Applying Innovation in Software Development

1. Innovation in the Enterprise Applying Innovation in Software Development Amish Gandhi Keynote Talk

2. Amish Gandhi Founder and Principal at Perpetual: Product Innovation and Development for Finance, Media and Telecom www.perpetualny.com Innovation Background • Working on innovating financial information services • Working on wearable computing solutions for media • Experience developing emerging technology based products in telecom • Advanced Study Fellow in innovation at MIT MS Computer Science from Univ. of Texas, Austin BS Computer Science from Bombay University Finance Media TelecomBackground

3. Contents • Intro – What is Innovation – What it is not • Business Innovation – What it is – Innovators Dilemma • Innovation in Software Companies – How it is different – Innovation as a discipline • 7 Steps for Software Innovation

4. Innovation: Inspiration or Perspiration?

5. What is Innovation? Innovation is a process that combines • discovering an opportunity • blueprinting an idea to seize that opportunity • and implementing that idea to achieve results

6. No impact, no innovation

7. What is Innovation (NOT)? • Innovation is not improvement – Innovation != doing the same thing better – Innovation == doing something different • Innovation does not go unnoticed – Innovation != something incremental – Innovation == something that results in big impact • Innovation is not invention – Innovation != Invention = the creation of the idea or method itself – Innovation == invention applied

8. Business Innovation

9. Innovation and Business Impact • Growing the core • Extending the core • Expanding beyond the core Innovation path Business Innovation 1-click shopping Associates Cloud Services

10. Amazon Innovation Path Market cap $167B Continuous Innovation 1994 Company incorporated. 1996 Launches Associates Prog 1997 1-Click Shopping. 1998 Music and movies 1999 Auctions 2000 Super Saving Shipping 2001 Look Inside The Book 2002 Launches AWS V1 2003 A9.com search engine 2004 Exposes product data 2005 Amazon Prime 2006 Amazon Unbox (movies) 2007 Amazon MP3 2007 Amazon Kindle 2009 Free Android shopping app 2010 Deals & LivingSocial 2011 Prime instant video 2011 Amazon local 2012 Dynamo DB 2013 New national fulfil. model 2013 Kindle Fire HDX

11. MIT Innovation Radar Business Innovation: Discovery Platform/Solutions Quadrant 1. The unexpected 2. The reality inequality 3. Process need 4. Market structure changes 5. Demographics changes 6. Cust. perception change 7. New knowledge

12. Performance demanded at market high end Progress due to sustaining technologies Progress due to disruptive technologies ProductPerformance Time Performance demanded at the low end of the market Innovators Dilemma Business Innovation: Opportunities Disruptive technologies

13. Performance demanded at market high end Progress due to sustaining technologies Progress due to disruptive technologies ProductPerformance Time Performance demanded at the low end of the market Innovators Dilemma Business Innovation: Opportunities Motorized Engine

14. Performance demanded at market high end Progress due to sustaining technologies Progress due to disruptive technologies ProductPerformance Time Performance demanded at the low end of the market Innovators Dilemma NoSQL Business Innovation: Opportunities

15. Innovation in Software Companies

16. Innovation in Software Companies Attribute Effect 1. Disruptive technologies New opportunities for disruption 2. Market trends Exponential customer adoption: Realtime, hyperlocal, super-connected, always-on 3. Lower Barrier to Entry Ability to create something from nothing much more easily 4. Competition High number of entrants, big and small 5. Higher level value creation S/W dev process evolved – 1-2 week delivery cycle is typical vs. 3 month cycle 6. Complex Different software solutions for the same problem 7. Can have huge impact with limited resources Can unlock new business models. Enterprises should allocate resources to new innovation Innovation in Software Companies

17. Performance demanded at market high end Progress due to sustaining technologies Progress due to disruptive technologies ProductPerformance Time Performance demanded at the low end of the market Innovation in Software Cos: 1. Disruptive Technologies AWS Android Mapreduce Bigtable Hadoop Hbase NodeJS Scala Cloud Computing Big Data D3.js Coffee Script/Backbone Data Visualization Elastic search Nginx Hudson GO R require.js less/sass/compass, HTML5…

18. Innovation in Software Cos: 2. Market Trends

19. Innovation in Software Cos. 3. Lower Barrier to Entry Everything starts as nothing

20. Innovation in Software Cos. 4. Competition Competition

21. Innovation in Software Companies 5. Higher Level Value Creation Value Value Value Value Value WaterfallAgile

22. Innovation in Software Cos. 6. Complexity

23. Instagram scaled to 30 million active users with a team of two infrastructure engineers Innovation in Software Cos. 7. Limited resources, huge impact 30,000,000

24. Innovation in Software Companies Attribute Effect 1. Disruptive technologies New opportunities for disruption 2. Market trends Exponential customer adoption: Realtime, hyperlocal, super-connected, always-on 3. Lower Barrier to Entry Ability to create something from nothing much more easily 4. Competition High number of entrants, big and small 5. Higher level value creation S/W dev process evolved – 1-2 week delivery cycle is typical vs. 3 month cycle 6. Complex Different software solutions for the same problem 7. Can have huge impact with limited resources Can unlock new business models. Enterprises should allocate resources to new innovation Innovation in Software Companies

25. Applying Innovation in a Software Company 7 Steps

26. 7 Steps 1. Make it the norm 2. Make it a company mission 3. Create an innovation culture 4. Experiment 5. Collaborate 6. Every stage counts 7. Scouting

28. Step 1: Make it the norm • Make it part of the day-to-day • Manage it like any other corporate function • Give it time and resources • Create a sense of urgency –Not just for PR purposes • Create the right innovation culture Entrepreneurial/Intrapreneurial innovation model Step 1: Make it the norm

29. Step 1: Make it the norm. How? Step 1: Make it the norm -Make it one of your business initiatives -Make it one of your employee objectives -Manage it like any other corporate function Projectize Focus on your long term goals Go long Evaluate your innovation culture and make adjustments Culture

30. Step 1: Make it the norm. How? Step 1: Make it the norm Engage legal about protecting Intellectual Property - Plug in to the IP ecosystem. Creating IP is a bonus. IP Spread and sell your ideas Use visuals at every step and promote on the intranet and in public boards in the office Don't talk about “changes” Change makes people nervous. Talk about pursuing new opportunities Perception

31. • Software developers are proud of their work • Eg many open source projects where developers participate to contribute to a common goal • Tech is cool again • Showcase the latest developments and activities Nourish and harness intrinsic motivation Raise profile of engineering in the company Step 1: Make it the norm Step 1: Make it the norm. How?

32. • Innovation Friendly Process – Agile – Lean – UCD – Kanban – Continuous integration and delivery – Rapid prototyping – Experimentation time on sprints • Eg Hacker Friday Step 1: Make it the norm: Innovation friendly processes Step 1: Make it the norm. How? Start with this, structure your teams accordingly

33. Spotify: Scaling Agile Step 1: Make it the norm

34. Step 1: Make it the norm

35. • Tools to manage innovation – Brightidea – IdeaScale – InnoCentive – Innovation Factory – Imaginatik – Sopheon – Spigit – ………. Step 1: Make it the norm: Tools Step 1: Make it the norm. How?

37. Step 2: Company Mission • Should be part of your company mission statement • An executive champion who believes the new idea is critical and is persistent about it • A senior sponsor to marshal resources (people, money, time) with a focus on innovation Top down innovation model Step 2: Make it a Company Mission

38. Step 2: Company Mission • A small number of ambitious projects vetted by organizational top layers • There should be a mix of – bright, creative minds (to get ideas) and – experienced operators (to keep things practical) • A process that moves ideas through the system quickly – End to end validation Top down innovation model Step 2: Make it part of your Company Mission

40. Step 3: Create an Innovation Culture 1. Challenge or involvement 2. Freedom 3. Trust or openness 4. Idea time 5. Idea support 6. Playfulness or humor 7. Risk-taking 8. Debate 9. Conflict’ 10. Experimentation 1-9 Ekvall G (1996) Organizational climate for creativity and innovation • Rate from 1 to 10 • Take the sum = your company’s innovation culture score Score Rating >90% Super innovator 80-90% Highly creative 70-80% Stable growth 60-70% Warning zone <60% Danger zone Step 3: Create an Innovation Culture: Evaluate Evaluating Innovation Culture

41. • Flatter org structures • Open and powerful development environments • Services and tools to help launch products • An attitude of experimentation & openness to experiment failure • Services and tools to test and get user feedback as early as possible • Generous rewards and recognition for successful innovation Attributes of innovative software culture Step 3: Culture Step 3: Culture

42. Creativity Enhancing Techniques • Brainstorming : usually misunderstood – Separate idea generation from idea valuation – Duration? Quantity = quality. • First ideas are usually old • As ideation continues, new ones emerge – 6-12 people to bring different points of view • Let participants build on each others ideas Step 3: Create an Innovation Culture

43. Six Thinking Hats Information (White) Emotions (Red) Discernment (Black) Optimistic response (Yellow) Creativity (Green) Facilitator (Blue) Step 3: Create an Innovation Culture

44. • Identify customer requirements for an ideal product through Product Box • Improve retrospectives with Speed Boat • Prioritize your backlog through the online game Buy a Feature Online • Plan a successful project through the game Remember the Future • Develop better release plans with Prune the Product Tree • Understand product usage with Me and My Shadow and Start Your Day http://innovationgames.com/agile-teams Step 3: Create an Innovation Culture Use Games to encourage creative development Innovation games in a software group

46. Step 4: Experiment • Run experiments instead of going on hunches • Experiment lean and quick – Validate your assumptions quickly – Discard ideas, move one, fail fast • Build early (a working prototype or code) – Many advantages: users, stakeholders • No penalty for failed experiments • Focus on building real stuff vs. plans/designs • Hack days Step 4: Experiment

47. Prototyping Tools • Flinto • Hop App • Sketch Mirror • Axure • FluidUI • Balsamiq • Wirefy • Keynotopia • DivShot • Invision Step 4: Experiment: Prototyping Tools • Twitter Bootstrap • Justinmind • Pidoco • Fieldtest • Sketchflow • FluidUI • iRise • UXPin • Ease.io

49. Internal Collaboration • Plan joint working activities across business units – Eg Editorial and Tech hackathon – BizDev and Tech roadmap brainstorm • Embed of teams/rotation • Exchange programs within groups • Common codebase (highly indexed/searchable) • Cross-team skill breakdown and knowledge sharing Step 5: Collaborate Step 5: Collaborate: Internal

50. Example of Internal Collaboration DSL + Phone booths = Manhattan taken

51. • University collaboration – Always exploring something new, fresh and new ideas – Work together on a project • Open up your API and conduct contests • Engage external dev community – Attract talent – Get community to give back • Invite external company partners – Talks, brown bag lunches Step 5: Collaborate Step 5: Collaborate: External Involve partners at an early stage A critical expert resource in software innovation can have 10X the impact of an average software engineer External Collaboration

53. Step 6: Innovate at Every Stage What you are not doing Innovation Company Vision Software Product Development User Experience Front End Middle Layer Back End Hardware Support Stack Step 6: Innovate at every stage

54. Software Delivery Process Introspection What you are not doing Innovation Software Product Development Idea generation Planning Software development Verification Launch Feedback Process Step 6: Innovate at every stage Company Vision

55. IdeaGenPlanningDevVerificationFeedbackLaunch Introspective Step 6: Innovate at every stage

57. 7. Technology & Software Scouting • Actively seek out new technologies starting to have impact – Competition – Successful startups – Research centers – Conferences (QCon!) • Trending github projects • Experiment with new technology • Trend to tech ecosystem linking Example • Wearables growing very fast • What are the components in the ecosystem • What new technologies will be adopted • What new technologies meet our current needs • How can we adopt them Step 7: Technology/Software Scouting

58. Technologies/Software Scouting • NodeJS • Scala • Cloud computing • Big Data • D3.js • Coffee script/backbone • Data visualization… • Elastic search • Nginx • Nolio • Google GO • R (V2) • require.js (javascript dependency management) • less/sass/compass : css pre- processors Step 7: Technology/Software Scouting • 3D Printing • Bitcoin mining • Machine learning • Ephemeral data • Smartwatch • Grid computing • HTML 5 • CSS3 • Game theory • MongoDB • Django • NoSQL • Jquery • Ember • Angular • ……. Sample technologies having impact in last 2 years

59. 7 Steps 1. Make it the norm 2. Make it a company mission 3. Create an innovation culture 4. Experiment 5. Collaborate 6. Every stage counts 7. Scout

60. Ideas are no one’s monopoly