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The Innovation-Perception scale is great concept to apply to auto software :)  


From the early days of driven data we've been able to do the work on the boring stuff that we knew was a prerequisite of the more innovative / higher level functions.  I'll chime in on a couple concepts that really help me focus.


1. I picked up from the book 'Where Good Ideas Come from: The Natural History of Innovation' by Steven Johnson.  It's called the agencent possible. Essentially, the AP is an area that is newly available to explore only after the previous requirements are unlocked.  Our story at DD is a clear function of this principle as we had to learn each phase to refine the architecture and data flow to ultimately be able to apply it in the way we do today.


2. A democratic process to collect and score ideas yet a dictatorship when it comes to staying on track.  Six Sigma forces this process in the forming of a project selection matrix where you score the ideas based on their merit aka democracy. The Six Sigma project charter 'to establish scope' is the hammer to stay on mission and not veer off to where the project never ends or becomes unrecognizable. 


Six Sigma is too heavy for modern software and I feel is better at creating a system of quantitative analysis and re-inspection that leads to new larger improvements.  It also forces you to think about your product in the larger ecosystem it lives in.  Agile with scrum however, is better for innovating on a more granular level and helps continue to polish the innovation further.  Sometimes this leads to new areas that the larger marco approach would've never signaled was possible.


Also - no parachutes on helicopters aka death-fans.  Knowing that 18 year olds like me were working on those things and still having the trust in the system to fly them, badasses.