Fostering Team Innovation

Should you try Google’s famous “20% time” experiment to encourage innovation? We tried this at Duolingo years ago. It didn’t work. It wasn’t enough time for people to start meaningful projects, and very few people took advantage of it because the framework was pretty vague. I knew there had to be other ways to drive innovation at the company. So, here are 3 other initiatives we’ve tried, what we’ve learned from each, and what we're going to try next. 💡 Innovation Awards: Annual recognition for those who move the needle with boundary-pushing projects. The upside: These awards make our commitment to innovation clear, and offer a well-deserved incentive to those who have done remarkable work. The downside: It’s given to individuals, but we want to incentivize team work. What’s more, it’s not necessarily a framework for coming up with the next big thing. 💻 Hackathon: This is a good framework, and lots of companies do it. Everyone (not just engineers) can take two days to collaborate on and present anything that excites them, as long as it advances our mission or addresses a key business need. The upside: Some of our biggest features grew out of hackathon projects, from the Duolingo English Test (born at our first hackathon in 2013) to our avatar builder. The downside: Other than the time/resource constraint, projects rarely align with our current priorities. The ones that take off hit the elusive combo of right time + a problem that no other team could tackle. 💥 Special Projects: Knowing that ideal equation, we started a new program for fostering innovation, playfully dubbed DARPA (Duolingo Advanced Research Project Agency). The idea: anyone can pitch an idea at any time. If they get consensus on it and if it’s not in the purview of another team, a cross-functional group is formed to bring the project to fruition. The most creative work tends to happen when a problem is not in the clear purview of a particular team; this program creates a path for bringing these kinds of interdisciplinary ideas to life. Our Duo and Lily mascot suits (featured often on our social accounts) came from this, as did our Duo plushie and the merch store. (And if this photo doesn't show why we needed to innovate for new suits, I don't know what will!) The biggest challenge: figuring out how to transition ownership of a successful project after the strike team’s work is done. 👀 What’s next? We’re working on a program that proactively identifies big picture, unassigned problems that we haven’t figured out yet and then incentivizes people to create proposals for solving them. How that will work is still to be determined, but we know there is a lot of fertile ground for it to take root. How does your company create an environment of creativity that encourages true innovation? I'm interested to hear what's worked for you, so please feel free to share in the comments! #duolingo #innovation #hackathon #creativity #bigideas

If there’s a single technique I could recommend to supercharge your impact as a PM, it’s continuous discovery. And the "bible" is Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres, which has over 1,600 reviews on Amazon, with a 4.6 rating. I've had it on my desk for years. Here are my 10 favorite takeaways: 1. Begin with the end in mind. "Rather than obsessing about features (outputs), we are shifting our focus to the impact those features have on both our customers and our business (outcomes)." 2. The first step is the PM, designer, and software engineer engaging in weekly chats with customers. "At a minimum, weekly touchpoints with customers by the team building the product where they conduct small research activities in pursuit of a desired outcome." 3. It's not enough to ask customers what they need, you need to dig into what they have done. "As the interviewer, you will have to work to excavate the story." 4. The trios should iterate on Opportunity Solution Trees to organize these insights and the customer value they deliver every sprint. "A continuous mindset requires that we deliver value every sprint... by addressing unmet needs, resolving pain points, and satisfying desires." 5. The team should be aiming for 12+ discovery iterations every week. This means A/B testing less and assumption testing more. "The best product teams complete a dozen or more discovery iterations every week. This pace is possible only when we step away from the concept of testing ideas and instead focus on testing... assumptions." 6. The team should use story maps to identify and generate assumptions to test. "Throughout your story map, every time you assume that an end user will do something, you are making assumptions." 7. Then, the team should then prioritize the assumptions they need to test based on importance and quality of evidence. "Assumption mapping is a great way to quickly identify your leap of faith assumptions - the assumptions that carry the most risk and thus need to be tested." 8. As you measure impact of these assumption tests, you should measure input (the assumption) & output (the outcome) metrics. "For our assumption tests, we were measuring... leading indicators to our desired outcome. Over time, we also want to move closer measure our outcome itself." 9. When sharing the results of these assumption tests with stakeholders, show your work. "When we anchor the conversation in the solution space, we encourage our stakeholders to share their own preferences. However, these preferences aren't always grounded in good discovery. After all, it's our job to do discovery, not our stakeholders'." 10. Even if your boss isn't asking you to do discovery, do this as part of your working backwards, first principled process to supercharge your impact. "Many product teams aren't allowed to do discovery... You can still work on developing continuous discovery habits yourself. When you are asked to deliver a specific solution, work backward."

Over the last year, I’ve seen many people fall into the same trap: They launch an AI-powered agent (chatbot, assistant, support tool, etc.)… But only track surface-level KPIs — like response time or number of users. That’s not enough. To create AI systems that actually deliver value, we need 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰, 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻-𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 that reflect: • User trust • Task success • Business impact • Experience quality    This infographic highlights 15 𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 dimensions to consider: ↳ 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘆 — Are your AI answers actually useful and correct? ↳ 𝗧𝗮𝘀𝗸 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗲 — Can the agent complete full workflows, not just answer trivia? ↳ 𝗟𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 — Response speed still matters, especially in production. ↳ 𝗨𝘀𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 — How often are users returning or interacting meaningfully? ↳ 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗲 — Did the user achieve their goal? This is your north star. ↳ 𝗘𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗲 — Irrelevant or wrong responses? That’s friction. ↳ 𝗦𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗗𝘂𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 — Longer isn’t always better — it depends on the goal. ↳ 𝗨𝘀𝗲𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 — Are users coming back 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 the first experience? ↳ 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 — Especially critical at scale. Budget-wise agents win. ↳ 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗵 — Can the agent handle follow-ups and multi-turn dialogue? ↳ 𝗨𝘀𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲 — Feedback from actual users is gold. ↳ 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 — Can your AI 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘳 to earlier inputs? ↳ 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 — Can it handle volume 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 degrading performance? ↳ 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗹𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 — This is key for RAG-based agents. ↳ 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗦𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲 — Is your AI learning and improving over time? If you're building or managing AI agents — bookmark this. Whether it's a support bot, GenAI assistant, or a multi-agent system — these are the metrics that will shape real-world success. 𝗗𝗶𝗱 𝗜 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀? Let’s make this list even stronger — drop your thoughts 👇

I am constantly thinking about how to foster innovation in my product organization. Building teams that are experts at execution is the easy part—when there’s a clear problem, product orgs are great at coming up with smart solutions. But it’s impossible to optimize your way into innovation. You can’t only rely on incremental improvement to keep growing. You need to come up with new problem spaces, rather than just finding better solutions to the same old problems. So, how do we come up with those new spaces? Here are a few things I’m trying at Duolingo: 1. Innovation needs a high-energy environment, and a slow process will kill a great idea. So I always ask myself: Can we remove some of the organizational barriers here? Do managers from seven different teams really need to say yes on every project? Seeking consensus across the company—rather than just keeping everyone informed—can be a major deterrent to innovation. 2. Similarly, beware of defaulting to “following up.” If product meetings are on a weekly cadence, every time you do this, you are allocating seven days to a task that might only need two. We try to avoid this and promote a sense of urgency, which is essential for innovative ideas to turn into successes. 3. Figure out the right incentive. Most product orgs reward team members whose ideas have measurable business impact, which works in most contexts. But once you’ve found product-market fit, it is often easiest to generate impact through smaller wins. So, naturally, if your org tends to only reward impact, you have effectively incentivized constant optimization of existing features instead of innovation. In the short term things will look great, but over time your product becomes stale. I try to show my teams that we value and reward bigger ideas. If someone sticks their neck out on a new concept, we should highlight that—even if it didn’t pan out. Big swings should be celebrated, even if we didn’t win, because there are valuable learnings there. 4. Look for innovative thinkers with a history of zero-to-one feature work. There are lots of amazing product managers out there, but not many focus on new problem domains. If a PM has created something new from scratch and done it well, that’s a good sign. An even better sign: if they show excitement about and gravitate toward that kind of work. If that sounds like you—if you’re a product manager who wants to think big picture and try out big ideas in a fast-paced environment with a stellar mission—we want you on our team. We’re hiring a Director of Product Management: https://lnkd.in/dQnWqmDZ #productthoughts #innovation #productmanagement #zerotoone

If everyone on your team agrees with you… You don’t have a team. You have a liability. Weak leaders want to be right. Strong leaders want the best idea in the room. Here’s why I don’t hire “yes” people: 1. It makes the work better. Smart pushback sharpens execution. Blind agreement ruins it. 2. It keeps me honest. If no one challenges the plan, I assume the plan is flawed. 3. It fuels innovation. Friction forces better thinking. No tension means no evolution. 4. It builds a standard. People don’t rise when you lower the bar to protect your ego. 5. It creates trust. When people are free to challenge you, they’ll bring you the truth. 6. It scales better decisions. Different perspectives. Stronger calls. Fewer blind spots. The goal isn’t to be surrounded by people who say “yes.” It’s to be surrounded by people who say: “Yes to the best idea in the room.” That’s how you build a culture of individuality and merit..

Most teams aren’t unsafe— they’re afraid of what honesty might cost.👇 A confident team isn’t always a safe team. Real safety feels like trust without fear Psychological safety isn’t about being nice. It’s about building an environment where truth can exist — without penalty. Where people speak up because they believe they’ll be heard, Not just to be loud. Here’s how to create a space where honesty doesn’t feel risky: 10 Ways to Foster Psychological Safety in Your Team 1️⃣ Acknowledge mistakes openly ↳ Normalize imperfection so everyone feels safe owning up. 2️⃣ Ask for feedback on your own performance ↳ Leaders go first. 3️⃣ Celebrate questions, not just answers ↳ Curiosity signals trust. 4️⃣ Pause for the quiet voices ↳ “We haven’t heard from X yet. What do you think?” 5️⃣ Replace blame with ‘Let’s find the cause’ ↳ Shift from finger-pointing to problem-solving. 6️⃣ Speak last in discussions ↳ Let others lead; you’ll hear their raw perspectives. 7️⃣ Reinforce confidentiality ↳ Discuss ideas without fear they’ll be shared publicly. 8️⃣ Encourage respectful dissent ↳ Conflicting views spark creativity. 9️⃣ Admit you don’t know ↳ Authenticity paves the way for others to do the same. 🔟 Offer thanks for honest feedback ↳ Show appreciation for candor, even if it stings. 1️⃣1️⃣ Set clear expectations for respectful communication ↳ Clarity creates comfort and consistency. 1️⃣2️⃣ Create space for personal check-ins, not just work updates ↳ Human connection builds trust faster than status updates. 1️⃣3️⃣ Invite rotating team members to lead meetings ↳ Empowering others signals trust and grows confidence. 1️⃣4️⃣ Support team members who take thoughtful risks ↳ Reward courage even when outcomes aren’t perfect. 1️⃣5️⃣ Recognize effort and growth, not just outcomes ↳ Celebrate the process, not just the win. Psychological safety doesn’t grow from good intentions, It grows from repeated proof that honesty matters more than perfection. ❓ Which one will you try first? Let me know in the comments. ♻️ Repost to help your network create safer, more trusting workplaces. 👋 I write posts like this every day at 9:30am EST. Follow me (Dr. Chris Mullen) so you don't miss the next one.

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗱𝗼 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗹—𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱? In research conducted with Johnathan Cromwell, Kevin J. Johnson, and Amy Edmondson, we studied more than 160 innovation teams—including those in a Fortune Global 500 company—and found that it's not just how much teams learn that matters, but when and how they learn. We identified four core modes of team learning: 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘃𝗲 — assessing goals, roles, and strategies 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 — brainstorming, prototyping, testing new ideas 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 — scanning the environment for trends, signals, and shifts 𝗩𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 — drawing lessons from others who’ve done similar work The most effective teams didn’t try to do everything at once. They began and ended with reflexive learning, anchoring their work in shared understanding. They placed exploratory learning (experimental and contextual) in the middle. This rhythm—reflection → exploration → reflection—helped them reduce friction, integrate insights, and build real momentum. We also found that vicarious learning can be combined with reflexive learning in the same project phase with positive results. But when teams mixed reflexive with experimental or contextual learning in the same phase, performance suffered. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆: Innovation doesn’t thrive on more learning. It thrives on structured learning. Teams that sequence and separate their learning activities make faster, clearer progress. We’ve summarized the findings from our research, published in Administrative Science Quarterly—a leading journal in organizational research—in this new Harvard Business Review article. Link in comments.

As more companies embrace A/B testing, the bottleneck is no longer running experiments—it’s ensuring those experiments lead to trustworthy decisions. In this tech blog, the data science team at Booking.com explains how they scaled experimentation quality across the organization. Rather than enforcing rigid rules, they chose to preserve team autonomy while building the supporting systems needed to encourage better experimentation practices. The team’s solution followed a simple but thoughtful progression: process, metric, then tool. They first invested in community initiatives like Experiment Ambassadors and peer experiment reviews to build a shared experimentation culture. They then introduced an Experimentation Quality framework that evaluated every experiment across three dimensions—Design, Execution, and Decision—making experimentation quality measurable and easier to improve. Finally, they embedded those standards directly into their internal experimentation platform through features such as quality checks, power-calculation guidance, and stronger defaults that naturally guided teams toward better decisions. The goal was to maintain flexibility while making good experimentation practices easier to follow. This work highlights an important lesson: improving experimentation at scale requires more than statistical knowledge or individual discipline. Sustainable improvement comes from combining strong organizational processes, meaningful quality metrics, and tooling that reinforces good practices into the everyday workflow. When these pieces work together, teams can make more reliable decisions. #DataScience #MachineLearning #Experimentation #ABTesting #Analytics #SystemDesign #SnacksWeeklyonDataScience – – –  Check out the "Snacks Weekly on Data Science" podcast and subscribe, where I explain in more detail the concepts discussed in this and future posts:    -- Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gKgaMvbh   -- Apple Podcast: https://lnkd.in/gFYvfB8V    -- Youtube: https://lnkd.in/gcwPeBmR https://lnkd.in/gg8eX3Yv 

What do you do when someone on your team is brave enough to criticise you? Me? I promote them as soon as possible. Why? Because in high-performing companies, innovation thrives when teams feel empowered to challenge ideas respectfully. As a leader, fostering a culture of constructive dissent can unlock your team’s full potential and fuel spectacular business growth. Here are 5 techniques I use to build openness and encourage dialogue: 1. Encourage continuous feedback Don’t wait for annual reviews or formal discussions. Make candid feedback a regular part of daily operations — through check-ins, town halls, or anonymous surveys. The more often feedback is shared, the less intimidating it becomes. 2. Model respectful dissent How do you react when your ideas are challenged? Leaders should actively invite differing viewpoints and listen with an open mind. When leaders encourage respectful dissent, it signals to everyone that diverse perspectives are truly valued. 3. Reward honest opinions Recognise those who respectfully challenge the status quo. This reinforces the idea that fresh thinking is an asset, not a liability. (Fun fact: The US State Department has an annual Constructive Dissent Award, given to those who courageously stand by their principles.) 4. Be transparent in decision-making After making a decision, explain the reasoning behind it. Even if someone’s idea isn’t chosen, knowing their input was genuinely considered strengthens future buy-in and trust. 5. Align after discussion Once a decision is made, the team must unite behind it to make it work. Remind everyone that while debate is healthy during the process, whole-hearted execution is key to success. You really can criticise your way to success. A culture of constructive dissent leads to smarter decisions and a more productive team. The key? Making sure every voice is heard and valued. Do you agree? Promise not to fire you if you don't!

Only 26% of leaders create psychological safety in their teams*. This means just 1 in 4 leaders are truly tapping into the full potential of their people. Psychological safety is the secret ingredient that turns good teams into extraordinary ones—and it doesn’t require grand gestures. It’s the small, often overlooked actions that make the biggest difference. See the examples: 1. Admit your own missteps: 🗣 Example: "Last quarter, I missed a key detail in our strategy, and it led to a delay. Here’s how I’m adjusting my approach." 2. Ask for feedback, then act 🗣 Example: "After hearing your thoughts on our meeting structure, I’ve decided to shorten our agenda and focus more on discussion." 3. Show that asking for help Is normal 🗣 Example: "I’m struggling with this new software—can someone show me how to use this feature?" 4. Celebrate the journey, not just the destination 🗣 Example: "The presentation wasn’t flawless, but the way you tackled the research was impressive." 5. Give permission to challenge 🗣 Example: "I want someone to play devil’s advocate—how could this plan go wrong?" 6. Create space for dissent 🗣 Example: "Before we finalize, let’s hear from anyone who sees this differently." 7. Reframe failure as growth 🗣 Example: "Our experiment didn’t yield the results we hoped for, but we now know what to avoid next time." 8. Demystify decision-making 🗣 Example: "We chose this vendor because they align with our long-term sustainability goals." 9. Reward curiosity 🗣 Example: "That question opened up a whole new line of thinking—thanks for bringing it up!" 10. Spotlight the quiet contributors 🗣 Example: "I want to highlight Anna’s work on the backend—it’s crucial to our project’s success, even though it’s often behind the scenes." True trust doesn't come from protecting your people from conflict or tough conversations. It’s born from inviting in every voice, especially the ones that challenge the status quo. If you're not making space for diverse ideas, you're not just missing out—you're holding your team back. * 📚 Study source: McKinsey & Co., “Psychological safety and the critical role of leadership development,” 2021.