Eric Bowman - Video Game Developer of THE SIMS (edited)

03/08/21 • 41 min

Welcome to another episode of Develomentor. Today's guest is Eric Bowman.
Eric Bowman is SVP Engineering at TomTom, which he rejoined in 2019 to help shape TomTom’s engineering culture for an increasingly online future. Previously, Eric was Zalando’s first VP Engineering, where he drove Radical Agility and led the engineering team into the cloud and oversaw huge growth and change at the company. A 25-year industry veteran, Eric has been a technical leader at multiple startups as well as global companies including Gilt Group, Three, Electronic Arts, and Maxis, where he was one of the three amigos who coded The Sims 1.0

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Episode Summary

"I'm constantly humbled when I look back at just how very difficult it was to create this sort of immersive experience. Essentially the standard is to recreate something that matches reality. It is humbling to try and do that."

—Eric Bowman

In this episode we’ll cover:

What it was like being one of 3 programmers working on The Sims
Why going into video games is a super risky venture
Timeless principles that helped Eric come into organizations and change the culture
Why the west coast is unique in terms of tech entrepreneurship

Key Milestones

[2:01] – Eric wanted to be a physicist but programmed on the side while in school. His first job was at Maxis, the sim city franchise. Eric decided to join the team for what would eventually become 'The Sims'.
[4:30] – After leaving Maxis, Eric worked at plenty of companies including a startup, a phone company, a fashion flash sale company as well as others. He's currently at Tomtom.
[10:38] – Eric talks about what it was like working on The Sims in the early days. Unlike today, back then teams for videogames were small! He explains why video games are a risky venture and most video games fail.
[15:33] – It took some time for Eric to transition from programmer to engineering manager. Though it was a challenging move or him, it came down to making a greater impact.
[20:34]- What Eric looks for when hiring? Leadership, impact and growth mindset are major pillars to consider.
[25:29] – Why are more and more people hiring senior managers to change the culture of their company? Eric often looks for timeless principles when managing his teams and organizations, not necessarily new ideas. How can slack and chat ops change the culture?
[30:09] – What are the pros and cons of the tech culture in the US versus Europe. Why the Europe tech scene can be more stable but the boldness of Silicon Valley and the West Coast is unlike any place in the world.

You can find more resources and a full transcript in the show notes
To learn more about our podcast go to https://develomentor.com/
To listen to previous episodes go to https://develomentor.com/blog/
Follow Eric Bowman
Twitter: @ebowman
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/boboco/
Follow Develomentor:
Twitter: @develomentor
Follow Grant Ingersoll
Twitter: @gsingers
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/grantingersoll

Support the show

Click Here –> For more information about tech careers

Episode Summary

—Eric Bowman

In this episode we’ll cover:

What it was like being one of 3 programmers working on The Sims
Why going into video games is a super risky venture
Timeless principles that helped Eric come into organizations and change the culture
Why the west coast is unique in terms of tech entrepreneurship

Key Milestones

Support the show

Previous Episode

Daniel Tunkelang - The Founding Story of Endeca (edited)

Daniel Tunkelang is currently an independent consultant or, in his words, a 'high-class consultant' for technology companies. Previous to this, he was a data science and engineering executive who has built and led some of the strongest teams in the software industry.

Daniel studied computer science and math at MIT and has a PhD in computer science from CMU. He was a founding employee and chief scientist of Endeca, a search pioneer that Oracle acquired for $1.1B. He led a local search team at Google. Prior to this, he was a director of data science and engineering at LinkedIn, and he established their query understanding team.

Daniel is a widely recognized writer and speaker. He is frequently invited to speak at academic and industry conferences, particularly in the areas of information retrieval, web science, and data science. He has written the definitive textbook on faceted search (now a standard for ecommerce sites), established an annual symposium on human-computer interaction and information retrieval, and authored 24 US patents. His social media posts have attracted over a million page views.

Daniel also advises and consults for companies that can benefit strategically from his expertise. His clients range from early-stage startups to "unicorn" technology companies like Etsy and Flipkart. He helps companies make decisions around algorithms, technology, product strategy, hiring, and organizational structure.

Click Here –> For more information about tech careers

Episode Summary

"Well it started with pretty much the people that reached out to me were trying to persuade me to take full-time jobs and I'd say, Hey, I have a better deal for you. You could just have me one day a week"

—Daniel Tunkelang

In this episode we’ll cover:

How Endeca got started? Why did the founders reach out to Daniel?
The pros and cons of being an independent contractor versus a full-time employee
What made Daniel interested in search?
Why Daniel became lost while working at Google

You can find more resources and a full transcript in the show notes
To learn more about our podcast go to https://develomentor.com/
To listen to previous episodes go to https://develomentor.com/blog/
Follow Daniel Tunkelang
Twitter: @dtunkelang
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dtunkelang/
Follow Develomentor:
Twitter: @develomentor
Follow Grant Ingersoll
Twitter: @gsingers
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/grantingersoll

Support the show

Next Episode

Jody Mulkey - C-Level Exec at Shopzilla, GoodRx & Ticketmaster (edited)

Prior to GoodRx, Jody Mulkey (@jodymulkey) was the Chief Product Officer at Aspiration. An accomplished technologist and inspirational engineering leader, Jody is known for building high-performance systems and teams.

Prior to Aspiration, Jody spent 5 years as CTO of Ticketmaster leading the global product and technology transformation. Prior to Ticketmaster Jody spent over 14 years at Shopzilla, now Connexity, a leading source for connecting buyers and online sellers that reaches a global audience of over 40 million shoppers monthly. Jody was the CIO of Shopzilla and part of the inaugural team building the company’s data platform, analytics, and infrastructure.

Born in Texas, Jody attended military school and got his degree in shenanigans before moving to California. Jody studied Business Administration at USC with dual emphases in Entrepreneurship and Information Systems.

Outside of work, Jody is an active startup investor, Laker fan, Trojan fan, and tennis enthusiast. Jody lives in Westwood, CA with his saint of a wife, 2 amazing children, and 2 obstinate yet adorable pugs.

Click Here –> For more information about tech careersEpisode Summary

“With good leadership, good people on your team, clear expectations and clear systems for accountability in a really beautiful, positive way that solves most of the management problem.”

—Jody Mulkey

In this episode we’ll cover: