Google: 9 Notions of Innovation

I found this great podcast on iTunes U. This is Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Product and User Experience at Google, talking about what she calls the ‘9 Notions of Innovation’. I found a video on Youtube as well:

Here is a gist of the main talking points during the presentation:

1. Ideas come from everywhere
   Google expects everyone to innovate, even the finance team
2. Share everything you can
   Every idea, every project, every deadline — it’s all accessible to everyone on the intranet
3. You’re brilliant, we’re hiring
   Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin approve hires. They favor intelligence over experience
4. A license to pursue dreams
   Employees get a “free” day a week. Half of new launches come from this “20% time”
5. Innovation, not instant perfection
   Google launches early and often in small beta tests, before releasing new features widely
6. Don’t politic, use data
   Mayer discourages the use of “I like” in meetings, pushing staffers to use metrics
7. Creativity loves restraint
   Give people a vision, rules about how to get there, and deadlines
8. Worry about usage and users, not money
   Provide something simple to use and easy to love. The money will follow.
9. Don’t kill projects — morph them
   There’s always a kernel of something good that can be salvaged

Anyone who knows me or has followed my blog (I’ve posted on life at Google earlier) will know just how much I respect the Google culture. I find it unsurprising that an entity that follows such a path towards innovation gains so much success and respect. My personal favourites are #2, 7 and 8. Although each point is one that I think should be followed everywhere, I see a particular need for these points to be highlighted amongst the people I work with, or don’t, or can’t. You get the idea. I wish this approach to innovation, and the Google philosophy, were more prevalent.

Here is the original stream. Click the play button below:

To attribute this as best I can: this cast is hosted by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program.