Crews → Impacting stories from our R&D teams

On our rituals to innovate and bring home new skills.

If there is one thing we believe in, it is that innovation requires research space, freedom to experiment, resources, and passionate people, other than well-established processes to support them and the launch of genuinely new ideas. This definition of “innovation” describes how we, internally, keep exploring uncharted territories well.

  •
    In many organizations, this job usually falls under the R&D departments, tasked with maintaining an open view of what might come next, doing some research, and indeed experimenting with products and services. Their goal is usually the achievement of tangible results, with practical implications on the business side.
  • We, on the other hand, have innovation itself at the center of our business, and our need is to keep new skills, products, and services flowing into our pipes at all times. And so our R&D is actually spread out throughout the entire organization: there is no dedicated team, which means that everyone contributes to our advancement consequentially. To make sure that we explore new areas and grant ourselves the needed “research space, freedom to experiment, resources, and passionate people”, in 2019 we launched our Crew program.
  • What are Crews?
  • In music, Crews are the expression of a group or a collective working together on a creative project. The highlight of their path is the “battle”, when the groups present their work. H-FARM Innovation’s way of handling our know-how and R&D practices is inspired precisely by this. Our Crews are self-recruited groups, given a set budget and a few months to work on unexplored topics. The results are concrete, tangible projects that eventually get built into our company — and, of course, our services.

How do they work?

  • Round opening
    The Call for Ideas launch happens on our ideas crowdsourcing platform. From that moment, anyone — regardless of role and seniority — can promote the formation of a Crew around a theme they deem worthy of exploring. At least three people are needed to make a proposal.
  • Application and selection
    The Crew shares its idea on the platform, motivating its validity and the ties with our organization, as well as a work schedule, three measurable goals to achieve within a year, and a budget. For each Crew cycle, H-FARM Innovation elects a committee responsible for choosing and discarding Crews and allocating the budget for each project.
  • Crews at work
    Over the following months, the Crews get on with the projects, helped by a member of the committee. While doing their research, they take part in conferences or courses and do whatever they deem necessary, in accordance with the pre-established limitations and resources.
  • Final battle
    At the end of each round, the Crews present the result of their work in a live event open to everybody: clients, students, competitors, or even just people who are curious about the world of innovation.
  • Experience our past events
    Now that we've explained how and why we do research, if you want to learn more about our Crews, you'll find the full recordings of past presentations below.
watch the event
watch the event
  • To learn more
    Read the articles to discover more about each Crew's design journey.
Blog
Data Journey Crew → Telling stories through data
Blog
Slack.Insights Crew → Understanding the mood of a remote-working team
Blog
Supersonic Crew → What sound does your brand identity have?
Blog
Visual Dialog Crew → Design, prototyping, and debugging, in one click

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