CrowdsourcingUsing the crowd and social media to drive innovation and engagementPaul Dombowsky

Opening

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“…the world is becoming too fast, too complex and too networked for any organization to have all the answers inside.”Yochai Benkler, Yale University from the Wealth of Networks

“Peer production is about more than sitting down and having a nice conversation… Its about harnessing a new mode of production to take innovation and wealth creation to new levels.” Eric Schmidt, Google

Agenda

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Definitions

Is Crowdsourcing a viable Research Methodology?

What can the crowd do for you?

Listening to conversations that are already happening

Examples of the crowd in action

Best Practices – using crowdsourcing in your organization

DefinedAn engagement process whereby organizations seek input from either open or closed communities of people, either homogenous or not, to contribute ideas, solutions, or support in an open process whereby the elements of creativity, competition and campaigning are reinforced through social media to come up with more powerful ideas or solutions than could be obtained through other means.

Why Bother?Organizations have a difficult time engaging with their communities to strengthen their relationship and be crowd focused. Internal or external, the community has ideas that can be harnessed that come from diverse backgrounds, experiences and education.

Crowdsourcing

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• When looking for expertise from a range of sources.• When funds and/or time are limited.• When your target audience is largely online.

When does Crowdsourcing Work?

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BMW’s Virtual Innovation AgencyReceived over 4000 ideas within 7 days for products and designs at minimal cost

The opening up of innovation to internal and external input for the development of products in various stages of the product development lifecycle.

Crowdsourcing can be part of an open innovation or social product management strategy – just as Research is.

Social Product Development

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Why Social Matters?

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According to Forrester Research (2010),71% of people say they trust the opinions of family, friends and colleagues (their crowd or their tribe) as a source of information on products and services.

Where the conversations are happening?

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Official & Unofficial• Facebook• Twitter• Google Groups• Forums• Wiki’s• User Groups• Podcasts• Blogs• User Voice• Epinions• Cnet• Reviewsarena• Buzzillions• Tribe Smart

Why not tap into the conversations that are already happening?

Get the crowd working for you.

Where the crowd comes from

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Sources of Innovation

Internal R&D

Customers

Experts

PartnersSuppliers

Prospects

Other internal

team members

Does participation require a reward?

Do people contribute for the good of the brands they like?

How do you democratize the input?

InternalExperts

Emergent Experts(online community leaders,

product advocates)

Everyone Else

The Emerging Expert

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EngagementTargets

Where Innovation / Crowdsourcing Fits

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Community

Open SpaceHow we gather

Social MediaHow we talk

LeadershipHow we inspire &

enable

Open Innovation

CrowdsourcingWhere ideas come from

Growing Online Participation

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Millennials (born ’91 and after)

Gen Y (born ’81-’91)

Gen X (born ’65-’80)

Boomers (born ’46-’64)

Civics (born ’45 or earlier)

Product Roadmap

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Discovery Exploration Scoping

Build Biz CaseDevelopmentTesting

Launch Discovery…

Crowdsourcing or Ideation

The Appeal

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• Crowdsourcing surfaces new perspectives• Invites participation from nontraditional

sources • Infuses real energy into the process of generating ideas • Empowers people when they feel their voice is being heard• Technology can enable participation by disenfranchised

(ie. PCs in libraries can help those not connected at home)• Builds engagement and relationships with new audiences

Example 1: Salesforce

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What do your current customers want to see on your roadmap?

What features are needed to turn prospects into customers?

Democracy?1 vote = 1 customer

IdeaStorm was created to give a direct voice to Dell’s customers and an avenue to have online “brainstorm” sessions to allow them to share ideas and collaborate with one another and Dell. Their goal through IdeaStorm is to hear what new products or services you’d like to see Dell develop.

In almost three years, IdeaStorm has crossed the 10,000 idea mark and implemented nearly 400 ideas!

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Example 2: Dell

Quirky is an all in one product development shop for inventors.

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Example 3: Quirky

Threadless’ business model is social product development and they run regular campaigns to select designs that are then produced and sold to a ready-made market that participated in the product selection.

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Example 4: Threadless

Starbucks uses the same platform as Dell and Salesforce.com for their social product development.

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Example 5: Product Selection by the Crowd

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Example 6: Open Innovation with Citizens

City of OttawaHave a Say Sustainability Campaign

• No. of Engagements = 6700• Goal: 1500• Drivers: Twitter, Facebook, Media

Event (related)• Number of ideas: 200• English and French

San Francisco Engage4change Citizen Engagement Program(2 weeks)

• No. of Engagements = 2252• Referrals = 64% from Twitter• Cost = 500 ice cream cones ($1,000)• Humphry Slocombe’s Crowd

= 320,000 twitter followers and Facebook Friends

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Example 7: Citizen Engagement

Crowdsourcing as Part of Research Strategy

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• Reach customers & prospects where they live – join in the conversations that are happening already

• Capitalize on valuable customer and prospect insight• Develop a culture of collaboration• Implement the right social technology to get the job done• Communicate results and intentions and be open as

possible• Let conversations happen in the open• Be crowd friendly on an ongoing basis

Crowdsourcing and Social Media

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• Work together to ensure contributions are:– Quality assured– Work with larger data sets– Use interfaces or tools that reduce complexity– Open to two way conversation

• The appeal:– Cost– Speed– Viral nature of audience building– Dialogue vs One way conversation

Crowdsourcing vs Traditional Research

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Crowdsourcing Surveys

• Lends itself to diversity of participation• Fewer barriers – people participate to

the level they feel comfortable• Drives innovation – new ideas from left

field can have merit• Easy to interpret – the crowd helps

make things clearer• Comments are focused

• More expensive• Takes time• Perception of being very controlled• Great for solidifying preconceived

ideas or directions• Requires interpretation • Doesn’t encourage creativity

It all starts with a Question or Problem

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• Needs to be:– Clear and compelling– Not leading– Allow for open innovation– Encourage participation– Allow for outliers to feel comfortable

• Ideavibes• Facebook• Charodix• BrightIdeas• Spigit

Platforms and Tools

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• Pick the right model• Pick the right crowd• Offer the right incentive (being heard is #1)• Don’t replace employees with the crowd• Benevolent Dictator• Monitor ideas and content to mitigate risk (liability)• Keep in simple – break things down• The crowd is generally right – if you are accessing the right

crowd with the right question

Best Practices

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• Excessive lobbying and promotion• Narrow crowds product narrow results• No follow-through causes creditability hit• If you say you are generating solutions for X, communicate

what happened and why• Broad ideation campaign descriptions will result in less

focused • results BUT too narrow will restrict creativity• Dismissing ideas that seem far fetched• Ideation often requires refinement – understanding what your

crowd is saying by ‘x’

Things to watch for

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Fiat Mio – Research /Product Development from the Crowd

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http://youtu.be/hg0b8Z51YC0

See how Fiat used the crowd and the desire to be ‘involved’ to research and build the Mio…

Thank youPaul Dombowsky | 613.878.1681 | paul@ideavibes.com | www.ideavibes.com