#138—JoAnn Garbin: Decoding Innovation at Microsoft and Beyond

JoAnn Garbin is a sustainability and technology innovator with a 25-year track record of leading teams “from nothing to something to scale,” creating numerous innovative products and profitable businesses. Her career predates the concept of climate change, and her long career in sustainability combined with her tenure at Microsoft as Director of Innovation in Microsoft’s cloud business, have given her ample insight, into how innovation can and should be a repeatable scalable process. In this episode, we discuss highlights from The Insider’s Guide to Innovation at Microsoft, a book co-written between Joann and Dean Carignan, who among his long and rich career has spent 20 years at Microsoft, guiding new businesses—including the early internet division, Xbox, and multiple AI efforts—through the critical growth phases to their first billion dollars in revenue. More than just insights and case studies into how Microsoft has woven innovation into the fabric of their ecosystem, Joann shares with us a proven framework to innovation.  In this podcast, we discuss:How innovation cycles mirror nature’s adaptative processes—constantly regenerating from the ashes, much like companies must continually innovate to curtail disruption A breakdown of the four innovation patterns that each provide specific tools and strategies for effective innovation How innovation is—contrary to common belief—beyond technology, able to happen through business models, customer experience, and non-tech-oriented areas Some fascinating insider examples of how Microsoft learned critical lessons through successes and failures in various products lines—like the Xbox, Bing, and more_______________________________________________________________________________Episode Timeline:00:00—Highlight from today's episode01:28—Introducing JoAnn+ the topic of today’s episode03:35—If you really know me, you know that...05:12—What is your definition of strategy?07:01—Why the book isn’t just about Microsoft  09:10—The four patterns of innovation  10:31—JoAnn's background in sustainability 13:01—The meaning of regenerative sustainability?  13:50—Is having a bold goal necessary for innovation16:13—Pattern I: Innovating every day means 17:52—How to innovate every day in practice20:35—Pattern II: Innovating over the years  23:55—Pattern III: Innovating with everyone 26:54—An example of innovating with everyone  29:05—Enabling boundary crossers to connect  32:04—Pattern IV: Innovating beyond technology  33:38—Going against conventional wisdom  36:22—Defining BXT (business experience technology)37:50—How can people follow you and continue learning from you?__________________________________________________________________Additional Resources:Personal website: www.joanngarbin.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/joanngarbinLink to book: The Insider’s Guide to Innovation at MicrosoftThank you to our executive producer Zach Ness, our producer Nazanin Homayoun Jam and our editor James Pearce. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.Follow us at outthinker.com/podcast