In case you missed it: yesterday, December 14, marked the first day of ScriptDrop’s first-ever Innovation Days event. Read all about it here.
On Innovation Day 2, project teams have been left to their own devices. Certainly everyone is very aware that Friday will be the last day to prepare a presentation of their innovations and that they will be judged based on those presentations. But as excited as everyone is about their initiatives, ScriptDrop team members are a practical, responsible bunch. Most have needed to tackle urgent day-to-day tasks, putting many project teams in a temporary holding pattern.
Nevertheless, the wheels are still turning. Sometimes the hardest part of getting a project off of the ground is to actually start it, and Innovation Days has allowed that to happen.
Future-Focused
For example, Logistics Manager TJ Gerlach said of his project, “This has been a passion project for the team for a long time now. I think the Innovation Day was the right time to present it to the entire company for feedback and get the momentum we need to actualize it in 2023.” Due to the scope of the initiative, TJ needs to schedule meetings with external parties, develop questions to ask them, and then plot out what kind of development work would be needed to make his idea a reality. He plans to take his Innovation Days project well beyond this week and into the new year.
Manager of Account Management Mario Coletta, Customer Success Coordinator KayCee Bartoli, and Sales Executive Jane Crandall, despite working on three very different projects, are in the same boat. All of them want to tackle complex problems that will require complex solutions, and none of their projects can be done in a day. All three are busy compiling what they’ve learned so far, doing additional research, and “hashing out the fine details on how to connect all the moving parts,” as KayCee put it. They all intend to present a plan of action that will outline the opportunities that their ideas represent.
Trainer Jeremy Anderson’s team will also present a plan of action tomorrow afternoon. But first, the project team – which incorporates members from at least four different ScriptDrop teams – will huddle up in the office tomorrow morning to build their presentation together. Jeremy said their idea will consist of three phases or stages which will “have a major impact on ScriptDrop’s business” with a limited use of Engineering effort or other resources. We love to see it!
Here and Now
Others plan to show off something more concrete at Friday’s final presentations. Software developer Miranda Regan has begun building a tool that would allow the Marketing team to create digital content that would normally require the help of the Engineering team. Miranda is working smarter (not harder!) by borrowing pieces of code from other internal tools when possible and refitting them for this new tool.
Despite being busy with triage, Senior Developer Jess Wright and Senior Infrastructure Engineer Max Wilson are chipping away at their project, which promises to have long-lasting effects on the efficiency of our Engineering team. Jess said, “By tomorrow afternoon we would like to have ephemeral development environments available for developer use and a brainstormed list of other workflow automations/improvements that we can plan for and tackle throughout 2023.”
HR Generalist Bethany Burke may not be a software developer, but she is also creating something that can and will be used by ScriptDrop employees. Bethany, with help from Jeremy, is building new onboarding for ScriptDrop hires. She said she liked the fact that Innovation Days came with a built-in deadline: “I know I have to get it done by Friday, so I’ll get it done.”
What’s Next
Tomorrow, at 3:00 PM, Chase McCants will again welcome our Innovation Days participants to the stage. There, each team will try to persuade the judges that their idea and project group is worthy of an award for the Most Collaborative, Most Creative, Biggest Short-Term Impact, or Biggest Long-Term Impact.
But even more importantly, each team will have the company’s attention. This is their opportunity to build momentum behind a project, get the team excited about an idea, and gain the support of leadership. Check out the blog tomorrow for the exciting conclusion of this event!