We do things differently.

We move quickly.

We try things that sound like good ideas.

We don’t ask permission.

We explore.

“The Right Way” — There Are Several

Sometimes, we make people uncomfortable. They say, “I’m not sure we can do that.” or “That’s not the way we do things.” or ask “Have you checked with __?”

If people are telling us that we’re doing it wrong, it’s because they are uncomfortable with changes that they don’t understand. It’s valuable feedback.

The truth is, however, there is no one “Right Way” to do things, especially when your goal is to innovate.

Culture of Innovation

Innovation requires change.

Innovation requires moving forward with 75% of the information.

Innovation requires curiosity … enthusiasm, discipline, and patience.

On our teams, we encourage curiosity and enthusiasm. We try things … to see what will happen, instead of holding meetings to discuss all of the reasons why it might not work.

We carefully measure the outcomes of our experiments, and we weigh how the lessons we’ve learned may be applied to other teams, other products. We document our assumptions and our approaches, so that we can validate our results.

Results

None of the above matters without results. So, what are we seeing? We’re building compelling mobile experiences that are knocking the socks off of our Alpha testers, and we’re building them quickly, with minimal process and minimal overhead.

Keep an eye on this blog for previews of some of the exciting projects that we’re building, and insights into the techniques and methods that we’re using in Durham.

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