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Innovation Ain't Easy: Lessons Learned from 8 years in the Trenches at Atlassian

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colleenfry

This document summarizes lessons learned from 8 years of innovation experiments at Atlassian, including their initial 20% time experiment allowing developers to work on self-directed projects one day per week. It describes some of Atlassian's early 20% time projects that later became official products. It also discusses how maintaining dedicated innovation time became challenging as roadmaps grew full and stakeholders questioned its effectiveness and impact on productivity. Overall it presents insights into challenges of fostering innovation within a large company through a dedicated time experiment approach.

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Innovation Ain't Easy: Lessons Learned from 8 years in the Trenches at Atlassian
Innovation ain’t Easy: LESSONS LEARNT FROM 8 YEARS IN THE TRENCHES AT ATLASSIAN NICK MENERE • JIRA DEV MANAGER • ATLASSIAN • @GOODNICK
2005 - 20% Time Experiment
“ We’ll be completely honest – so that others can learn from our experiences ” MIKE CANNON-BROOKES, ATLASSIAN, 2005
Innovation Ain't Easy: Lessons Learned from 8 years in the Trenches at Atlassian
The Early Years • No Roadmaps • No Managers • Product Managers? • No Worries!
Fedex ShipIt
2005 - The First Fedex • Few Rules • 10 Developers • No Competition • 1 Day • Lots of Pizza • Just Show Off
The Evolution of ShipIt • Quarterly • Game On! • Teams & Finals • 2 Days • More than just Developers • Delivery Focus?
Idea Generation
ShipIt Successes • Elastic Bamboo • Side By Side Diffs in FishEye • Task List Macro in Confluence • ViewPort
Zero Failures!!
“ To have a great idea, have lots of them. ” THOMAS A. EDISON
20%
What is 20% • Crowd Sourced Ideas • A Motivator • A Marketing Tool • An Investment
Different Teams / Different Models • A day a week • Innovation Weeks • Bootcamp • Incubator • How much time do we really take?
Don’t call it 20%!
20% Successes • Unicorn Platform • JIRA 4.3 - 50% of Release Notes • JQL Auto-complete • Raphaël • 100s of others
Failing at 20%
“ “ “ “ “ Google’s “20% time,” is now as good as dead ” QUARTZ Google 'kills' perk that gave users Gmail, Gtalk ” The Times of India Google cuts back on 20% me-time: Can innovation be the work of one department? ” Smart Company Is this the beginning of the end of Google’s golden age of innovation? ” Investor Place Google plants seeds for its innovation destruction Smart Planet ”
“ Our roadmap is too full. EVERY MANAGER ”
“ We can’t trust developers with a percentage of our roadmap? EVERY BUSINESS OWNER ”
“ We don’t want devs hacking, we want them coding. EVERY DEV MANAGER ”
“ Is it worth it? EVERY STAKEHOLDER ”
Innovation Ain't Easy: Lessons Learned from 8 years in the Trenches at Atlassian
Innovation Ain't Easy: Lessons Learned from 8 years in the Trenches at Atlassian
Innovation Ain't Easy: Lessons Learned from 8 years in the Trenches at Atlassian
Innovation Ain't Easy: Lessons Learned from 8 years in the Trenches at Atlassian
Innovation Ain't Easy: Lessons Learned from 8 years in the Trenches at Atlassian
Innovation Ain't Easy: Lessons Learned from 8 years in the Trenches at Atlassian
Innovation Ain't Easy: Lessons Learned from 8 years in the Trenches at Atlassian
Innovation Ain't Easy: Lessons Learned from 8 years in the Trenches at Atlassian
Innovation Ain't Easy: Lessons Learned from 8 years in the Trenches at Atlassian
Innovation Ain't Easy: Lessons Learned from 8 years in the Trenches at Atlassian
Innovation Ain't Easy: Lessons Learned from 8 years in the Trenches at Atlassian
Innovation Ain't Easy: Lessons Learned from 8 years in the Trenches at Atlassian
Thank you! NICK MENERE • JIRA DEV MANAGER • ATLASSIAN • @GOODNICK
Rate this Talk From the Trenches with the Newest Atlassian Product Text code below to 22333 or visit http://bit.ly/14T3J5O MEH = 3J NO T BA D = 3K P R ET T Y GO O D = 3L A WES O ME = 3M To join this session, send text 136888 to

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Innovation Ain't Easy: Lessons Learned from 8 years in the Trenches at Atlassian