The archive · Work & Ways of Doing · Operational decision · 2013–2015
Adobe's Kickbox gives every employee $1,000 and a red box to test ideas
Adobe hands employees a red box with $1,000, a checklist and tools to validate an idea; beating six levels earns funding and a blue box.
Adobe Inc.
What it had to solve
Adobe's best product explorations were coming from small lean, agile teams, and other employees asked how to do the same. Mark Randall, VP of Creativity, treated employees as his 'customers' and designed a tool to equip them — the Kickbox.
How it works
In 2013 Adobe's most promising product explorations were coming from small teams using lean and agile techniques, and colleagues wanted the same methods company-wide. Mark Randall, Adobe's VP of Creativity, reframed the problem: treat potential innovators inside Adobe as his customers and build them a 'product' that equips them to innovate.
That product is Kickbox, a shiny red box containing a candy bar, a Starbucks gift card, a prepaid MasterCard loaded with $1,000, and maps and instructions. The money is deliberately given up front — Adobe says the card itself demonstrates trust, and working within a fixed budget teaches people to build things they can afford.
Inside, the process runs on six color-coded, self-gating levels from Start to Penetration; each level's checklist must be completed before advancing. Innovators are 'the CEO of their idea', testing it with customers and using that evidence to justify support from management. Completing level six 'beats the red box' and earns further funding plus a blue box.
By late 2014 more than 1,000 employees worldwide had opened red boxes, generating projects, apps and product enhancements that might otherwise never have seen the light of day. Adobe later made Kickbox open source, letting any organization assemble and run the same boxes.
Why it lands
- Giving $1,000 up front rather than through expense approvals removes friction and signals trust — a concrete, emotional demonstration of autonomy.
- A standardized self-gating checklist makes the process scalable without a central innovation committee.
- Requiring customer validation before management support means ideas are funded on evidence, not advocacy.
- Open-sourcing the box turned an internal program into a tool other companies could adopt and spread.
What it did
Over 1,000 Adobe employees worldwide received red boxes in its first year-plus; projects, apps and product enhancements emerged that 'might otherwise have never seen the light of day'. Adobe released the program as open source so any organization could run it.
What you can take
Treat would-be innovators as customers of an internal product: a standardized, self-serve kit with real money and a visible path scales innovation without a central committee.
Since then
Kickbox stayed a fixture of Adobe's innovation culture, with the blue box providing follow-on resources and a beta milestone for survivors. Adobe released the design open source, so other organizations could print the boxes and run the same program. By late 2014 over 1,000 employees had participated, and Randall's stated ambition was an 11,000-person company where every employee can express an innovator's DNA.
Sources
- Thinking Inside the Box: An Interview with Mark Randall
- What is 'Adobe Kickbox' that can be introduced by any company / organization and collects innovative ideas by distributing 100,000 yen to employees?
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