Innovation Is Not Only in Your Code

Many people believe innovation is about improving and reinventing the code. Wrong! Innovation is in your entire business!

I was invited to speak at an interesting company event in Gent two days ago, where I discussed running experiments with Exploration Days, Business Guilds and more. One employee asked me this interesting question:

How can the non-IT departments participate in Hack Days or Exploration Days? How can they help innovate?

Great question!

It seems that many people believe innovation is about improving and reinventing the code. Wrong!

Some examples:

I am tempted to switch from HootSuite to Buffer just because the image of the company (with a great blog, open salaries, etc) is simply amazing.

I use Spotify not because the software is great (their GUIs annoy me every day), but because of their music catalog which is well-suited to me.

I’m a fan of TripIt not because it’s so easy to use. I just love how they connect to both airline systems and my Google Calendar.

I use Trello for all collaborative projects, not because of their (limited) work-flow features. It’s their fluid design that grabbed me in the first place.

And if you don’t mind me bragging, the license agreement for Management 3.0 is great. Some people just want to sign it because it’s the friendliest agreement ever!

What? You mean your management, procurement, sales, HR, finance, and legal departments have no clue how to innovate? They’re all just looking at the developers? They really have no ideas how to convince me to be their customer?? That’s a sign of demise. Run away!

Innovation is not just in your code.

Innovation is in your entire business!

How are you innovating in the rest of your company?

(image by Michael Himbeault)