A topic that has intrigued me, lately, is the freedom that some companies are giving to their employees – ‘allowing’ them to explore some topics that interest them (and yet, still benefit the company) and not just menial product-upgrades.
Probably the most widely known instance of this freedom is Google’s 20% Time. Google allows their engineers to explore topics that interest them and yet are still related to the overall goals of Google. Products like Orkut, Google Movies, and other handy add-ons have come out of this.
The next case that I became aware of was the Atlassian Fedex Day. Even though it has nothing to do with Fedex directly, they’re goal was to give the engineers a day to develop some new products, using new technologies, and ship them on the same day.
Finally, and probably my most favorite, the JotSpot Hackathon. JotSpot provided their engineers with pizza, drinks, and candy throughout the day, in turn creating handy add-ons which they felt would be of use. A lot of neat Ajaxy things came out of this which will greatly benefit the end-user.
It definitely seems that these freedoms (especially the all day hackathons) bring the employees together and allows them to have some fun with their otherwise drab working environment. This is something that I’m going to keep in mind as I start getting my company off the ground.
Jordan Sissel (May 22, 2005 at 12:23 am)
Reminds me of perhaps what the redbull competition ought to be – instead of a set of possible goals, you let the teams come up with what they want.
Perhaps this is something we could try early on next year with CSH? Lord knows every year is “let’s do the website and never actually complete it” but if we wrap that in a 24 hour hackathon, some neat projects might eventually come out of it. Who knows ;)
John Resig (May 22, 2005 at 11:37 am)
That would be interesting – Maybe a weekend long thing (for the website). Do all the planning ahead of time, then it’s just time to implement the individual features. Theoretically simple. I agree with the Red Bull idea too – simply providing open boundaries might be better for everyone, although it would be harder to judge how much ‘harder’ or ‘cooler’ one project is when compared to another.
Reuben (May 31, 2005 at 11:53 am)
Speaking as a member of the JotSpot team, I can honestly say that having some variation of the 20%/Fedex Day/Hackathon is one of the best things you can do for your company. Definitely brings us together, and it’s a blast. I highly recommend it!