跟谷歌學創新：谷歌創新九大原則

Ever wonder what makes the Google the holy grail of productivity and creativity? There's no magic in the drinking water at the Mountain View, CA company. The tech giant draws from what Google's chief social evangelist, Gopi Kallayil, calls the nine core principles of innovation. Here are the nine rules that any enterprise, large or small, can adopt to steal Google’s innovative culture.
想知道是什麼讓谷歌成爲生產力與創造力的聖盃？當然不是喝山景城腳下的神水。而是貫徹其首席社會佈道師 Gopi Kallayil 所謂的谷歌創新九原則。以下就是這九條原則，任何企業，無論規模大小，均可從谷歌的創新文化中偷師。

1. INNOVATION COMES FROM ANYWHERE
1、創新無所不在

It can come from the top down as well as bottom up, and in the places you least expect. For example, a medical doctor on Google’s staff argued persuasively that Google had a moral obligation to extend help to those typing searches under the phrase "how to commit suicide." He ignited the charge to adjust the search engine's response so that the top of the screen reveals the toll free phone number for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. The call volume went up by nine percent soon thereafter. The same change has been adopted in many other countries.
自上向下也好，自下向上也罷，創新可以來自於任何地方，甚至是你最想不到的地方。比方說，一位給谷歌員工看病的醫生指出 谷歌有責任幫助那些搜索“如何自殺”的人。這番話令谷歌調整了搜索結果顯示，使得屏幕頂端顯示出美國預防自殺熱線的電話號碼。此後很快撥打熱線的數量就增加了9個百分點。後來在許多國家也進行了相應調整。

2. FOCUS ON THE USER.
2、聚焦用戶

Worry about the money later, when you focus on the user, all else will follow. Google improved the speed of its search capabilities with predictive analysis so search suggestions come up after the user types a few keystrokes. This Instant Search feature saves the user a few microseconds with each entry. Google sales reps were concerned that this shortened the time customers would view ads, but the company went ahead and believed that it was worth the risk.
錢的事情以後再擔心，首先要聚焦用戶，其他的東西自然水到渠成。當用戶輸入幾個字母時就展示搜索建議，谷歌通過這樣的預測性分析改進搜索速度。該即時搜索功能爲每位用戶的每次搜索都節省了若干毫秒。谷歌的銷售人員擔心此舉會縮短客戶瀏覽廣告的時間，但公司仍繼續並相信此舉值得冒險。

End result? Thanks to Instant Search, Google estimates the time saved is equivalent to giving back mankind 5,000 years after a year of collective use. "Create a great user experience and the revenue will take care of itself," says Kallayil. In addition, more customers will be attracted to your product's increased benefits.
最終結果如何？感謝即時搜索，谷歌測算該功能推出 1年之後節省下來的時間相當於返還人類 5000年。“打造出色的用戶體驗，收入會照顧好自己的，” Kallayil 說。此外，會有更多的客戶被你的產品新帶來的好處所吸引。

3. AIM TO BE TEN TIMES BETTER
3、以好十倍爲目標

If you come into work thinking that you will improve things by ten percent, you will only see incremental change. If you want radical and revolutionary innovation, think 10 times improvement, and that will force you to think outside the box. For example, in 2004, Google started its Google Books project and set forth a challenge to organize all the world's information and digitize all the books ever printed in history.
如果你只想着改進 10%，那你只會看到增量式的變化。如果你希望激進的、革命性的創新，那就想想10倍的改進，這會迫使你跳出固有的思維模式。比方說，2004 年，谷歌開始Google Book項目，提出要將全球信息組織起來並對歷史上所有印刷過的書本進行數字化，這是一個巨大挑戰。

Google co-founder Larry Page built his own book scanner, and the initial process required having someone manually turn its pages in rhythm, one at a time, according to the pace of a metronome. Google has now scanned 30 million of the 130 million books they first set out to scan, and dozens of libraries around the world are participating in the project.
谷歌聯合創始人開發了自己的書籍掃描儀，剛開始時還要人跟着掃描儀的節奏來翻頁。可現在谷歌已經掃描了當初計劃掃描的1.3億本書中的3000萬，全球幾十家圖書館都在參與該項目。

4. BET ON TECHNICAL INSIGHTS
4、靠技術洞見放手一搏

Every organization has unique insights, and if you bet on it, it leads to major innovation. Google engineers, not the auto industry, came up with the idea of driverless cars after seeing that millions of traffic deaths come from human error. Google already had all the building blocks in place to build a self-driving car--Google Maps, Google Earth, and Street View cars. Working with an artificial intelligence team at Stanford University, Google engineers have produced experimental cars that now have travelled to Lake Tahoe and back to the Bay Area and have given the blind more independence by driving them to shop and carry out errands.
每一個組織都有自己獨特的洞察力，如果放手一搏，就能引發重大創新。想出無人駕駛汽車的是谷歌的工程師而非汽車業—因爲他們沒有對數百萬因爲人爲錯誤而導致的交通死亡熟視無睹。Google Maps、Google Earth、街景汽車—開發無人汽車的一切組件均已準備就緒。加上與斯坦福大學的人工智能團隊的協作，谷歌工程師已經生產出實驗性的無人車，可以在太浩湖和灣區之間自由穿梭，讓盲人可以更加獨立地外出開車購物或辦事。5. SHIP AND ITERATE
5、交付、迭代

Ship your products often and early, and do not wait for perfection. Let users help you to "iterate" it. When Chrome was launched in 2008, every six weeks Google pushed out an improved version. "Today, using that approach, Chrome is the Number One browser in many countries," says Kallayil, "You may not have perfection in your product, but trust that your users will get back to you."
不要等到一切皆完美，要早交付，多交付。讓用戶幫你“升級”。2008 年Chrome發佈時，每6周谷歌就會推出一個改進版。“現在Chrome 用這種辦法已經在許多國家攀上了瀏覽器No.1的位置，” Kallayil 說：“你的產品也許並不完美，但請相信，用戶會把完美還給你的。”

6. GIVE EMPLOYEES 20 PERCENT TIME
6、給員工20%的自由時間

Give employees 20 percent of their work time to pursue projects they are passionate about, even if it is outside the core job or core mission of the company. "They will delight you with their creative thinking," Kallayil promises. At Google, engineers and project managers have the freedom to set aside one day a week to work on a favorite idea. Many can wind up as products or product improvements. Case in point: an engineer planning a trip to Spain found that he could not get a close-up view of the hotel since the road was too narrow for the Google Street View car to enter. He later adapted a Street View camera to fit on a specially-made Google tricycle to go places too narrow for a car and tourist locations that ban autos from approaching the premises.
賦予員工20%的工作時間來從事自己熱愛的項目，哪怕該項目並不在公司的核心任務或使命範圍。“他們會用自己的創意思考來愉悅你，” Kallayil 保證說。在谷歌，工程師和項目經理每週有一天的自由時間去折騰自己喜歡的創意。這些創意裏面有很多最後都轉化成了產品或產品改進。一個很好的例子是：一位計劃去西班牙旅遊的工程師發現自己無法獲得入駐旅店的近景，因爲所在街道太窄，街景車進不去。後來他改裝了街景攝像機，裝上特製的谷歌三輪車，用來到汽車進不去或不給進的旅遊景點拍攝。

7. DEFAULT TO OPEN PROCESSES
7、默認開放流程

Make your processes open to all users. Tap into the collective energy of the user base to obtain great ideas. When Google created the Android platform, it knew it could not hire all the best developers on the planet. For that reason, it "defaulted to open," and encouraged developers outside of Google to create apps for the one billion people using Android devices daily. "That is how an ecosystem is formed," says Kallayil. In marketing, Google asked users how they would market its voice search app, and children sent clever videos that rivaled the campaigns of the big ad agencies.
把你的流程向所有用戶開放。集思廣益，靠用戶集體的力量去獲取奇思妙想。谷歌創建安卓平臺時知道，自己無法將地球上最好的開發者都招致麾下。因此，它“默認開放”，鼓勵谷歌以外的開發者爲每天使用安卓設備的10 億用戶開發app。“生態體系就是這樣形成的，” Kallayil 說。在營銷上，谷歌也向用戶請教如何推銷其語音搜索app，有的孩子還發來一些聰明的視頻，其水平之高足以與大廣告公司的東西匹敵。

8. FAIL WELL
8、好好地失敗

There should be no stigma attached to failure. If you do not fail often, you are not trying hard enough. At Google, once a product fails to reach its potential, it is axed, but the company pulls from the best of the features. "Failure is actually a badge of honor," he says. "Failure is the way to be innovative and successful. You can fail with pride."
失敗不應該揹負污名。如果你不怎麼失敗，說明你的嘗試還不夠努力。在谷歌，只要產品無法發揮出最大潛力就會被掃地出門，但公司會從中擇取最好的功能。“實際上，失敗是一種榮耀，”他說：“失敗是通往創新和成功之路。你可以自豪地失敗。”

9. HAVE A MISSION THAT MATTERS
9、要有使命感

"This is the most important principle," Kallayil says. "Everyone at Google has a strong sense of mission and purpose. We believe the work we do has impact on millions of people in a positive way." Each person should have his or her own story.
“這是最重要的原則，” Kallayil 說：“谷歌的每個人都有強烈的使命感和目標感。我們相信自己的工作能以積極的方式影響着千百萬人。”每個人都應該有自己的故事。