is agile good enough for innovation ?

IS AGILE GOOD ENOUGH

FOR INNOVATION ?

Melbourne Agile Meet up group

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• 2002 Started with XP

• Agile coach

• Blogger: http://aglileworld.blogspot.comhttp

://agileworld.blogspot.com

• Author, Advisor and Writerhttp://www.techwell.com/users/venkatesh-krishnamurthy)

p://agile.dzone.com/users/venky_nk

Venky Krishnamurthy

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Where did this start ?

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Plan for the next hour…

• Sources of Innovation

• Pillars supporting Innovation

• Conclusion

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What is the source of

INNOVATION ?

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Goal Oriented

Accidental

Hobby/Curiosity

Necessity

Wealth and Money

Any combination

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Accidental8

Game NeverEnding

Minnesota Mining and

Manufacturing company

Weak Glue -� Sticky paper for

his music notations

Goal Oriented

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Page and Brin

Mouse - Englebart

Xerox- Carlson

Spent 10 years researching this

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.

Necessity 11

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

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.

Provide Creative space: Google office

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Provide Creative and collaborative space

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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

Does your project have diverse thinking

people ?

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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

If it’s still Amazon’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.

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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Story: Who killed innovation at 3M ?

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1/3 rd Revenue through Innovation

James McNerney

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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