Google Grouplets: Shared Groups Of 20% Time

The Google Way: Give Engineers Room from the New York Times gives us some more insight into how engineers work at Google. We all know about Google’s “20% time,” where Googlers are given 20% of their time to work on ideas that interest them. But there is also the concept of “grouplets” at Google, where a group of engineers who share interest in the same idea work together to make that idea become a reality, all within their 20% time.

The article explains that these grouplets are nothing formal; in fact, they have no budget and no decision-making authorities, but they do have the same passion. Grouplets include Fixit grouplet, Customer Happiness Fixit, Testing grouplet, and others. Matt Cutts, a Google engineer, also blogged about his personal favorites.

Matt said he personally loves the Fixit grouplet, where they have “fixit days.” Plus, Matt gives us insight into the “Testing on the Toilet” sign at Google.