How These 16 Companies Harness the Power of Creative Thinking

Author Maya Angelou once said, “You can’t use up creativity; the more you use, the more you have.”

The tech industry has seen this play out firsthand over the past few years. For instance, since its release in 2022, ChatGPT’s AI models have become smarter over time. And just because the hallucinations are still there, its evolution reflects a wider transformation taking place across the industry, one driven by the continuous advancement of technology across a wide range of sectors. 

Every tech company fosters innovation in its own way. At Atlassian, it’s cultivated through internal opportunities like ShipIt, the company’s quarterly hackathon that enables technologists to explore projects they’re passionate about. Meanwhile, teams at HiBob lean on lunch-and-learn sessions so that employees can share their insights with their peers, which encourages everyone to look at problems with a fresh perspective. 

When teams harness the power of creative thinking, they craft better products — and stronger cultures. For instance, when technologists drive technological breakthroughs at BAE Systems, Inc., they celebrate their wins collectively, cultivating a sense of camaraderie across the organization. And when team members at HopSkipDrive share their ideas with others while working on solutions, they’re met with unwavering support — and admiration for each other’s unique strengths. 

Below, representatives from these companies, along with individuals from 11 other organizations, describe how their teams foster innovation and how this positively impacts their work and team cultures. 

 

 

Capital One provides individuals and businesses with banking services, ranging from credit cards to automotive loans. 

 

What practices does your team employ to foster innovation, and how have these practices led to more creative, out-of-the-box thinking?

Capital One’s legacy of innovation continues to influence our work. Internal tech events bring tech and non-tech associates together to experiment with new ideas and create the foundation for new products and services. The OnePatents program at Capital One also supports associates through the patent process, rewarding them for out-of-the-box thinking and recognizing them for their hard work.

 

“Internal tech events bring tech and non-tech associates together to experiment with new ideas and create the foundation for new products and services.”

 

How has a focus on innovation increased the quality of your team’s work?

Innovation has always been a focus at Capital One. The bank was the first U.S. financial institution to go all in on the public cloud. Capital One’s machine learning and AI capabilities are driving value for its customers and associates and the business — from fraud prevention to personalized customer experiences to the developer experience and much more. Beyond the tech landscape, bold ideas have led to the creation of Capital One Cafés, a new type of community banking experience.

 

How has a focus on innovation bolstered your team’s culture?

Innovation goes beyond everyday work at Capital One. Internal tech conferences give associates the opportunity to network and share more about their work. Plus, they’re able to learn more about the innovative work across Capital One and beyond. Less formal events, such as charity hackathons and even an e-games tournament, bring people together to share their passions outside of work and brainstorm how to bring those ideas to life at Capital One.

 

 

BAE Systems, Inc. specializes in building products for air, land and naval military forces in addition to developing solutions for use across a wide range of industries, including commercial transportation and aviation. 

 

What practices does your team employ to foster innovation, and how have these practices led to more creative, out-of-the-box thinking?

At BAE Systems, fostering innovation is a core focus within engineering and across the business. While traditional methods such as lunch-and-learn sessions, technology roadmap planning sections, individual research and development, and private investment funding are vital to driving progress, these approaches are often guided by businesses area management and leadership priorities to align with overarching goals. 

A unique and forward-thinking approach, however, lies within the Empower Innovation program. Open to all employees, regardless of role or level, Empower provides a platform for sharing ideas through a simple online tool. Hundreds of ideas are submitted and reviewed each year, often in support of campaigns for strategic, needle-moving technology. Selected entries receive collaborative feedback, enhancing their potential, seed funding, mentorship and support to mature their technology, product or process into more mature business cases. This approach not only refines individual ideas but also propels innovative solutions into real-world deployment, embodying a companywide commitment to groundbreaking advancements.

 

How has a focus on innovation increased the quality of your team’s work?

A focus on innovation through the BAE Systems Empower program creates an avenue for great ideas to gain traction, mature and be implemented. As a recipient of resources through Empower, seed funds allowed me and a small team of engineers to design and build a prototype bi-directional power converter that otherwise might not have existed given higher-priority business investment efforts. The competitive nature of Empower, along with understanding that funding was direct from higher levels, really instilled a sense of pride and ownership with our team. Knowing the company entrusted and believed in us helped drive our desire to succeed. The quality and technology readiness level are significantly improved due to the program’s early recognition of its potential.

 

“A focus on innovation through the BAE Systems Empower program creates an avenue for great ideas to gain traction, mature and be implemented.”

 

Additionally, my group has been developing new power electronic and high-voltage energy storage components and systems to support both core transit applications as well as adjacent market applications. I’ve been fortunate to be on the forefront of many of these efforts, exploring power and propulsion solutions for everything, from fuel cell buses and terminal tractors to several military applications.

 

How has a focus on innovation bolstered your team’s culture?

A focus on innovation has undeniably strengthened our team’s culture by fostering collaboration, mutual respect and shared purpose. Programs like Empower have provided a platform for diverse contributions, where every team member — regardless of role or experience — feels heard and valued. The transparency of the program, coupled with opportunities for feedback and mentorship, has created a sense of inclusivity and open dialogue, all of which are essential components of a strong team culture. 

Beyond driving technological breakthroughs, the initiative promotes a spirit of ownership and pride, as seen when our team successfully developed the bi-directional power converter. Such achievements are celebrated collectively, reinforcing camaraderie. Furthermore, the flexibility to explore adjacent markets and new technologies has allowed us to engage in meaningful work, making innovation at BAE Systems not just a goal, but a shared experience that empowers individuals and deepens team bonds.

 

 

Datadog’s platform enables digital transformation, cloud migration and infrastructure monitoring of teams’ entire technology stacks. 

 

What practices does your team employ to foster innovation, and how have these practices led to more creative, out-of-the-box thinking?

My team is building large language model-powered autonomous agents, so innovation is key in such a new and evolving space. Our last team summit was mostly a multi-day hackathon with some out-of-the-box projects as well as some that have become a reality.

I think what’s more important than these events is building innovation into our regular workflow. Our team is very self-directed, and most improvements to our agent come from bottom-up proposals from individual engineers. We’re each thinking critically about changes to make and experiments to run, and we’re empowered to implement them. A few formal and informal practices help this work for us. We have strong ad-hoc communication, which is important with all the self-directed work. Our planning process encourages proposals of new ideas for next areas of work. We also have a shared goal and system for measuring whether we’re progressing to help ensure that innovations are ultimately useful.

 

How has a focus on innovation increased the quality of your team’s work?

Innovative proposals from different engineers on our team have completely shaped the way our software works now. Examples of this include both small features and fundamental aspects of our agent’s architecture. A key information retrieval phase was originally proposed and implemented by an engineer who had the idea, and it’s now one of the best performing aspects of our agent. More recently other engineers have implemented a way to chain steps of reasoning together to produce more accurate findings. I don’t think it would be possible to build the type of software that we’re working on without a heavy focus on fostering innovation.

 

“Innovative proposals from different engineers on our team have completely shaped the way our software works now.”

 

How has a focus on innovation bolstered your team’s culture?

The innovative nature of the work and the team’s culture definitely go hand in hand. Getting lunch with the team frequently turns into a brainstorm about ideas to try. These can range from pragmatic and immediately implemented to off-the-wall moonshots. I have a lot of fun working in this type of environment, and I think it brings the whole team closer together, too.

 

 

Atlassian is a leading provider of collaboration and productivity software, empowering teams worldwide to unleash their full potential.

 

What practices does your team employ to foster innovation, and how have these practices led to more creative, out-of-the-box thinking?

At Atlassian, innovation is a core part of our culture. My team encourages creative thinking through initiatives like ShipIt, a quarterly hackathon at Atlassian where employees can work on any project they are passionate about. This time often leads to the development of new ideas, prototypes and even features that are later shipped to production! Another source for innovation is our use of experimentation and hypothesis-driven development in our daily workflows. Analyzing data and experiment results helps us find fresh approaches that standard planning might overlook. This continuous feedback loop fuels innovation at scale, promoting quick exploration, collaboration and valuable learning opportunities.

 

“Analyzing data and experiment results helps us find fresh approaches that standard planning might overlook.”

 

How has a focus on innovation increased the quality of your team’s work?

As the growth team, our main objective is to improve the user experience by implementing new features and supporting product discovery through personalization. We develop customized experiences that address various user journeys, refining our strategy through an innovation flywheel informed by A/B testing and data analysis. By promoting an experimentation mindset and dedicating ourselves to ongoing, data-driven enhancements, my team can effectively drive better customer and business outcomes, contributing positively to the quality and performance of our innovative offerings.

 

 

Celonis’ technology is designed to help organizations fix the inefficiencies negatively impacting their performance and lower their carbon footprint. 

How has a focus on innovation increased the quality of your team’s work?

Some of the original low-priority projects eventually become high-priority initiatives. For example, we initially started the Duplicate Invoice Checker Assistant as a P2 project, but it recently passed the launch review and entered private preview.

 

How has a focus on innovation bolstered your team’s culture?

We believe this approach is valuable not only for allowing team members to satisfy their curiosity and develop new skills — including working with state-of-the-art technologies — but also for driving innovation and inspiring new projects. Team members also have the opportunity to contribute to initiatives outside the immediate scope of the team by collaborating with colleagues across different areas.

 

 

Consumers can use Instacart’s platform to order groceries for pickup and delivery. 

 

What practices does your team employ to foster innovation, and how have these practices led to more creative, out-of-the-box thinking?

Innovation and cross-functional collaboration are central to how we support our four-sided marketplace across customers, retailers, brands and shoppers. To foster this culture, we’ve established several programs, including our Tech Summit, which we debuted last fall. This event brought together the entire engineering organization to showcase innovation through technical demos, knowledge sharing and team connections. It featured intimate chats with senior leaders, over 50 engaging talks and discussions and a poster exposition where colleagues could informally share their work and spark ideas. The Summit was so successful that we’re expanding in 2025 to include all research and development teams — like product and design — to further enhance collaboration and innovation.

 

“Innovation and cross-functional collaboration are central to how we support our four-sided marketplace across customers, retailers, brands and shoppers.”

 

Beyond the Summit, our Patent Program connects employees with our in-house intellectual property counsel to assist with filing patent applications, while our Brand Program enables technical employees to write blogs, speak at conferences and participate in academic opportunities. We also encourage employees to continuously test Instacart product features and provide feedback as well as experience shopping as an Instacart shopper through our Employee Shopping Program.

 

How has a focus on innovation increased the quality of your team’s work?

At Instacart, innovation is key in how we work and empowers teams to deliver their best. A great example of this in action is Ava, Instacart’s internal AI assistant, powered by multiple agents, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT. In the early days, we used Ava to leverage the best chatbot, which could change weekly, to streamline tasks like writing and reviewing. However, the real magic of Ava is in innovations such as the browser plugin, which seamlessly consumes nearly any content, reminds users of action items across Slack channels and joins meetings to capture notes. 

Thanks to Ava and teams becoming well-versed in where generative AI can be most effective, teams across the company have streamlined mundane tasks, enabling focus on the conversation and opportunities in front of us. What started as a simple hackathon project has blossomed into a critical tool and enabler that 95 percent of Instacart employees count on regularly and, through innovation, has permeated so many ways of working at Instacart. We’ve also built customized learning and development programs to continue accelerating AI learning and advancements across the company.

 

 

HiBob’s HR platform helps HR teams and managers handle onboarding, compensation, surveys, employee performance and other tasks. 

 

What practices does your team employ to foster innovation, and how have these practices led to more creative, out-of-the-box thinking?

At HiBob, innovation is a big part of working and growing as a team. We run annual hackathons that provide an open space for creative experimentation and rapid prototyping, allowing the exploration of potentially impactful new ideas. We also run a weekly back-end forum, where we share and discuss best practices and new approaches to help drive innovation while addressing technical overhead and tech debt. 

In addition, we host ad-hoc lunch-and-learn sessions whenever someone does something particularly cool or different so the rest of the team can learn from them and maybe even apply it in their own work. Lately, we’ve been especially focused on exploring how AI can help us push boundaries and be even more innovative. All of these practices help keep HiBob agile, allowing us to adapt, be curious and collaborate as we look for smarter, more creative ways to build our platform.

 

“We run annual hackathons that provide an open space for creative experimentation and rapid prototyping, allowing the exploration of potentially impactful new ideas.”

 

How has a focus on innovation increased the quality of your team’s work?

Focusing on innovation has helped raise the quality of our team’s work. It keeps us plugged into new technologies, and this open-mindedness really impacts how we deliver, accelerating our development.

A great recent example was after one of our lunch-and-learn sessions, when someone introduced a new framework. The team quickly found a clever way to apply it to an upcoming feature, which cut down development time significantly and reduced the amount of code we needed to write. It was a great win that came about as a result of our dedication to innovation and knowledge-sharing.

 

How has a focus on innovation bolstered your team’s culture?

It’s had a really positive impact on our team culture. One of the biggest benefits is that it helps level the playing field — regardless of how junior or senior someone is, everyone can take risks, share ideas and bring innovative solutions to the table. It gives everyone a voice and creates a sense of ownership and inclusion across the team.

Hackathons are a big part of this. They’re not just about building things quickly — they’re a fun way for the team to bond, collaborate outside of usual roles and build trust in a more relaxed, creative setting. These kinds of experiences definitely help strengthen relationships and make the team feel more connected.

 

 

Clear Street offers a cloud-native brokerage and clearing system that’s designed to add efficiency to the market while transparently minimizing risk and cost for clients. 

 

What practices does your team employ to foster innovation, and how have these practices led to more creative, out-of-the-box thinking?

As a software engineer at Clear Street, I’ve seen that while we do participate in hackathons and lunch-and-learn sessions, most innovation comes from the rhythm of everyday work. Clear Street is modernizing the brokerage ecosystem with fintech and services that empower our clients, and that requires creating the right environment for inspiration to strike. 

Open communication is key. Most of our “meetings” happen as informal chats at our desks or in Slack, which keeps the team in the loop. This also provides a space for the entire team to share their ideas, feedback or insight. We are also driven by curiosity. Our team drives conversation with the simple question, “Why?” which leads us down productive conversations, uncovering problems or solutions that aren’t immediately obvious. Finally, we have created a sense of trust. Allowing people to do what they think is important instead of only doing the next ticket of work can often add unexpected value. When you combine curiosity, trust and a strong culture, innovation naturally follows.

 

“Allowing people to do what they think is important instead of only doing the next ticket of work can often add unexpected value.”

 

How has a focus on innovation increased the quality of your team’s work?

Our firm recently began integrating AI into our tech stack. While everyone has likely seen how powerful large language models can be, incorporating them into financial systems can be tricky. During a conversation about AI development tools, we discovered that we could use AI to automate by parsing freeform client emails to translate them into allocation instructions. It was a perfect solution to an error-prone manual process. 

We quickly built an AI solution, and to our surprise, the LLMs did an even better job than we did at parsing convoluted client requests! I also had an opportunity to present the system to a wider audience of engineers. This sparked many more conversations across the firm with people who wanted to use AI but didn’t know where to start. Now we have multiple AI workstreams being kicked off in the firm, and it’s become another tool in our technology toolkit. 

It’s exciting to be given the time to explore and build out a proof of concept outside of the team’s immediate priorities, and the ability to do so is adding value to the firm. It’s hard to know in advance if something will succeed, but at Clear Street, we believe it’s worth trying. More often than not, it pays off!

 

How has a focus on innovation bolstered your team’s culture?

Like I mentioned above, innovation is often downstream of a collaborative culture, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t an effect in the other direction! Innovation can enable a real sense of ownership on the team, and accomplishments can feel personal when your idea moved the needle on delivering a feature or you saved the day by suggesting something to your teammate. When you work on a team where each member cares and has ownership of the product, work becomes easy. Your innovative success can inspire others on your team to think outside the box, with AI as a case in point. The more innovation you’re around, the more you get inspired!

 

 

 

Carbon Robotics develops AI-driven robotics for use in agriculture. 

 

What practices does your team employ to foster innovation, and how have these practices led to more creative, out-of-the-box thinking?

It starts with the way we run embedded at Carbon: You don’t do just firmware or hardware — you get to work on every layer of the stack, from speccing parts and designing printed circuit boards to the back-end software and mobile apps that operators use. You go to the field or manufacturing plant and see how your creations do in the real world — and figure out how to make them even better. We don’t let ourselves get caught up in months-long discussions on how to build something; we just do it. The only thing we consider a failure is not trying at all. 

 

“We don’t let ourselves get caught up in months-long discussions on how to build something; we just do it.”

 

But most importantly, every single person working at Carbon is here not just because they want to be here, but because they believe in what we’re doing: using technology to make the world a better place. And that’s something you just won’t find at your Microsofts or Apples of the world — true, unadulterated creativity and problem-solving driven not by restricted stock units, but by genuine belief in the tomorrow we’re building.

 

How has a focus on innovation increased the quality of your team’s work? 

One of the core components of the LaserWeeder are the laser scanners: devices that aim the laser beams to shoot weeds. On the G2 machine, we were able to realize several firmware improvements — including squashing bugs as old as the company — on the scanners, which culminated in a two to three times massive increase in weeding speed. G2 was going two-plus miles per hour before we even delivered the first customer unit. On the other hand, G1 tops out around one mile per hour after three years of hard optimizing.

As cliché as it sounds, everything we do is innovative — I mean, who else does laserweeding? But that doesn’t mean we get complacent; we’re far from that. We all realize we’re doing what’s never been done before, and there’s no right or wrong answers. One of the greatest testaments to this has been our international expansion. For example, our European customers asked for a way to run their tractors at a lower revolution per minute — saving fuel and wear, but changing the frequency of air conditioning power — and instead of saying no to such a big change, we tested and validated this for our entire fleet in weeks.

 

How has a focus on innovation bolstered your team’s culture? 

Absolutely! There’s not a layer of the stack I haven’t touched, and with that, not a person on the software team I haven’t gotten to work with. From hitting the ice rink at 6 a.m. to midnight chats about cats and programming languages, I’m always thankful not only to work with such awesome people but call them my friends, too.

 

 

360Learning’s platform helps learning and development teams upskill employees, train customers and enable partners. 

 

What practices does your team employ to foster innovation, and how have these practices led to more creative, out-of-the-box thinking?

We do a hackathon every year, which allows everyone to try doing things they wouldn’t be doing otherwise. But as architects, we also have to keep up to date on the tech world, so we read a lot, go to conferences and meetups and create proofs of concept. We do POCs regularly to try out new technologies, and we listen to the pains and the challenges that the developers have; they push us to see what there is outside of our little bubble that could help them.

 

“We do POCs regularly to try out new technologies, and we listen to the pains and the challenges that the developers have; they push us to see what there is outside of our little bubble that could help them.”

 

How has a focus on innovation increased the quality of your team’s work?

The easy answer is OpenAI. When ChatGPT launched, we were already building generative AI functionalities, but with our own infrastructure. It was working, but slowly and with limited quality. As soon as we saw what ChatGPT could do and the cost of the API, we did a POC to integrate it in our platform, and the result was much faster, better quality and cheaper, and it opened up dozens of new possibilities. 

We also integrated asynchronous processing in our monolith. That idea came from hearing the developers complaining about bugs where large processing like video conversion took tens of minutes and would block the servers from doing anything else. They were empty-handed when confronted with the consequences of that code: slowness, bugs and clients complains. We deployed a state-of-the-art pipeline of queues and buses, which solved almost all issues on that part.

 

How has a focus on innovation bolstered your team’s culture?

We are engineers, and the heart of the job is to solve complex problems. Most of us are quickly tired of solving the same problems with the same tools. We want to see new stuff, learn new technologies and discover new problems to solve. By pushing for innovation, we solved old problems that were pestering us for so long that we thought they would always be there, and we introduced ourselves to complete new domains like AI, data and DevOps. I can’t see how that wouldn’t excite you!

 

 

HopSkipDrive’s marketplace supplements school buses and existing transportation options by connecting kids to highly-vetted caregivers on wheels, such as grandparents, babysitters and nurses in local communities.

 

What practices does your team employ to foster innovation, and how have these practices led to more creative, out-of-the-box thinking?

At HopSkipDrive, I am part of the RideIQ team, which develops a platform for school district partners to manage transportation for their students. Our team culture fosters innovation, allowing me to try new things, take risks and swiftly adjust when something doesn’t go as planned. It gives me the freedom to experiment and iterate without fear.

I’ve felt encouraged to explore new ideas and take ownership when I spot opportunities for improvement. Innovation is also openly celebrated. We highlight wins in Bonusly, our employee recognition tool, as well as dedicate time for shoutouts in our engineering all-hands. Additionally, we hold weekly internal events, such as Dev Gym, which is a meeting where we learn, explore and brainstorm about processes for the engineering team. Once a year, we also hold a companywide hackathon, which is a great space for us to learn from one another and build on each other’s creativity. There’s a contagious energy that comes from watching your teammates succeed and creating a supportive environment where we all push each other to excel. Curiosity is encouraged, and our efforts are valued, even when things don’t pan out.

 

“Curiosity is encouraged, and our efforts are valued, even when things don’t pan out.”

 

How has a focus on innovation increased the quality of your team’s work?

I believe that passionate people build better products. When you know your ideas are supported, you naturally care more about how they’re executed. That pride in ownership shows in the final result. Because of that, we’re not afraid to hold off on releasing something if it needs more polish. We regularly check in with each other about what’s working and what’s not, and we’re not afraid to trim features that feel clunky or forced. That level of honesty helps us deliver better experiences, not just more features.

We are also quick to adapt to new tools. For example, we recently overhauled our internal component library to learn from, and model patterns used by, leading startups. We use modern web development frameworks like React and Rails and keep up with advancements and new features. As a result, we now have smoother workflows and more scalable code.

 

How has a focus on innovation bolstered your team’s culture?

One of my favorite aspects of this job is the culture. Everyone is curious, supportive and excited to build cool things together. There’s no ego or rigid hierarchy — just a shared commitment to HopSkipDrive’s mission to create opportunity for all through mobility. We focus on solving transportation challenges that require safety, equity and care by providing educators with supplemental student transportation from high-vetted caregivers and industry-leading routing software that help our kids get to and from school safely, reliably and on time.

Trust runs deep within the team. When someone has a new idea, the response is almost always, “Sounds great, go for it!” That kind of support encourages initiative and makes it easy to believe in each other’s strengths. Collaboration is easy because everyone’s voice is heard. Bouncing ideas off teammates has taught me a lot, making even tough challenges manageable. Innovation doesn’t feel like pressure — it feels natural.

 

 

ActBlue is a nonprofit tech organization that helps Democratic campaigns, progressive organizations and nonprofits build campaigns. 

 

What practices does your team employ to foster innovation, and how have these practices led to more creative, out-of-the-box thinking?

Any conversation about innovation has to begin with trust: software is delivered at the speed of trust. Without it, communication breaks down, collaboration diminishes and learning and adaptability languish. To foster innovation and build trust, my team has cultivated psychological safety. We employ practices like designed alliances in one-on-ones, working style and agreements sessions, continuous retrospectives, and daily collaborative check-ins. This foundation of trust enables open communication and collaboration, which in turn enables us to embrace practices that accelerate learning and innovation. 

 

“This foundation of trust enables open communication and collaboration, which in turn enables us to embrace practices that accelerate learning and innovation.”

 

One of our most powerful delivery practices is a “fixed time, variable scope” approach. By setting fixed timeboxes while keeping scope flexible, we create constraints that drive us toward creative simplicity. These constraints require healthy conflict to make necessary tradeoffs, which is only possible in a high-trust environment. We also host regular “Disco” sessions, during which we review user research and product discovery. This brings diverse perspectives to problem-solving; we believe that more minds bring better solutions and that a variety of lived experiences enriches our work.

 

How has a focus on innovation increased the quality of your team’s work?

Our approach has improved quality most by reshaping our team’s understanding of what to build. Our “fixed time, variable scope” methodology ensures prioritization. We focus first on the highest-value aspects of a desired outcome rather than try to deliver every aspect of a theoretically ideal feature. The result is a simpler, more focused solution that directly addresses user needs. 

Last year, we worked on a search user interface redesign. Initially, we prioritized improving performance issues, assuming this was the primary pain point. However, through early prototyping and user conversations, we discovered that limited search controls were the actual friction point. Because we were operating with “fixed time, variable scope,” we were able to reprioritize our milestones, making flexible search controls a “must-have” without extending our timeline. This responsiveness has transformed how we define and deliver quality. By shipping small increments and staying close to our users, we often uncover insights that contradict our initial assumptions — and we adapt accordingly. We’re not just building quickly; we’re building what matters.

 

How has a focus on innovation bolstered your team’s culture?

Our focus on team culture bolsters innovation, not the other way around. Designed alliances, working agreements and retrospectives create spaces where people feel safe to show up authentically. When psychological safety exists, people can bring their whole selves to work.

Our Disco sessions and cross-team collaborations aren’t just innovation mechanisms; they’re relationship-building opportunities. They align everyone around a shared understanding of core user needs. This clarifies the “why” behind decisions and channels everyone’s energy toward generating more impactful ideas. When diverse minds gather around a complex problem, the energy is palpable. There’s a natural camaraderie that forms through the shared struggle of problem-solving, especially when everyone feels their voice matters. 

Trust doesn’t just enable innovation — it enables joy at work. I’ve seen team members come alive when they feel heard, their ideas are built upon and they’re given autonomy within constraints. The practices that foster innovation and those that create a positive, safe culture aren’t separate initiatives. They’re deeply intertwined facets of the same foundation: human connection and trust.

 

 

Clari’s revenue orchestration platform helps teams manage tasks like forecasting, pipeline management and deal execution. 

 

What practices does your team employ to foster innovation, and how have these practices led to more creative, out-of-the-box thinking?

One of the most effective practices we rely on at Clari is our retrospectives and “Lessons Learned” meetings. These are not just routine check-ins — they’re intentional spaces where a diverse group of voices from across functions come together. Everyone has the space to speak, be heard and contribute. This open environment consistently sparks innovative ideas, especially around the technical challenges we’re facing. It’s a reflection of one of Clari’s core values, “The Jazz Band” — collaborative, improvisational and deeply team-oriented. By tapping into different perspectives, we’re able to surface creative solutions we might not have reached otherwise.

 

How has a focus on innovation increased the quality of your team’s work?

At Clari, we thrive on building new things — especially in the fast-paced world of software development. Innovation is baked into how we support product development, and one of the key ways we’ve elevated the quality of our work is through a data-driven approach. We’ve developed tools and frameworks that give us visibility not just into our development processes but into the impactful factors that truly drive success. By focusing on what really moves the needle, we’re able to iterate more effectively and deliver higher-quality outcomes. It’s this constant cycle of learning and improvement that keeps us ahead.

 

“By focusing on what really moves the needle, we’re able to iterate more effectively and deliver higher-quality outcomes.”

 

How has a focus on innovation bolstered your team’s culture?

Absolutely — these practices do more than improve our output; they shape the heart of our team culture. Innovation isn’t just about big ideas; it’s about enjoying the process of building, learning and growing together. The collaborative spirit from retrospectives, our data-driven mindset and the excitement of trying new things create an environment where people genuinely enjoy their everyday work. There’s a sense of shared ownership and pride that helps us grow not just as professionals but as a team alongside Clari’s growth as a company.

 

 

Sysco LABS, a technology-focused division within Sysco, builds e-commerce platforms that are designed to help food businesses thrive. 

 

What practices does your team employ to foster innovation, and how have these practices led to more creative, out-of-the-box thinking?

Every day is game day at Sysco LABS, and we play with all of the things you’d expect — lunch-and-learn sessions, side projects and annual global hackathons. Even though the topics can be tough to align — because, ultimately, you want these projects to have some kind of viable business value — our events have consistently sparked creative thinking and showcased how participants go above and beyond their day-to-day responsibilities, bringing fresh ideas and energy to the organization. 

Hackathons offer a welcome shift in perspective, letting us think beyond immediate deliverables and explore bold ideas that could shape our future capabilities. One powerful aspect of our hackathons is bringing together teammates from across the business, many of whom don’t typically work side by side. This mix of diverse roles and fresh perspectives often leads to our most innovative ideas, as people approach problems unconstrained by routine or legacy assumptions. Side projects also offer a valuable chance to reflect and approach problems from a fresh angle. While we don’t always spotlight them, they often spark meaningful innovation — and when they evolve into real, usable solutions, we’re better off for it.

 

“Hackathons offer a welcome shift in perspective, letting us think beyond immediate deliverables and explore bold ideas that could shape our future capabilities.”

 

How has a focus on innovation increased the quality of your team’s work?

I think the more interesting innovation happens on the edges. We’ve found that some of the most transformative ideas come not from big initiatives, but from quiet reimaginings of the tools already in front of us. When teams are given the space to explore, they uncover new possibilities that dramatically improve how we work. 

For example, while most hackathons in the wild have that “anything goes” spirit and then figure out what happens with it next, our more recent hackathon was focused on delivering actual, tangible, deliverable possibilities, resulting in multiple projects built on recommendations geared toward specific, existing needs, platforms and processes. We can’t necessarily get specific on them, but obviously, we’re looking toward emerging tech like automation, AI and more to really innovate, build on and improve how our customers interact with our Sysco Shop e-commerce platform and Sysco in general.

A lot of the team growth I’ve been a part of is from us engaging with technology that’s not dusty. It’s new, innovative and exciting, and we get to see passion come alive from learning new things, picking up new skills and collaborating with new people.

 

How has a focus on innovation bolstered your team’s culture?

From an engineering perspective, not everyone is looking to take on extra work beyond their day-to-day responsibilities — but when there's genuine enthusiasm for continuous learning, the momentum is contagious. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a demo is worth a thousand more. In traditional meeting environments, it’s easy for ideas to get lost in slide decks or overshadowed by the most confident speaker. But a working prototype rises above that — it commands attention, clarity and often sparks real momentum. That’s the hidden power of these innovation sprints; getting just enough working code into a demo space gives teams a platform to show what’s possible. And in doing so, it unlocks buy-in in a way few other things can.

 

 

Terakeet is an owned asset optimization partner for Fortune 500 companies dedicated to helping brands reach consumers as they search for solutions. 

 

What practices does your team employ to foster innovation, and how have these practices led to more creative, out-of-the-box thinking?

I think the data team at Terakeet helps foster innovation in two main ways: team collaboration and dedicated learning time. When we work on projects, it is heavily encouraged that we collaborate with the team to gather diverse perspectives. Collaboration includes sprint reveal meetings with data engineers, data scientists and business intelligence analysts. During these meetings, we present our work and seek feedback that includes suggestions for betterment. Doing this also provides team members with new ideas and better ways for them to work or solve problems.

 

“When we work on projects, it is heavily encouraged that we collaborate with the team to gather diverse perspectives.”

 

Each week we have a dedicated amount of time for learning and progressing our skills in different areas. This time gives a low-pressure environment to develop skills and improve strategies at developing useful tools for Terakeet. 

 

How has a focus on innovation increased the quality of your team’s work?

Innovation improves work at Terakeet because it increases exposure to different ideas from colleagues. It is beneficial to get feedback from managers, but I feel it really benefits me to get peer feedback while I am working on my projects. Their ideas and suggestions allow me to explore new and different ideas and help me better understand my own work. This in-depth understanding leads to more fulfillment in work, more confidence to take on projects I wouldn’t in the past and better team camaraderie when we all can see the cool projects that are being worked on. 

 

How has a focus on innovation bolstered your team’s culture?

Recognizing the cool and amazing work that the cross-discipline team produces allows us to foster respect for our colleagues. I think the baseline for culture is respect, and when you respect your colleagues and peers, you can build deeper relationships. We also make sure to dedicate time to water-cooler conversation that does not involve work projects to replicate what in-office communication and relationship-building would be. I think that time is very valuable to the team.

 

 

 

InspiringApps is a digital product design and development company that specializes in services like enterprise architecture strategy and UI/UX assessment. 

 

What practices does your team employ to foster innovation, and how have these practices led to more creative, out-of-the-box thinking?

At InspiringApps, we blend innovation with our core practices. We’ve always focused on solving client problems creatively, but we’ve evolved how we structure innovation time. Engineers apply creative thinking to daily work while also participating in dedicated “innovation projects” — a format we refined from our earlier “innovation days” approach.

We prioritize knowledge-sharing to extend the impact. For example, our “AI @ IA” meetings showcase practical applications of new tech. Exploring AI might lead to considering how to integrate generative interfaces into future features. We might find a way to use a Figma color blindness/contrast plugin to integrate accessibility checks directly into our workflow. Cross-team collaboration is a powerful source of fresh ideas, improving client solutions while building our technical capabilities. Live demonstrations create space for questions and feedback, helping us turn individual insights into teamwide growth. Innovation is an ongoing part of continuous improvement, making it so that out-of-the-box thinking becomes tangible results.

 

How has a focus on innovation increased the quality of your team’s work?

We believe innovation should be grounded in our values of empathy, respect, inclusivity, commitment and integrity. That means the innovations we pursue should be helpful, transparent and trustworthy, not just impressive for their own sake. This value-driven approach directly elevates our work quality by focusing our exploration on meaningful improvements. 

During innovation projects, engineers uncover new tools or techniques that improve everything, from performance to accessibility in our production code. For example, when one approach failed to deliver the user experience a client strived for, we identified an opportunity to leverage AI to improve that. Innovation leads to more accurate, dependable and inclusive features that meet our high standards — something we can stand behind and clients and users can trust and enjoy.

 

“Innovation leads to more accurate, dependable and inclusive features that meet our high standards — something we can stand behind and clients and users can trust and enjoy.”

 

How has a focus on innovation bolstered your team’s culture?

Being a remote company actually gives us an edge when it comes to innovation. With fewer physical boundaries, we can bring together perspectives more fluidly, and our innovation practices are built to make the most of that. They create intentional, energizing moments where people across disciplines connect, share insights, and get inspired by work outside their usual lane. I’ve seen these practices light people up. There’s a real sense of joy when engineers dive into new tech or jam with a teammate on a clever solution. It adds fun to the complex work we’re naturally curious to keep exploring — and reinforces that their ideas matter.

These moments stick. They help people feel seen, valued and part of something bigger. Engineers grow by sharing what they’re learning and seeing it spark something in someone else. That kind of feedback loop builds trust, fuels creativity and strengthens the team. We’ve created an environment where growth and belonging go hand in hand. That’s why great people stay and keep building things that matter.