‘Innovation’ vs. ‘optimization’ require different organizational cultures that neutralize each other when mixed. But many companies need to do both. How can they succeed?
Innovation and optimization are opposite cultures of product development that should not be mixed. This article evaluates the most common approach used to keep them separate: the Internal Startup Model.
(There’s a presentation version of this post here.)
The Product Discovery Model is an alternative to the Internal Startup Model for inventing digital consumer products, designed to address many of its shortcomings. The Product Discovery Model reframes the…
Hackathons are one or two day events devoted to free-form tinkering by ad hoc groups of engineers, open to anyone in the group (usually, the whole company). There is a large literature on this mode of innovation…
The hackathon is a mainstay of tech company culture, but what is its actual value and how can we maximize its considerable potential?