A lot of companies ask their employees to innovate but not a lot create an environment that enables and encourages such innovation. Then there’s Intuit. As a relatively new member of the Intuit community, I was unaware of the entrepreneurial atmosphere the company cultivated. Incubation Week? You mean I can go up to Silicon Valley and launch a startup product in a week? What young designer wouldn’t dance around with excitement over the prospect? [Awkward answer to a rhetorical question] None..except maybe those who don’t like to dance. This is the story of Mojo.

Mojo’s inception was inspired by a single frightening statistic:

In 2010, 75% of Americans facing retirement had less than $30k saved.

If this wasn’t alarming enough, we realized that future generations would likely face the same issue. On that day in August 2013, we decided we had to do something. Fast-forward to today and Mojo is in beta with over 450 early-access requests and has been featured in tech blogs such as BetaList and Webrazzi. So why has Mojo been so successful?

We attended Incubation Week

In April 2014, our group traveled to Mountain View to participate in Intuit Lab’s Incubation Week. Mojo would not be where it is today without the guidance and resources from the Intuit Labs team. I’m not saying it was easy; Incubation Week was a tireless, stressful, 110% week but by the end we were stunned at what we had accomplished.

We acted like a startup

Like the name implies, Incubation Week is intended to take a startup idea and give it the resources it needs to be successful. We took this to heart and truly acted like a startup. This eager attitude allowed my team to work through nights and weekends, ignoring the “no’s” and striving for the “yes’s” and in the end, it was our passion for the problem and not the solution that led Mojo to where it is today.

We compromised on technology, not outcome

We realized early on that achieving our outcome and user experience objectives meant making serious concessions. So, we compromised on the technology and constantly met with stakeholders to iron out the details. All the while, however, our team remained committed to the user experience we envisioned. It was undoubtedly a test of the team’s fortitude and the integrity of this project.

We had fun

This sounds cliche, but honestly, we had fun (of course after hours of heads-down work). Incubation week was a blast. Four or five project teams in one room moving quickly, innovating, building; what’s not to love?