Hello,

So my core team has ben discussing this for a few weeks, and we're thinking of getting a pm for our game.

I'm not sure what I should say for the job description tho.

This is what I have so far:

Project Manager

This person will need to coordinate efforts between internal and external stakeholders for the Vultures product. Set milestones and scope for different phases of production. Act as a member of the core team, in providing updates and leadership.

Requirements:

Analytical skills

Problem solving skills

Experience in coordinating Cross functional teams

Game Development experience

Unity experience (Bonus)

Work on at least 1 shipped game (Bonus)

Contract Signature

Fluent in written and spoken English

Team Player

Passionate and respectful

Grit

Initiative

Keen attention to detail

What do yall think?

Set milestones and scope for different phases of production.

What authority will they have to do this? Will they be able to fire people that don't contribute to the success, or whose skills/contributions are not aligned with company needs?

Will they be able to hire replacements that are more aligned to current or near-future needs? What resources do they have to help make that a success?

Will they have cut-or-add authority over features in the shipping product?

There really are three levels of contribution here, and you can't mash them all together:

• Run the task list, figure out who does what, answer questions about project status and progress, serve as secretary and nag to get people to write down what needs writing down and do what needs doing, detect when different cliques or areas are not in sync and call that out, predict future challenges or communications breakdowns: This is a “Project Manager.” A “project manager” can be quite helpful and a real accelerant, but also almost useless overhead if they can't make the organization respect their warnings.
• Look at the product, look at resources, figure out what the product shoulddo, and what the market demands. Come up with plans for how to better serve the market using existing resources, and how to re-allocate resources, for maximum product success. Keep a backlog of intended improvements, and keep a tight guard of schedule vs feature creep. Identify when missing intended targets means things need to be cut, and don't be afraid to make cuts that are needed for success: This is a “product manager.”
• Look at the team, product, project, and schedule, and make all the necessary cut/include, hire the right people, fire the wrong people (e g, the people that it is right to fire,) and keep the team all aligned to the final vision: This is an “executive producer.” (And their side-kick, the “producer.”)

Identify which weakness you're trying to fill, and double down on ONE of those profiles. Very loosely, “project manager” lives in JIRA or Microsoft Project; “product manager” lives in Excel and Figma, and uses the JIRA/Project artifacts as inputs to decisions; “producer” lives in PowerPoint and Zoom and uses all the previous inputs (as well as a lot of personal interactions) as input.

You can't expect one person to do all of this, unless you're a team of 3-5 people with not a lot of money involved.