My team (iLifeTouch) is overworked, dead tired and not as productive as I would like them to be. We are taking a 3 day weekend but my worry is on Tuesday when they get back, we might quickly fall in to the same routine and the same symptoms will quickly set in again. (including bugs and mistakes) We have specialized in utility apps that are tedious and boring. Might have to throw in a really fun project just to keep the energy levels up. We have streamlined the business, meaning everyone (4 man team) has their specific tasks and that is all they do. At the end we pool the different elements together to complete the app. This has worked great for us so far but we want to start pushing the envelope of design a little bit further. The stress will increase and the idea is to figure out a way to handle the next six months more effectively. We have purchased a folding ping pong table , improved the kitchenette (stocked with food and drink) We are going to hire more staff to take off some of the pressure, we want to reduce the hours, take weekends off. Basically we are hoping to end up with the same results and efficiencies working 45 to 50 hour weeks. (Instead of living at work) So my question is what do you guys do when you feel burnt out and lines of code start to melt together? Any secrets? One nasty thing we have done in the past is to start a new project when we hit a brick wall while coding the current app. Not a great idea since we now have 15 apps that are 75 to 90% done and are taking forever to complete. One thing is for sure working as a team is 10 times better than being a solo artist.
hard to say. whoever is running the production should spoil the workers a bit. bring them some food, when they hit the (eventual) late-nights, make sure to let people out a bit early on friday, maybe drag them out to a bar (or strip club ) after work and buy them a couple of rounds Do what you can to keep morale up, and have meetings with your crew to keep them on the up-and-up about the realities of things, but trying to keep an eye on the positive. keep it light, if you're the boss then "BE the boss" but make sure you are making your employees feel appreciated. Try to drive home the point that if you can all make it through the rough start-up part, better projects (and more $) will be coming in. Spread it around a little to engender some good will. Movie nights are good one in a great while, get a nice comfy leather couch and a decent HDTV and put some consoles & games out to invite people to take a break and play with one another. You don't have to go too crazy spending a lot of money, but spend a little so they know you want them to work comfortably and build this thing up. There are definitely perks to working in a much smaller capacity (tiny teams, 1-4 people) as opposed to the office lifestyle. There's pros and cons in both cases. I've had some of the best experiences of my career in either case; but ultimately I want to be in charge, or at least work alongside people at the top level who share my passion and understanding of how/what/why/when.
Well, I haven't really developed all that much, but I have been overworked in different jobs a lot. I don't know how feasible it would be, but I always felt the least burned out when I could choose when I was working and when I wasn't. Sometimes the solution to some problem I was working out would hit me at midnight and it was great to be able to work then and then play video games during the next day. I've always felt that having set work schedules were a somewhat antiquated notion in the tech world, and that letting people make more of their own hours with an eye on deadlines was a better way to go. Working for myself now, I program 10 - 12 hours a day no problem since if I feel like I'm getting burnt, I can take an hour break to play video games or read the news.
I would focus on finishing as many of the apps as you can. Nothing picks up the motivation more than getting things finished. Also you learn do and don'ts for each project so doing them in parallel means you are missing some of the lessons learnt for the next project.
Thanks for the responses some good stuff to digest. One thing I forgot to mention is we have created a code library where we place stuff for future use. This has been a great resource and time saver. It actually has enabled us to build some smaller apps directly using these resources. One thing that is crucial to any team is how the team gets along as a group. The more employees you add to the mix the harder it gets to keep everyone happy.
A 3-day weekend sounds like the ticket. My group and I all have other full time jobs, we do the IOS thing in the afternoon and on weekends, meaning insanely long hours for us, with no extra pay for the time we put in. We force ourselves to take the occasional weekend off. And I mean a sitting on the couch, being useless and sleeping for 12 hours a night type of weekend off. You have to recharge. But when you recharge, you gotta mean it.
This is problem #1 from my perspective. It would be VERY demotivating if I had 15 projects on the go and none of them finished and in the App Store. Whoever is doing the project management at your company is doing a very poor job of it to allow this many projects to remain incomplete, especially on a 4-man team. I would get the entire team to focus on getting one of those 90% projects out the door in the next week or two. Try to do the necessary launch marketing too to increase the chances of it being successful. Then throw a little launch party for your team to celebrate their achievement. Do it again and again until you are down to 2-3 projects.
My team is spread all over the world. We do skype meetings and have a lot of way to communicate, but one thing I used to do for motivation and productivity boost is rent a cool house in the countryside for 15 days and gather everyone. We work from 9AM to 10Pm then have fun and play games. Tiring but the result after 15 days is crazy, like 1.5 month of work. But that's more for motivation and productivity than burnout... I read that when Double Fine was working hard finishing Brutal Legend, everyone was going crazy and Tim Schaffer had them all take a 2 week break creating crazy projects by team of 5 or 6. That gave birth to Costume Quest, Stackings etc. Personnally, I' usually burn myself in every project. Work too much, don't take enough breaks... And I'm in it right now so I'm a very bad advisor. Probably the thing is work less. Be reasonnable on the long time. A 3 days weekend when you are burned isn't enough. A month would be the minimum. 4 worked weekends a year should be the max. So all in all, finish some apps, take a good holiday break, and when starting something new: change you habits. Take your weekends.
Even working 45-50 hours every week is counterproductive as you get burned out. Longer hours don't make you productive as many hours are wasted making mistakes because you are too tired, and more hours spent fixing them. Working weekends should be the exception rather than the rule, and at least 1 week in 4 nobody is allowed to do any extra hours. Go home, have a life, arrive at work refreshed and enthusiastic. And think it terms of productivity being how many apps you release, not hours worked. So get those part uncompleted projects finished. The most likely reason you are hitting walls is because you are burnt out, solving that is the first issue.
That bit is the most important. It's harder to concentrate when you're tired. We all want to get things done and quickly, but taking breaks is also important. Sometime I find that solutions to problems sometimes come when you're thinking or doing something else. Passion and desire are great when working on a project, but you have to enjoy the process to get the most out of it and be truly fulfilled and energized by it. As well all know, it takes a lot of hard work to start off with .......... but who says it can't be fun as well.
Some good stuff I am on the same page as all of the comments. We are going to eat away at our unfinished apps ( really has been a nightmare for all of us) A lot of the 15 apps have already been submitted and rejected by Apple. So we have to actually re-build sections of the app to get them past the review process again. Trying to get an app accepted once it has been rejected is extremely depressing especially when it becomes unreasonable.....and the same reviewer keeps pushing the same issue over and over again even though you have completely rebuilt that section of the app. Nothing better than seeing your apps move up the charts and being accepted by the masses. No argument there. A lot of our apps are relying on third party feeds and the maintenance issues that come along with using someone else's feed are scary to say the least. The stress when an app stops working because the feed you are relying on has been changed is quite high. We are fortunate enough to be making enough money now, not to have the additional worries of paying our bills. If we had that as an additional headache things would even be worse. Lack of money can put so much pressure on a team and just add to the stress levels. Looking forward to the next six months and I am going to try to motivate my guys simply by creating super exciting products. (even if they are utility apps) Creativity + Simplicity = Energy (hopefully) Thanks for the input. Some good feedback in this thread.
Say, what ever happened with Str8ts and the Dragon's Den guys? They were all gung-ho over it on the show.
I feel burnt out at times its good to have multiple projects but 15? Nothing like the Feeling of Submitting an App and having it go ready for sale. Its all worth it. Altho the review process is nerve racking. That First sale for a new product gives me a tingle. Again all worth it. - Matt
All good We ended up getting more money from a viewer. Better terms and we didn't have to put the puzzle up as collateral. Here is a link to the episode for those who haven't seen it. http://www.google.com/url?url=http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D4IzyPA_gp30&rct=j&sa=X&ei=7DFLTpjlJYLliALb1ISoAQ&ved=0CBsQuAIwAA&q=dragons+den+str8ts+site:youtube.com&usg=AFQjCNFbl3In7Kkl6dXVNEAvgiCMpzz8Rg
well assuming thoose programmers & designers are you employees and not shareholders of the team.. may sound hard.. but burn out is a lame excuse.. afterall i assume they get their monthly pay todo task X, thats what they are hired for in the first place.. of course its not as easy as to take out the whip and start slashing around.. i think the 15 unfinished projects shed a bad light on the hole team.. because it echoes to everyone that the team is not up to the task.. i would analyse the problem, what is the "wall" your guys are clashing into when doing their task.. and then get a professional onboard.. if its programming get an osx veteran , etc. if i see the number of 15 unfinished projects i can only imagine that the team lacks a strong leader in whatever department the problems occur. going with the programming example.. if you have 2 novice programmers stumbling and falling every few steps along the way.. this will get no one anywhere, of course they are cheap since they are novice progs, but the chance of themself rising to senior will be a very hard road filled of burn outs and maybe even drop outs.. every company i worked for strived or fell with their lead position.. if you have someone up there who guides the programmers, shows them new tricks and just teaches them more than meets the eye then thoose departments usualy strive.. in the end its also a business descision.. having 15 products sitting at 80-90% not earning you any money is just bad as it goes management.. and again just slaps everyone into their face.. because 15 products show your team that there are not up to the task.. this is not good.. getting thoose products finished and out of the door should be priority A, instead of starting new ones once you hit a problem..
My boss bought us a lot of food. When someone is late for work, he will also buy a lot of food as punishment, though punish us diabetes.
Mr Ugly, I am with you on this. Having 15 apps floating around is terrible. This is what we are cleaning up right now. Lion has actually made it feasible (possible) to complete some of the apps. Post notification (for OSX) to wake up the computer to enable an alarm is still not possible and lots of other issues are still unresolved for the App Store, making it really tough to complete some of our apps. If we try solving some of the missing issues then our apps get rejected, so it is not easy working out the kinks. This forces us to give up temporarily. Very exhaustive research with a dead end.
well getting thoose unfinished project out is the best you can do.. because its dead weight and i can't imagine how a a team feels with so much unfinished stuff.. can end up pretty frustrating i assume.. so the burn out is surely not because they don't have anything to eat or to drink.. but due to the broken developement cycle.. like the 10th complete rehaul of duke nukem forever.. this can't be healthy for an small team.. good luck getting a few of thoose out of the way before you start adding new projetcs that could end up the same.
Mr Ugly, You are awesome. We are in the game to make money. We are motivated by being profitable. Creativity and simplicity has not really worked for us. We have had too many creative projects rejected. Panic Button got rejected last week (with no hope of making it on the App Store). If you look at our group of apps I have no idea how you keep coming up with this notion that we keep making the same apps over and over again. Our weather apps for example are all extremely different. The only thing they have in common are the fact that they are weather apps. Look at Weather Map very unique way of displaying weather.
Ouch! Well, first thing I'd do is I'd make sure my ppl 'WANT' to be at work. a. Make sure they do what they enjoy and are good at...and that only Don't make the developer, design (unless there ain't no other options) b. Make it fun. Go out once in a while, bring 'em a RedBull or some, watch a movie or some lol. Point is, keep it relaxed. Don't work harder, work smarter. If you can get them to enjoy coming to work, they'll do more in 5 hours than they will in 8 if they feel pressured. c. Have these weekly meetings where you all just come together and hang out, chat about whatever, become better friends. It'll take away an hour of everyone's time but it's a good investment. Anyway, that's just my experience. But of course one of the most important things is, never start a project you ain't excited about...a lot!
