Let’s take a look at an example of continuous improvement practices at the company Atlassian.
Atlassian, a software company that offers products to product managers and development teams, has successfully created and sustained a culture of innovation and continuous improvement. Atlassian achieves this in a few different ways.
Firstly, to drive innovation, employees are given 20% of their allocated work time to spend on personal projects. [1] This is modelled on Google’s innovation strategy, where personal projects often can be transformed into creative new features or products for the organisation. This strategy requires Atlassian to allow their employees the time to work on these personal projects, which is an expensive risk for the company since 20% of employees’ time is given away to experimentation. However, to ensure that this time is used productively, employees focus their personal projects on the team, how it operates, and what they do.
Secondly, Atlassian cultivated a culture of continuous improvement to support innovation. Specifically, Atlassian split their employees into small teams and encouraged them to own their career path by embracing and identifying challenges and strengths. What they found was that successful teams handled challenges differently to other teams, so to help those who struggled, Atlassian implemented a workshopping resource called the Team Playbook. They gathered the practices that successful teams used and created short, purposeful workshops and exercises that enabled teams to learn and adopt these practices. [2]
For example, Atlassion’s Health Monitor [3] helps teams to assess their strengths and weaknesses. Once some weaknesses have been identified, teams and employees can use other plays to strengthen these areas.
Instructions: How do you implement continuous improvement practices?
Taking dedicated work time to innovate and find continuous improvement opportunities can be an expensive cost for an organisation. Considering what you have just learned, complete the following:
- Explain in a brief paragraph:
- How might you go about implementing effective continuous improvement practices?
- What might you do differently to Atlassian?
Fagboun Richard Olanrewaju
To implement effective continuous improvement practices, I would allocate a percentage of work time for employees to explore personal projects, focusing on both product and process innovation. Regular retrospectives and feedback loops would help identify areas for improvement, and clear guidelines would ensure that innovation aligns with company goals.
Differently from Atlassian, I would introduce structured mentorship or cross-team collaboration during the innovation period, such as a buddy system or an innovation “accelerator” program. This would provide real-time feedback and help integrate successful innovations across teams, ensuring that valuable ideas are not lost.
To implement effective continuous improvement practices, I would foster a culture of innovation by allocating a portion of employees’ work time, perhaps 10–15%, to focus on personal or team-oriented projects that drive innovation and operational improvements. Unlike Atlassian’s broader approach, I would tie this time explicitly to organizational goals, ensuring alignment with strategic priorities. To support this, I would introduce structured tools like a “Team Playbook” to capture and disseminate best practices across teams, but I would also integrate a feedback mechanism where teams can share insights and refine the playbook regularly. Additionally, I would emphasize smaller, iterative changes, using quick pilots to test ideas before scaling them. This approach minimizes risks while maintaining a focus on measurable results.
I would establish a culture of regular feedback, iterative learning, and employee involvement to implement effective continuous improvement practices. This would involve setting up structured review cycles, such as retrospectives, to evaluate processes, identify inefficiencies, and prioritize actionable improvements. Additionally, I would foster cross-functional collaboration and empower teams to experiment with solutions, monitor their impact, and share insights. Unlike Atlassian, which heavily relies on its internal “Team Playbook” to guide practices, I might focus on tailoring improvement frameworks to the organization’s unique needs rather than adopting a universal model. This approach allows for greater flexibility and alignment with specific goals and challenges.
For continuous improvement activities,i will task staff to do it outside office hours and attach a reward to those who do so successfully and come up with marketable ideas.
To implement continuous improvement, I would allocate a smaller percentage of time (e.g., 10%) for innovation to balance costs and productivity. Projects would align with organizational goals, supported by structured feedback mechanisms like team assessments and mentorship. Unlike Atlassian, I would incentivize innovation by rewarding successful contributions, fostering motivation and impact.
Implementing of continuous improvement pillars and process in the organisation with the team members taking ownership of the process, every idea valued and business operation optimised.
Like Atlassan, the 20% allocated time is good as the company benefits from the process with constant review and reshuffling of the team for improved collaboration.
As a product manager I will create a workable framework utilising agile scrum methods and pdca methods. This will allow for more improvements ad there is enough feedback to utilise.
Since the benefits of continuous improvement provides improved productivity, I will be deliberate in employees training, workshops and seminars, because that’s a good platform for self appraisal and to learn new thongs.
It’s a platform where employees can know their strengths, witnesses, opportunities and threats in other to be productive
As a product manager I will use the principles of PDCA for continuous improvements , ensure the teams effectiveness in learning from various success of other teams,And gathering information and aids in implementation and improvements.
To implement effective continuous improvement practices, I would establish a structured framework that encourages team innovation while minimizing operational risks. For example, I would allocate dedicated time (similar to Atlassian’s 20% rule) for employees to focus on personal or team-driven improvement projects but limit it to specific periods, such as a quarterly “innovation sprint,” to balance experimentation with productivity. Additionally, I would introduce a collaborative feedback system, such as regular team retrospectives or innovation workshops, to assess challenges, share best practices, and implement incremental changes. Unlike Atlassian, I would emphasize setting measurable outcomes for these innovation periods to ensure alignment with organizational goals and resource optimization. This approach balances fostering innovation with maintaining operational efficiency.
What I’m saying in essence is that I would apply the use of the four (4) pillars of continuous improvement and of course the PCDA process.