Using Guilds to Foster Internal Startups in Large Organizations: A Case Study

Abstract Software product innovation in large organizations is fundamentally challenging because of restrained freedom and flexibility to conduct experiments. As a response, agile companies form internal startups initiate employ-driven innovation, inspired by Lean startup. This case study investigates how communities practice support five developing new software products within organization. We observed six meetings, two workshops conducted ten semi-structured interviews over the course year. Our findings show that community practice, called Innovation guild, allowed help each other collectively solving problems, creating shared practices, sharing knowledge. confirms benefits documented earlier research into CoPs also hold true context organizations. Henceforth, we suggest similar guilds, as described this paper, can race for products.