the about.com innovation tournament

We Ran An Innovation Tournament!And Why You Should, Too. A Step-by-Step Guide.by Tricia Han & Nabil Ahmad

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• To develop new products and features that might not otherwise get built, sometimes innovative

• To help people think differently, outside the box

• To de-centralize tech & data for a bit

• To increase staff engagement and get different people to work together

• Seems like everybody does it

Why Do Companies “Hack”?

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New products & features did not get built or shipped• Company hadn’t committed to action on “good” ideas; we shipped nada

• Some ideas not viable for business, e.g. a Tetris-style game using our content

Staff bonding did not happen in new places• Main participants were Product & Tech; teams were same people who

worked together every day

Staff and mgmt were engaged, but frustrated by the results• Participants enjoyed it, but hard to know where to start

• Everyone frustrated that no ideas – even the good ones – made it to production or onto a roadmap

We Tried Running A Short Hackathon, Too – It Was Meh

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Read “Innovation Tournaments” by Christian Terwiesch & Karl T. Ulrich*

They define innovation as:• Achieving a new match between a need and a solution

• Creating value where “value” = financial profit for a commercial org

Successful innovation for a business is not:• Just building cool, new stuff

What’s An Innovation Tournament? Why Is It Different?

*Terwiesch, Christian & Ulrich, Karl T. Innovation Tournaments. Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2009. Print. (Yes, print.)

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• Research by Terwiesch & Ulrich* found that more $ spent on innovation doesn’t necessarily lead to increased profits. (Note: Apple is not on the list to the right!)

• They argue companies need to instead identify more exceptional opportunities.

But how?

Myth: More R&D $ Spent Leads To Innovation

**Booz & Company: 20 publicly traded companies worldwide that spent the most on R&D, ranked by the amount they spent: http://www.strategyand.pwc.com/global/home/what-we-think/global-innovation-1000/top-20-rd-spenders-2013

INNOVATION BY THE NUMBERS

Top R&D Spenders in 2013 (Tech in blue)**

*Terwiesch, Christian & Ulrich, Karl T. Innovation Tournaments. Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2009. Print. (Yes, print.)

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1. Increase the quantity of raw opportunities

2. Increase the average quality

3. Increase the variance in the quality

A Better Way: It’s A Numbers, Quality & Variety Game

Terwiesch, Christian & Ulrich, Karl T. Innovation Tournaments. Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2009. Print.

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1. Create innovative ideas that lead to financial and productivity benefits for the company

• Target: 50 ideas or more (the more, the better)

2. Help staff become better connected with company’s products & tools, and with people from other teams

• Target: 75% staff participation in some shape or form

3. Retain talented staff through an engaging program

• Target: 75% of participants feel the program worthwhile and valuable

What Were Our Goals For The Tournament?

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1. Defined goals, metrics, problem statements & judging criteria for a 4-week tournament

• Got management buy-in

2. Created a cascading tournament – ideas were evaluated, advanced or eliminated through 3 rounds

• All staff invited to participate• We helped design the eventual teams• Only 1 round of actual design and coding

3. Cross-functional judges filtered ideas using pre-set criteria

• Staff also voted on ideas to inform judges & select “wild cards”• Identified and assigned team mentors to give feedback during

competition

4. Marketed the program relentlessly throughout

How Did We Set Up The About.com Innovation Tourney?

How Did It Work?

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Round One: Ideation• All staff invited to

submit ideas using a template

• Ideas posted anonymously

• All staff voted on “wall of projects”

• Judging panel selected top 18 ideas to advance, staff selected 2 “Wild Cards”

Round Two: The Pitch• Idea creators

presented ideas during a “Public Pitch” (2-1-0 rule)

• All staff voted• Judging panel

selected top 9, staff selected 1 “Wild Card”

• Staff signed up to join project teams of Pitch winners

Round Three: Collaboration• Teams designed

and built concept over one week

• Teams presented at end of week

• Staff voted for favorite

• Judging panel crowned winner(s), including “People’s Choice”

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Judging Panel Winner(s)• Monetary reward: $1,000/team member

• Idea to be implemented for real-world testing in next quarter

• Names added to a championship trophy

• Bowling against senior team

People’s Choice Winner(s)• $250/team member

Did We Mention There Were Prizes?

So What Happened?

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We received 182 ideas (or ~1/employee)• Ideas came from diverse teams, including

unexpected ones – Finance, HR, Admin

• Ideas came from all levels – CEO to Admin

• Staff started publically campaigning for votes

• Over 80% of staff voted during each round

Most were product ideas, but there were other types• Staff realized they had a forum for all types of ideas

• One idea was a health challenge; we ran it (separately) and participating staff lost 211 lbs!

Lots of Ideas Generated Ideas was our original target

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This was the beginning of the “Wall of Ideas.” We’d eventually need 3 big walls, floor to ceiling.

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Ideas were initially anonymous• The best ideas won, as determined by judges and

staff

20 people pitched their ideas to the company• Pitchers came from all levels, depts & multiple

cites – Admin to VP, Ad Ops to Eng

• Many pitchers were not regular presenters

• You can watch one of the pitches here: https://vimeo.com/134442289

• It was exciting!

Individuals Were Recognized For Their Ideas And Shined This is Tatum. She had a great

idea.

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Diverse, balanced teams got to work• We organized teams by skill set & mixed people up

• From day one of collaboration week, teams had an idea of what they wanted to build

• They had a full, uninterrupted week

Teams also thought about business • Team included “business” people to model

financial and traffic impacts

• Final presentations included viability and opportunity, along with designs and code

Winners are on their way to production!

Teams Built Viable Products, Not Just Concepts

Here are just a few of the projects. These actually worked!

Here’s What We Learned…

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It’s motivating.

It’s exciting.

And you can trash talk.

People Love Competitions.#1

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Rules make it easier to start + mark the finish line.

Rules can push you to work outside your comfort zone.

Rules guide the work towards things that will make a difference. (That’s what we all want.)

Good Competitions Have Rules.

#2

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A little bit of prep time to think, marinate & plan helps the actual “work” go faster.

That being said, 1-2 days is likely not enough time for a good project.

Good Things Take Time (But Only A Week).

#3

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Sell people on the idea. You’ll have to be inspiring.

Prep everything – rooms to work, data, design kits, access to mentors, communications, snacks…

Call the plays throughout. Show people the standings frequently and very publically.

It Takes A Lot Of Work To Play This Hard.*

#4

*Dolly Parton inspired this one. Thanks, Dolly.

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Open casting: You’ll be surprised who shows up and what they bring.

People will vote for them.

New stars are born.

It’s Fun To Root For People.#5

In Conclusion: Run An Innovation Tournament!