Life in Balance: Amit Chaudhary’s Blog
• • • • •

Marissa Mayer (VP Search Products & User Experience, Google)

Google’ 9 Notions of Innovation

1. Ideas come from everywhere

Google expects everyone to innovate, even the finance team

2. Share everything you can

Every idea, every project, every deadline — it’s all accessible to everyone on the intranet

3. You’re brilliant, we’re hiring

Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin approve hires. They favor intelligence over experience

4. A license to pursue dreams

Employees get a “free” day a week. Half of new launches come from this “20% time”

5. Innovation, not instant perfection

Google launches early and often in small beta tests, before releasing new features widely

6. Don’t politic, use data

Mayer discourages the use of “I like” in meetings, pushing staffers to use metrics

7. Creativity loves restraint

Give people a vision, rules about how to get there, and deadlines

8. Worry about usage and users, not money

Provide something simple to use and easy to love. The money will follow.

9. Don’t kill projects — morph them

There’s always a kernel of something good that can be salvaged

Her daily schedule

8:00 a.m. Wake-up, get ready for work

9:00 a.m. Arrive at work, take conference call about a new technology

10:00 a.m. Meeting with Udi Manber, VP of engineering to discuss search, engineering staffing, etc.

10:30 a.m. Meet with Associate Product Managers to brief and prepare for upcoming international business trip

12:00 noon Product review with Larry and Sergey; review product direction and strategy and potential future collaborations

1:00 p.m. UI (User Interface) review to review/approve user interface designs/changes for multiple products

3:00 p.m. Meet with a new member of my team to welcome him and discuss career goals/trajectory

3:30 p.m. Meeting with Google Video product manager

4:00 p.m. Google Product Strategy meeting with Eric, Larry, Sergey, and other executives to go over weekly site traffic and a few special topics

5:00 p.m. Executive strategy meeting on Google China

6:00 p.m. Office Hours

8:30 p.m. Catch up on the day’s e-mail

11:15 p.m. Visit to the Google Gym to run

12:00 p.m. Go home

12:30 a.m. Watch TV, do e-mail

3:00 a.m. Go to bed

From Businessweek article: Marissa Mayer: The Talent Scout