Atlassian: Scaling Innovation

"24 hours to innovate. It's like 20% Time. On steroids."

Atlassian's "ShipIt Days" were quarterly events where all employees could work on whatever they wanted to improve the company's products, physical spaces, operations, or culture. ShipIt Days had a fairly open format where employees were free to do whatever they wanted, as long as it could somehow relate to Atlassian's products. Work began after lunch on a Thursday and continued until 4pm Friday, at which point employees presented their projects to the rest of the company. 

ShipIt Days evolved as a central component to Atlassian's creative culture since its early days as a start-up in Australia. The international company continued to use ShipIt Days as a way to foster a culture of innovation within the rapidly growing public company. According to Atlassian, the goals of ShipIt Days were to:

• Foster creativity. Management was proud of the company's engineering talent, and hoped to use the program to unleash creative thinking across the company.
• Scratch itches. If an employee felt there was an issue that others had overlooked for whatever reason, ShipIt Days offered a chance to fix it. 
• Spike. Employees could spend the time taking a deep dive into an issue or area that they felt could benefit an Atlassian product.
• Have fun. Atlassian management embraced the fun and creative atmosphere that came with ShipIt Days.