The Working Culture at Applied Intuition

Introduction

Hi, my name is Freek Hoekstra, and I’m the 3D Content Lead at Applied Intuition. Before Applied, I worked at SideFX doing some of the first game demos and helping imagine what the Houdini Engine could be. I also worked at Electronic Arts on FIFA, Madden, NHL, UFC, Need for Speed, and more, and Apple SPG (Special Projects Group).

I’ve been at Applied Intuition for four years now. The team consists of really talented veterans as well as Junior Artists proficient in Houdini, Unreal Engine, and Substance 3D.

The Work Organization

We really believe in ownership and reducing red tape, which means that across the various teams, people can work on tasks and ask for help. For example, if someone wants to update the way objects get placed in the world, they are empowered to do so provided they let the affected teams know what might get affected, but no territorial disputes over who can edit what content/code.

There are a variety of teams across Applied Intuition. We work mainly on sensor simulation and world generation, but Applied has a full end-to-end autonomous vehicle development toolset, there's live map editing, vehicle grade dynamics, machine learning synthetic data teams, vehicle behaviors, sensor verification, and validation, and we rely on each other to provide help and support.

Important Skills

We look at both hard and soft skills. We’re a fast-moving company, so we need people to be flexible and have the ability to figure out something reasonably autonomously – and hopefully have a good time doing so. As for soft skills, positivity is a big deal. No one likes dealing with naysayers and negative people, especially when there is some pressure to deliver.

Welcoming Beginners

We have a buddy system that pairs each person with someone who has been at the company for at least a year, and it is their job to ramp up the new hire. The buddy is someone with a similar background and skillset, so they can ramp up quickly and have an immediate go-to resource.

But we also provide a very open culture where people can ask any question and get help instantly, as one of our values is speed, and that means if someone asks a question, answer that quickly so they're unblocked.

In general, we suggest the 20-minute rule, if you cannot find the answer in 20 minutes, chances are it's faster to ask for help than to keep struggling, plus it's complex enough to get a sanity check on your solution. It's all about striking that balance between asking too quickly and interrupting your colleagues versus wasting time looking for a solution.

Strategies for Avoiding Burnout

One of our other values, besides speed, is being self-regulated, but on top of that, for juniors in particular, I try and watch out for signs of burnout. I’ve had it myself at previous points, so it is a big deal to me and I have at times told people to take a break when they didn’t realize they needed it yet.

Another big deal is our release cycle. In my experience, people burn out towards the end of videogame/movie production, when the load just keeps ramping up and up, and then the game gets postponed, so nope, no vacation another 6 months of overtime!

Artistic Liberties

Autonomy is very important, we want people to own their corner, and that means they are free to make decisions themselves, which allows for much faster development, and honestly, better ideas to bubble to the top, rather than me telling everyone what to do and how to do it.

Of course, if the impact extends to other teams/products, then we encourage communication with both me and the other teams, but we try and encourage direct communication and avoid communication via managers. If you’ve ever done the telephone game, you know that the more hops it makes, the worse it gets, so talk engineer to engineer, artist to engineer, etc. and I can help add context where needed.

Approach to Education

But aside from those, we do a lot of show-and-tells and Art Weeklies, where people can show their work and ask for ideas, tips, help, and feedback. We also have channels where people post their work and get praise and feedback, for both morale as well as making sure no one misses anything. We also spend a fair amount of time figuring out how to do X better for next time, and how to more efficiently render more things and then disseminate to the larger team those learnings.

Advice For Beginners

Be yourself, be friendly, show your work, show a willingness to learn, and be curious! As for more specific points, I think it's really important to have a specialty, something you do better than anyone, but also a good general understanding of the broader field. Specialists who only know their own field can find it hard to cooperate. If you would like to join the Applied team, you can take a look at our job openings here.

Freek Hoekstra, 3D Content Lead at Applied Intuition

Interview conducted by Arti Burton