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Innovation Time in Agile Teams
Innovation needs time. GitScrum helps teams allocate and track innovation time, ensuring creative work happens alongside delivery commitments.
Why Innovation Time
The Case for Investment
INNOVATION TIME VALUE:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ WITHOUT INNOVATION TIME: │
│ ──────────────────────── │
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ Sprint 1: Features ││
│ │ Sprint 2: Features ││
│ │ Sprint 3: Features ││
│ │ Sprint 4: Features ││
│ │ ... ││
│ │ ││
│ │ RESULTS: ││
│ │ • Team burns out ││
│ │ • Technical debt accumulates ││
│ │ • Skills stagnate ││
│ │ • No breakthrough improvements ││
│ │ • Innovation happens elsewhere (or nowhere) ││
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│ │
│ WITH INNOVATION TIME: │
│ ───────────────────── │
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ Sprint 1: Features (80%) + Innovation (20%) ││
│ │ Sprint 2: Features (80%) + Innovation (20%) ││
│ │ Sprint 3: Features (80%) + Innovation (20%) ││
│ │ Sprint 4: Features (80%) + Innovation (20%) ││
│ │ ││
│ │ RESULTS: ││
│ │ • Team stays energized ││
│ │ • Technical improvements happen ││
│ │ • New skills developed ││
│ │ • Internal tools created ││
│ │ • Breakthrough ideas emerge ││
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│ │
│ FAMOUS EXAMPLES: │
│ • Google's 20% time → Gmail, AdSense │
│ • 3M's 15% time → Post-it Notes │
│ • Atlassian ShipIt days → Key features │
│ │
│ INNOVATION IS AN INVESTMENT, NOT A COST │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Implementation Models
Different Approaches
INNOVATION TIME MODELS:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ MODEL 1: WEEKLY DAY │
│ ─────────────────── │
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ FRIDAY = INNOVATION DAY ││
│ │ ││
│ │ Mon-Thu: Sprint work ││
│ │ Friday: Innovation time (20%) ││
│ │ ││
│ │ ✅ Regular rhythm ││
│ │ ✅ Easy to protect ││
│ │ ⚠️ Friday often gets sacrificed ││
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│ │
│ MODEL 2: SPRINT ALLOCATION │
│ ────────────────────────── │
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ EVERY SPRINT: 15-20% CAPACITY ││
│ │ ││
│ │ Sprint planning: Reserve 20% for innovation ││
│ │ Team chooses when during sprint ││
│ │ ││
│ │ ✅ Flexible ││
│ │ ✅ Built into capacity ││
│ │ ⚠️ Can get squeezed by "urgent" work ││
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│ │
│ MODEL 3: INNOVATION SPRINT │
│ ────────────────────────── │
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ QUARTERLY INNOVATION SPRINT ││
│ │ ││
│ │ S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 [Innovation Sprint] S1 S2 S3... ││
│ │ ││
│ │ One full sprint per quarter ││
│ │ Focus entirely on innovation ││
│ │ ││
│ │ ✅ Deep focus ││
│ │ ✅ Substantial projects possible ││
│ │ ⚠️ Long gaps between innovation ││
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│ │
│ MODEL 4: HACKATHONS │
│ ─────────────────── │
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ 24-48 HOUR HACKATHONS (Quarterly) ││
│ │ ││
│ │ Intensive, time-boxed innovation ││
│ │ Team or cross-team projects ││
│ │ Demo and judging at end ││
│ │ ││
│ │ ✅ Exciting, high energy ││
│ │ ✅ Cross-team collaboration ││
│ │ ⚠️ Limited depth ││
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
What to Work On
Innovation Categories
INNOVATION TIME ACTIVITIES:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ CATEGORY: TECHNICAL EXPLORATION │
│ ─────────────────────────────── │
│ • Learn new framework/language │
│ • Experiment with new tools │
│ • Proof of concept for future features │
│ • Evaluate alternative approaches │
│ │
│ CATEGORY: INTERNAL TOOLS │
│ ──────────────────────── │
│ • Developer productivity tools │
│ • Automation scripts │
│ • Debugging tools │
│ • Internal dashboards │
│ │
│ CATEGORY: TECHNICAL IMPROVEMENT │
│ ─────────────────────────────── │
│ • Refactoring │
│ • Performance optimization │
│ • Technical debt reduction │
│ • Test coverage │
│ │
│ CATEGORY: PROCESS IMPROVEMENT │
│ ───────────────────────────── │
│ • Better CI/CD │
│ • Improved monitoring │
│ • Documentation │
│ • Developer onboarding │
│ │
│ CATEGORY: PRODUCT EXPERIMENTS │
│ ───────────────────────────── │
│ • Feature prototypes │
│ • UX experiments │
│ • Customer pain point explorations │
│ │
│ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── │
│ │
│ GROUND RULES: │
│ ───────────── │
│ ✅ Must relate to team/product in some way │
│ ✅ Should be shareable with team │
│ ❌ Not personal projects unrelated to work │
│ ❌ Not catching up on regular work │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Protecting Time
Making It Happen
PROTECTING INNOVATION TIME:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ WHY IT GETS LOST: │
│ ───────────────── │
│ • "We're behind, skip innovation this sprint" │
│ • "Urgent bug, everyone on deck" │
│ • "We'll do it next sprint" (never happens) │
│ • No visible accountability │
│ │
│ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── │
│ │
│ PROTECTION STRATEGIES: │
│ │
│ 1. EXPLICIT CAPACITY: │
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ SPRINT 15 CAPACITY ││
│ │ ││
│ │ Feature work: 80% ████████████████████████████████ ││
│ │ Innovation: 20% ████████ ← PROTECTED ││
│ │ ││
│ │ Innovation is IN THE PLAN, not extra ││
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│ │
│ 2. TRACKING METRIC: │
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ INNOVATION TIME TRACKING ││
│ │ ││
│ │ Sprint Target Actual Status ││
│ │ ────── ────── ────── ────── ││
│ │ S12 20% 18% ✅ Close ││
│ │ S13 20% 12% ⚠️ Short ││
│ │ S14 20% 5% 🔴 Problem ││
│ │ S15 20% 22% ✅ Made up ││
│ │ ││
│ │ Quarterly avg: 14% (target: 20%) ││
│ │ Need improvement ││
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│ │
│ 3. LEADERSHIP SUPPORT: │
│ • Leaders ask about innovation in reviews │
│ • Celebrate innovation outcomes │
│ • Protect time when pressure comes │
│ │
│ 4. VISIBLE OUTCOMES: │
│ • Share innovation work in demos │
│ • Innovation showcase sessions │
│ • Track ideas that shipped │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Showcasing Work
Making Innovation Visible
INNOVATION SHOWCASE:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ MONTHLY INNOVATION DEMO: │
│ ──────────────────────── │
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ INNOVATION SHOWCASE - January ││
│ │ ││
│ │ PROJECT: Auto-format CLI tool ││
│ │ TEAM: Platform ││
│ │ TIME: 2 days ││
│ │ RESULT: 30 min/dev/week saved ││
│ │ ││
│ │ PROJECT: Dashboard performance spike ││
│ │ TEAM: Frontend ││
│ │ TIME: 1 day ││
│ │ RESULT: Identified 70% improvement opportunity ││
│ │ Now prioritized as feature ││
│ │ ││
│ │ PROJECT: GraphQL exploration ││
│ │ TEAM: API ││
│ │ TIME: 3 days ││
│ │ RESULT: Proposal for migration path ││
│ │ ││
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│ │
│ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── │
│ │
│ TRACK OUTCOMES: │
│ ─────────────── │
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ INNOVATION OUTCOMES 2024 ││
│ │ ││
│ │ TYPE COUNT EXAMPLES ││
│ │ ──── ───── ──────── ││
│ │ Shipped to prod 8 CLI tool, dashboard fix ││
│ │ Became features 5 GraphQL, search upgrade ││
│ │ Internal tools 12 Scripts, dashboards ││
│ │ Learning applied 15 New patterns adopted ││
│ │ Not pursued 10 (Learned what NOT to do) ││
│ │ ││
│ │ "Failed" experiments are still valuable ││
│ │ They prevent bad decisions later ││
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│ │
│ JUSTIFYING INVESTMENT: │
│ ───────────────────── │
│ "20% innovation time produced 8 shipped improvements, │
│ 5 now-prioritized features, and prevented 3 bad │
│ technology decisions. ROI is clear." │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Team Ownership
Self-Directed Innovation
TEAM-OWNED INNOVATION:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ INNOVATION BACKLOG: │
│ ─────────────────── │
│ Team maintains their own innovation ideas │
│ │
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ INNOVATION BACKLOG ││
│ │ ││
│ │ IDEA PROPOSER INTEREST SIZE ││
│ │ ──── ──────── ──────── ──── ││
│ │ Migrate to Vite @alex ★★★★★ L ││
│ │ Auto-testing spike @jordan ★★★★ M ││
│ │ Error handling lib @sam ★★★ S ││
│ │ Performance dashboard @taylor ★★★★★ M ││
│ │ New ORM evaluation @alex ★★★ M ││
│ │ ││
│ │ Pull from this during innovation time ││
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│ │
│ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── │
│ │
│ TEAM AUTONOMY: │
│ ────────────── │
│ │
│ ✅ Team decides what to work on │
│ ✅ Individual or group projects │
│ ✅ No approval needed for innovation work │
│ ✅ Freedom to experiment │
│ │
│ GUARDRAILS: │
│ ─────────── │
│ ☐ Must be work-related │
│ ☐ Must share outcomes with team │
│ ☐ Respect time allocation │
│ │
│ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── │
│ │
│ RETRO QUESTION: │
│ ──────────────── │
│ "What did we learn from innovation time?" │
│ "What should we explore next?" │
│ "Is innovation time being protected?" │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘