Unlocking the power of crowdsourcing

UNLOCKING THE POWER OF CROWDSOURCING BY PRAYUKTH K V

April 2014

Figures culled from various data sources as of April 2014

GETTING STARTED! Crowdsourcing is a method of getting ideas, content, support or other types of

solutions from a group of people. Coined by Wired magazine in 2005, it means using the Internet to gather solutions to virtually any problem or task from people all over the world. Most famous example - wikipedia

Hierarchy within organizations often limits creative output

By limiting the company’s initial ideas to only those with executive authority, creativity amongst the captive technical workforce is stunted

Ideas of a few are usually implemented by the masses

Crowdsourcing has been successfully used through customer surveys and the sourcing of input for product development. Today, it has become the preferred way of accessing the intellectual property of the masses thanks to the popularity of the internet and social media.

Appeals more to the smaller businesses out there

Industrialised crowdsourcing is the enterprise adoption of the power of the crowd that allows specialised skills to be sourced from anywhere and at any time when it is needed.

This creates the potential to move product development from the traditional lifecycle into something that can tap into crowdsourcing as an additional mechanism.

Crowdsourcing is a great way for brands to boost loyalty and engagement

CHALLENGES Defining the problem Getting the right audience to participate Giving them the right incentive Giving them enough time Crafting a policy for managing crowdsourcing Staff viewing it as a threat to their jobs Maturity of IT in the organisation to derive the level

of adoption Building capacity and capability Who leads the charge? Executive buy-in Corporate attitudes

TAKE OFF

Identify areas you need help in – product development, marketing, recruitment etc.,

Identify target segment profile Figure out how to reach them (outsourced platforms

or inhouse ones) Find out ways to incentivize crowd engagement Identify pitfalls Evolve a process to collate, analyze and

incorporate feedback/inputs Obtain buy-in from management and employees;

share objectives and goals in a transparent manner

TIPS OR CROWDSOURCING PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Ask customers to create a product variant

Ask them what are their favorite features

What are the desired features? Ask them to come up with a

product name/tag line Which product option would

they love to buy?

BEST PRACTICES Participants must be diverse. Including employees from all business units

within the organization, customers/potential customers and freelancers is critical. Participants should be encouraged to share their unique ideas without fear of ridicule. Avoid

“herd thinking” by providing incentive for unique perspective and contributions. Prepare comprehensive participation guidelines outlining expectations clearly

Figure out the right platforms to reach out to participants (would you have to be in more than

one platform simultaneously? The answer is no)

Determine the best method for collecting, organizing, and aggregating the information you receive. Prediction markets, online forums, and wikis are useful tools, but often serve a different purpose. Remember, the best ideas come from collective wisdom and are often not represented in any individual contribution.

Figure out ways to make participants feel special; If needed give them a larger ‘feel good’ objective (like Toyota)

Throughout the process, constantly communicate with participants to provide new considerations, feedback on ideas, and information on how their ideas are being used.

SOME EXAMPLES OF APPLIED CROWDSOURCING

Coca-Cola– Coke now uses a more open business model, assuming an increasingly prominent position in

corporate crowdsourcing. Its open-sourced “Shaping a Better Future” challenge asks entrepreneurs to create improvement-ventures for the project-hubs of youth employment, education, environment and health. In addition, its “Where Will Happiness Strike Next?” series of short films and TV-commercials relies on the

social media-input of Coke customers, contributing ideas about creating happiness. Coke also seeks crowdsourced online suggestions for marketing, tying social media to co-creation.

Unilever– Despite its globally-recognized and respected research staff and facilities, Unilever understands the value of collaboration with innovative partners from outside the firm. It seeks external contributions from anyone with useful input into such diverse project challenges as storing renewable energy, fighting viruses, reducing the quantity of sodium in food, creating cleaningg-products that pollute less, and changing consumer behaviour to encourage enhanced sustainability, among many other projects. The firm invites crowdsourced, open innovation submissions.

Nokia–Nokia’s Ideasproject defines itself as a global community devoted to open innovation. It focuses on consumer-derived collaboration across 210 nations to improve the viability of Nokia products in all markets. The Ideasproject is valuable because it draws on the consumer-experiences of participant-innovators to generate new ideas about the kind of products they seek from Nokia. Nokia shares revenues generated from crowdsourced ideas with Ideasproject participants.

In 2008, Starbucks launched its crowdsourcing platform ‘My Starbucks Idea’. In this hub, customers can share ideas regarding everything linked to the brand. Visitors can view all the ideas published, while subscribers can submit, vote or comment posts. Then, a team of ‘Idea Partners’ –composed of Starbucks employees review ideas and present the most popular ones to key decision-makers of the firm. An online section named ‘Ideas in action’ lists the ideas that are in process and that will be soon launched in some stores. Starbucks give credit for the authors of implemented ideas but no financial reward are given. Community members’ main motivation when submitting ideas is to help improving the brand, not to get money. My Starbucks Ideas:

Braille Starbucks menus and gift cards ” for visually impaired persons Discount shipping to military bases Splash sticks minimize coffee splashes Starbucks energy drinks Stores’ donations of unsold baked goods, packaged food items, and

coffee to local organizations

From Mystarbucksideas.com

HAPPY CROWDSOURCING!

Prayukth K V