HBR On Leadership
How to Manage Breakthrough Innovation
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Show notes
How do you guide a team working on innovative projects—when there is no existing playbook? Astro Teller says he uses a vetted approach to decision-making for the innovative projects that he and his teams undertake at X, Alphabet’s R&D engine. Teller is the Captain of Moonshots at X, which he helped launch at Google in 2010. Since then, they’ve worked on a pill that detects cancer, cars that drive themselves, and mega-kites that work as turbines to collect wind energy, to name just a few examples. In this episode, he offers key lessons for managing the process that delivers breakthrough innovations. You’ll learn how he decides to keep investing in a project, and how he knows when it’s time to pull the plug. You’ll also learn how he assembles teams and what qualities he looks for in potential new hires.