Maximising 10% time

Do you have 10% time in your team and think it could be more effective? Or perhaps you are having a hard time getting buy-in to introduce dedicated learning, development and innovation time? This presentation covers the benefits and challenges of having 10% time, as well as ideas on how to maximise it for individual, team and business benefit.

Presented at Redevelop on 20th September, Agile Cambridge on 2nd October and Lean Agile Scotland on 11th October

Transcript

1. MAXIMISING 10% TIME @lizzie_pope @hxtechteam
2. What is 10% time?
3. Project Lounge - Every other Friday - No scheduled work or priorities - Not counted in sprints or planning etc
4. Project Lounge is a day where you choose what you want to work on. The only parameters are that it will either support you in your development or that it will benefit the business (now or in the future)
5. It’s a chance to spend 10% of your time working on something different
7. “We encourage our employees, in addition to their regular projects, to spend 20% of their time working on what they think will most benefit Google. This empowers them to be more creative and innovative. Many of our significant advances have happened in this manner.”
9. What are the benefits of 10% time?
10. Innovation
11. Holiday Countdown App ~3 million downloads
12. Individual development
13. Knowledge sharing
14. Attraction and retention
15. Engagement
16. • It allows me to be innovative • Project Lounge is a safe environment in which to try something new • I get the opportunity to develop skills relevant to my aspirations
17. What are the benefits of 10% time?
18. - Innovation - Individual development - Knowledge sharing - Attraction - Retention - Engagement
19. What are the challenges of 10% time?
20. Unsure of what to work on
21. Hard to measure value
22. Time taken for granted
23. 10% isn’t enough
24. Lack of understanding
25. Getting buy in
26. - Desired benefits - Measures of success - Trial basis
27. Keeping buy in
28. What are the challenges of 10% time?
29. - Unsure of what to work - Hard to measure value - Time taken for granted - 10% isn’t enough! - Lack of understanding - Getting buy in - Keeping buy in
30. How to maximise 10% time
31. Reduce the barrier to entry
32. - Stand ups (all hands) - Google doc - Slack - Stand ups (project teams)
33. Common sense approach
34. Share the value
35. - End of day demos - Brown Bag - Recorded demos - Company intranet - Newsletter
36. Help with ideas
37. Spend time changing something that directly improves your quality of life: If you get asked a lot of questions throughout each day, consider writing some documentation If you're really keen to see a new feature in an internal tool or service, discuss implementing it with its owner. Look at what's coming your way in the future and think about what can be done to make it easier: If you've got work coming up for microservice ABC, it may be worth working out what it does and how it works. If you'd like to pick up new skills, find someone who's knowledgeable in that area and ask to work on something with them. Seek out new business opportunities: What if we sold XYZ differently? What can we do to reduce our Cloud $$$ monthly bill?
38. Promote business benefits
39. Encourage collaboration
40. Onboarding people to the concept
41. Be honest
42. Take the time to understand
43. Keep it fresh
44. Conference Day
47. Two-dayer
48. - Load testing for microservices - Internal skills finder - VR & AR for product promotion - Machine learning - GPS enabled push notifications - Bucket list travel map - Centralised split testing system - Automated testing coverage tool
49. Engage senior leadership
50. Get regular feedback
51. How to maximise 10% time
52. - Reduce the barrier to entry - Common sense approach - Share the value - Help with ideas - Promote business benefits - Encourage collaboration - Onboard people to the concept - Be honest - Take the time to understand - Keep it fresh - Engage senior leadership - Get regular feedback
53. Innovate and invest
54. Start somewhere
55. Thank You @lizzie_pope @hxtechteam
56. Questions @lizzie_pope @hxtechteam