Here is an interesting way to drive innovation in your organization

Having just come back from the Atlassian Summit - I am reflecting on all the cool things Atlassian does, but perhaps the most interesting is their Shipit day and the effect it has on the organization as a whole.  Shipit is a celebrated event,  where everyone gets 24 hrs (and I mean this straight through) to build something. They compete across the company for the right to wear a T shirt. But in a company full of innovators, this is considered a high honor.

Watching a bunch of young Atlassians get on the stage in front of 2000 avid customers and partners, explain what they developed and then to sell us, the audience, on why should vote for it, struck me what an amazing experience this must be to work for the company.  Everyone competes and everyone's ideas are voted on.  This is what real, high speed innovation feels like.

At the Summit Shipit we witnessed one engineer who developed a JIRA DJ Kanban board that is a sound mixer and can be used in a nightclub (yeah thats pretty crazy right? - you can download it too on the marketplace).  Customers too were invited to participate with their ideas.  But some ideas are game changers and some, such as in line editing for Confluence, are just pure value added to their products.

Here are the key takeaways from this;

Time is freely given for all employees to do this - it is a gift of innovation time to employees.  But think about what this could mean to the growth of your company and the efficiencies it could bring. By rotating the timing too, teams can cover for others, who are heads down building some crazy stuff.  Individuals or self organizing cross functional teams can participate on a voluntary basis.

This is real. Its not slide ware - you really have to build it (aka Shipit).  This puts a focus on things that can be done quickly and identifies many of the blockers that stop things from being done quickly.   For organizations transforming themselves to being Agile, this is a great way to extend the program to all employees.

In larger organizations such a program could cut through  bureaucracy and unleash the true potential of all your teams.  Even better it will help to make your company more attractive to employees by fostering a climate of innovation. So if you want to learn more about Shipit and even how JIRA can help you manage such a program, drop me a line.