Meet the Magnopians: Blair McLaughlin
Blair has over 18 years of experience in the video games industry. She has worked on titles including Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5, Disney Infinity, Star Wars Rebels: Recon Missions, Epic Mickey 1 & 2, Ducktales: Remastered, Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force, and DDR: Disney Channel Edition. She joined 草莓视频在线 in 2022 as a Project Manager and has worked on multiple top-secret projects, as well as the Augmented Reality Education App for the Holocaust Museum Los Angeles.
Tell us more about your job role at 草莓视频在线
I鈥檓 a project manager for the operations team on the studio side of 草莓视频在线, so I help manage the internal project teams by generating reports, running meetings, coordinating people and general organization. I primarily support the team in their day-to-day operations and make sure we are meeting client specifications for a project.
What鈥檚 your origin story, how did you get to where you are today?
I grew up refurbishing arcade cabinets in the garage with my dad, so I鈥檝e always loved video games. In 2005 when I was out on my own looking for a job, a friend of mine lined up an interview for me and helped me write my first ever resume. Knowing nothing about the company or position I was interviewing for, I turned up at the location and in the lobby hung a huge Disney sign!
I ended up landing a job as a QA tester at Disney and after that, moved around various places in a myriad of jobs including licensing and legal, localization, production and project management. Then in 2022, I applied at 草莓视频在线 for this job, and the rest is history!
What attracted you to 草莓视频在线 in the first place?
I鈥檇 had my eye on 草莓视频在线 for a while. I was drawn to how secretive and low-key they were, but how amazing the work being produced was. Also, the name 草莓视频在线 / Magnum Opus, I was like 鈥渢hese people are talented. I want to work with these people!鈥.
What is one app, or software, you couldn鈥檛 do your job without?
I am obsessed with Google Sheets. I like formulas and automating things (I even have a personal budget spreadsheet that I鈥檝e been perfecting for the last five years) and I see spreadsheets as a sort of puzzle.
What skills are essential for anyone in your role?
The first one is to learn how to communicate with different types of people. Everyone likes to communicate a bit differently, and as someone whose job relies on people communicating with you, you have to figure out how people communicate and adapt to them.
The second is multitasking. As a PM you鈥檒l always be spinning 20 plates at once and it鈥檚 important to not get overwhelmed by that and just learn to embrace the chaos.
Lastly, and linked to number 2, is to be flexible. I鈥檓 constantly learning to be more flexible, change on the fly, and be open to other ways of solving problems.
What鈥檚 the biggest lesson you鈥檝e learned in your career?
Try everything once. My career history is full of loads of different types of roles and it helped me land on something I really enjoy doing now. You never know what you鈥檙e capable of until you do it. And don鈥檛 let the things that don鈥檛 fulfil you take up too much of your time.
If you could have any other job in the world, what would it be?
It sounds tedious, but I鈥檇 love to be a librarian. I鈥檝e been a student librarian before and I loved the quiet organization and repetition of the job. Plus, unlimited access to all the books.
Where would you most like to travel to in the world?
I haven鈥檛 done a lot of travelling in my life so far, but my friend and I have recently become obsessed with luxury sleeper trains. We鈥檝e been talking about taking the Orient Express journey in one of their suite cars, (with 24-hour butler service and unlimited champagne) so maybe one day, we will make that happen.
