Google Innovation – The 16 Principles

March 20, 2008

A while back I posted on Douglas Merrill’s talk about innovation at Google. I have to say I was a bit disappointed in that talk – I didn’t really take away any clear messages to apply to my own work. Recently however, Jonathan Rosenberg, Senior Vice President of Product Management and Marketing at Google, delivered a fantastic talk at his alma mater, Claremont McKenna College, called Inside the Black Box: Technical Innovation at Google. Jonathan gave a very compelling talk outlining 16 key principles to innovation at Google. This outstanding talk is well worth the time. Watch the video to understand these principles more fully.

NOTE: eman’s views has now moved to emansviews.com. I hope you’ll stop by. 

  1. Hire the Best
  2. Ideas Come From Anywhere
  3. Practice Sharing & Openness Fully
  4. Morph, Don’t Kill, Ideas
  5. Users Come First, Not Money
  6. Data Drives Decisions
  7. Iterate a Product (don’t use a Project Plan)
  8. Make Your Vision Simple, Understandable and Share It With All
  9. 20% Time
  10. Think BIG
  11. Bet on a Trend, or Fall Victim to It
  12. Accept a Smaller Piece of a Larger Pie
  13. Feed the Winners, Starve the Losers
  14. Avoid Hippos (highest paid person’s opinion)
  15. Never Surrender to Lawyers, Auditors, or Bureaucrats
  16. Reward Innovation
  17. Learn How to Learn (a 17th extra principle)

Entry Filed under: innovation. .

1 Comment Add your own

  • 1. nittpick  |  March 20, 2008 at 7:09 pm

    Interesting talk. I’d rate a company I know well the following. Some principles I think we do well, but numbers 13-16 really hit a chord. ouch. Some I found hard to evaluate (mixed examples come to mind, or just out of my depth).

    B 1. Hire the Best
    B 2. Ideas Come From Anywhere
    B 3. Practice Sharing & Openness Fully
    ? 4. Morph, Don.t Kill, Ideas
    D 5. Users Come First, Not Money
    D 6. Data Drives Decisions
    C 7. Iterate a Product (don.t use a Project Plan)
    ? 8. Make Your Vision Simple, Understandable and Share It With All
    F 9. 20% Time
    D 10. Think BIG
    ? 11. Bet on a Trend, or Fall Victim to It
    ? 12. Accept a Smaller Piece of a Larger Pie
    F 13. Feed the Winners, Starve the Losers
    F 14. Avoid Hippos (highest paid person.s opinion)
    F 15. Never Surrender to Lawyers, Auditors, or Bureaucrats
    F 16. Reward Innovation
    B 17. Learn How to Learn (a 17th extra principle)

    Reply

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