Introduction

1. James Estrin, “Kodak’s First Digital Moment,” New York Times, August 12, 2015, http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/12/kodaks-first-digital-moment/; Michael Zang, “This Is What the History of Camera Sales Looks Like with Smartphones Included,” PetaPixel, April 9, 2015, http://petapixel.com/2015/04/09/this-is-what-the-history-of-camera-sales-looks-like-with-smartphones-included/; Dawn McCarty and Beth Jinks, “Kodak Files for Bankruptcy as Digital Era Spells End to Film,” Bloomberg Technology, January 19, 2012, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-01-19/kodak-photography-pioneer-files-for-bankruptcy-protection-1-.

2. Maltzberger, “Kindle Is the Fire That Burns Brightest for Amazon,” SeekingAlpha.com, March 8, 2013, http://seekingalpha.com/article/1259661-kindle-is-the-fire-that-burns-brightest-for-amazon-com.

3. Kasra Ferdows, Michael A. Lewis, and Jose A.D. Machuca, “Zara’s Secret to Fast Fashion,” Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, February 21, 2005, http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/4652.html.

4. Michael Schrage, “R&D, Meet E&S (Experiment and Scale),” MIT Sloan Management Review blog, May 11, 2016, http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/rd-meet-es-experiment-scale/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sm-direct.

Chapter 1

1. “The Trust Engineers,” Radiolab, February 9, 2015, www.radiolab.or/story/trust-engineers.

2. Jon Jenkins, “Velocity Culture,” 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxk8b9rSKOo.

3. Chris Doig, “Enterprise Software Project Success Remains Elusive,” CIO.com, October 23, 2015, http://www.cio.com/article/2996716/enterprise-software/why-is-success-with-enterprise-software-projects-so-elusive.html.

4. Jared M. Spool, “The $300 Million Button,” User Interface Engineering, January 14, 2009, https://articles.uie.com/three_hund_million_button/.

5. Scout Addis, Obama for America campaign worker, personal interview, 2015.

6. Shea Bennett, “The History of Hashtags in Social Media Marketing,” AdWeek blog, September 2, 2014, http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/history-hashtag-social-marketing/501237.

7. David J. Snowden and Mary E. Boone, “A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making,” Harvard Business Review, November 2007, https://hbr.org/2007/11/a-leaders-framework-for-decision-making.

8. Etsy.com, “Etsy, Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2015 Financial Results,” press release, February 23, 2016, http://investors.etsy.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=253952&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2142373.

9. Consumer Reports, Twitter post, March 19, 2015, 9:27 am, https://twitter.com/CRcars/status/578593771337682944.

Chapter 2

1. Eric Ries, The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses (New York: Crown Business, 2001).

2. “In-App Purchase for Developers,” Apple, Inc., accessed August 26, 2016, https://developer.apple.com/in-app-purchase/.

3. For example, see Austin Carr, “The Real Story Behind Jeff Bezos’s Fire Phone Debacle and What It Means for Amazon’s Future,” Fast Company, January 6, 2015, https://www.fastcompany.com/3039887/under-fire.

4. Ibid.

5. Brian Jackson, “Canadian Tire Money Enters Era of Mobile Payments,” ITBusiness.ca, October 29, 2014, http://www.itbusiness.ca/news/canadian-tire-money-enters-era-of-mobile-payments/51907.

6. Ed Catmull with Amy Wallace, Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (New York: Random House, 2014), Kindle edition, loc. 143.

7. Fiona Graham, “Searching the Internet’s Long Tail and Finding Parrot Cages,” BBC News, October 7, 2010, http://www.bbc.com/news/business-11495839.

8. Ibid.

Chapter 3

1. Driving Digital Transformation: New Skills for Leaders, New Role for the CIO, Harvard Business Review Analytic Services Report, 2015, https://enterprisersproject.com/sites/default/files/Driving%20Digital%20Transformation:%20New%20Skills%20for%20Leaders,%20New%20Role%20for%20the%20CIO.pdf.

2. Associated Press, “A Win for Uber: Car-Service Apps Can Update without City Approval,” June 22, 2015, http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20150622/TRANSPORTATION/150629988.

3. Andrea Rothman, “Airbus Builds Innovation Labs for Faster Tech Advances,” Bloomberg, March 9, 2015, http://skift.com/2015/03/09/airbus-builds-innovation-labs-for-faster-tech-advances/.

4. GOV.UK, “About the Government Digital Service,” Government Digital Service blog, accessed September 1, 2016, https://gds.blog.gov.uk/about/.

5. Noah Kunin, Twitter post, December 12, 2014, 6:22 p.m., https://twitter.com/noahkunin/status/543591687084589056; ibid., 6:24 p.m., https://twitter.com/noahkunin/status/543592161951121409; and ibid., 6:25 p.m., https://twitter.com/noahkunin/status/543592503778484224.

6. GOV.UK, “How the Alpha Phase Works,” accessed September 1, 2016, https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/phases/alpha.html.

7. Amy Wilson et al., “Two Agencies Participating in the Digital Acquisition Accelerator Pilot,” 18F, June 15, 2016, https://18f.gsa.gov/2016/06/15/two-agencies-participating-in-the-digital-acquisition-accelerator-pilot/.

8. Personal communication, 2015.

Chapter 4

1. Greg Jarboe, “L’Oreal Launches New Makeup Line Designed by YouTube Beauty Guru Michelle Phan,” Search Engine Watch, August 19, 2013, https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/study/2289834/loreal-launches-new-makeup-line-designed-by-youtube-beauty-guru-michelle-phan.

2. “Luxury and Cosmetics Financial Factbook 2013,” EY.com, accessed September 1, 2016, http://www.ey.com/GL/en/Industries/Consumer-Products/Luxury-and-cosmetics-financial-factbook-2013.

3. Tom Peters, Twitter post, January 2, 2015, 4:23 a.m., https://twitter.com/tom_peters/status/550990859756634113; ibid., 8:33 a.m., https://twitter.com/tom_peters/status/551053682151026688; and ibid., 9:49 a.m., https://twitter.com/tom_peters/status/551072739537461248.

4. Roger Dooley, “Three Customer Loyalty Lessons from Coffee Companies—Only One is Good,” Forbes, January 7, 2015, http://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerdooley/2015/01/07/coffee-loyalty/.

5. Ben Geier, “Car Dealerships Turn to Ipads, Not Sign Twirlers, to Win Business,” Fortune, September 2, 2014, http://fortune.com/2014/09/02/car-dealerships-turn-to-ipads-not-sign-twirlers-to-win-business/.

6. Personal interview, Mark Chamberlain, Select Sires director of information services, 2015.

7. Nellie Bowles, “Michelle Phan: From YouTube Star to $84 Million Startup Founder,” Recode.com, October 27, 2014, http://www.recode.net/2014/10/27/11632302/michelle-phan-youtube-star-to-startup-founder.

8. The New York Times, The Full New York Times Innovation Report, https://www.scribd.com/doc/224608514/The-Full-New-York-Times-Innovation-Report.

9. Ibid., p. 4.

10. Ibid., p. 15.

11. Ibid., p. 32.

12. Reuters, “New York Times Co. Profit Jumps 48% on Digital Growth,” February 4, 2016, http://fortune.com/2016/02/04/new-york-times-earnings/?iid=leftrail.

13. Interview with Emily Culp at Rebecca Minkoff; Phil Wahba, “Nordstrom Taps Ebay’s Tech to Build Fitting Room of the Future,” Fortune, November 25, 2014, http://fortune.com/2014/11/25/nordstrom-ebay-fitting-rooms/; Elizabeth Holmes, “Designer Rebecca Minkoff’s New Stores Have Touch Screens for an Online Shopping Experience,” Wall Street Journal, November 11, 2014, http://m.wsj.com/articles/designer-rebecca-minkoffs-new-stores-have-touch-screens-for-an-online-shopping-experience-1415748733?mobile=y; and Billy Steele, “Neiman Marcus’ Digital Mirror Compares Clothes Side by Side,” Engadget.com, January 13, 2015, http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/13/neiman-marcus-memory-mirror/.

14. Frank Konkel, “The Details about the CIA’s Deal with Amazon,” The Atlantic, July 17, 2014, http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/the-details-about-the-cias-deal-with-amazon/374632/.

15. Emily Steel, “Nielsen Plays Catch-Up as Streaming Era Wreaks Havoc on TV Raters,” New York Times, February 2, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/03/business/media/nielsen-playing-catch-up-as-tv-viewing-habits-change-and-digital-rivals-spring-up.html?_r=0.

16. Rick Porter, “Netflix Says Ratings Estimates ‘Remarkably Inaccurate,’ Won’t Change Its No-Numbers Stance,” Zap2it.com, January 17, 2016, http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2016/01/17/netflix-says-ratings-estimates-remarkably-inaccurate-wont-change-its-no-numbers-stance/.

17. Mary Meeker, “2015 Internet Trends Report,” May 27, 2015, http://www.slideshare.net/kleinerperkins/internet-trends-v1.

18. Dan Farber, “Why Romney’s Orca Killer App Beached on Election Day,” CNet.com, November 9, 2012, http://www.cnet.com/news/why-romneys-orca-killer-app-beached-on-election-day/.

19. Michael Kranish, “ORCA, Mitt Romney’s High-Tech Get-Out-the Vote Program, Crashed on Election Day,” Boston.com, http://archive.boston.com/news/politics/2012/president/candidates/romney/2012/11/10/orca-mitt-romney-high-tech-get-out-the-vote-program-crashed-election-day/gflS8VkzDcJcXCrHoV0nsI/story.html.

20. Farber, “Why Romney’s Orca Killer App Beached on Election Day.”

Chapter 5

1. Stephen Bungay, The Art of Action: How Leaders Close the Gaps between Plans, Actions, and Results (London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2010), Kindle edition.

2. Dan North, “Why Agile Doesn’t Scale, and What You Can Do About It,” presentation at GOTO conference, September 30, 2013, http://gotocon.com/aarhus-2013/presentation/Why+Agile+doesn’t+scale,+and+what+you+can+do+about+it. When we spoke to North, he went on to say, “If you want to scale and be agile, the solution may not be more scrum teams.” (Scrum is the most popular agile method. When people think of agile, they’re usually thinking of scrum.) Instead, he told us, “When you have a lot of work to do, you have to ask, What is the shape of the work, and what’s the best shape of people to do the work?” North described a process of asking these questions quarterly and adjusting assignments and organization continuously in response to the nature of the work.

3. TechBeacon, “State of Performance Engineering, 2015–2016 Edition,” http://techbeacon.com/sites/default/files/State-of-Performance-Engineering-2015-16_FINAL2.pdf.

4. Bungay, Art of Action, loc. 2856.

5. Neil Williams, interview with authors, 2016.

6. Williams told us that the system described here has evolved somewhat in the time they’ve been using the process. “As we learn, we change things,” he told us. Now that GOV.UK is an established platform that’s used across government, there is more need to coordinate work across departments. As a result, the team finds more need to communicate hard dates. Still, Williams told us, plans are subject to change. “It doesn’t change the uncertainty,” he said, “just how we communicate about it. We tell people, this is the plan, it’s the best plan we have, and it will probably change.”

7. This is similar to an approach used by the Google Apps team in 2006 and 2007. Team members describe using these same planning buckets, along with one additional bucket, which is the “not doing” bucket. This last category helps stakeholders understand which features are explicitly out of scope. https://library.gv.com/climbing-mount-enterprise-99a4d014f942#.iasj0ux35.

8. Donald Reinertsen, The Principles of Product Development Flow (Redondo Beach, CA: Celeritas, 2012), 250.

9. “GOV.UK High-Level Road Map,” Trello, https://trello.com/b/GyqsETvS/gov-uk-high-level-roadmap.

10. Bungay, Art of Action, loc. 923.

11. Mehrdad Baghai, Stephen Coley, and David White, The Alchemy of Growth (New York: Basic Books, 2000).

12. This description is based on an interview with Brad Smith, Intuit CEO, by Eric Ries at the Startup Lessons Learned Conference, 2011, http://criticalthinking.tumblr.com/post/6713640477/brad-smith-ceo-intuit-at-startup-lessons.

13. Hugh Molotsi, “Horizon Planning at Intuit,” February 14, 2014, http://blog.hughmolotsi.com/2014_02_01_archive.html.

14. Geoffrey Moore, “To Succeed in the Long Term, Focus on the Middle Term,” Harvard Business Review, July–August 2007, https://hbr.org/2007/07/to-succeed-in-the-long-term-focus-on-the-middle-term.

Chapter 6

1. This formulation is often attributed to author and strategist Larry Keeley. But designer Alan Cooper, who cites Keeley in his book The Inmates Are Running the Asylum (Boston: Pearson, 1999), says, “You could make a case that it comes from Vitruvius, just a tad earlier” (Vitruvius, the ancient Roman architect and author, is known for his assertion that architecture must be solid, useful, and beautiful; and personal communication with Alan Cooper.

2. Cian Ó Maidin, “Release the Kraken: How PayPal Is Being Revolutionized by Node.js and Lean-UX,” NearForm.com, November 5, 2013, http://www.nearform.com/nodecrunch/release-the-kracken-how-paypal-is-being-revolutionized-by-node-js-and-lean-ux/.

3. Brad Power, “How GE Applies Lean Startup Practices,” Harvard Business Review, April 23, 2014, https://hbr.org/2014/04/how-ge-applies-lean-startup-practices/.

4. The New York Times, The Full New York Times Innovation Report, https://www.scribd.com/doc/224608514/The-Full-New-York-Times-Innovation-Report.

5. Clement Huyghebaert, “What Is It Like to Be an Engineer at BuzzFeed,” Quora.com, accessed September 1, 2016, https://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-be-an-engineer-at-BuzzFeed.

6. Vox, “Code of Conduct,” accessed September 1, 2016, http://code-of-conduct.voxmedia.com/.

7. Personal communication with Bill Scott, 2015.

8. Eric Savitz, “The Death of Outsourcing, and Other IT Management Trends,” Forbes.com, December 28, 2012, http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2012/12/28/the-death-of-outsourcing-and-other-it-management-trends/#12657a6775c7; and Stephanie Overby, “Goodbye Outsourcing, Hello Insourcing: A Trend Rises,” CIO.com, February 17, 2011, http://www.cio.com/article/2411036/outsourcing/goodbye-outsourcing–hello-insourcing–a-trend-rises.html.

Chapter 7

1. Nathan Coe, interview, 2015.

2. Chris Kelly, interview, 2015.

3. Beyond Budgeting Institute, accessed September 1, 2016, http://www.beyondbudgeting.org/beyond-budgeting/bb-problem.html.

4. Sonja Kresojevic, interview, 2016.

Chapter 8

1. Todd Wallack, “Call It Big Data’s Big Dig—$75m, 19 Years, Still Not Done,” Boston Globe, April 12, 2015, http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/04/11/massachusetts-courts-long-delayed-computer-system-may-leave-public-out/S7tZcbvBDFd3nho7XvEZPO/story.html.

2. Michael Krigsman, “An IT Failure Unicorn: Endless 19-Year Project in Massachusetts,” ZDNet, April 13, 2015, http://www.zdnet.com/article/an-it-failure-unicorn-endless-19-year-project-in-massachusetts/.

3. Ibid.

4. Kellan Elliott-McCrea, “Five Years, Building a Culture, and Handing It Off,” Medium, August 31, 2015, https://medium.com/@kellan/five-years-building-a-culture-and-handing-it-off-54a38c3ab8de#.cre5m6xat.

5. Ken Norton, “Climbing Mount Enterprise,” GV Library, August 5, 2013, https://library.gv.com/climbing-mount-enterprise-99a4d014f942.

6. Reed Hastings, “Process Brings Seductively Strong Near-Term Outcome,” SlideShare, August 1, 2009, http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664/51-Process_Brings_Seductively_Strong_NearTerm.

7. Douglas McGregor, The Human Side of Enterprise (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960).

8. “Manifesto for Agile Software Development,” accessed September 1, 2016, www.agilemanifesto.org.

9. Tom Warren, “Windows Phone Is Dead,” Verge.com, January 28, 2016, http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/28/10864034/windows-phone-is-dead.

10. Quy Huy and Timo Vuori, “Who Killed Nokia? Nokia Did,” Salamander magazine, January 28, 2016, http://alumnimagazine.insead.edu/who-killed-nokia-nokia-did/.

11. Mike Bland, “Turning Learning Up to 11: Transparent Internal Operations,” 18F, January 4, 2016, https://18f.gsa.gov/2016/01/04/turning-learning-up-to-11-transparency/.

12. Jared M. Spool, “Fast Path to a Great UX—Increased Exposure Hours,” User Interface Engineering, March 30, 2011, https://www.uie.com/articles/user_exposure_hours/.

13. Marvin Lange, interview, 2015.

14. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic, http://www.allmusic.com/album/kind-of-blue-mw0000191710.

15. Stefon Harris, “There Are No Mistakes on the Bandstand,” TED talk, November 2011, https://www.ted.com/talks/stefon_harris_there_are_no_mistakes_on_the_bandstand?language=en.

16. Julie Anixter and Sarah Miller Caldicott, “Midnight Lunch: How Thomas Edison Collaborated,” Innovation Excellence, February 3, 2013, http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2013/02/03/midnight-lunch-how-thomas-edison-collaborated/.

17. Rhys Newman and Luke Johnson, “No Dickheads! A Guide to Building Happy, Healthy, and Creative Teams,” Medium, March 26, 2015, https://medium.com/@rhysys/no-dickheads-a-guide-to-building-happy-healthy-and-creative-teams-7e9b049fc57d#.dir4udkg9.

18. Eric Johnson, “Meet Shani Hilton, BuzzFeed’s Newsmaker in Chief,” Recode, January 21, 2016, http://recode.net/2016/01/21/meet-shani-hilton-buzzfeeds-newsmaker-in-chief/.

19. John Borthwick, “Tech Is Eating Media. Now What?” Medium, November 9, 2015, https://medium.com/@Borthwick/time-for-a-change-2be08d01d40.

20. Michael Calderone, “New York Times Eyes Ambitious Overhaul in Quest for ‘Journalistic Dominance,’” Huffington Post, February 4, 2016, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-york-times-overhaul_us_56ae5e36e4b00b033aaf88d5.

21. David Gelles, “The Zappos Exodus Continues After a Radical Management Experiment,” New York Times Bits blog, January 13, 2016, http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/01/13/after-a-radical-management-experiment-the-zappos-exodus-continues/.