How do you make sure that your software teams have the time and space to innovate? What norms or processes need to be in place to support experimentation?

I have led my team with Innovation mindset, always encouraging and challenging them on different ways to solve a problem. A strong foundation gives way for greater innovation potential. I have maintained that Friday afternoons of sprint start (2 weeks sprint) is free form time for them. The team is encouraged to solve any problem with in the org or bring something new.

I always try to explain to my team areas we need growth and innovation in, so that if someone decides to go learn, experiment, and suggest something, it's likely to tie into our greater objectives, and thus get support to actually look deeper into.

In other words, set people up for success from the start. If people strike out in areas that don't connect with the organization or add value, it won't be supported, and that can be a real morale killer. Next I ensure the team knows what the broader goals are, so that they know if we're on target. Sometimes there is truly 'extra space' we can allocate for innovation, but if we're on a tight schedule and need execution on already defined goals with already defined methods, then having people peel off on side quests might not be a wise move.

Build a team that isn't allocated at 100%, so that there's some space to flex.