On Tue, 2010-08-10 at 15:01 +0200, david blanchard wrote:
> right - in brief, we aim at a niche because it's less crowded that the
> mainstream, because it lets us do something new that we are
> comfortable with, but within this niche we try to broaden it by being
> casual enough to attract non hardcore players. Ok for you ?
Yes - except that we don't try to broaden a given niche (like trying to
make conquerclub more accessible for example), we try to find a niche
that is large enough to be interesting.
> It was a little easier for me locally to separate things but i
> understand the issue, I've merged them again in one file
Thanks!
> > 2) started, in the growth model (new tab),
> Couldn't see it for the above reason. Looks like a great
> initiative.
> now you should be able to see it :)
> I haven't added the formulas yet, first I'd like your feedback on the
> template - then I'll add the formulas to deduce the figures we're
> looking for.
Yup, now I can read - cool work : )
The comments:
* Should segment more: need to differentiate ads by source
(adwords, StumbleUpon, Facebook...)
* Need to be able to set the average price of ads per source of
traffic (the price on adwords won't be the same as on
StumbleUpon)
* Need to keep track of the source (adwords, facebook, PR, etc.)
to the end - we need to be able to compare the LTV to the COA
for each traffic source, to be able to make decisions on the
traffic sources that are actually beneficial
For the rest of the document; what's missing:
* Differentiation between senior/expert positions and managerial
positions. IMHO the managerial part could even be shared between
teams, as it doesn't require the same level of knowledge of the
topic - it's only mix of HR and project management.
* CM/CS leads (1 per 8 employees) & senior/expert position
* Senior management in the later years - handling a staff of 100
people with just leads would be tough ;p
* International teams (territory lead, translator...)
* Remote office package for employees (people work remotely, but
when we start having money we need to make sure they have the
right tools - and it's actually a legal requirement in some
countries): computer, internet connexion/etc. (+per job
specifics, such as scanner for graphists, etc.)
* Network administrator
* Recruitment budgets
Other comments:
* Would be easier to read if raises where included in salaries
(currently hard to tell what's going on, since it's all
aggregated)
* The salary increase looks a bit optimistic - which makes me
think it would be good to add a disclaimer, telling that this is
not what will likely happen, and that we don't promise anything
that's in there.
* Values for visitors from ads/PR/marketing/revshare are outdated
(it shows more players than we currently have)
> What are the numbers you need from the game every week to be
> able to feed the spreadsheets and have them work everything
> out?
>
> If you have a precise list of the things that you will need,
> we can start specifying development that would ensure you can
> access those numbers any time.
> Maybe the easiest way is if you have a look at the 'actual_figures'
> tab in the file. All the figures that are not in red are according to
> me the ones we need from the game.
Ok - I'll let you have a look at the list of comments, since there are
some (like increased segmentation) that will likely increase the number
of variables to watch, and I'll start to list the things we need to do
to get those numbers.
> But I have a small doubt : we already have somewhere else a budget for
> training that I think is interesting to help employees/contributors
> reach personal objectives related to work. Don't you think that
> employees also need a financial bonus that they use for whatever they
> want (it can be related to development but it's up to them) ? I
> understand the logic of not focusing on the financial part, but I
> still think that if our salaries are not very high (average of market
> but not higher) it's useful for people to have a complementary incom
> if they meet their objectives, nope ?
Well, you remember this video about incentives for tasks that require to
think? The results shows that we actually perform less well when we are
for a reward. It matches a number of articles I've read in the past (see
for example that one from HBR:
http://fiveandone.wikispaces.com/file/view/Why+Incentive+Plans+Cannot
+Work.pdf ).
By paying an average salary and not providing monetary bonuses, we may
not be able to attract some of the industry "stars" or seniors, but the
people who will stick with the project will be the ones who are
genuinely interested in the project. Also, it will push us to be very
good on finding other ways, good ways, to keep people interested in
their job - like responsibility growth and development.
It even makes me think this "development bonus" could be automatic, or
at least partially automatic - if you do a job that is good enough to
warrant stay within the company, you're entitled to the development
program, no matter what. Those who take the chance will have a lot to
learn and room to grow - the others will likely get bored anyway, and
end up leaving the project.
> By the way, I see that you compare COA and ARPU, shouldn't we compare
> COA rather with LTV ? Though LTV is not a perfect figure because it
> does not reflect the variety of behaviours, it's the only one I have
> in mind that we can compare to ARPU... ?
Yes, you're right - I meant lifetime value.
> * About the travel expenses budget - what did you count
> in there?
> Is it to bring Vlad (and any other developer) to Paris,
> or to
> travel to Canada?
> It's just a provision of 500/month right now, nothing specific because
> apart from Canada, I don't know yet what the needs will be.
I think I'd rather pay for this with our own money (we can always put it
on "compte courant" to get it back later on if we can), and use the
budget to pay for Vlad coming to Paris for one week. Would be very
helpful to get to know each other face to face. What do you think?
> * You need to ramp up the numbers with hosting - better
> to end up
> with a budget excess there than not having the money to
> correctly host the players
> ok I kept the assumption of one server for first year, but assumed
> 150/month
ok. Just keep in mind that this cost could suddenly rise if the traffic
were to increase - that's a rich people issue so we don't need to plan
too much on this, but we need to keep enough cash to be able to spend a
few KE if we were suddenly attracting everyone's attention.
Xavier.
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