A Visit To Google HQ
I finally got the call to go to the mothership in Mountain View, California for a digital travel summit hosted Google and TravelClick. It was an incredible opportunity to connect with other marketing professionals and Google’s London based Travel team.
Meeting The Google Team
It was incredible experience learning the development philosophy at Google and meeting the incredible talented people working on next-level innovative projects. Seeing the community of Googlers buzzing around the the campus, was an inspiring scene.
At the reception, I had some time to talk football with the London-based Google Travel team. What luck finding fellow Arsenal fans!
9 Principles of Innovation
My favorite speaker was a guy in his 70s. His speech on the 9 Principles of Innovation was fascinating.
If you closed your eyes, you would have thought a he was an eager 22-year-old giving that presentation. An palpable and unending stream of excitement, curiosity, and enthusiasm that consumed my thoughts. Staying fresh and keeping an open mind, you could tell this Google Leader would never run out of passion for what he did.
Out of everything he mentioned, his #1 principal was something along the lines of this:
“We don’t sit in a room and perfect and perfect and perfect like the guys over in Cupertino.
At Google launch and then iterate, iterate, iterate, until we have a beautifully polished product.
If it doesn’t work, we can it.”
I absolutely love AGILE thought process and development philosophy. I would still wait for the polished Cupertino (Apple) product every time though.
1. INNOVATION COMES FROM ANYWHERE
Everyone has good ideas that can make the world better.
2. FOCUS ON THE USER
Focus on the user, not the money or driving profit.
3. AIM TO BE TEN TIMES BETTER
Always think in terms of 10x improvement, not 10%. DREAM BIG
4. BET ON TECHNICAL INSIGHTS
Bet on your know insights, it will drive innovation.
5. SHIP AND ITERATE
Launch vs perfecting the product. Users will guide iteration.
6. GIVE EMPLOYEES 20 PERCENT TIME
Spend 20% of time on something you are passionate about.
7. DEFAULT TO OPEN PROCESSES
Stay open to innovation and ideas from all angles.
8. FAIL WELL
Fail, learn, grow, and repeat. There is no stigma around failure.
9. HAVE A MISSION THAT MATTERS
Believe the work you do has positive impact on others.
Googleplex
I paused for a few minutes and took this picture just outside the mothership.
Google’s campus was beautiful and unassuming. The expansive campus felt like the grounds of a university founded in the 1970s, it reminded me a bit of the NIU campus, and was filled with visitors and Googlers alike.
Google’s Travel team provided a short tour through the grounds ending at the campus Google Store where you could buy any and every Google product made plus fan gear and apparel.
As part of Google’s campus, there is a section with statues from each Android version iteration. They are collected in what feels like a mix between a playground and post-apocalyptic Google Graveyard. Like the land of misfit toys in the back alley of society.
New Google Ads For Hoteliers
It was exciting getting to learn that I have been using all of the more recent Google Ad tools developed recently except for one which is still in a very limited beta test. The newest tool, Google Property Promotion Ads, are going to provide hoteliers with an Expedia Travel Ad-esque opportunity in Google’s search results.