Rob Hoehn

About Rob Hoehn

Rob Hoehn is the co-founder and CEO of IdeaScale : the largest open innovation software platform in the world. Hoehn launched crowdsourcing software as part of the open government initiative and IdeaScale's robust portfolio now includes many other industry notables, such as EA Sports, NBC, NASA, Xerox and many others. Prior to IdeaScale, Hoehn was Vice President of Client Services at Survey Analytics.

Citizen Science and Market Research: How the Public Can Help Prioritize

Regardless of whether the workplace is a public or private entity, departments often struggle to prioritize assigned projects, and align individual projects with overall objectives. In this case study, we’ll explore how the National Cancer Institute implemented crowdsourcing to enable the research community and the public to submit ideas on how best to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer - and how as a result, they were able to prioritize existing research and initiatives into areas where additional resources were needed the most.

Rob Hoehn2021-12-14T07:46:45-08:00April 3rd, 2017|Categories: Strategies|Tags: cancer, case study, citizen science, citizien science, Crowdsourcing, innovation, market research, national cancer institute, nci, prioritization, project management, research, vision|

What Do the Best Innovation Programs Have in Common?

An in-house innovation program is becoming a common fixture in the most competitive organizations. However, in a recessed economy, these research & development programs can sometimes get eliminated, because they struggle to prove or articulate value.

Rob Hoehn2021-12-14T07:40:26-08:00March 20th, 2017|Categories: Strategies|Tags: Communication, communication strategy, communications, Crowdsourcing, Employee Engagement, engagement, Failure, in-house innovation, innovation, Innovation Strategy, innovation value, metrics, moderation, outcomes, Success|

Great Innovators as Great Mentors: Is This a Skill You’re Nurturing?

Companies that are looking to gain a competitive edge are also looking for the innovators among them. But what do innovators look like?

Rob Hoehn2021-12-14T07:38:20-08:00March 13th, 2017|Categories: Organization & Culture|Tags: Crowdsourcing, innovation process, innovation skills, innovation team, innovative people, innovators, jump, mentoring, mentors, oak ridge national laboratory, ORNL|

5 Reasons Sustainability Drives Innovation

Sustainability is one of the key emerging trends in recent years. But much like innovation, it is a maturing discipline with few established business practices and lots of evolving methodologies. Sustainability champions at organizations often face the same challenges that innovation champions do: lack of senior level buy-in, lack of process, lack of resources. The benefits of successful sustainability and successful innovation are similar, as well: a competitive advantage, improved profit margins, and better brand sentiment from employees and customers.

Rob Hoehn2021-12-14T06:38:24-08:00February 20th, 2017|Categories: Strategies, Trend Alert|Tags: business development, Business Model Innovation, constraint, Creativity, future, green innovation, green innovations, innovation value, question, regulations, sustainability, trend, value chain, value chain innovation, value creation, value stream|

10 Skills You Need to Nurture in Your Innovation Group

Organizational innovation requires discipline. And like any other discipline, it requires monitoring and training to make sure that you’re on the cutting edge of your capabilities. But what skills should you focus on building and how can you track your progress?

Rob Hoehn2021-12-14T06:36:20-08:00February 13th, 2017|Categories: Leadership, Open Innovation, Strategies|Tags: accountability, Collaboration, Employee Engagement, goals, implementation, Innovation Culture, innovation fitness, innovation skills, innovation team, leadership, Open Innovation, reporting, skills management, trend|

The Future of Civic Engagement and Innovation

Numerous leaders and community organizers have been talking about public service lately, especially in the US - mostly encouraging the public to take place in ongoing dialogues and to volunteer in their communities in order to create positive change at local and national levels.

Rob Hoehn2021-12-14T06:33:59-08:00February 6th, 2017|Categories: News, Trend Alert|Tags: Calgary, case study, Change Management, citizen engagement, citizen science, civic engagement, Communication, Crowdsourcing, Employee Engagement, government innovation, Ideation, public sector, refinement|

What Do Innovators Look Like?

Crowdsourced innovation is a tactic used more and more often by government organizations as well as enterprise corporations. This means that innovation teams need to add a new skill set to their resumé: communications.

Rob Hoehn2021-12-14T06:29:23-08:00January 23rd, 2017|Categories: Enabling Factors, Open Innovation|Tags: Collaboration, Communication, consumer demographics, Crowdsourcing, demographics, diversity, gender, IdeaScale, innovation champion, innovation skills, innovation team, marketing, personality types, research, skills, target audience, team building, team diversity, Technology, USA|

3 Advantages to Collaborating on Innovation as a Global Community

The list of problems that need to be solved is growing almost as fast as our solutions are. Some are concerned about the lack of food and water security, others worry about access to education and a whopping 45.2% of millennials think today’s most pressing problem is the destruction of natural resources. But with the proliferation of problems, organizations and enterprises are broadening their search for innovative solutions and many of them are looking to the crowd for ideas.

Rob Hoehn2021-12-14T06:25:52-08:00January 16th, 2017|Categories: Enabling Factors, News|Tags: business value, Collaboration, collaborative innovation, Crowdsourcing, design, DREAMS Challenge, global market, globalization, HIV / AIDS, HR, IdeaScale, millennial, nonprofit, Open Innovation, Problem Solving, R&D, rapid design processes, rapid innovation cycle, social innovation, talent management, team building|

4 Things to Think About When Creating Your Innovation Roadmap

This time of year is full of meetings with leadership and teams in order to help them prepare for the year ahead. People discuss financial goals, sustainability goals, profitability targets, customer success metrics, and more, but there are also numerous research & development teams out there who are coordinating their annual innovation strategy who struggle in their process to create a cohesive innovation strategy.

Rob Hoehn2021-12-07T16:16:53-08:00January 9th, 2017|Categories: Life Cycle Processes|Tags: challenge, Change Management, evaluate, goal setting, goals, innovation planning, innovation process, innovation program processes, innovation roadmap, Innovation Strategy, innovation success, roadblocks, roadmap, workflow|

Involving Citizens in Government Product Development

The election of 2016 will certainly be one for the history books. Regardless of your political leanings, there was one sure thing to celebrate during this election cycle. The Innovate Your State Fix California Challenge—a crowdsourcing campaign aimed at promoting public participation in order to determine ways to improve government—had an initiative on the ballot in California!

Rob Hoehn2021-12-07T16:14:46-08:00December 19th, 2016|Categories: Enabling Factors, News, Strategies|Tags: california, challenge driven innovation, citizen engagement, Crowdsourcing, government product development, open government, Product Development, proposition 54, public sector, public sector innovation, smart cities, transparency, USA|

The Importance of Diversity in Innovation: 3 Tactics to Enrich Workplace Diversity

Many of our customers have asked “what are the most important organizational values to nurture innovation?” Some of them may seem obvious or (at least) familiar: transparency, the embrace of digital solutions, the ability to celebrate failure, but we’re coming to discover that the most important value that you can embrace as part of your innovation programs is diversity.

Rob Hoehn2021-12-07T16:14:33-08:00December 12th, 2016|Categories: Leadership, Organization & Culture|Tags: Communication, Crowdsourcing, diversity, Employee Engagement, feedback, HIPPO, HR, human resources, Ideation, leadership, team building, team diversity, white paper, work environment|

Is Open Government the Same as Open Innovation?

For many years, companies were convinced of the competitive advantage of closed research and development. They jealously protected their intellectual property behind closed doors and dramatically revealed it to the public after years of development. This old model has since been replaced by open innovation.

Rob Hoehn2021-12-07T16:14:24-08:00December 5th, 2016|Categories: Column & Opinion, Enabling Factors, Open Innovation|Tags: challenge driven innovation, clean energy, Crowdsourcing, energy, Henry Chesbrough, IdeaScale, innovation policy, open government, Open Innovation, public policy, public sector, public sector innovation, R&D, solar energy, sunshot, transparency, USA|

The Value of Disruptive Innovation vs. the Value of Incremental Innovation

Most startups hope to disrupt their markets by delivering a novel idea or a more-suitable functionality—frequently at a lower price. Disruptive Innovation may be how your company arrives, but ultimately, as competition grows and your business and brand evolves, you will need incremental innovation to stay relevant.

Rob Hoehn2021-12-07T16:10:12-08:00November 21st, 2016|Categories: Enabling Factors, Strategies|Tags: clayton christensen, coca-cola, disruptive innovation, gilette, incremental innovation, market creation, netflix, Pandora, skype, startup|

How is Crowdsourcing Uniquely Beneficial to Technologists

Innovation proves vital for companies across industries, but carries key importance in the technology field. Mainstream perception of the tech industry conjures illustrations of cutting edge, never-before-seen products poised to disrupt and revolutionize daily lives.

Rob Hoehn2021-12-07T16:06:48-08:00November 7th, 2016|Categories: Strategies|Tags: business development, Crowdsourcing, idea management, Ideation, industry innovation, Product Development, product management, social innovation, speed to market, Technology, time-to-market, voice of customer, white paper|

Lo que su definición de la innovación dice acerca de su empresa

En un campo basado en nuevas y originales ideas no es una gran sorpresa que hay tantas definiciones para el término ‘innovación.’ Aún así, la creación de una definición clara es fundamental para la formación de la cultura de la innovación en su organización y le ayudará a determinar qué recursos asignar a su programa.

Rob Hoehn2021-12-07T16:06:32-08:00October 31st, 2016|Categories: Edición en Español|