Having an International team in a company is commonplace in the post-covid era, with terms such as Work From Home (WFH) and Work From Anywhere (WFA) gaining popularity in recent years. Within this new landscape, people are looking at new opportunities to develop their personal goals. Similarly, companies are taking to these new possibilities, expanding their teams across global locations and broadening into new markets. But with new opportunities, come new challenges.
Managing an international team doesn’t come without its risks. Companies have to understand that distance and time are inseparable parts of the dynamic. Major time zone differences can create situations where some members finish at the same time as others just starting. Difficulties like this can lead to important tasks or questions pushed back or bumped back, sometimes over 24 hours.
Communication problems may also arise where teams do not meet face to face. Technology and internet connections can differ in terms of quality or speed across the globe. Miscommunication may lead into misunderstanding the task.
Culture and diverse ways of working are often an advantage, but come with caveats to international teams, with different regions having a different attitudes towards working hours and team culture. If the team fails to appropriately understand the situation it can lead to mismanagement of deadlines and tasks.
International teams have to be extra careful of monitoring the performance of their tasks, as managerial attention can be difficult to maintain over time differences. This can lead to uncoordinated projects with tasks left incomplete, hampering the targets of the company.
Acorn Games aim to turn these challenges into opportunities. The solution to these issues is clear communication. While timezones always prove problematic, we turn this disadvantage on its head by leaning into our clients’ timezones and essentially establishing an always-online presence. Even if a task’s stakeholder is not available, clear comms allow us to talk with authority on pending and open assignments. A diverse culture helps us in understanding a global perspective to gaming markets and the methodology behind marketing titles across the world. North America, Europe and Asia all have different tasks and behaviours. Our team is based across each of these regions, providing deep insight into our strategies from native gamers. Leveraging ever-evolving technologies such as project management tools that integrate with other services helps us to connect with our partners and clients. Tracking tasks across each game helps our team and clients to be more transparent and easier to notify when needed.
Managing an international team takes unique perspectives from a variety of sources, contrasts and compares them and sets about finding commonality, for a vision that everyone can get behind. We aim to keep building this culture, maintaining trust, showing empathy, and growing together within our team and each of our clients.