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From Sims to Wordle: How Jonathan Knight (NYT Games) Hires for Leadership Potential & Builds Creative Cultures That Win
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Leading creative teams demands more than vision, it requires clarity, alignment, and consistency. In this episode of Mission One: The Executive Edge, host Gerard Miles speaks with Jonathan Knight, Head of Games at The New York Times, about his journey from EA and Zynga to building one of the most successful digital puzzle platforms in the world. Jonathan reflects on how clear leadership communication, authentic organisational culture, and future-focused hiring strategy create the foundations for sustainable growth.
He shares how to craft a message that teams can echo across every layer of the business, why leaders must repeat that vision until it becomes shared language, and how strong communication underpins alignment across large organisations. Jonathan also unpacks his approach to recruitment, focusing less on what candidates have done and more on what they will do, and redefines “office politics” as the essential work of collaboration. The conversation closes with practical reflections on decision-making, instinct, and the fine balance between creative leadership and commercial discipline.
What You’ll Learn
- How to communicate a clear and repeatable leadership vision that aligns teams at every level
- Why thoughtful hiring strategy focuses on potential and future performance, not just past experience
- How to reframe organisational politics as alignment and collaboration
- Ways to design an interview process that tests for collaboration, curiosity, and initiative
- Why reference checks should serve as a red-light filter rather than a green-light endorsement
- How instinct complements data in making final hiring decisions
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FAQs
Q: How do you make strategy stick across layers of leadership?
A: Use one clear line of vision and repeat it everywhere until your leads echo it to their teams. Consistency beats cleverness.
Q: Isn’t “politics” a negative?
A: In large organisations, politics is alignment work, which includes mapping decisions, owners, and trade-offs so that teams can move together.
Q: What’s the core of Jonathan’s hiring approach?
A: Hire for what candidates will do. Use future scenarios, interview explicitly for collaboration, and keep a fair, standardised panel.
Q: How should references be used?
A: As a red-light screen to catch derailers (toxicity, integrity issues). Don’t let glowing references make the decision for you.
Q: When does “gamification” help?
A: Only when mechanics advance the brand promise. If it’s a bolt-on, users will feel it and reject it.
Q: Why did NYT Games fit the Times brand?
A: Puzzles for curious readers are part of the paper’s DNA. The portfolio extends that heritage, thoughtful, editorially crafted, and daily.
Episode Resources:
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