Case study:

Immutable

Immutable is powering the next generation of web3 games on ImmutableX – the leading platform for building and scaling play-worthy games on Ethereum.

ImmutableX is the preferred platform to mint, trade, and scale digital assets, empowering developers to build in days with the support of a world-class team, passionate web3 gaming community, and holistic ecosystem of infrastructure solutions.

Today, many world-class web3 games are built on ImmutableX, including Gods Unchained, Guild of Guardians, Illuvium, Embersword, Planet Quest and many more.

The Immutable headquarters are located in the heart of Sydney CBD, and they have built a world class team of incredible technologists, creators and innovators globally.

Challenges

Immutable was a fast-growing tech startup of sub 50 people when they came to Project F in early 2021 to help achieve their gender diversity goals. Meanwhile, the company has already achieved a status of an Australian “unicorn” in March 2022, following a successful $200 million Series C funding round led by Temasek. Other investors included prominent companies such as Tencent Holdings, Animoca Brands, Mirae Asset, ParaFi Capital, and Declaration Partners.

Today, Immutable is valued at around $3.5 billion and is well-known in the industry for its holistic and inclusive approach to web3 gaming and a plethora of partner studios. Immutable is also known for its Immutable Game Studios’ hit blockchain games, such as Gods Unchained and the upcoming Guild of Guardians, which have already teamed up with the world’s leading esports organisations.

Ultimately, Immutable was approaching a steep growth trajectory, and co-founders Robbie Ferguson, James Ferguson, and Alex Connolly were aligned and intentional in their vision of creating an inclusive and equitable workforce. They were also aware of the not-insignificant challenges this vision presented in their subsectors of an already male-dominated industry (tech), i.e. gaming and blockchain.

Solutions

The analysis process took several months to complete while Immutable grew at a phenomenal rate and new global teams were being formed. Once complete, insights were delivered in September 2021 that showed several key process gaps and areas for change that needed to be addressed that would remove barriers, specifically women in the technology teams and leadership

The resulting recommendations included:

Sourcing and hiring process improvements and training
Setting targets and measures in recruitment and people
A focus on leader capability in performance management
Policy improvements on pay, promotion, flexible working and paid paternity leave
Inclusive workspace design

Each element was broken down into digestible milestones and planned out in 3-month chunks to dovetail into people op’s strategic objectives so they made sense. The team at Project F provided guidance, resources and tools during each quarterly cycle where needed.

It’s important to note that Immutable’s extreme growth journey during this timeframe meant a good deal of flexibility and commercial pragmatism had to be applied to ensure sustainable outcomes would be achievable.

"The rollout of the Project F Roadmap has led to meaningful improvements across the board in representation, retention and engagement and has given our leadership team the tools needed to continually improve as we scale and grow."

Kevin McHugh, VP Engineering, Immutable

The results

Whilst being a part of Project F’s certification program, the company has seen a huge leap in DEI maturity, which it achieved during a challenging period of hyper-growth (tech team headcount alone grew by 142%), including:

Increased representation of women in tech by 3.3% in 1st year (across levels)
Reduced attrition of women in tech by 1% in the first year
Increased diversity hiring by 23%. At the time of publishing, 28%.
Engineering gender diversity headcount breakdown improved by 13%
Increased sourcing of diverse candidates by 40%
Significantly improved parental leave experience with extensive policy improvements
Created inclusive interview experience for female candidates applying for tech roles
Upgraded interviewer training
Inclusive Leadership training designed for a phased rollout
Emerging Leader Development program planned for rollout
A move to new offices, which were intentionally designed for inclusivity

As a result of these achievements in the first year of accreditation, Immutable was awarded Level 3 of the Project F Program certification in July 2022.

The next phases of progress were mapped and put into a plan, focusing on inclusive practices, strategic enablers and process gaps.