The document discusses factors that support innovation and whether agile is enough to drive innovation. It argues that while agile promotes collaboration, creativity, experimentation and flexibility, innovation also requires: 1. Diverse thinking among team members to bring different perspectives and problem solving approaches. 2. Strong leadership that embraces failures and is willing to take risks, as exemplified by Jeff Bezos at Amazon. 3. An environment where there is no fear of failure and individuals have time and space to experiment freely with new ideas.

1. IS AGILE GOOD ENOUGH
FOR INNOVATION ?
Melbourne Agile Meet up group
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2. • 2002 Started with XP
• Agile coach
• Blogger: http://aglileworld.blogspot.comhttp
://agileworld.blogspot.com
• Author, Advisor and Writer
http://www.techwell.com/users/venkatesh-krishnamurthy)
p://agile.dzone.com/users/venky_nk
Venky Krishnamurthy

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4. Where did this start ?
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5. Plan for the next hour…
• Sources of Innovation
• Pillars supporting Innovation
• Conclusion
5

6. What is the source of
INNOVATION ?
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7. Goal Oriented
Accidental
Hobby/Curiosity
Necessity
Wealth and Money
Any combination
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8. Accidental
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Game NeverEnding
Minnesota Mining and
Manufacturing company
Weak Glue - Sticky paper for
his music notations

9. Goal Oriented
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Page and Brin
Mouse - Englebart
Xerox- Carlson
Spent 10 years researching this

10. Curiosity/Hobby
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George de Mestral invented Velcro in
response to the burrs he found on his
clothes after a hike.
Linus Torvalds began Linux as a
hobby: a way to learn about
software and explore making some
of his own.

11. Necessity
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Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.
org, needed a way to keep in touch
with friends about local events. The
simple email list grew too popular to
manage and evolved into the website
known today

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What common trait do you see among all these
inventors and inventions ? • Ha
• Individuals
• Passion
• Time at their
disposal
• No pressure to
deliver
• No fear of failure
• Right Tool
availability

13. Goal Oriented
Accidental
Hobby/Curiosity
Necessity
Wealth and Money
Any combination
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Companies-
Innovation to

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• Collaborative space
• Passionate/
Creative people
• Time to experiment
• Flexible Delivery
Schedule
• No fear of failure
• Right tool availability
Whether the innovation is done by individuals or
companies, the fundamental concepts remain the same.
• Ha
• Individuals
• Passion
• Time at their
disposal
• No pressure to
deliver
• No fear of failure
• Right Tool
availability

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• Collaborative space
• Passionate/
Creative people
• Time to experiment
• Flexible delivery
schedule
• No fear of failure
• Right tool availability

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Since we will be working with
other employees in building
innovative products,
Collaborative and spaces
igniting creativity are highly
essential.

17. Provide Creative space: Google office
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18. Provide Creative and collaborative space
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19. Unsuitable office spaces
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• Collaborative space
• Passionate/
Creative people
• Time to experiment
• Flexible delivery
schedule
• No fear of failure
• Right tool availability

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The Difference: How the
Power of Diversity Creates
Better Groups, Firms,
Schools, and Societies
Diversity in
Perspectives
Diverse
interpretations
Diverse Problem solving
techniques
Diverse way of
analyzing situation

22. Does your project have diverse thinking
people ?
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23. Lesson Learned: Without consciously making effort to
have diverse thinking people in the team, Agile
or Lean can’t help in building innovative
products.
What is the lesson learned ?
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• Collaborative space
• Passionate/
Creative people
• Time to experiment
• Flexible delivery
schedule
• No fear of failure
• Right tool and its
usage
Leadership

25. If it’s stillAmazon’s philosophy to make bold bets, I would expect that
maybe some of them wouldn’t work out, but I am just not seeing that.
So, my question is where are the losers?”
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During 2011 Shareholders meeting, an interesting question was asked
by a shareholder.
If you invent frequently and are willing to
fail, then you never get to that point where
you really need to bet the whole company.
AWS also started about six or seven years
ago.
And I can guarantee you that everything we
do will not work. And, I am never concerned
about that…. We are stubborn on vision.

26. How many managers or
leaders are like Jeff Bezos
embracing failures and
willing to bet ?
Lesson Learned: Strong leadership support is
necessary for innovation to succeed. One could
apply Agile, Lean but without a strong
leadership like Jeff Bezos, innovation won’t
succeed
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27. Story: Who killed innovation at 3M ?
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1/3 rd Revenue through
Innovation
James McNerney

28. There is a saying…..
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Process excellence demands
precision, consistency, and repetition,
innovation calls for variation,
failure, and serendipity

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If Organizations wants to
build innovative
products, embracing
Agile, Lean is not
sufficient… They need
to be supported by
What is the lesson learned ?
• Collaborative space
• Passionate/
Creative people
• Time to experiment
• Flexible delivery
schedule
• No fear of failure
• Right tool availability

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