Crossing the Streams: How to have an Innovation Engine which Aligns AI, Customer Needs, and Execution at Scale
“Innovation always starts with desired outcomes – customer desired outcomes” each initiative must also meet “confidence scores” to proceed. “If they don’t achieve a certain confidence level, then they get killed.”
We sat down with Bryan Murphy (CEO), Olga Beregovaya (VP of AI), in June as part of our latest episode of our Elevate Innovate series to discuss smart approaches they take when dealing with the innovation lifecycle at their company Smartling. We found out that Innovation isn’t random, it’s predicted, structured, customer-anchored, and ruthlessly filtered through metrics.
Let’s break the insights.
Innovation Starts With Outcomes, Not Features
“Innovation always starts with desired outcomes – customer desired outcomes,” said Bryan Murphy, opening the conversation with the same clarity that drives Smartling’s roadmap. “We famously take the empty chair of Jeff Bezos and put that in the room. That becomes our North Star.”
Ideas are hypotheses, not sacred objects. Smartling runs on a gated innovation model, which means each initiative must meet “confidence scores” to proceed. “If they don’t achieve a certain confidence level, then they get killed,” he said plainly.
Why so harsh?
Because velocity matters. The team ships 3,300 production releases per year. It’s innovation at speed, not chaos. And that kind of pace doesn’t happen by chance – it’s systemised.
From PR FAQs to Pitch-or-Ditch: How Smartling Balances Vision and Accountability
Smartling doesn’t just encourage innovation, it manages it with precision. One of the company’s most effective tools for vetting new ideas is the PR FAQ framework, a methodology borrowed from Amazon. Before anything moves forward, the team writes a fictional press release and a list of customer FAQs for the proposed feature or product. Why? Because if the value proposition isn’t immediately compelling on paper, it probably won’t be in the real world either.
As Bryan Murphy put it, “Imagine writing a press release for this new product or feature. What would it sound like? What would be the FAQs?” The goal is to start every innovation cycle by imagining what success looks like, from the customer’s perspective.
Vision alone isn’t enough. If an initiative doesn’t hit key metrics within a defined timeframe, it gets scrapped. “We don’t have the luxury to extend it to 80 days, 120 days, if it bears no promise,” said Olga Beregovaya (VP of AI). At Smartling, this milestone is known as the “pitch or ditch” moment.
And accountability starts at the top. Beregovaya shared a candid internal rule: “I’m not allowed to present any R&D experiments until and unless I can explain to Bryan why we’re doing this and what the business impact is going to be.”
The message is clear: creativity is welcome, but only when it’s paired with strategic clarity and measurable outcomes.
Technology Is the New Service, And It’s Powered by Trust
In today’s AI-driven landscape, translation is no longer just a professional service; it’s becoming a fully integrated, tech-powered offering. As Bryan put it, “Translation is going to be delivered as a service… a technology that is supported by service.”
That evolution creates a significant challenge for traditional service providers. According to Murphy, many lack “the resources, the personnel, the access to capital and experience to cross that chasm.” But for Smartling, this shift is familiar territory. “We started out as a technology company,” he said. “We’re already most of the way there.”
Still, innovation at speed means nothing without trust. That’s why they test new technologies internally, long before they reach customers. As Olga Beregovaya noted, the tools are “battle-tested with billions of words,” ensuring they’re proven, not experimental.
For M&A stakeholders, this fusion of scalable tech and operational discipline signals a company built not just to adapt, but to lead.
Watch the full session recording here:
Translator Experience Isn’t an Afterthought, It’s Core UX
AI isn’t making translators obsolete; it’s making them essential in new ways. As Bryan put it, “Does this spell the end of translators? And I would say, absolutely not… This is about productivity.”
Rather than removing humans from the loop, they try to enhance their role. That kind of scale is only possible when AI handles the heavy lifting, and professional translators bring the final quality, judgment, and brand nuance.
Internally, translator experience is treated as part of its core product. Olga Beregovaya emphasized, “We want to make sure that when translators work in our AI-powered environment, we… deliver the best translator experience.” That includes reducing friction, minimizing AI errors, and, mitigating “hallucinations” and “AI toxicity.”
Their view was the future workforce isn’t being replaced, it’s being upskilled, augmented, and re-positioned to deliver more strategic value.
The Cocktail Napkin Test: Where Great Ideas Are Born
Not all innovation comes from a spreadsheet. Some of the company’s most impactful ideas start in the least formal way possible, what Bryan calls “cocktail napkin conversations.”
“These are open-ended chats, often with our team or customers in a relaxed environment,” Murphy explained. “That’s when a lot of the best ideas come up… because we’ve got time and room to kind of really dig into things and talk about what problems they’re trying to solve.”
It’s not just talk, it’s strategy disguised as spontaneity. To nurture that kind of thinking, they intentionally create space for long-form, creative discussion. One standout example? A red team/blue team-style workshop where Murphy challenged his leadership team: “I’m gonna write you a check for $20 million and your job is to come up with an idea to kill Smartling.”
It was a lens-shifting exercise to expose vulnerabilities, identify blind spots, and spark disruptive thinking. “Out of that exercise came a lot of really good ideas about how to future-proof our business,” he noted.
Three Streams of Innovation – and Why You Should Care
At Smartling, innovation isn’t left to chance; it’s sourced deliberately from interlocking streams. Olga Beregovaya named it “the three-thirds concept”.
First, and most importantly, is the voice of the customer. “Your customers’ outcomes,” as Olga put it, are a driving force behind everything. But she’s clear: listening isn’t enough. “You cannot afford to be passive. You drive and you lead.” That mindset turns customer feedback into forward momentum.
The second stream? Strategic foresight. Beregovaya described it as “how we see our product and internal vision based on the desired customer’s outcomes, what’s happening in the world of technology, what’s happening in the business world.” It’s the connective tissue between market demand and Smartling’s product roadmap.
And then there’s the wild card: state-of-the-art research. “You wake up to a new model every day,” Beregovaya quipped. But instead of blindly chasing trends, Smartling uses internal processes to assess each one’s real potential: “Is it going to shine in session-sanctioned tasks or it’s it not?”
This formula, customer outcomes, internal strategy, and curated research keep Smartling ahead of the curve while staying laser-focused on value.
Watch our other Elevate Innovate sessions here:
Final Thought: Surf the Wave – Don’t Get Swallowed
“This feels like surfing a wave,” Bryan Murphy said near the close. “It’s one of the fastest technology cycles I’ve ever seen.”
That’s not hyperbole. AI is changing the ground under everyone’s feet. For companies like Smartling, the challenge isn’t just to ride that wave – it’s to steer it. That means staying agile, grounded in customer outcomes, and fearless about what comes next.
Olga Blasco from Lion People Global summarized it with striking clarity: “It’s risk management, confidence management, and radically transforming business. Whichever combination of talent and technology gets you there – go with it.”
Because in this market, standing still isn’t actually not moving. It’s going under
