Give me 10% — A Cinnamon program for members to unlock their mastery and pursue innovation

Innovation is the blood vessel of any technology company. It’s not too much to say that every technology company is an incubator for hundreds of blooming ideas in the future as well as potential start-up unicorns. In Cinnamon, we encourage every member to deep dive into their unknown ability according to their want-to, to extend their possibility and knowledge out of the scope of work. That is the origin of the “Give me 10%” program: the encouragement from the company and their intrinsic motivation to work on their dream.

Cinnamon’s member can brainstorm to come up with ideas that they want to act on as long as they can point out the benefits for the company, estimate the duration of the project and the result for each milestone, the project owner can also ask for support from others (which means require 10% of their working resource). Any member has a chance to take the lead, be the project owner to their ideas. From start to end, the project owner gets all the support they need from HR and their leaders on the operation of the project: plan development, solution design, risk management, and productization. Promising long-term projects can be the official projects of the company.

Nevertheless, the “Give me 10%” program has some challenges along the way we conduct because this is the first open internal program for members to register their ideas. There were several potential projects with several ideas and approach methods, we had to pick the best and most possible ones at the time. Currently, the board would accept 3 types of projects: one that improves problems in the company (standardized system), new products based on our core products, knowledge exchange projects between departments or classes. The next challenge is resources for the registered projects. Most of them require one or a few members to participate therefore the members need to take the initiative for resource allocation and spare time for side projects.

For the first steps, Cinnamon members are willing to join “Give me 10%” and take it for granted because their ideas are appreciated as well as to have a chance to break the boredom. Members are no longer a part of the productization but they are able to build the vision of the product and own it. This program encourages members to be more creative, take the lead, accept the challenges, and build themselves up in a limitlessly wide-open path of career. Registered projects aim to create profitable products, reduce operating costs, and systematize the existing operation in Cinnamon. “Give me 10%” is developing to be an internal program that every member can actively work on their initiatives and make the move. We believe that imagining the future and filling in the gaps is the definition of innovation.