Traveloka: What happens when innovation isn't gatekept?
Jessica O
Product Demand Generation Specialist
Aug 5, 2026
Jessica O
Aug 5, 2026
6 min read
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Big changes don't always start big.
​​Sometimes, they start with a single question asked by the people closest to the work.​
At Traveloka, an over 90% efficiency gain wasn't the result of a large-scale digital overhaul.​
It began with one small idea and a team that looked for a better way to work.​
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A small idea, a massive result
​​Picture this: a team of developers facing a complex but critical task, checking and localizing every word across Traveloka's apps and websites.​
Multiple languages. Multiple platforms. Hundreds of thousands of words.​
In total, the job required nearly 700 days of effort.​
Then someone asked a question that changed everything:​
"What if we didn't have to do this the usual way?"​
That question led to a breakthrough, and an over 90% efficiency gain.​
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Innovation, open to everyone
​​This wasn't an accident. It was part of Traveloka's Lark Efficiency Pioneer Competition, an internal initiative inviting every employee to reimagine how their work could be done better.​
Powered by Lark's collaboration platform, the initiative gave every employee the tools and space to experiment and build their own solutions.​
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Nearly 200 employees joined the challenge, from product managers to designers to operations teams. One of those ideas would end up redefining an entire process.​
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From 700 days of effort to just 6
​​The CopyFlow team's challenge was deceptively simple:​
How could they make content localization faster without compromising quality?​
Their answer was to create a custom workflow using low-code tools within Lark that connected design files directly to translation and review systems.​
A designer could now drop a Figma file, set the target languages, and let automation handle the rest.​
Before: 700 days of coordination After: 6 days with an automated process​
Result: Over 90% efficiency gain​
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As one team member said,​
"We just wanted to keep our standards high while cutting the manual work. That's when the magic happened."​
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A culture that enables change
​​Traveloka's VP of Engineering, George Irwin, noted:​
"What impressed me most was how practical the ideas were. Teams didn't just imagine solutions. They built them. And many were directly focused on the customer."​
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Mark Dembitz, General Manager at Lark, agreed:​
"What stands out here isn't the technology itself, but what it enables: people across departments working as one, turning ideas into outcomes."​
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Why it matters even more
​​For a company like Traveloka, operating in one of the fastest moving industries and expanding into new territories across Asia, innovation isn't a nice to have. It's a necessity.​
As each market grows at its own pace and customer expectations evolve daily, the ability to solve problems at the source becomes a true competitive edge.​
- Speed. Problems get solved at the source. The copywriting team didn't wait months for a corporate fix; they built one in weeks.​
- Resilience. When teams can adapt their own tools, the business becomes more responsive to change.​
- Agility. True agility isn't about one big pivot. It's about hundreds of small adjustments that keep the company moving.​
- Ownership. When people are trusted to create solutions, they become owners, not executors. Engagement and accountability rise naturally.​
For other leaders, this story is a reminder that innovation doesn't need to be centralized. It needs to be supported.​
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Making it repeatable
​​How can leaders encourage this kind of everyday innovation?​
- Make space for ideas. Let teams know innovation is welcome from anyone, at any level. Even a small fix can have a big impact.​
- Equip and support. Ideas flourish when people have the tools and the confidence to experiment, with the safety to learn from it.​
- Celebrate the wins. Share success stories widely. Traveloka did exactly this by recognizing their champions in a company-wide announcement, turning sparks into momentum.​
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The takeaway
​​At Traveloka, innovation isn't locked in a department or dictated by a roadmap.​
It's part of how people work, think, and grow together.​
Because sometimes the biggest breakthroughs don't start with strategy decks or steering committees.​
They start with one question:​
"What if we didn't have to do it this way?"​
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Table of contents
Start using Lark today
Manage all your work in one place
Boost team efficiency by 10x
Save up to 70% on software costs
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When Anyone Can Be the One Who Fixes It
People who had never written a line of code. Teams whose jobs had nothing to do with technology. But when Mr D.I.Y. asked its employees "what would you fix if you could?", 33 teams across 14 departments built real, working solutions. What happened next quietly changed how an entire organization thinks about innovation.
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