Innovation at Atlassian

JOHN PAZ • IX WRITER
Innovation at Atlassian
Employee-driven, powered by culture

ABOUT INNOVATION
ABOUT ME
ATLASSIAN CULTURE
Agenda

John Paz
IX Writer
American Atlassian fanboy
From stuffy defence contractors to cutting
edge software producers.
Variety of experience
Worked on a wide variety of projects, from
military simulators to video games.
10 years working in tech
Been with Atlassian for 1.5 years, been a
fan of Atlassian for many more.

Two types of
innovation
Providing more-effective products,
processes, services, or technologies to
customers.
Increasing efficiency

• Big cool statistic
• 2,56
9
• Add-Ons in Marketplace

Two types of
innovation
Providing more-effective products,
processes, services, technologies, or
business models to customers.
Creating new ideas
Generating ideas that can change
perceptions of what's possible. Game-
changing ideas that drive real growth.
Increasing efficiency

What does ‘culture of
innovation’ even mean?

5 facets of effective grassroots
innovation programs

Employees on the frontline are more likely to
come up with game-changing innovations
than senior executives.
HUGH MOLOTSI, “HIDDEN ASSETS”
“
”

5 facets of
innovative work
environments
1. Freedom
2. Time
3. Collaborative culture and tools
4. Funding and support
5. A culture of experimentation
- Hugh Molotsi
Innovative workplace cultures provide employees with:

5 facets of
innovative work
environments
Employees are given autonomy to
explore ideas they are passionate
about.
Freedom
- Hugh Molotsi
#1

5 facets of
innovative work
environments
Employees are given self-directed
time, carved out from their day jobs,
to work on their own projects.
Time
- Hugh Molotsi
#2

5 facets of
innovative work
environments
Employees can self-organize and
form teams across departments, with
tools that enable this collaboration
and help employees learn about what
other employees are working on.
Collaborative culture
and tools
- Hugh Molotsi
#3

5 facets of
innovative work
environments
Things like resources, tools, training,
and mentoring to develop employee-
directed projects. And a formal
process to allow projects to
“graduate” to ofﬁcially funded
initiatives.
Funding and support
- Hugh Molotsi
#4

5 facets of
innovative work
environments
A safe workplace to share your ideas
is crucial; the ideal workplace is
where management decisions are
transparent, and the ideas of a
frontline employee can be tested
alongside ideas from senior leaders.
A culture of
experimentation
- Hugh Molotsi
#5

Be sure to check out Hugh and Jeff’s site
grassroots.guide
… and keep an eye out for their book.

How does Atlassian score as
an innovative working
environment?

5 facets of
innovative work
environments
- Hugh Molotsi
How Atlassian provides an innovative work environment:
Freedom
Time
Collaborative culture and tools
Funding and support
A culture of experimentation

ShipIt; How
it works?
None
How do you arrange people?
Self managing teams
What are the rules?
What do you work on?
Who wins?
Your passion, what excites you or will
delight our customers
Everyone! bragging rights!

ShipIt; The mechanism
Coffee + Beer + Pizza + Freedom = ?

ShipIt; Why
it works? Problem, your solution and a demo
Pitch your idea
Founders to Grads, everyone is
encouraged to get involved
Everyone can get involved
You can’t fail
If you’re learning and sharing with
your peers

20% Time you still tried, and picked up some
valuable skills. That’s what matters.
Even if your idea never ships
to work on whatever project they
want.
Everyone gets 1 day/week
But, if your project succeeds
You get to be a hero, and prove to
your managers you might be ready for
a promotion or role change.

Our culture
As Atlassian grows
guide our business, our product
development, and our brand.
Our North Star
They're the rudder in our sailboat.
These values are what we look for in
every potential employee.
5 company values
these ﬁve values remain constant.

Atlassian embraces transparency
wherever practical, and sometimes
where impractical. All information,
both internal and external, is public by
default. We are not afraid of being
honest with ourselves, our staff and
our customers.
Open company,
no bullshit

Building with heart means really
caring about what we're making and
doing–it's a mission, not just a job.
When we build with balance we take
into account how initiatives and
decisions will affect our colleagues,
customers and stakeholders.
Build with heart
and balance

When we make internal decisions we
ask ourselves "how will this affect our
customers?" If the answer is that it
would 'screw' them, or make life more
difﬁcult, then we need to ﬁnd a better
way. We want the customer to
respect us in the morning.
Don't #@!% the
customer

We want all Atlassians to feel like
they work with Atlassian, not for
Atlassian. We think it's important to
have fun with your workmates while
working and contributing to the
Atlassian team.
Play, as a team

Gandhi had it pretty right when he
said "We need to be the change we
wish to see in the world". At Atlassian
we're constantly looking for ways to
improve our company, our products
and our environment.
Be the change you
seek

Funding and
support
What started as someone’s pet project
evolved into an indispensable asset for
the company, and eventually into a multi-
million dollar product.
With the support from the executive team,
real resources were put behind
developing JIRA Service Desk into a
genuine product users love.
Began as a ShipIt project

• Big cool statistic
• 2,56
9
• Add-Ons in Marketplace
Design Week

Design-led,
data-driven
20% + ShipIt
Every product team in Atlassian has
designers embedded within them, to push
the boundaries and push out good ideas.
Gut feel only goes so far
Designers are everywhere
We do a fair bit of experimenting…
which is why Atlassian has a team of
dedicated user researchers to test any
and all crazy ideas we come up with.

The (not so)
secret sauce:
Agile
Why Agile?
Agile is defined by
incremental, iterative work cadences,
known as sprints. Lots of
opportunities to change on the ﬂy.
Unpredictability - Acute market
changes, emerging technology, or
employee crises.
Every project aspect
the code, requirements, design, etc.
— is continually revisited throughout
the lifecycle.

Thank you!
JOHN PAZ • SENIOR IX WRITER • ATLASSIAN • @TECHWRITERNINJA

• Articles referenced in preparation for this presentation
• Inside Atlassian: building a culture of innovation, by Dan Garfield
• Hidden assets, by Hugh Molotsi
• 5 Ways to Build Your Innovation Culture, by Jeff Zias
• Assessing the Health of Enterprise Innovation Programs, by Hugh Molotsi
• Update to the Innovation Programs Assessment Model, by Hugh Molotsi
• Experimentation Gives You Innovation Superpowers, by Hugh Molotsi
• Links to images used
• Industrial revolution pic: http://jdayhistory.weebly.com/uploads/8/9/5/0/8950306/2594377_orig.jpg
• iPhone 3GS pic: https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gwWl6mK6tzM/UI4960Ob9xI/AAAAAAAADho/YvzRwdPYzcU/s1600/image3.jpg
• Netflix/Redbox pic: https://bandbent.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/netflix-n-redbox.jpg
• Lightning in a bottle pic: http://s5.postimg.org/3xuij0trb/1_13.jpg
• Hugh and Jeff’s pics: http://grassroots.guide/
References

Innovation at Atlassian

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