Speeding Up Innovation • Adrian Cockcroft • YOW! 2019

Innovation speed requires restructuring from project-based to product-based teams with continuous ownership and accountability

Four key areas that enable innovation:

• Leadership that empowers judgment vs following rules
• Skills development with incentives to learn new technologies
• Organization structure aligned to products vs projects
• Culture that encourages experimentation and fast iteration

Small, incremental changes are less risky and enable faster innovation compared to large batches of changes

Automated continuous delivery pipeline with feature flags and rapid builds is essential for speed

Moving to cloud requires shifting from capital expenses (data centers) to operational expenses, which can challenge traditional CFO mindsets

Netflix and Amazon cultures emphasize:

• High trust and employee judgment
• Top market compensation to attract best talent
• Product team ownership end-to-end
• Rapid experimentation and learning

Innovation requires eliminating handovers between development and operations (DevOps)

Observable systems with good monitoring enable faster problem detection and resolution

Organizations need incentives aligned with learning new skills and technologies

Success requires intentional culture that matches your organization’s purpose and scale