How to Manage Breakthrough Innovation

HBR On Leadership

How do you guide a team working on innovative projects—when there is no existing playbook?

Astro Teller says he uses a vetted approach to decision-making for the innovative projects that he and his teams undertake at X, Alphabet’s R&D engine.

Teller is the Captain of Moonshots at X, which he helped launch at Google in 2010. His mission there is to invent and launch new technologies that address serious problems in the world. But those technologies must also create the foundations for substantial new businesses for Google’s parent company, Alphabet. They’ve worked on a pill that detects cancer, cars that drive themselves, and mega-kites that work as turbines to collect wind energy, to name just a few examples.

In this episode, Teller offers key lessons for managing the process that delivers breakthrough innovations. You’ll learn how he decides to keep investing in a project, and how he knows when it’s time to pull the plug. You’ll also learn how he assembles teams and what qualities he looks for in potential new hires.

Key episode topics include: leadership, innovation, technology and analytics, leadership and managing people, experimentation, creativity, breakthrough, Alphabet, Google.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

· Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: X’s Astro Teller on Managing Moonshot Innovation (2023)

· Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast.

· Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org.