Unlocking Microsoft's Innovation Secrets — JoAnn Garbin & Dean Carignan

The best companies don’t just follow trends; they create them. How can you stay ahead instead of playing catch-up?

This week’s VentureFuel Visionaries are Dean Carignan, Partner Program Manager, Office of the Chief Scientist at Microsoft, and JoAnn Garbin, Founding Partner, Regenerous Labs—authors of The Insider's Guide to Innovation at Microsoft.

Episode Highlights

• Innovation as a Continuous Loop – JoAnn and Dean explain how innovation follows an infinite loop rather than an S-curve. They draw inspiration from nature’s adaptive cycles, where disruption is inevitable, and survival depends on continuous discovery, design, and development.
• Microsoft’s Breakthrough Innovations – The two authors highlight Microsoft’s other innovations, such as Cleartype for digital fonts and the early development of Cognitive Services, which laid the groundwork for AI-driven cloud services.
• Biomimicry and Infinite Innovation Loops – Nature has inspired some of Microsoft’s most resilient and scalable innovations. Dean and JoAnn explore how biomimicry — taking design cues from natural systems — has influenced everything from AI development to cloud computing.
• Avoiding the Rigidity Trap – Companies that focus too much on optimizing existing successes risk becoming rigid and unprepared for change. Microsoft actively works against this by fostering a culture of adaptability, even in billion-dollar businesses like Office and Visual Studio Code.
• Why Innovation Requires Storytelling and Salesmanship – Entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs must do more than just create — they need to be storytellers, salespeople, and coalition builders. The ability to craft a compelling narrative and rally people around an idea is what turns concepts into reality at scale.

Learn more about the book here.