Manager Program

RYAN MOLYNEAUX

Portfolio Study LinkedIn ***********@*****.***

Background

Creative leader with over 20 years experience in gaming and entertainment management. Passionate collaborator, taking ownership to activate teams and drive strategic excellence from branding and design to launch and marketing. Expertise in gaming & entertainment brands including: Google Play, Assassin’s Creed, Just Dance, Far Cry, Tom Clancy, film titles, and more. Experience

Google Play Visuals Program Manager Google, Mountain View, CA Jan 2019 - Present Play UX Visuals is a horizontal team creating all artwork for Play Store’s Games, Movies & TV, Apps, and Book’s UX efforts; with 2 billion global users monthly on surfaces from mobile to living room. The Play Visuals Program Manager embodies (3) roles essentially; each with its own workstream, connection points while navigating ambiguity and embracing a collaborative entrepreneurial spirit with a multitude of Googlers.

Play Store - Entertainment Art Management

Entertainment Art is a business-critical component on the Play Store utilized across Game and Movie titles primarily, utilizing licensed art to drive engagement. 5,500 banner designs in 2019.

● Relationships with 120+ Google Merchandisers, each owning their own campaigns and revenue targets. Daily interaction, program management, and licensor negotiations.

● Successfully launched high-revenue ‘tentpole’ game titles, prioritizing these efforts across design and merchandising teams. Led the effort to create visual guidelines.

● Lead (3) Production Artists; daily prioritization of their work, evaluating LOE, negotiating scope, Stand-up meetings, ensuring top design quality and approvals

● Owner of Art Tracking matrix for status and measuring Visuals team capacity allocation

● Present art to team leads. Metrics presentation to get additional design for over-capacity staff. RFP’d (3) vendors to select one. Owned SoW, training, relationship, and operational systems for vendor who is now our trusted agency of record

● Keeper of banner art guidelines: specs, visual best practices, and design philosophies integral to Merch and BizDev partner teams. Trainer for new staff, globally. Play Store - UX Design Management

Play Store is comprised of specialized UX teams focused on specific disciplines and KPI’s. I partner with these teams to strategize and scope visual needs for their user journeys

● Built trust and collaborated to drive excellence for 400 UX design projects and 1,900 Merchandising illustrations which garnered record Play Store revenue in 2019.

● Global and regional ownership of vertical design initiatives - assign designers, manage schedules and review meetings across teams and leads.

● Elevated the Visuals team to be less of a ‘service go-to’ and more of a trusted partner

● Management of all requests in Salesforce for scalable and metrics-based tracking

● Family section of the Play Store is a ‘parent-trusted, kid-friendly’ Google experience which I manage the design and identity efforts of with Visuals and XFN teams

● Visual Asset Library: manage themes, structure, creation and upkeep for self-service

● RACI: initiated and created for clarity of responsibility across Program Manager roles

● Sprints / Design workshops: built agendas, activities and goals with Creative Director

● Capacity tracking of design team; maintaining balanced flow of work while managing XFN expectations. Created proposal to Directors and onboarded design agency. Play Store - Motion Design Production

The Motion Design team is separate from the Design team. Motion commonly leverages and animates Visuals team designs, so my managing cross-dependencies and consistency is a benefit.

● Point of contact for all Motion related UX requests across Play org. Owner of Motion Request form, and Motion Tracker, leading project meetings with Motion team and UX.

● Lead Producer for Animation on the Store in Merchandising campaigns; requiring cross-functional team alignment, globally. I initiated this challenge, taking point to lead the effort; mobilizing Visuals, Motion, Product, ENG, and Platform teams to launch

● Partner with Google proprietary gaming and tablet teams to enable animated UI / UX

● Movies & TV specific cinematic themed UX needs I lead Motion and design team for

● Dark Theme launch and new aesthetic I partnered with Motion and ENG dependencies.

● Google is designing a tablet experience, which I am Motion poc for team lead Program Manager, Brand & Creative Pure Storage, Mountain View, CA February 2016 - Jan 2019

- Created and conceived scalable workflow process for a new Creative team - business objectives, process flow, creative briefing, round reviews, completion and sharing.

- Daily management of creative workflow with internal and external resources for Design and Video at ‘start-up’ pace (a recent public company requiring enterprise-level process).

- Managed and maintained relationships with Product, Digital, Engineering and Partners, globally.

- Worked on ‘Product Launch Process’, rolling out AGILE workflow principles across Marketing Manager, Creative Project Management Ubisoft, San Francisco, CA April 2011 - December 2015

- Managed (2) teams consisting of 6-9 members growing in project management, workflow and localization for creative identity, marketing, and packaging of world-renowned Game titles.

- Built and nurtured relationships with internal and external teams to lead launches across game studios, Brand Management, Marketing, Online/Social, Events, Accounting, and Manufacturing,

- Worked with internal partners, developed the 'GLP' Game Launch Process, a defining structure from which multi-million dollar launch plans execute across multiple departments and regions.

- Partnered with HR and Directors, proactively coached, developed and expanded individual team members' skills and career paths through consistent one-on-one meetings and training.

- Contributed to writing, naming, shoots and modeling for games to accomplish launch goals Creative Project Manager Ubisoft, San Francisco, CA Jan 2004 - April 2011

- Established Creative department processes, systems and workflows integral to supporting ever-increasing volume of games, platforms, projects, and regions being sold into.

- Managed design and production workflow for Assassin's Creed, Ghost Recon, Avatar and more.

- Built relationships with internal partners and external vendors for successful kick-off’s, team collaboration, creative, marketing programs, on-time launches, and industry event presence.

- Project managed major game titles branding, from initial concept phase to launch execution.

- Manager of Localization Project Management team; responsible for packaging, translations, and online content for growing markets in Canada, LatAm and Brazil (French, Spanish, Portuguese).

- Supported the growth of creative programs for Retail Marketing initiatives in store and online.

- Maintained daily workflow and tracking of game lifecycles, red flags and potential roadblocks.

- Owned schedules, meetings and communications across teams to ensure project completion. MarCom / Program Manager Connectix, San Mateo, CA April 1994 – August 2003

- Managed and executed programs for Mac/PC software & hardware with product teams

- Developed research and marketing campaigns to support and drive demand of existing products; tradeshows, events, customer surveys, brochures, promotions, direct mail, and online.

- Successfully overseen creation of sales tools, packaging, PR content and promotions for Virtual PC product line - which Microsoft scouted and made successful acquisition of.

- Worked with internal teams to develop marketing plans and visual identity for product launches

- Managed graphic design team and 'Marketing Library' for relevant assets available to teams

- Designer and contributing writer of marketing collateral and 'Sales and Marketing Kits' for Sales

- Owned a customer database, conducted customer surveys and tracked to identify user trends. Volunteer Work and Awards

Game Marketing Awards, Game Marketing Summit, San Francisco, CA – 2013, 2014, 2015 Game Industry Presenter and Educator, First Graduate, San Francisco, CA - Summer 2015 Google Classroom curriculum instruction, Pure Good / Team4Tech, South Africa - Spring 2018 Capoeira instruction to adults and youth, Ubisoft and greater Bay Area, CA- 2008 – present Citizen's Police Academy, South San Francisco Police Department, CA - Fall 2002 Education and Relevant Skills

Professor of Capoeira, Capoeira USA, San Francisco, CA - graduated Fall 2008 Project Management and Communication classes, Learn iT!, San Francisco, CA - during Ubisoft Community Relations, Skyline College, San Bruno, CA - Fall 2002 Adobe Photoshop, Quark Express, Center for Electronic Art, San Francisco, CA - 1998

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