"Strategy, capital, tech — none of it matters without the right people."
As part of Fast Company's Executive Board, Scopely COO Eunice Lee shared why it's important to not hire for headcount and instead look for the outliers and the alchemy that elevates entire organizations.
Read the full philosophy on how we apply our five culture tenets to redefine what winning talent looks like here or catch up on the conversation below.
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Over the course of my many years in the video game industry and as a leader of teams around the globe, the biggest lesson I’ve learned on my journey is this: no strategy, no amount of capital, and no technology will outpace the impact of exceptional people.
Talent isn’t a supporting factor. It’s the factor.
At Scopely, we live this mindset every day. We’re intentional about building teams made up of people who push boundaries, raise standards, and make everyone around them better. Rather than hiring to fill seats, we hire to fuel transformation, seeking individuals who bring curiosity, creativity, and a compounding impact on others in the organization.
How we hire
Too often, companies treat hiring like checking boxes: degrees, titles, years of experience. We don’t and our commitment to not “filling the headcount” is a key differentiator for Scopely. We look for something harder to define but easier to recognize once you see it: the people who elevate everyone around them.
That lens comes from our five culture tenets, which aren’t just a poster on a wall—it’s the filter for how we build our teams and who we hire. Here are our five tenets.
+ Play to Win: Does the candidate have a track record of consistently outperforming expectations or delivering successful outcomes?
+ Care Deeply: Does the hire thoughtfully invest in their craft, colleagues, and community?
+ Ignite Passion, Earn Loyalty: Does the candidate inspire those around them and stay focused on delivering distinct value to consumers (players in our case)?
+ Iterate to Greatness: Will the new hire learn fast, adapt, and grow from both wins and failures?
+ Embrace the Adventure: Does the new hire thrive in uncertainty and remain optimistic under pressure?
When candidates embody these traits, whether through their careers, side projects, or even personal passions, you can feel the difference.
Redefine what exceptional talent looks like
The best hires don’t always have the glossiest résumés. They stand out in other ways by being:
+ Insatiably curious and able to learn more quickly than their peers.
+ Persistent when the path isn’t clear.
+ Ambitious not just for themselves, but for the team around them.
+ Focused on measuring their success by impact, not by tenure.
I’ve seen this firsthand. One of our standout hires joined without the “right” industry background but had an unmistakable track record of solving hard problems in wildly different settings. Within months, this hire wasn’t just thriving in the role, they were pushing an entire team to reimagine what is possible. That’s the kind of multiplier effect exceptional talent creates.
Research from Harvard Business School and The Kellogg School of Management backs this up: simply sitting near a top performer can lift a colleague’s productivity by around 15%. Talent, it turns out, is contagious.
Understand the dangers of hiring for comfort
One of the most common hiring mistakes I see is confusing “culture fit” with comfort. Leaders often justify hires with lines like:
+ I just liked them.
+ They remind me of someone I worked with.
+ We’ve had this role open for too long.
Those are shortcuts. And they lower the bar.
The better question is: Will this person raise the performance of everyone around them?
When I interview, I imagine the candidate as a stock. Would I invest in them, knowing their trajectory will compound over time? If the answer isn’t an unequivocal yes, it’s a no.
Build a company of outliers
Exceptional companies don’t operate on a bell curve. They don’t settle for average. They look for outliers—the people who reset what’s possible.
David Ogilvy said it perfectly: “If each of us hires people smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.”
At Scopely, every leader is responsible for guarding that principle. Hiring isn’t a process run by HR; it’s a responsibility to the future of the team.
Embrace an alchemist mindset
That responsibility doesn’t end when the offer letter is signed. The best leaders I know treat talent as a living strategy, not a one-time decision by:
+ Constantly scouting for exceptional people—inside and outside the company.
+ Keeping a running bench of talent for the future, not just today.
+ Treating every conversation as a chance to discover someone who could change the business.
In other words, leaders have to be alchemists: turning potential into lasting impact.
Relentlessly raise the bar
I firmly believe that the companies that will win the next decade won’t be the ones with the flashiest strategies or the deepest pockets. They’ll be the ones with the courage to raise the bar by hiring, developing, and empowering exceptional people. They’ll be the companies that build around people, not products.
That’s the mindset we’ve committed to at Scopely. And it’s the mindset any company will need if it wants to thrive in the future.