Appsheet: Crowdsourcing Decision Support Efficiently Alex Quinn, Tom Yeh, Ben Bederson.

Appsheet:Crowdsourcing Decision Support Efficiently

Alex Quinn, Tom Yeh, Ben Bederson

Ideal

Example

Task: Help management choose a city for the new company headquarters."Anna"

(analyst)

Diagram based on Managerial Decision Modeling with Spreadsheets by Balakrishnan, Render, & Stair. © 2007 Pearson Education

Interviews to determine problem structure, relevant attributes, weights

Define the Problem

Develop a Model

Acquire Input Data

Develop a Solution

Test the Solution

1. climate2. workers3. affordability4. health insurance costs5. employee preference6. rent7. transportation8. labor laws9. sales tax10.distance to other offices11.distance to CEO

hometown12.availability of skilled

labor13.availability of office

space…50. employee satisfaction

Diagram based on Managerial Decision Modeling with Spreadsheets by Balakrishnan, Render, & Stair. © 2007 Pearson Education

Define the Problem

Develop a Model

Acquire Input Data

Develop a Solution

Test the Solution

Select method: Weighted Sums Model

Diagram based on Managerial Decision Modeling with Spreadsheets by Balakrishnan, Render, & Stair. © 2007 Pearson Education

Define the Problem

Develop a Model

Acquire Input Data

Develop a Solution

Test the Solution

Select method: Weighted Sums ModelEnter formulas

Simplified

Diagram based on Managerial Decision Modeling with Spreadsheets by Balakrishnan, Render, & Stair. © 2007 Pearson Education

Define the Problem

Develop a Model

Acquire Input Data

Develop a Solution

Test the Solution

Strategies:•Recruit co-workers•Mechanical Turk•Acquire selectively

Simplified

Diagram based on Managerial Decision Modeling with Spreadsheets by Balakrishnan, Render, & Stair. © 2007 Pearson Education

Define the Problem

Develop a Model

Acquire Input Data

Develop a Solution

Test the Solution

Strategies:•Recruit co-workers•Mechanical Turk•Acquire selectively

Simplified

Appsheet

Appsheet: Getting started

Appsheet: Getting started

Mockup

Appsheet: ASK formulas

=ASK(1, 1, 10)

cost minimum value maximum value Mockup

Appsheet: Starting Input Acquisition

Mockup

Appsheet: Data collection

Mockup

Appsheet: Savings

Mockup

Appsheet: Savings

Mockup

Conclusive decision with only 5 of the 9 inputsSavings: 44% of the human effort

Prioritization

Standard plan: A1, B1, C1, D1

cost minimum value maximum value

Prioritization

Standard plan: A1, B1, C1, D1Appsheet plan: B1, [A1 only if B1 ≤ 4], (C1 or D1)

cost minimum value maximum value

Prioritization

Standard plan: A1, B1, C1, D1Appsheet plan: B1, [A1 only if B1 ≤ 4], (C1 or D1)Expected savings: 37%

cost minimum value maximum value

Next steps• Account for varying confidence in inputs

• Sharing of models themselves

• Construct web-based tools using spreadsheets

Take-home lessons

• Use crowdsourcing to gather data for decisions

• Human effort is expensive

• Leverage computation to reduce human effort

• Blend crowdsourcing with social computing

Alex Quinn & Ben BedersonContact: [email protected]