6/8/2020 Gamasutra - King's Sabrina Carmona offers practical tips to get more women leaders in games

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practical tips to get more
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August 6, 2020 | By Alex Wawro

PROGRAMMING King executive producer Sabrina Carmona gave a August 6, 2020 | By Alex Wawro
notable talk at GDC Summer today about the need
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ART for more women leaders in games, why more diverse
leadership teams are key to building a more
More: Console/PC, Smartphone/Tablet, Indie,
AUDIO successful and inclusive studio, and what we can do Business/Marketing
to get there.
DESIGN
“I’m not here to tell you to hire more women, or to
hire diverse people; it’s 2020, we should have
PRODUCTION
learned that by now,” she said. “I’m here to
encourage you to have more diversity, and
BIZ/MARKETING
specifically women, in leadership positions.”

Latest Jobs Carmona pointed out some relevant data, noting that women typically account for less than 5 percent of
View All RSS C-suite or leadership roles in companies across the U.S. and Europe. She also cited the 2020 UKIE Games
Industry Census’ finding that women make up 28 percent of the U.K. video game industry, and just an
August 6, 2020 estimated 20 percent of the global game industry.

Klang Games GmbH

Her core point was that women have been underrepresented in games leadership and the industry at
AI Engineer (f/m/d)
large for decades, and that we’re well past the point at which companies should be thinking about just
Futureplay
hiring more women. We need to be hiring a diverse array of people and proactively investing in them to
Senior Game Animator
raise the odds they move up to leadership roles, instead of staying at the lower rungs or departing
Insomniac Games completely due to neglect.
Character TD

Insomniac Games Carmona backed up her call for a more diverse game industry with a business case: companies with more
Engine Support diverse leadership teams are more broadly successful, and she herself has found having a more diverse
Specialist
team makes her a better leader.
Insomniac Games
Senior Gameplay
Diverse teams perform better
Programmer

Insomniac Games “Companies that have diverse leadership are 15 percent more likely to outperform [the industry
Lead Gameplay average],” Carmona said, citing results of a recent McKinsey & Company study. “If you add ethnic
Programmer diversity, that number goes up to 35 percent.”

She went on to explain that she currently oversees about 40 people working on a game that has millions
Latest Blogs of daily active players. She has to make lots of decisions every week; she tries to get it right every time,
View All Post RSS “but the reality is that my job is to make the best decision possible.

August 6, 2020
How big is your game's
Discord? (Not this big!)
“To make the best decision possible I need as much information and context as I can get,” she continued.
“And to make sure I’ve covered that, I need diversity. I need different opinions. I need people that think
differently than me.”

The Value Trap of Free

Carmona pointed to King as an example of how companies can meaningfully invest in diversifying their
to Play Design
leadership teams, though she noted that King also still has a long way to go to reach gender parity among
Samsung bringing Xbox its own leaders.
to its smartphones
strengthens Microsoft’s
cloud gaming ambitions
She shared some data she’d gathered on her own, noting that 37 percent of King’s leadership (i.e. folks at
director level or above) are women; roughly 61 women leaders to 164 men.
How that game sold on
Steam, using the 'NB
number'

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Gamasutra - King's Sabrina Carmona offers practical tips to get more women leaders in games
“It’s quite different [than most game companies] and of course there are ways to improve, but it’s a big
step,” she said, noting King had hit its goal of 40 percent of 2019 hires being women and hoped to
achieve 50 percent in 2020.

“If you are in a leadership role and you are responsible for building teams like me, you have to play your
Press Releases part in this,” Carmona continued. “Because you actually have the power to look at different places and
August 6, 2020 strive to have more women in senior roles.”

Games Press
Farm-life RPG Fantasy
Farming: Orange Season
...
Farm-life RPG Fantasy
Farming: Orange Season
begr�...
El RPG de vida en la
granja Fantasy
Farming:...
You can make a significant difference below the senior level, too. Carmona recommends teams give
women more opportunities to lead meetings if they have an interest. In addition to directly seeking out
gender imbalances at senior levels and addressing them, she suggests game studios invest in industry
meetups that encourage women to pursue their interest in game development and introduce them to
women in senior roles.
You can also set up (or encourage your staff to set up) networking events like lunches for women in senior
roles, where they can share their experiences with fellow attendees and field questions about how they
got to where they are.

Le jeu de rôle et de Invest in training and retaining diverse leaders

simulation de ferme
Fantasy... And of course, you can and should be investing in leadership training programs for women. Carmona
specifically recommends training programs that don’t just focus on public speaking, but instead provide
Fantasy Farming:
Orange women with training and tutoring to help them learn strategies for solving problems at the senior level
Season, l'RPG sulla and achieving their own career goals.
vita...
Face time with leaders at your company is also a key resource. Carmona recounted how significant it was
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that King president Humam Sakhnini sat down (via video chat) with all the women in King’s London studio
earlier this year for a freeform hour-long Q&A. Carmona said it took just two weeks and an email to
About organize, and the result was a team that felt they better understood what everyone was doing, where
Editor-In-Chief: they were headed, and why.
Kris Graft

Editor: “The fact that the president sat with them, it shows he’s serious about it,” said Carmona. “If you’re a
Alex Wawro leader, don’t forget to devote time to sit with everyone.”
News Editor:
Alissa McAloon Don't find a good culture fit; find a good culture add
Contributors: Most importantly, focus on hiring people that don’t just fit in with your studio culture but actually add to
Chris Kerr
it. Carmona says too often in the game industry we hire based on experience in games, when we should
Bryant Francis
be prioritizing hiring based on competency. Look outside of the game industry when you're hiring,
Katherine Cross
Carmona says; you'll likely discover a more diverse pool of candidates who have all the skills you're
looking for and a fresh perspective on your business.
Contact Gamasutra

Report a Problem “You should look for someone to add to your team, to add to your culture; you shouldn’t look for someone
that just fits,” said Carmona. “My advice is to look for someone that adds to your team as well. That
Submit News brings something that no one has, or that has a different point of view, or a different background.”

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