applied creativity and resignation, where the former hands down beats the latter. The third evidence I look into is the ability to learn from previous situations, and apply these learnings to varying and progressively challenging scenarios. . Whenever a candidate shows that he or she learned from a past mistake and applied that in a similar situation, I consider that experience. However, when faced with a completely new problem, when I see a candidate gathering various pieces of learnings from different past experiences and bringing them together to solve something completely new while doing it for the first time, that is great evidence of Learning Agility, a scientifically proven concept based on a lot of research currently owned by Lominger?. 

When we mix a strong entrepreneurial background and a 10xer mentality, that’s where the conflict can arise: an entrepreneur accustomed to a start-up environment has to do a little bit of everything: from day to day task, to grabbing late-night pizzas for the team, or mopping the floor. A 10xer, as described above, makes a point of spending time on more creativity-based, sometimes introspective and often strategic high-level tasks. How does one reconcile these seemingly contrasting attributes? The key is understanding that while they may know necessarily mix together well, they’re able to coexist. Entrepreneurship brings a sense of accountability which makes people responsible for Riot’s outcomes as if it was their own endeavor. When this flows positively, it generates passion, commitment and a true belief in being a part of something meaningful and valuable to people. On the other hand, the 10xer mentality fashions all that passion and commitment into graceful execution: it is about working smartly, having the bird’s-eye view and managing one’s own business effectively – if one can consider his job at Riot as one’s business.

I personally really like the model. When I joined Riot back in March of last year, there was some basic Talent (HR) infrastructure in place, but many unexplored opportunities. It was almost like getting a blank canvas to draw on, which posed various tempting options: I could design and build it my own way – it would be completed exactly as I envisioned for every single detail, but that would take a lot of my time at the cost of failing to meet other needs. Also, I could have drawn great motivation from focusing on the frontline and taking care of all the execution – it would still mirror what I originally imagined, but I realized I would only be doing it for the pride of my profession and my art, not because it was the best for the Rioters, and consequently, for our players. So I decided to let go and be more inclusive. It meant opening the doors to various new business partners, changing vendors and products, designing a few quick wins on my own, and gathering external help for most of what I did in the last 18 months. The results: most of the products related to Talent work independently, were designed by people who had many ideas and experiences, and were able to guarantee flawless execution, while my role was managing the process as it took shape, making sure it was still aligned with our strategic goals. It may look a bit different than my original vision, but the results delivered through effective collaboration are far more beautiful than I could’ve imagined on my own.

Riot is a great place for one to try out new ideas and dedicate time to what drives one’s own passion; still today many Rioters have their own personal projects outside the company which help them grow and be connected to what matters to them. By thinking like an owner, letting go and building together, I believe Riot will keep on doing great things for players.

If this way of thinking resonates with you, and are up for the challenge, we are always recruiting.