Innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It thrives in an environment where ideas can be tested, refined, and most importantly fail forward fast. That’s exactly what we built with Autodesk Labs several years ago when I was an Autodesk employee. Autodesk Labs, a space where we could surface new ideas, put them in front of customers and non customers, and determine whether they were worth further investment. It wasn’t about shipping polished products, it was about exploring possibilities.

The original site and logo featured a cartoon drawing of a previous labrador retriever of mine named Wyatt. The site and brand was meant to be more about technology than a polished system marketing.

Some of the most impactful successes from Autodesk Labs became integral to the users. Fusion 360, now a leading cloud-based 3D CAD/CAM platform started as an experimental concept within Labs, Project Photofly now is part of  Recap, AutoCAD 360, InfraWorks,  . We also introduced smaller but highly impactful features like DGN file import for AutoCAD and integrated Google Earth Extension for AutoCAD, both of which became popular and essential to users. These innovations might never have seen the light of day without a dedicated space for experimentation and in some cases created new Autodesk customers from these experimentations and they witnessed a company listening to their feedback and needs..

The Best of Autodesk Labs - Engineering.com

The key lesson?
A company must create room for innovation to survive and thrive. Without a mechanism for surfacing, testing, and refining ideas, great concepts risk dying in meeting rooms or small teams that don’t have the resources to push them forward. Autodesk Labs allowed us to break out of that mold by engaging directly with customers, gathering real-world feedback, and making informed decisions about whether an idea was worth pursuing further.

Not every experiment was a success, but every experiment taught us something valuable. That’s the essence of fail forward fast to create, test, learn, and iterate. When you remove the fear of failure, you unlock an incredible potential for meaningful innovation.

For any technology company looking to stay ahead, fostering this kind of experimental culture is essential. Whether it’s through an official Labs program, internal hackathons, or dedicated R&D efforts, creating a structured space for innovation ensures that great ideas don’t get lost. Because the best breakthroughs often start as rough ideas that just need a little room to grow.

Note: Unfortunately Autodesk Labs itself was retired in some organizational changes a couple years back but hackathons and innovation and new idea experiments still continue at Autodesk, just differently such as Autodesk Research’s projects.