Innovation in Business Strategy

Should you try Google’s famous “20% time” experiment to encourage innovation? We tried this at Duolingo years ago. It didn’t work. It wasn’t enough time for people to start meaningful projects, and very few people took advantage of it because the framework was pretty vague. I knew there had to be other ways to drive innovation at the company. So, here are 3 other initiatives we’ve tried, what we’ve learned from each, and what we're going to try next. 💡 Innovation Awards: Annual recognition for those who move the needle with boundary-pushing projects. The upside: These awards make our commitment to innovation clear, and offer a well-deserved incentive to those who have done remarkable work. The downside: It’s given to individuals, but we want to incentivize team work. What’s more, it’s not necessarily a framework for coming up with the next big thing. 💻 Hackathon: This is a good framework, and lots of companies do it. Everyone (not just engineers) can take two days to collaborate on and present anything that excites them, as long as it advances our mission or addresses a key business need. The upside: Some of our biggest features grew out of hackathon projects, from the Duolingo English Test (born at our first hackathon in 2013) to our avatar builder. The downside: Other than the time/resource constraint, projects rarely align with our current priorities. The ones that take off hit the elusive combo of right time + a problem that no other team could tackle. 💥 Special Projects: Knowing that ideal equation, we started a new program for fostering innovation, playfully dubbed DARPA (Duolingo Advanced Research Project Agency). The idea: anyone can pitch an idea at any time. If they get consensus on it and if it’s not in the purview of another team, a cross-functional group is formed to bring the project to fruition. The most creative work tends to happen when a problem is not in the clear purview of a particular team; this program creates a path for bringing these kinds of interdisciplinary ideas to life. Our Duo and Lily mascot suits (featured often on our social accounts) came from this, as did our Duo plushie and the merch store. (And if this photo doesn't show why we needed to innovate for new suits, I don't know what will!) The biggest challenge: figuring out how to transition ownership of a successful project after the strike team’s work is done. 👀 What’s next? We’re working on a program that proactively identifies big picture, unassigned problems that we haven’t figured out yet and then incentivizes people to create proposals for solving them. How that will work is still to be determined, but we know there is a lot of fertile ground for it to take root. How does your company create an environment of creativity that encourages true innovation? I'm interested to hear what's worked for you, so please feel free to share in the comments! #duolingo #innovation #hackathon #creativity #bigideas

Hire People BETTER and DIFFERENT Than You. Then do the thing that 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑙𝑒… Learn from them. Sounds simple, right? But here’s the twist—so many leaders can’t seem to do it. Why? Because underneath that simplicity is a lot of ego, fear, and insecurity. Here’s why many leaders get stuck: 1. Insecurity → It’s tough to feel like the least capable person in the room, even though that's the very thing that would unlock exponential growth. 2. Control → Hiring people with less skill lets some leaders hold onto control. It’s an ego-protecting mechanism. 3. Fear of Challenge → Different perspectives mean different ways of thinking. Leaders avoid it because they might get called out or challenged. 4. Comfort Zone → Familiarity feels safe. New people shake things up and push the boundaries. 5. Misguided Loyalty → Leaders hire based on relationships instead of results. 6. Short-Term Thinking → Hiring “cheap” talent might work for quick wins, but you lose the long-term gains from skilled and diverse teams. 7. Lack of Awareness → Some leaders genuinely don’t see the value of hiring beyond their mirror image. ↓ Leaders who avoid surrounding themselves with A-players miss out on so much: ✪ Amplified Intelligence: ↳ Your team's collective genius soars when you're surrounded by people who stretch your thinking. Their diverse skill sets and perspectives catch blind spots and unlock unseen potential. ✪ Fast-Track Growth: ↳ You grow faster because you’re learning from experts who’ve already been where you’re trying to go. When I launched Brain Apes, I knew I needed to learn from people who had specialties I didn’t. The result? We hit five figures in the first month. ✪ Constant Innovation: ↳ The best ideas don’t come from echo chambers. Humility fosters creativity. Hire outside your comfort zone and watch new, innovative solutions pour in. ✪ Better Decision Making: ↳ Different minds, different angles. A diverse team challenges assumptions and spots the things you miss. ✪ Collaboration: ↳ Strong teams are built on complementary skill sets. The whole is stronger than the sum of its parts. ✪ Trust and Culture: ↳ When you empower great people, they don’t just get the job done—they build a culture of loyalty and trust that feeds back into the business. ✪ Sustainability: ↳ It’s about building a team that can run without you. The goal of every great leader? Make yourself replaceable. I’ve done it with Brain Apes. We keep scaling because we have systems and people in place. In the end, leadership isn’t about being the smartest person in the room—it’s about being the most strategic. Hire better, learn faster, and get out of your own way. The rest will take care of itself. シ ♻️ Be kind. Smash that repost button. 💬 Which (1-7) holds the most leaders back?

Google just changed the game for event marketing. The big winner? Publications and associations. I’ll explain. But first. How are events discovered? Whether you want to admit it or not. It’s word of mouth. You hear about an event. You google it. Well ‘googling it’ is changing. On Monday, google released “AI Mode”. It hasn’t replaced the default search…yet. But it will. Showing up in AI Mode isn’t the same as ranking on google. Here’s what you need to do: 1. Get event page schema right Crawling a site is expensive. It uses token. The easier an event site is to crawl, the sooner it will get picked up. Add schema. org/Event, FAQ, and How-To markup to your reg page. Feed it clear dates, speakers, prices, and “Get tickets” actions. No markup = no mention. Event platforms like Accelevents do this automatically. 2. Earn citations, not backlinks AI Mode loves credibility. Niche trade publications & associations matter again. Land guest posts, podcast, speaker quotes. Visibility first, referral traffic second. 3. Keep Content Updated Stale pages will be punished. Update schedules, seat availability, and pricing in real time. AI Mode surfaces up-to-the-minute info. 4. Drive user-generated content Get attendees to share “One thing I learned at YourEvent” posts. AI Mode loves human content from social, reddit, quora, etc. The volume of brand mentions matters. 5. Tighten the trust signals Keep speak bios consistent. Link to verified social handles & get mentions from them. Credibility & authority are huge ranking factors. 6. Answer the long tail & hard questions Create an event FAQ (using schema markup) E.g. “Is XYZ Summit worth it?” “What’s the ROI of attending?” Publish cost-breakdowns, who your event is and isn’t for, etc Control the narrative. Better you than someone on Reddit. Simply put. When people hear about your event. Make it easy for them to find it. How are you adjusting your event discovery strategy?

Product leaders, stop hiding behind docs! If your team is still spending all their time in PRDs and product strategy docs, they're not operating in 2025. AI prototyping has literally changed the game. Here's how teams should do it: — THE OLD WAY (STILL HAUNTS MOST ORGS) 1. Ideation (~5% actually prototyped) “We should build X.” Cool idea. But no prototype. Just a Notion doc and crossed fingers. 2. Planning (~15% use real prototypes) Sketches in Figma. Maybe a flowchart. But nothing a user could actually click. 3. Discovery (~50% try protos) Sometimes skipped. Sometimes just a survey. Rarely ever tested with something interactive. 4. PM Handoff (~5%) PM: “Here’s the PRD.” Design: “Uhh… where’s the prototype?” PRDs get passed around like homework. 5. Design Design scrambles to build something semi-clickable, just so people stop asking “what’s the plan?” 6. Eng Start Engineering starts cold. No head start. They’re building from scratch because nothing usable exists. — WHAT HAPPENS - Loop after loop. Everyone frustrated. - Slow launches. Lots of guesswork. - And no one truly understands the user until it’s too late. — THE NEW WAY (THIS IS HOW WINNERS SHIP) 1. Ideation PMs don’t just write ideas. They prototype them. Want to solve a user problem? Click, drag, test. There. No waiting. No “someday.” You build it, even if it’s ugly. 2. Planning Prototypes are the roadmap. You walk into planning with a live flow, not a list of features. And everyone’s like: “Oh. THAT’S what you meant.” 3. Discovery Real users. Real prototypes. You send them a flow and you watch them break it. You’re not guessing anymore. You’re observing. 4. PM Handoff PMs don’t just hand off docs. They ship working demos alongside the PRD. No more “interpret this paragraph.” Just click and see it work. 5. Design Designers don’t start from scratch. They take what’s already tested, validated, and tweak it. Suddenly, “design time” is “refinement time.” 6. Eng Start Engineers don’t wait around. They start with something usable. If not, they prompt an AI tool to build it. And we’re off to the races. — If you want to see how AI prototyping actually works (and learn from expert Colin Matthews), check out the deep dive: https://lnkd.in/eJujDhBV

I cut my $300K marketing team down to one person. Revenue went up 40%. Here's the AI system that made this possible. An old-school marketing team is expensive and slow. Not because the people aren't talented, they are. But because every project requires constant back-and-forth. "Tom, what's your take on this campaign?" "Can you review this copy?" "What stories should we use here?" "How do we position this for your audience?" Even the best marketers need guidance to capture your voice and vision. The solution? We built AI systems that give my team instant access to my knowledge. Now my one marketing person works like they have my entire brain available 24/7. Here are the 5 AI systems we built: 1. Audience Intelligence AI Trained on years of Impact Theory podcast data. Knows exactly what our audience struggles with so we can create more valuable content. 2. Ad Copy AI Trained on our most successful campaigns. Gives my team proven messaging frameworks. I can test 20 angles in the time it used to take to write one. 3. Social Media AI Trained on my highest-performing posts and audience data. Shows my team what hooks work and what stories resonate. We pick the best variations instead of starting from scratch. 4. Story Bank AI Trained on stories I've told across hundreds of podcasts. Finds the perfect story for any message instantly. I focus on new stories while AI handles the proven ones. 5. Coaching Insights AI Trained on years of my business coaching calls. Knows which frameworks solve specific problems. My team builds content based on real customer transformations. The result? My marketing person doesn't need to interrupt me for every decision. They get expert-level guidance instantly. When they do need me, it's for high-level strategy, not basic questions. Most marketing bottlenecks happen because teams need constant guidance. AI eliminates the guidance delays. Your best people get to focus on creativity and strategy instead of waiting for approvals. While your competitors are still stuck in revision cycles, your team is already testing the next campaign. Come to my free AI masterclass and I'll show you how to leverage AI to start your business with confidence: https://buff.ly/57ouBTK

This is the most underrated shift in marketing, and no one is talking about it. - We talk about brand vs. performance - We talk about whether demand can be created or tapped into - We talk about zero-party data and the death of cookies But there's a bigger conversation we're missing: the fundamental SHIFT in consumers themselves. The internet's novelty has faded. It used to feel like a small town where everyone knew each other. Today, it's more like New York City, and everyone has to find their version of Cheers. (The bar where everybody knows your name!) Scrolling short-form videos is the new normal, but comments and public engagement are declining. In every keynote, I bring this up, and the audience nods collectively because they know it to be true. We consume publicly but engage privately – in Slack channels, LinkedIn DMs, Team calls, and good old email forwards. Marketers, wake up! We need to adapt to this new reality: 👉🏽 Focus on creating content that resonates deeply. Establish a POV, not just chase trends. Make viewers stop and think, even if they don't leave a comment. 👉🏽 Infiltrate the "private spaces." Find ways to reach consumers in their preferred communities through targeted messaging, earned media, and influencer marketing. 👉🏽 Rethink what engagement means. Likes and shares are just the tip of the iceberg. Focus on brand loyalty, third-party credibility, and positive word-of-mouth, knowing this happens behind closed doors. This fundamental shift in consumer behavior is the marketing game-changer we've all overlooked. To address it, we must embrace new rules of influence. #marketing #b2b #consumerbehavior #socialmedia #contentmarketing

1,322 meetings generated this year Outbound Sales Team = 0 - Here's how 👇 1. Cold/Initial Ads Build Awareness, Not Instant Sales We run cold ads to drive targeted traffic to our website—not to a lead gen form. Here’s the reality: B2B buyers aren’t impulse-buying $3k–$10k+ solutions on their first visit. 3% of cold traffic converts to meetings. Meaningful first impressions with possible prospects at scale... Channels We Use to Drive Cold Traffic: Google Ads (Paid Search) Paid Listings (e.g., Clutch, Influencer Marketing Hub) LinkedIn Cold Ads SEO Organic Social (like this post and YouTube for us) And yes, tell your boss to chill out! 🥶 Raining sales from cold ads isn't a thing in B2B 2. Retargeting: Build Trust, Not Friction Most buyers don’t convert on their first visit. Why? A. It’s not the right time—they’re still researching. B. They don’t know or trust you yet. C. They don’t see you as an expert compared to competitors. Our Retargeting Strategy: Focus on overcoming B + C by distributing content that builds trust and credibility and dripping in subject matter expertise where possible. Types of Retargeting Ads We Run: Case studies Expert advice & audits Testimonials Community-focused 3rd Party Validation The goal? Build trust, and position ourselves as the experts they turn to when they’re ready to buy. 3. Retargeting Intensity based on signals We adjust retargeting intensity based on their last intent-based action: 0–30 Days: High-intensity ads (4-5/week) focused on building trust. 30–90 Days: Mid-intensity ads (2-3/week) focused on demonstrating expertise. 90–180 Days: Low-intensity nurture (1-2/week) to stay top of mind without overwhelming them. This layered approach ensures prospects feel informed and comfortable reaching out when the time is right. We can't force them into being ready to buy, but we can look for signals that indicate they might be closer to making a decision and try to move ourselves higher up the consideration ladder. 4. Take an Ecosystem approach to marketing Most marketing departments fail in this next area. Setting up marketing channels as silos disconnected from the others vs an ecosystem that flows in and out of each other. A. Paid search traffic is often still the life-blood of in-market traffic with shorter sales cycles -Leverage LinkedIn ads to qualify and convert this traffic more efficiently and consistently B. Retarget your prospects on multiple channels to create the "everywhere" effect that improves recall and builds trust C. Ensure your content is worth distributing by ensuring it's dripping in subject matter expertise where possible D. Identify website visitors and own your 1st party data where possible for more personalized messaging strategies E. Leverage paid channels to drive organic community growth and always cross-pollinate your organic communities if possible. That's all for now! #B2BMarketing #LinkedInAds #DemandGen #InboundMarketing

When an extreme environment IS the experience—Not just the backdrop 🔥❄️ and WHEN it's worth the price tag 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 What if your activation wasn’t just in a location—but OF the location? Imagine sipping a cocktail chilled by glacial ice on a frozen mountaintop or testing gear in the blistering heat of a desert dune. In a world where consumers crave immersion, brands that harness the environment itself as part of the experience create something unforgettable while also building brand trust. Next-level brand activations make the venue part of the experience, like these brands did: 🏔️ The North Face's Mountain Pop-Up in a high-altitude base camp. 🏜️ Christian Dior Couture Sauvage Dior Cruise Show 🍸 Belvedere Vodka’s Ice Bar in the Arctic ❄️ Moncler x EssilorLuxottica FW24 Eyewear Launch in the Swiss alps. Extreme environment are a smart business move for a few reasons: 1️⃣ Earned Media & Viral Potential: instagram-worthy, brand amplification, organically spreading content and sharing w/out hefty ad spend. 2️⃣ Higher Perceived Value & Exclusivity: Extreme environments are not easily accessible = increased prestige, willing to work for it and taps into 'scarcity marketing' which drives demand. 3️⃣ Proof of Performance (P.O.P.): Perfect for performance-driven brands like The North Face, building a deeper sense of trust and brand loyalty while experiencing the brand in it's core environment it claims to thrive in. But it's important to understand WHEN it makes sense to go down the 'extreme environment' path. 🔸 For brands that sell performance, adventure, or luxury 🔸 When you need a breakthrough brand moment 🔸 If the experience will generate high-value UGC & press 🔸 When the experience can’t be replicated online 🔋🔋🔋🔋 An activation in a remote location can be a powerful brand-building tool, but only if the environment serves a clear brand purpose beyond just being "cool." The best experiential marketing isn’t just about where it happens—it’s about why it matters to the audience. If you're considering an 'extreme environment' activation -- I can help develop the strategic framework on how it might look for your brand. 📲 👉🏼👉🏼 What's the wildest activation environment you've ever seen?? 🔥 💡 Photos/Info: FashionUnited, BizBash, SHARE Creative, V Magazine | VMAN, LLC, Mountain Life Media, Premium Experiences Whistler, WWD, NYLON #brandexperience #brandstrategy #storytelling #advertising #creativecommunity #creativedirection #experiential #events

An Oxford study just confirmed what most of us have been saying all along: AI-generated ads can outperform human-made ones, but only when they don't obviously look AI-generated. The secret? Human refinement. The best marketing campaigns aren't purely AI-driven or entirely human-made. They're like pizza. Dough alone is just bread, toppings alone is chaos. The magic happens when everything works together. Want to collaborate with AI effectively? 1) Use AI for rapid ideation, humans for emotional depth Take your worst-performing ad copy and feed it into ChatGPT or Claude with this prompt: "Rewrite this to evoke [specific emotion: frustration, curiosity, nostalgia]. Use conversational language. Surprise me." It'll give you variations you'd never think of. Then your human brain picks the best concept and refines it until you think: "We'd never have written this ourselves." 2) Let AI spot patterns, humans craft the story AI's really good at combing through customer feedback, support tickets, and social mentions for trends. But humans make those insights into stories that actually matter. Say AI finds that most support tickets mention setup frustration. Humans craft that into: "Setup shouldn't feel like assembling IKEA furniture blindfolded." 3) AI scales the testing, you choose the winners Generate multiple variations with AI, but you decide which ones are worth spending money on. AI can create 50 headlines in minutes, your judgment tells you which 3 are worth testing. 4) You set the rules, AI fills the gaps Define your brand voice, values, and no-go zones. Then let AI work within those boundaries to fill content calendars, generate product descriptions, or create email variations. Platforms are making this easier: - Microsoft’s Ads Studio has AI-powered creative tools built into campaign workflows - Google Cloud rolled out AI marketing tools for personalized experiences - Or start simple with ChatGPT/Claude and the prompt above Stop thinking AI vs. humans. Start thinking AI + humans. Your move: This week, pick your worst-performing content. Run it through AI with a specific emotional prompt. Refine the best result with your gut instinct. That's how you make sure your marketing isn't just dough or just toppings, but complete, irresistible pizza. P.S. I'm team pineapple on pizza 🍕 + 🍍 = 🤤 (Sorry to my Italian friends! At least there's no ketchup involved... 😂) #hicm #AI #AIinAdvertising

When did IT stop being the corporate plumber and become the architect of the future?” The IT department has done a full 360. And we’re still dizzy. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, IT was the corporate janitor; keeping the lights on, fixing printers, a cost center buried in the basement. It was about support, not strategy. A necessary evil, not a secret weapon. By the 2000s, things shifted. Intranets, mobile phones, ERP systems, cloud experiments, cybersecurity, data strategies, these weren’t just nice-to-haves. They gave you an edge. Better tech meant smoother operations, happier employees, maybe a slight customer experience bump. But IT still wasn’t the star of the show. It was the stage crew, not the lead actor. Fast forward to the 2020s, and IT’s stolen the spotlight, or at least it should have. Your tech backbone isn’t just support, it’s your entire competitive advantage. Your companies policies to AI adoption, your strategy for data, your approach to security, your views on new behaviors, new ways or working, these are front and center, not boring background. A seamless employee or customer experience can define your brand. Tech isn’t a cost to minimize; it’s an investment to scale. The CTO isn’t a backroom techie; they belong on the board, shaping the future. Your approach to tech now drives your business strategy. Standing still isn’t cheap, it’s catastrophic. The opportunity cost of “we’ll upgrade next year” is a death spiral. A great day for IT isn’t 99.999% uptime; it’s a bold idea that rewrites your company’s future. For years, we preached people > process > tools. Hire brilliant minds, build slick processes, then pick tools to enable them. But today? Tools should come first. Platforms like AI, cloud, or low-code dictate the process, and we fit amazing people around them. It’s not ideal, I want to be people first, but it’s reality. The future is old vs. new, agile vs. massive. But the real pivot is how you see IT: an enabler that keeps things running or a driver that changes the game. Choose wisely. Your growth depends on it.