A look at Google’s New Product Development and Innovation Process

Exploring Google’s Successful New Product Development and Innovation Process

Google is widely considered, by both the general public and business experts, to be one of the most innovative companies in the world. So how does Google promote a culture of innovation and ensure that innovative ideas are properly implemented, creating profitable new products that position the company for long-term success? Google’s “recipe” for driving innovation is no carefully guarded secret sauce. Rather, Google has openly shared this information with the public. In 2013, Google codified a new set of “Nine Principles of Innovation,” which updated the version first unveiled by former Google executive Marissa Mayer in 2008.[1]

While your organization likely does not have the Google-sized resources (in terms of both financial capital and human capital) to be able to do everything suggested by the Nine Principles of Innovation, these principles are nevertheless highly instructive and useful as guiding principles that can help foster innovation in business. The innovation book Robert’s Rules of Innovation II: The Art of Implementation discusses each of Google’s Nine Principles of Innovation and suggests that we all think about them, in the context of our own companies.[2] Implementing relevant parts of Google’s Nine Principles of Innovation at your company is not “cheating”; but rather, it’s smart and efficient to use the Principles as a framework for fostering new product development and innovation in business—after all, innovation doesn’t have to be about reinventing the wheel.

This instant blog will cover the first four principles from Google’s Nine Principles of Innovation. A second blog to be published on this site, entitled “Learn from the Best: Google’s Nine Principles of Innovation (Part 2 of 2)”, will cover the remaining five principles from Google’s Nine Principles of Innovation.

From the Mind of Google: Google’s Nine Principles of Innovation (Principles 1–4)

As discussed in a previously published blog on this site, a popular innovation myth is that innovation only happens within a company’s engineering and R&D departments. To the contrary, it is often the employees on the front lines who come up with the most innovative ideas. Professional expertise alone doesn’t lead to innovation and new product development; life experiences are just as valuable, if not more valuable to the innovation process. For example, AT&T’s exceptionally popular Drive Mode app (a mobile app that can be set-up to automatically send a customizable reply to incoming messages when the vehicle starts moving at 25 mph, in order to reduce a driver’s temptation to look away from the road at his or her incoming text messages) was the innovative brainchild of an AT&T call center employee who had been personally affected by the dangers of texting-while-driving.

Check back on this blog soon for the second part of this blog series, which will cover Principles 5–9 from Google’s Nine Principles of Innovation.

To learn more about how to achieve profitable growth through new product development and innovation and how to implement innovation at your company, check out the innovation books Robert’s Rules of Innovation: A 10-Step Program for Corporate Survival and Robert’s Rules of Innovation II: The Art of Implementation.