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.

How the Pandemic Created the Virtual Innovation Lab

COVID reshaped every department—including your innovation department. Find out how some organizations adapted to the remote work age by creating the virtual innovation lab, and how you can create your own by downloading this complimentary infographic.

Sarah Vandenberg2022-03-01T17:21:32-08:00March 21st, 2022|Categories: Enabling Factors|Tags: government innovation, online innovation, virtual innovation lab|

Crowdsourcing vs. Traditional Granting: Which Method Most Benefits Social Entrepreneurs

Open innovation can be organized into a more inclusive granting mechanism. In the past, nonprofits and other organizations would fund social enterprises by asking for a written proposal—but combining mentorship and crowdsourcing creates new opportunities and community solutions. Find out how it worked for Pact and the US Department of State in this case study.

Sarah Vandenberg2022-03-01T17:21:08-08:00March 7th, 2022|Categories: Collaborative Innovation|Tags: Crowdsourcing, grant writing, nonprofit|

Innovation Management Data Trends from 2021: What Can We Learn About 2022?

Many people have said that 2021 was 2020 Part II, but IdeaScale looked at some of our system data (as we do every year) to see what we could learn, and there are a few key trends we think are different from 2020, and that we think bode well for a creative 2022.

Sarah Vandenberg2022-01-31T16:30:05-08:00February 16th, 2022|Categories: Trend Alert|Tags: cost savings, Creativity, Ideation, innovation trends, process improvement, Product Development, product improvement, social initiatives, sustainability|

How Does the Chief Information Officer Role Relate to Innovation?

Nearly 40% of IdeaScale’s customer base is run from a dedicated innovation department helmed by a Chief Innovation Officer, an innovation leader, an innovation manager or someone else. However, there is another emerging owner for innovation at a large organization. At IdeaScale, we often find that CIOs and their organization are driving innovation strategy for a company.

Sarah Vandenberg2022-01-31T16:07:35-08:00February 2nd, 2022|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Leadership|Tags: chief information officer, Employee Engagement, Innovation Leadership, innovation manager, Innovation Strategy, it department|

What is the Process for an Employee Innovation Challenge?

A growing trend over the past several years has been to host internal innovation challenges. Companies do this because they find it’s an excellent way to find solutions to long-standing problems, positively create culture (particularly in a remote workplace), and also to nurture the budding intrapreneurs who want to find career growth and new opportunities.

Sarah Vandenberg2022-01-04T15:07:32-08:00January 19th, 2022|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Organization & Culture, Report, Strategies, Training & Education|Tags: brainstorming, business development teams, Competition, customer experience, idea management, Ideation, innovation challenge, innovation software, innovation team, intrapreneur, Problem Solving, remote team, remote workplace|

Is Innovation the Secret to Adapting to the Regenerative Future?

The inevitable changes ahead for our industries and for our way of life are just as profound as they were in previous shifts in eras. The Climate Action Sweepstakes is committed to supporting efforts that help companies step into the early days of the Regenerative Era with clarity, courage and maximum positive impact by leveraging the power of their employee network.

Sarah Vandenberg2022-01-04T12:55:50-08:00January 5th, 2022|Categories: News, Trend Alert|Tags: climate change, climate crisis, constraints, Creativity, disruption, Regenerative Economy, sustainability, sweepstakes, value chain|

How Can Nonprofits Develop a Pilot Innovation Process that Works for Volunteers?

The innovation process (as variable as it can be) has a seemingly basic format no matter what your goal is: once you understand the problem, you identify some solutions to test. Those tests often occur in some limited, proof-of-concept format and are then rolled out for large-scale adoption. However, while testing out some sort of pilot scenario seems like a logical next step, many organizations aren’t sure how to do this, and it’s especially true for nonprofits where resources can be limited and every dollar must be accounted for.

Sarah Vandenberg2021-12-02T16:44:09-08:00December 15th, 2021|Categories: Open Innovation, Organization & Culture|Tags: Crowdsourcing, crowdsourcing campaign, field testing, idea collection, innovation pilot, pilot program, proof of concept, volunteering|

An Innovation Competition is a Great Way to Influence Culture

In a 2017 Harvard Business Review article, Anna Steinhage, Dan Cable, and Duncan Wardley talk about the impact competition can have in a workplace. They described how hosting an internal challenge can generate creative results and inspire collaboration or it can create unethical behaviors and cutthroat rivalry.

Sarah Vandenberg2021-12-02T13:53:28-08:00December 8th, 2021|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Organization & Culture|Tags: Competition, Creativity, Failure, innovation award, innovation competition, lessons learned|

Top Five Challenges When Pitching a New Idea

Hardly an innovation event passes without mentioning how Kodak passed on the digital camera or how Blockbuster decided not to invest in streaming entertainment. But with the rapid rate of disruption, how do you ensure that great ideas can penetrate established organizations?

Sarah Vandenberg2021-10-31T15:14:59-07:00November 17th, 2021|Categories: Front End of Innovation, Strategies|Tags: idea evaluation, idea pitch, idea value, storytelling|

What Companies are Excelling at Innovation in 2021?

Every year, IdeaScale hosts the Innovation Management Awards to honor the work of organizations who are accessing the voice of the crowd and the power of digital innovation programs to generate extraordinary results. The competition has three categories: best innovation engagement strategy, best innovation process, and best innovation overall. Here’s what we can learn from this year’s winners.

Sarah Vandenberg2021-10-31T15:17:55-07:00November 3rd, 2021|Categories: News, Trend Alert|Tags: Employee Engagement, incremental innovation, innovation assessment, innovation awards, innovation council, innovation process, milestones|

7 Essential Ingredients of a Crowdsourced Innovation Campaign

Many companies are introducing Innovation as a Service, which means an internal group acts as a consultancy that can solve problems for business owners. These innovation teams bring a number of skills to the table, including research, communications, project management, networking, and much more. Many have also adopted a “proudly found elsewhere” solution approach, which uses crowdsourcing to ask the entire workforce---or even beyond the walls of the organization---for solutions to existing problems.

Sarah Vandenberg2021-12-20T14:37:08-08:00October 20th, 2021|Categories: Open Innovation|Tags: Crowdsourcing, decision makers, goal setting, Ideation, innovation as a service, Stakeholders, subject matter experts|

The Six Pillars of Innovation Culture

Every year, IdeaScale asks our customers what their main priorities are for the coming year, and without fail one of the top two priorities is to create a culture of innovation. Every innovation thought leader, every organizational engagement specialist, every pundit or leader in transformation says that this is the secret to avoiding disruption.

Sarah Vandenberg2021-09-28T16:38:53-07:00October 6th, 2021|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Organization & Culture|Tags: benchmarks, Collaboration, collaborative innovation, diversity, empowerment, Failure, Innovation Culture, innovation metrics, innovation policy, innovation training, intrapreneurship, listening, measuring innovation, metrics, transformation, transformational innovation|

The US Coast Guard and Rapid Adaptation: “There’s No Such Thing as a ‘Textbook Hurricane’ or a ‘Standard Oil Spill'”

From recognizing innovators, to empowering your team at every level, to developing innovation outposts, the US Coast Guard are experts in innovation and idea management. Learn more in this podcast interview.

Sarah Vandenberg2021-08-31T12:07:09-07:00September 22nd, 2021|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Leadership, Organization & Culture, Podcast|Tags: Best Practices, brainstorming, coast guard, employee recognition, empowerment, idea frenzy, idea management, Ideation, innovation council, united states coast guard, us coast guard|

What to Tell Your Boss When You Make the Case for Innovation Management

The term “innovation management" has been around for a long time (at least since the 1980s – if not before), but for many business leaders establishing a sustainable innovation management program is still a new concept. Executives aren’t sure what skills they need, who should be on their team, what activities are essential to success, and who they need to partner with.

Sarah Vandenberg2021-08-31T08:28:34-07:00September 8th, 2021|Categories: Strategies|Tags: collaborative innovation, competitive advantage, Employee Engagement, Innovation Strategy, transformative ideas|

How Do You Uncover Unseen Problems?

Anyone who works in the problem definition space knows the pitfalls of hidden issues. Solving a problem is sometimes dependent on who is articulating the problem, the lens with which they view the world, and the space that they have at the table...

Sarah Vandenberg2021-12-20T14:35:39-08:00August 18th, 2021|Categories: Collaborative Innovation|Tags: community engagement, Crowdsourcing, outreach, Problem Solving, problem sourcing, social media|