The Code Whisperer

Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard’s garage at 367 Addison Ave, Palo Alto

In 1938 from a garage in Palo Alto, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard produced their first product, an audio oscillator. By 1940 Hewlett-Packard have outgrown the garage, rented a building and are on there way to becoming one of the world’s largest IT companies. The concept of “the garage” has remained a focal point within HP, and the actual property and garage Bill and Dave started from is now owned by HP and is a state historic landmark.

In 2001 I was working with an internal development team at Hewlett-Packard in the UK, when they reaffirmed the garage concept. Placing a mock garage on the front of the building really hammered home the message. HP also came up with what they called “Rules of the Garage”, which I believe should be applied to most, if not all teams and organisations. Here they are:

Rules of the Garage

• Believe you can change the world.
• Work quickly, keep the tools unlocked, work whenever.
• Know when to work alone and when to work together.
• Share tools, ideas. Trust your colleagues.
• No Politics. No bureaucracy. (These are ridiculous in a garage).
• The customer defines a job well done.
• Radical ideas are not bad ideas.
• Invent different ways of working.
• Make a contribution every day.
• If it doesn’t contribute, it doesn’t leave the garage.
• Believe that together we can do anything.
• Invent.
  • Learn from failure.

I would like to add one of my own