Innovation-time-box

Context

There is no product innovation anymore.

Action

Include time for experimentation in the schedule. For example half a day per Sprint, 5 days per quarter or whatever time frame suits your team.

During this time, the developers are free to do whatever they want.

At the end, the developers have to present what they worked on.

What you gain

Ideas or prototypes of potential innovations.

A lot of small improvements.

How to strengthen

Instead of just showing what you did, hold a workshop to expand and combine the ideas as a team.

Risks

Developers do things that are not relevant for the product. This is however mitigated by having to present what you did and by the limited available time.

More ideas at 101 ideas for agile teams

Many thanks to bbv Software Services for making this blog post possible.