I’ve been with NASA for over 25 years and Nebula is by far the most dynamic project I’ve worked on to date. Truly inspired, Nebula has many lessons to share with others on how a small group can drive innovation within a larger, highly structured organization. I’m glad to be a part of Team Nebula so that can I experience daily the energy that pumps through this project team.
Innovation doesn’t always come easily… especially in a large federal government agency. True, rules and regulations are needed to manage behemoth organizations and protect taxpayers, but this always has to be balanced so that creativity and innovation are nurtured, not stifled. The senior NASA managers responsible for the oversight of Nebula understand this key point.
How does Nebula do it? The answer is that Nebula functions more like a tech start-up and less like a legacy organization. Critical to making it work: a phenomenal team of talented professionals and the effective use of modern day communications.
Fortunately, Nebula has become a magnet for IT talent. A combination of the “cloud’s” enormous potential and the “NASA effect” lures pros from forward thinking tech shops. These individuals could likely work at just about any IT shop specializing in leading edge web services technologies but instead they are genuinely interested in using their expert developer skills to further space exploration. The people on Nebula are high-octane individuals who are visibly excited to come to work every day. They truly like being a part of something that supports the Agency’s universe-reaching missions, allowing them to be focus their efforts on something broader and far-reaching than just another potential IPO.
The use of leading edge communications brings us together as a team. To assemble the best of the best, we needed to extend our nets over a broad geographic area to attract talent. Just like fish, the best talent is “where you find it.” Consequently, not everyone is physically on site all the time. Mobile device technologies -- video, messaging, and voice – however manage to keep us all connected, regardless of a team member’s location. Our increasingly virtual workplace gives people freedoms not always found in large organizations. These freedoms, coupled with the strong sense of mission held by every team member, has resulted in a high productivity team that is innovating and developing great cloud services NASA. Stay tuned.
Shoot me an email at nebula-inquiries@lists.nasa.gov
