crowdsourcing innovation

1

Building On Social Listening Centers:

Crowdsourcing New Product Ideas

A PulsePoint Group Study Conducted in Collaboration with The Economist Intelligence Unit (Wave I – 2012)

PulsePoint Group

2

What is Social Innovation?

Leveraging the power, insight and wisdom of crowds to

generate new ideas through “networked brainpower” that

produces results exponentially more valuable

than the sum of the individual parts.

AKA: crowdsourcing, co-

creation, idea engines, idea

mining

Copyright © 2012 PulsePoint Group. All rights reserved.

3

Did You Benefit This Morning?


Starbucks created an innovation platform, My Starbucks Idea, to generate ideas and

motivate employees to accelerate ideas already generated by the team. This led to the

development of solutions implemented throughout the word, like a splash stick to

prevent spills from cups.

4

“101 Reasons We Shouldn’t Do This…”


Perceived Issues Reality

Legal: IP issues that may lead

to disputes and litigation

IP issues handled in guidelines

HR: Violating code of ethics

and employee rights

Establish clear guidelines and

expectations

Marketing: Capacity to assess

and respond to ideas

Idea management process is

critical

IT: Get in line Executive sponsors are critical

Everyone: Concern about the

quality of ideas and their

abusing an open channel

Community managers model

good behavior, clear guidelines

and effective moderation.

THE FLAVORS

OF SOCIAL

INNOVATION


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Types of Social Innovation

Open to All:

Anyone can

submit ideas

Focused:

Limit ideas to

specific

challenges

By Invite Only:

Selected

members can

submit ideas

Wide Open:

Ability to Submit

Any IdeasCopyright © 2012 PulsePoint Group. All rights reserved.

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Dell IdeaStorm: “Voice of

customer”

• Michael Dell wanted to inject the “voice of the customer” back into

the hallways at Dell.

• They quickly got stuck in the “we can’t do this” tornado until…

• Michael Dell championed the innovative platform and pushed for its

launch.

“A company this size is not going to be about a

couple of people coming up with ideas. It’s

going to be about millions of people and

harnessing the power of those ideas.”

– CEO Michael Dell


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Dell: Embracing “Voice Of

Customer” 2005

– Register, create profile

– Submit ideas, promote or

demote ideas, comment on

ideas

2009

– Storm Sessions: Dell

employees can share an

opportunity that needs ideas

2012

– Extensions: Allows users to

expand a proposed idea

– Idea Partners: Identify Dell

employees to get involved with

ideas

– Gamification: Gaming

elements added to provide

added value

– Rock stars: Treat program

champions with excusive Copyright © 2012 PulsePoint Group. All rights reserved.

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IdeaStorm: The Numbers Speak For

Themselves

•Founded in 2007

•60,000 registered users

•More than 17,000 ideas

(about 300 per month)

•About 1 million votes

•More than 500 ideas

implemented

•50% of employees submit

ideas to EmployeeStorm,

Dell’s internal idea

platform


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0SOXW_K56w&feature=player_embedded

http://www.ideastorm.com/ideaList?lsi=0&cat=Healthcare+and+Life+Sciences

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Dell’s Ubuntu (Linux) Laptop


• An early Idea Storm idea suggested

selling Ubuntu-equipped machines

alongside their Windows counterparts.

• The idea received more than 130,000

votes.

• Within one year of the product launch,

Dell sold 40,000 Ubuntu machines

without having to advertise.

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• A leading global management and IT

consulting firm is creating a managed

service offering

• The offering: “Tap into” intellectual and

creative assets of their employees,

consultants and alumni to solve client

challenges

• Positions the firm as innovative

• Builds new relationships

• Generates incremental revenue

Consulting Firm: Best Ideas to Best

Clients

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Select the Client and Define the Challenges

Activate Your Best

Minds

Evaluate, Package

and Present

New Ideas

Deliver Value

The Model

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• 800 target consultants (20% on vacation)

• 586 active participants (>50%)

• 286 new ideas

• 13,687 page views; 1,375 posts

• 33 new ideas received

• 27 new ideas presented to client

• Potential: $30 million in incremental

revenue

Early Results (For One Large Client)


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AT&T’s Innovation Pipeline:

World’s Largest Corporate Crowdsourcing Program

• Employee idea generation

and collaboration at scale

and fosters a culture of

innovation

• 100,000 members in 40

countries

• More than 500 ideas per

month

• 30 executive challenges

generated more than 200

potential solutions each


“At AT&T, we believe

great ideas can come

from anywhere”

John Donovan

Sr. Exec. Vice President,

AT&T

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AT&T’s Process Works


Submit, vote on, discuss and “invest in” ideas

After three months, the top ideas are selected to “pitch”

Tip Phase I: SOCIAL INNOVATION

Tip Phase II: PROTOTYPE

Founders develop business cases and pitch to “AT&T VC’s”

Tip Phase III: PRODUCTION

Funded ideas are moved from prototype to production and deployment

Tip Phase IV: COMMERCIALIZATION

A successful project could be adopted by an AT&T business unit or

spun off into an external company

Vote

Collaborate

Pitch

Develop

Launch

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5. Give employees the opportunity to submit ideas. They are a great source of ideas and can be evangelists for the initiative.

4. Community manager and moderators need to be passionate, empowered and enabled to engage community members in real-time.

3. Provide “focus” for community members’ ideas based on priority needs and opportunities.

2. Agree on and win buy-in and commitment for an Idea Management Process & Timing, from collection to assessment to decision and response.

1. Ensure executive sponsor and real commitment to invest in new ideas.

Key Learnings

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10. Ensure the selected software platform can’t be easily gamed, supports the idea management process.

9. Establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and make sure the team is assessing performance and taking steps to improve it. Importantly, this also should be across the idea management process.

8. Celebrate ideas that are implemented and make a big deal out of their contributors.

7. Recognize top contributors on the site and in other appropriate forums – this is one of their top motivations.

6. Have a plan to keep the program fresh and interesting –brainstorms around specific topics, sharing progress, etc.

Key Learnings

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Building On Social Listening Centers:

Crowdsourcing New Product Ideas

A PulsePoint Group Study Conducted in Collaboration with The Economist Intelligence Unit (Wave I – 2012)

PulsePoint Group

crowdsourcing innovation

Education

new ideas

quality of ideas

profilesubmit ideas

ideas wide open

dell employees

dell ideastorm

voice of customer michael

starbucks idea