As mentioned in the introduction to this chapter, there are some similarities between product teams and sports teams in the sense that just like sports teams, product teams have to practice their game.
To do this, we can use team events such as Hackathons and Innovation Days. They will provide an environment for exploration while also allowing our teams to learn essential techniques such as rapid validation and end-to-end experimentation, all while honing our information sharing and collaboration skills.
Innovation Days are set up in a similar way to Hackathons, in that they are a set time away from the current teamwork. Hackathons usually focus on exploring different uses of a specific technology, while Innovation Days focus on a particular problem solved by any technology.
We'll look at both in a little more detail in the remainder of this section...
