Jan 2024
After over a decade cultivating innovation at InspiringApps, we’ve discovered five essential pillars that define a truly innovative culture:
The bottom line: innovation isn’t a separate initiative; it’s how effective companies operate, particularly in the fast-changing world of app development.
Consider the case of QuivAR, an app that took a centuries-old sport, archery, and added an AR roadmap. Developing an app that could visualize shot placement through anatomically correct 3D models required bringing together experts from completely different domains. It meant challenging assumptions about what archers needed and how technology could serve them without disrupting tradition.
This is how innovation happens: not through buzzwords or innovation theater, but by uniting multidisciplinary expertise to solve real problems that matter to real people.
While open exploration should be encouraged, innovation projects must ultimately be focused on tangible results. They should address specific challenges clients face or enhance how work is delivered.
Our work with Compact Connect, for example, tackles the complex web of interstate professional licensing. This project connects different state systems and regulations into one secure platform, creating reliable solutions that work in highly regulated environments with multiple stakeholders.
Strategic balance also means creating simple things simply. Teams sometimes make estimates that encompass unnecessarily complex solutions. Innovation-focused cultures challenge this tendency, maintaining a commitment to practical solutions that deliver real value.
For clients, this translates to a practical partner who creates focused solutions, securely delivers cutting-edge enhancements, and architects future resilience and competitive advantage.
Innovation requires risk-taking, and risk-taking requires psychological safety. This means deliberately creating spaces for honest feedback without hierarchy, where technical challenges trigger candid, solution-focused discussions rather than finger-pointing.
Leadership sets the tone. As Brad Weber, Founder & CEO, explains:
“As a developer, one of the most important lessons I’ve learned (and keep learning) is that the unexpected behavior in my code is most likely my fault. Accepting that helps focus my efforts to address the issue.”
When leadership openly acknowledges mistakes, it creates permission for everyone else to do the same.
This culture of candor significantly reduces the negative impacts of office politics. By fostering an environment focused on collective progress rather than individual agendas, teams collaborate more effectively. The absence of politics creates a positive atmosphere where everyone’s voice is valued.
For Fidelity National Financial, these candid conversations enabled us to bridge ambitious digital transformation goals with the complex realities of secure, compliant real estate transactions. This resulted in Fast Company recognizing the award-winning inHere app. As they noted:
“We appreciate that the InspiringApps team is straightforward and honest. If there’s something we're doing that doesn't make sense or that’s hard, we just have conversations about it. No games, no dancing around it—you just tell us, and we work through it together.”
Innovative cultures maintain a commitment to continuous learning and growth. This means actively seeking insights from technical conferences like Apple WWDC, Figma Config, Google Cloud Next, and broader industry conversations like the TED Conferences.
This exposure to new ideas helps teams see problems differently, applying emerging technologies to solve real challenges rather than just chasing trends. As Stephanie Mikuls, Director of Marketing, shares:
“Throughout my 9+ years at InspiringApps, I’ve been supported professionally in learning new skills, taking courses, attending conferences, and more.”
With the Explore Orion project, we connected NASA’s sophisticated mission concepts with public engagement needs, distilling complex aerospace technology into experiences that captivate ordinary users. By questioning assumptions and exploring new possibilities, we translate highly technical concepts into accessible interfaces.
Curiosity as a business ally means asking “Why?” to differentiate a satisfactory solution from an exceptional one. When insights travel across projects, security principles mastered in fintech transfer to nonprofit data protection, while user engagement techniques from consumer apps refine enterprise interfaces.
Innovation rarely happens in isolation; it’s a team sport that thrives when diverse perspectives unite to solve complex problems and co-create novel solutions.
At InspiringApps, intentional collaboration takes many forms. We established “AI at IA” as a structured forum where UX designers, developers, and project managers share discoveries, demo applications of cutting-edge technologies, and spark new ideas that transform how work is delivered.
Beyond these organized sessions, collaboration is woven into daily work. Engineers troubleshoot in real time, sharing shortcuts that save hours. Project managers identify tools that reshape client presentations. QA specialists provide insights that help designers anticipate user behavior.
Our partnership with Colorado Food Cluster demonstrates this collaborative approach in action. By bringing together technologists, nutrition experts, and community advocates, we created innovative programs addressing food insecurity, recently recognized with a 2024 Partners in Philanthropy Award. This cross-sector collaboration demonstrates how technology can be leveraged to solve critical community challenges.
This approach values each team member’s unique skills, creating collective intelligence that navigates technical challenges holistically. By making a conscious effort to be inclusive and communicative, teams refine concepts from individual explorations into robust, impactful solutions.
The innovative capabilities cultivated through the previous pillars must ultimately translate into agile adaptability. In app development, this means effectively anticipating, responding to, and thriving amidst evolving client needs and user expectations.
For example, we developed Power Window for Freedom Solar, an Apple TV app installed in car dealership showrooms that highlights solar installations’ energy production. This required adapting to a specific business context and user environment, creating an engaging visualization tool that works in a retail setting.
This adaptability extends to complex user requirements, as with the My Meals, My Way app developed for Good Nutrition Ideas:
“Working with the InspiringApps team was an excellent first app experience for us. They were already familiar with accessibility issues and continued to learn and deliver on this app directed at people with disabilities. We anticipate working with them again, which is the best recommendation there is!”
Being flexible, positive, and problem-solving-oriented allows teams to accurately understand, prioritize, and address client needs. Rather than simply implementing features, adaptive teams engage in continuous ideation, refinement, and innovation.
This capacity to adapt stems from a culture where teams are empowered to question established norms, explore new possibilities, and rapidly mobilize diverse expertise toward novel solutions.
Innovation is about tangible outcomes, not just novel ideas. Without a foundation in solving real problems, even the most exciting technologies fall flat. The objective measure is how effectively it solves problems that matter to real people:
Leaders set the tone for innovation by:
Balance risk-taking with practical impact by:
While creativity generates novel concepts, innovation transforms those ideas into practical solutions with measurable impact. This real-world impact became the kind of innovation we strive for when the Cancer Exercise app received an honorable mention in the American Nurses Association’s Enterprise Innovation Award. Industry recognition such as this reflects the project’s core purpose, articulated by our partner Dr. Anna L. Schwartz:
“InspiringApps’ collaboration was key in achieving this award! So grateful for our work together to improve the lives of people living with and beyond cancer.“
True innovation is creativity put into action to make a meaningful difference.
Sustaining innovation isn’t about a single initiative but fostering an enduring ecosystem. Key factors include:
A supportive and ethical culture nurtures this stability, as one team member shared: “I have never worked with such a talented and supportive group of people. Management is incredibly honest, transparent, and ethical, and if anything, I never want to leave!”
This balance is achieved through several deliberate practices:
Innovation culture starts at the top with leaders who:
Create conditions where team members can:
Establish frameworks for innovation:
Allocate resources strategically:
Build a team that thrives on challenges:
Foster a culture that values growth:
Encourage idea exchange across boundaries:
Treat culture as an evolving asset:
The accurate measure of an innovative culture is how effectively it solves meaningful problems. As Natalie Bragg, Head of Strategic Partnerships, asks:
“What are you building today that shifts the probabilities toward a better tomorrow?”
From QuivAR transforming archery training to the Cancer Exercise app improving lives, from inHere protecting against real estate fraud to Lockheed Martin’s Explore Orion making space accessible, innovation connects sophisticated concepts with human needs.
An engineering culture built on strategic balance, psychological safety, unbounded curiosity, intentional collaboration, and agile adaptability isn’t just a competitive advantage—it’s a pathway to creating digital experiences that reshape industries, empower communities, and improve lives.
We don’t just build tech. We build change.
Passionate. Determined. Crazy talented, yet humble. All words that describe the mix of people that make up the team at InspiringApps. We’re an inclusive group of employees who care deeply about what we do. Our team is the not-so-hidden treasure behind our success.
Learn more about us
