Employee Driven Innovation Creating organization
wide impact through individual initiative

About me Prachi Gupta Hackday
Master [in]cubator co-founder Women in Technology co-founder Engineering Manager at LinkedIn  Twitter: @prchg  LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/prachigupta

Outline • Innovation Basics •
Innovation at LinkedIn • Jump start you own cycle

Let’s talk about innovation

innovation = invention ?

Invention: Creation of a product
or introduction of a process for the first time.

Innovation: Improving on or make
significant contribution to an existing product, process or service.

Invention
Microprocessor

Invention
Microprocessor
Innovation
Smart phones

Invention
Glue
Paper

Invention Glue Paper Innovation Post-it
notes

Who is an innovator ?

You can’t get the right
answer if you are asking the wrong question.

Imagination is more important than
knowledge. Albert Einstien

Everybody may not be an
inventor, but we are all innovators

sounds great, but …

So how do we make
innovation a habit ?

Let me tell you the
story of Hackday and [in]cubator programs at Linke dIn

This is the story of
scalable, best-of-breed methods for driving innovation

This is the story of
transformation: of your career, company and the world

Outline • Internal hackdays •
Public hackdays • LinkedIn [in]cubator

Internal Hackdays

“A hack is a quick
and dirty solution to a real world problem. It’s never perfect or complete, but it’s almost always clever and insightful.”

One Friday per month we
have hackday Open to all LinkedIn employees

Use the day to work
on anything you want Submit your hack on an internal website

Present the hack to the
whole company Executive staff acts as Judges 3 wins get you the title of Hackday Master

www.linkedinlabs.com Internal hackday winners and
experimental projects

inMaps
Visualize your professional network

Year in Review See who
changed jobs in the last year. "The best networking email you'll get all year" (CNN).

M.O.C.H.A Skill translation and job
search tool for Veterans Presented to Dr. Jill Biden & Aneesh Chopra (former US CTO)

Public Hackdays

eat hack sleep

Year round events; variety of
locations and themes http://hackday.linkedin.com/

Open to hackers from all
over the world 24 hours non-stop hacking

Food, Drinks & Yoga

Industry leaders, investors and local
celebrity judges

Prizes!

I built a great hack.
How do I get it to production ?

LinkedIn [in]cubator

A chance to work exclusively
on your idea for 1-3 months

Created by a group of
Hackday Masters

[in]cubator History  Motivation: an
official path from hackday to production  Inspired by startup incubators and accelerators  Incorporates learnings from a number of other companies that had similar programs.

[in]cubator was the first [in]cubator
project

Happens once per quarter Open
to all LinkedIn employees

Submit proposals on internal [in]cubator
site

[in]cubator Proposal  Description 
Team members  Timeline  Proof of concept or prototype  Success metrics  Risks, competitors  Technical details

No one will be ever
be assigned to an [in]cubator project. It's up to the team to convince anyone they need to join.

Top teams present to the
execs

Judging Criteria  Impact: what
value does this project bring to LinkedIn?  Feasibility: how hard is this to build? What are the risks?  Timeline: can v1 be done in 3 months?  Team ability: can this team pull it off?

Open to almost any type
of project  New products  New revenue lines  Internal tools  Infrastructure/technology improvements  HR processes  New training programs  Philanthropic programs

Why all this matters 
Learning  Motivation  Innovation

1. Learning

In a 24 hour hackday,
you can learn more about building products and about yourself than in a year of university classes

Hackday, [in]cubator = Learning 
Rapid prototyping  New technologies, libraries, techniques  Team formation, project management  Trade-offs, scheduling, focus  Sales pitch, design, marketing  Stamina

Hacking regularly will make you
better at your job

2. Motivation

Money can’t buy happiness

Autonomy. Mastery. Purpose Dan Pink
The surprising science of innovation

Hackday, [in]cubator = Motivation 
You can't buy motivation  For creative roles (programmers, designers), money reduces motivation (mo' money, mo' problems)  Hackday and [in]cubator = happier, more motivated, and more productive employees

3. Innovation

Genius is one percent inspiration,
ninety-nine percent perspiration. Thomas Edison

Hackday, [in]cubator = Innovation 
All product development is trial and error  Hackday and [in]cubator are trial and error at light speed  Innovation is something you do, not something you have

Final Thoughts

Innovation is a process

Even if not a single
innovative project ever came out of hackday or [in]cubator, it would still be worth doing.

Kickstart your own Innovation cycle
 Design a program cadence that works for you  Get Executive and management sponsorship  Create a place for sharing ideas and collaboration  Have dedicated workspace for teams away from their regular desk  Find out what works for the culture in your organization

Give one day per month
back to employees. It will pay for itself many times over.

Thank You ! - from
me and my fellow Innovators at LinkedIn Email: praachee@gmail.com Twitter: @prchg @LinkedInEng