Quantcast
Channel: Rare - Blog
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 51

Rare Life: Business Intelligence Manager

0
0

It’s been a little while since our last run of staff profiles, as we were all wildly busy launching our first title for the Xbox One. But as we look ahead to what comes next and welcome more staff into the studio, we’re getting back to showing you the people behind the games. Hopefully these will prove informative for those hoping to get into a particular line of work, but also entertaining enough to be worth a read for anyone interested in Rare or a general industry career.

In this edition: Ofri Dar, Business Intelligence Manager. Which means she deals with all sorts of data. So much data. Over to Ofri!

Rare: What’s your background and how did you arrive at Rare?

Ofri Dar: My background is in engineering. I’m a Computer Science graduate and I was a software developer in the early years of my career. Working on information systems, I moved into more data-oriented roles until eventually I found my passion in Business Intelligence and Analytics. I moved around quite a lot before coming to Rare – different countries (fabulous times in Dublin!), different industries (most recently automotive). Oh, and I did two years in the army! Where I became proficient in completing some very random tasks in just under six minutes.

Rare contacted me when I was working for a very different industry and not really looking to change. I came for an interview out of pure curiosity and was immediately captivated. The people, the talent, the opportunities… top that with a lake and a couple of bunnies running around and I simply couldn’t go back.

Have you found yourself doing the job you always thought you’d do?

No! Growing up I wanted to be a weather woman! Further down the line, when I was studying for my degree, Business Intelligence wasn’t really known as a ‘profession’ so my natural inclination was towards more common development roles.

However, I always aspired to a role that would balance technical work with real people/business interaction. Business Intelligence, for me, ticks all the boxes: I get to leverage my technical skills towards interfaces that provide real business value, liaising with users across levels and disciplines, presenting some interesting, challenging requirements.

What are your main responsibilities on the average game?

My role is to promote the use of data across the business, provide analytic solutions to support people in their jobs and ultimately improve the games and experiences we offer.

An analytic solution could take many shapes and forms. Tactical exploration tools to help designers investigate the success of specific game features. Social listeners to monitor the buzz around our games. Strategic dashboards to shape executive decision-making and operational dashboards to look at the health of the different systems/services supporting our titles. Business Intelligence also covers areas outside the game such as internal processes (test, development) and we try to help with visualisations around bottlenecks so that our teams can work more effectively. I find it all very challenging and diverse!

OfriDar_01_sm

Which Rare games have you worked on, and what’s been your biggest achievement?

I joined Rare at the back end of the Kinect Sports Gems rollout and then worked on Kinect Sports Rivals. We were able to provide detailed insights into the success/popularity of the different sports and challenges, and players’ progression through the Champion experience. Some of these insights really helped us to build follow-on updates that improved the KSR experience.

What do you see as the top perk of working for Rare?

When I accepted the job at Rare a former colleague of mine was mocking me about the perks. Something along the lines of “yeah, game developers… sipping their soy shakes at the juice bar, slouching over the bean bags in creative open spaces and using the word ‘awesome’ a lot”. What can I say, not far off! (It is awesome.)

But the technologies and tools available to us go a level above the free lattes. Coming in from more traditional industries, I was so used to lagging IT and the habit of begging up the chain for software upgrades. With Rare it’s the opposite! Being a Microsoft studio we’re at the front end of things. Employees are always encouraged to talk about new concepts and technologies, and to try out internal betas/sandbox versions long before they reach the market. Buggy as those may be, it is a privilege, and an accelerator in many ways.

What do you find most exciting about your job?

It all comes back to my passion for connecting the dots. Turning atomic pieces of information into meaningful, helpful insights. However, our insights here are all about play, and people, and making experiences fun and engaging. It’s very different to analysing finance or the like.

What’s the interaction like between Rare and Microsoft BI departments?

We work closely together and yet are quite independent when it comes to our specific analytics requirements. We rely on the platform team to provide us with data around general usage and activity. The success of our promotions on the Xbox dashboard, how many users have played our games etc., metrics that would be common across titles and do not require any Rare-specific knowledge.

It becomes our own domain (and far more interesting) when we dive into engagement with our specific titles. Progression through game milestones, discovery of specific features and engagement with published content. This type of analysis requires a level of understanding a central team wouldn’t have, and we invest quite a lot in ourselves.

OfriDar_04_sm

How would you describe your fellow workers in five words?

Extremely intelligent, incredibly creative, HILARIOUS.

Favourite Rare game, favourite game on an Xbox console and favourite game of all time?

I’m actually quite new to games so unlike my predecessors here I can’t rave about Banjo-Kazooie… sorry! Playing KSR with friends and family has been fun (everybody loved their Champions). More recently, I really enjoyed Ori and the Blind Forest. It’s a beautiful game, in every respect.

Any good (printable) anecdotes or memories from within the walls of Rare?

We have a fantastic Events Team producing loads and loads of these! Some brilliant themed parties (my favourite was the masquerade ball for the Kinect Sports Rivals launch) and good laughs around the holidays (we have had pumpkin carvings, egg hunts, fancy dress – the list goes on and on). There’s always something happening, with a creative twist and some hilarious follow-on chatter in our internal forums. Oh, and bizarre threads about feeding the geese.

What advice would you give to anyone thinking of applying for a role similar to yours?

There would be some obvious knowledge prerequisites: data types, data structures, storage methods. You’d need strong SQL skills and basic programming. Not necessarily a data scientist, but definitely someone with an understanding of metrics, measures and the differences between basic formulations. Good understanding of the digital business, entertainment and the games industry, although broad analytic experience in other sectors could be equally valuable. There is quite a lot of outreach involved in what I do – investigating potential new data leads, identifying key owners across the organisation and working with remote, distributed teams. You need to have initiative and be self-motivated for these types of quests in such a big organisation.

Check out the full Rare Life category to see everyone we’ve featured in past instalments! Weighing up a career in the games biz? What roles would you like to see covered in future Rare Life columns? Drop us a line and let us know.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 51

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images