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.

Where Did the Suggestion Box Come From?

And what’s changed along the way?

Online ideation and collaboration might be a fairly recent business practice, but the suggestion box concept has been around at least since the 18th century.

Ideascale2020-08-01T12:54:23-07:00August 3rd, 2020|Categories: Organization & Culture|Tags: Collaboration, Employee Engagement, employee feedback, incentives, professional development, suggestion box|

How the Royal Australian Navy Nurtures Innovators

The first time I heard Stephen Delo speak, it was at the Australian Intrapreneurs Summit. He was talking about some truly fascinating ideas: how 3D printing could be used at sea, possibilities for drones, new methods for making the Royal Australian Navy more sustainable, and beyond.

Sarah Vandenberg2020-07-01T15:15:08-07:00July 13th, 2020|Categories: Podcast|Tags: intrapreneurship, recognition|

7 Incentives to Increase Participation in a Crowdsourced Innovation Program

Every year, one question tops all the others that our customers might bring to us: how do I increase engagement in my innovation community? We see this question even in the most robust and activated innovation programs.

Sarah Vandenberg2020-07-01T15:00:26-07:00July 6th, 2020|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Open Innovation|Tags: continuous learning, Crowdsourcing, incentive, recognition|

What Innovation Looks Like at an Energy Company

When you’re turning on your fan or firing up your laptop to get some work done, you probably don’t spend much time thinking about where that power comes from. But all of that thinking comes to the forefront of your mind when there are massive disruptions to that system.

Sarah Vandenberg2020-06-12T10:38:44-07:00June 29th, 2020|Categories: Podcast|Tags: energy, energy grid, energy innovation, green innovation, renewable energy, sustainability|

How COVID Impacted 2020’s Innovation Trends

Every year, IdeaScale undertakes a comprehensive audit of our system data, our customer conversations and survey data in order to develop report on the state of crowdsourced innovation.

Sarah Vandenberg2020-06-12T10:29:31-07:00June 15th, 2020|Categories: Report, Trend Alert|Tags: benchmarking, Best Practices, coronavirus, covid-19, Crowdsourcing|

What Are the Four Crucial Elements to Start a Successful Innovation Management Program

Launching an innovation program can often feel daunting to anyone and - to a small business - starting an innovation management program can feel completely inaccessible. Who should be responsible? What are the first steps? How can you get to the impact that really matters?

Sarah Vandenberg2020-06-01T05:51:35-07:00May 27th, 2020|Categories: Podcast|

The Three Challenges of Crowdsourced Innovation

You have a problem to solve, and we have the crowd. IdeaScale has recently acquired Betterific, a crowdsourcing platform that engages a community of 18,000+ creative problem solvers, design thinkers, and ideators to help you come up with your next big idea. Learn more about how you can tap into this innovative community.

Sarah Vandenberg2020-07-10T14:50:22-07:00May 11th, 2020|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Open Innovation|Tags: Crowdsourcing, Ideation|

The Essential Skills to Teach Intrapreneurs

At JR Simplot, a new cross-functional innovation initiative recently formed looking for ideas that would help optimize company efficiency, improve training programs, and more. And when they built this team, they realized that a big part of launching an innovation initiative was education. Learn more in this podcast.

Sarah Vandenberg2020-04-02T07:41:57-07:00April 20th, 2020|Categories: Organization & Culture, Training & Education|Tags: Best Practices, brainstorming, business case development, design thinking, education, efficiency, employee education, Employee Engagement, employee incentives, employee training, leadership, pitch coaching, problem definition, professional development, prototyping, recognizing talent, training programs|

Ideation in Times of Crisis

If you’re thinking about launching a crowdsourcing campaign to respond to some of these challenges brought about by COVID-19, now is a good time. We are all learning so much right now and so quickly. And everyone wants to help, so let them.

Sarah Vandenberg2020-04-02T07:33:56-07:00April 6th, 2020|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Open Innovation|Tags: coast guard, continuous improvement, coronavirus, covid-19, Creativity, crisis, crisis response, Crowdsourcing, disaster preparedness, disaster response, Ideation, social distancing|

Innovators, How Do You Find Your Next Problem to Solve?

If you’re working in innovation there’s nothing as rewarding as making the long journey from inspiration to implementation.

Sarah Vandenberg2020-03-25T11:10:42-07:00March 23rd, 2020|Categories: Front End of Innovation|Tags: goal setting, goals, identifying problems, Problem Solving|

How to Find the Idea at the Right Time

One of the things that was surprising to us at IdeaScale was that many of our customers came to us looking for idea management software not because they didn’t have enough good ideas, but because they simply needed a place for those ideas to live. How could that be the main reason?

Sarah Vandenberg2020-03-15T12:30:37-07:00March 9th, 2020|Categories: Podcast|Tags: continuous improvement, idea management, ideas, ideation funnel, implementation, process improvement|

How NASA Leads Intrapreneurial Innovation

Not everyone knows that NASA has embedded crowdsourcing into their strategy and capabilities. But in fact, back in 2011 (after they ran a highly successful crowdsourcing pilot) NASA established the Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI).

Sarah Vandenberg2020-02-27T12:27:34-08:00February 19th, 2020|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Organization & Culture, Podcast|Tags: case study, challenge, Collaboration, Communication, idea challenge, Ideation, innovation challenge, intrapreneur, NASA, podcast|

What Innovation Funnel Should I Use?

After a decade working in innovation, I think many of us are sick and tired of seeing a funnel on another slide at an innovation conference. Lots of ideas at the top, just a few implemented ideas at the bottom… we get the idea.

Ideascale2020-02-27T12:15:20-08:00February 3rd, 2020|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Open Innovation|Tags: Crowdsourcing, customer engagement, customer experience, Employee Engagement, innovation funnel, process improvemnet, Product Development, workplace experience|

Innovation Differentiators: Information and Implementation

What separates the great innovators from the industry laggards? What empowers long-standing hierarchical organizations like LEGO to make big, creative bets that pay off (like the LEGO Movie) while other once-great brands like Tower Records, Pan Am, or Pets.com have all gone away?

Ideascale2020-01-06T11:40:01-08:00January 22nd, 2020|Categories: Idea Management, Podcast|Tags: Competition, data, Ideation, implementation, Innovation Management, testing ideas, united way|

Looking to 2020 and Beyond: Innovation for Trust-Building in Local Government

It probably comes as no surprise that, according to Pew Research, trust in government is at an all-time low. An abysmally low 17 percent of Americans believe they can trust government to do what is right either all of the time or some of the time.

Rob Hoehn2020-07-10T14:49:20-07:00January 8th, 2020|Categories: News, Trend Alert|