Casually Speaking Interview: Sheridan Small

Sheridan Small, MSN Games Game Discovery PM

April 9, 2007
Casually Speaking: Sheridan Small

Welcome to another installment of Casually Speaking – our interview series that spotlights the incredible designers, artists, developers, and others who make MSN® Games such a great gaming site!

Today we're talking to Sheridan Small, one of the program managers here at Microsoft. Sheridan was a Web developer back when the World Wide Web was just getting its start, and is a longtime video gamer and a great overall fan of games in general. She'll tell us about what she does here, her background in both gaming and Web design, and offer some advice for people who might like to work in this industry.

MSN Games: Sheridan, thanks for taking the time to talk to us today. To start with, what do you do here?

Sheridan Small: I am the Game Discovery Program Manager. If a user is being exposed to a game, that's Game Discovery. It's my job to help you find the game that you will play.

MSN: How are users exposed to games? How does Game Discovery work?

SS: There are three major parts. There is site discovery; finding our website through the MSN Network or through other means. Then, there is discovery on your computer; for example, Desktop shortcuts, or in the case of Windows Vista, the new Game Explorer. Finally, there is browser discovery through tools like the MSN Search Toolbar or other custom add-ins. There's a bit of an overlap with these three, but each piece is huge.

MSN: Do you consider one part to be more important than the others?

SS: Site discovery is the main part, because that involves the entire MSN Games site, as well as the MSN Network. Before I started in Game Discovery, we had a big site redesign in October of last year that completely changed how all of our users viewed our games. Then, in December, we launched the Game Browser, which is the tool you see on the MSN Games site now that allows you to view and filter the lists of games.

I became the Game Discovery PM in January of this year, and my focus is to build on these recent changes based on a combination of statistics and user feedback.

MSN: Let's talk about that. How do you use user feedback? What type of feedback are you looking for?

SS: Each piece of user feedback is important, but obviously we can't change the website based on each individual comment, so we look for trends. I do read the customer feedback every day, because sometimes an individual piece will give me an "a-ha!" moment; it might spark an idea, or a discussion, or something to dig deeper into. This is your site, your games, your experience. I can't know every one of our users personally, but I want to give each user the best experience possible.

MSN: Can you give us an example of an "a-ha!" moment that came from feedback?

SS: Recently we changed the default sorting method in the Game Browser. For the free online games, we'd changed the sort to be based on popularity, but we got lots of feedback asking us to change that back to alphabetical order, and so we did.

MSN: You've been a Web designer since 1995, way back when the Web was first taking off. How do you get interested in that sort of thing when most people didn't even know what it was at that point?

SS: I was a fine art major. I was putting myself through college, and I wanted to find a job where I made money, and did a little research; the on-campus job that paid the most was the computer helpdesk. So I went in and I said "Hey, I have customer service experience, but really no computer programming experience, but I can learn that, and I can talk to real people!" And they thought that was a great idea. So I was just exposed to it...I was fascinated that you could type in things that didn't make sense in English, and you could get stuff to happen.

From there I started creating Web pages for the university, I did that for about six months, and then I got a call from someone I used to work with who was working at Microsoft, who said "Hey, do you want to come to Microsoft and work at Expedia?" Well, yeah, twist my arm! So I worked at Expedia, and then right before this I was at PopCap Games , because I was really interested in games and wanted to get into the industry.

MSN: How did you make the transition from building web pages to what you do here?

SS: I've known for a while that I wanted to get into program management, but it took me a while to figure out exactly how I wanted to do it. I'd worked with program managers before, so I had a good idea of what they did, and that's why I wanted to come back to Microsoft...I didn't just want to learn to be a program manager, I wanted to learn to be a really GOOD program manager. And here, there are so many opportunities, and so much training...the sky's the limit!

MSN: Did you play a lot of video games growing up?

SS: Yeah! Our first console was an Atari 2600, and it was our only console for a long time. We played Night Driver, and Combat – we destroyed so many joysticks playing Combat, because the tanks didn't move very fast, so you'd push REALLY HARD! I also really liked Kaboom!...those were definitely my favorites. Today, I have an Xbox 360, a PlayStation 3, a Wii, a PSP, a DS Lite...

MSN: That sounds like every kid's dream house!

SS: Yeah, but I don't like to share! (laughs) I play anything and everything. And I like playing the casual games on our site, as well. I'd say I actually probably spend more time playing casual games on our site, because I can play them on my laptop, but I spend a lot of time on the 360 as well. I just finished the storyline for Crackdown, which is really fun, but I'll play anything. I've played NBA Live 06. I started out playing it just for Gamerscore, and then I discovered I really liked it, so I just kept playing! And I learned stuff, too...I had no idea what a triple-double was; I actually had to look it up on the Internet so I could find out what that was to get the Achievement...thank goodness for Wikipedia!

I'm also a huge Viva Piñata fan, and I love Worms. I also play (Hardwood) Spades and Hearts; I didn't know how to play those card games when I started, so it was fun to get addicted that way. And I've finished Jewel Quest...I loved that game. I liked having to think a couple turns ahead, and maybe trying something different if that doesn't work out. And you don't have to start over at the very beginning when you lose.

MSN: Did you play non-video games growing up?

SS: Oh yeah. My family played a lot of games, especially card games. That was our thing when the power would go out. We lived for quite a while outside of the city of Washougal, which is a tiny town in southwest Washington, so trees blowing through the power lines was something that would happen every year, and the family would sit around and play cards by lamplight. We played Shanghai Rummy...I don't remember how to play it now, but I'm sure it would come back to me. We played UNO® a lot, too. I guess I've just kind of grown up around games!

MSN: Do you think that's affected you in other areas?

SS: I think it pays off in that it gives you a love for problem solving...the people I know that grew up with games really like to think through problems, and solve them in different ways, and they can break down big problems into little problems. So I think that there are good habits that you learn by playing games when you're younger.

MSN: What's a typical day like here?

SS: Well, a "typical" day has meetings (of course!) and issues that have come up in the last 24 hours that need resolutions, but I also try to spend a good amount of time looking forward to what we can do next week, next month, next year. Most importantly a typical day is FUN...after all, I work on a games site! But it's different every day. We might be working on a different task every day, or a different part of the site, so "typical" doesn't really apply.

MSN: Is that part of what you like about it?

SS: Definitely! I love it when something comes up, and we need to take care of it. It's a great time to see how the team works together, and I find it really inspiring to see a team that really knows what they're doing taking care of a problem. And I like that I get to use my knowledge of Web development and fine art together.

MSN: What else do you do for fun?

SS: Well, I like to play with my puppy, Diego. And I listen to music while I play games; I love punk rock covers of old songs from the '50s and '60s. I really like '70s singers and songwriters; music where people had something to say about what was going on in that time...I really like thinking about what was going on in that time that would make them say that. I read a lot of nonfiction books...a lot of autobiographies of people whose lives I can't even imagine, so I read to find out more about them. And I'm taking tap-dancing classes soon!

MSN: One final question: What advice would you give someone who wanted to do what you do here at MSN Games?

SS: I would say that technical knowledge and expertise only helps, so learn everything you can about software development. Even if you don’t write code, you need to be passionate about technology and driving change. Since I’m new to the PM world, I’m still learning things every day – from what I hear, that never really stops – so you should love to learn new things. Oh yes, and being a PM can be a lot of fun – so you should be sure to have fun, too!

Thank you again, Sheridan, for taking the time out to talk to us!

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