Open Innovation

Focused on working across industries, companies, departments, etc. – opposite of siloing. Crowdsourcing can fall under this goal as well, sourcing ideas from across industries, across companies, from the public, etc.

The Four Essential Steps Towards Open Innovation Success

Although ‘open innovation’ is the talk of the town in R&D circles, leveraging external sources of innovation remains challenging for most companies. In 2013, researchers Dr. Joel West (Keck Graduate, Institute of Applied Life Sciences) and Dr. Marcel Bogers (University of Southern Denmark) suggested a four-phase model for inbound innovation projects. They emphasized that open innovation needs to go further than just obtaining external ideas. Integration, commercialization and the interaction between the firm and its collaborators are just as important. This post explores the four essential steps towards open innovation success.

Ideascale2021-12-07T16:16:39-08:00January 2nd, 2017|Categories: Enabling Factors, Open Innovation|Tags: co-creation, Henry Chesbrough, Innovation Strategy, innovation success, R&D, strategic partnership|

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|

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 This old model has since been replaced by open innovation.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|

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|

Building an Innovative Nonprofit: the Value of Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is often associated with start-ups and blue-chip companies who are trying to innovate, but it has the potential to reach far beyond those with seed money and infinite endowments. The beauty of crowdsourcing is that it is rooted in grassroots fundamentals—an environment that is ideal for non-profit businesses.

Rob Hoehn2021-12-07T16:04:04-08:00October 17th, 2016|Categories: Open Innovation, Strategies|Tags: Collaboration, crowdfunding, Crowdsourcing, crowdvoting, Employee Engagement, engagement, micro tasking, nonprofit, nonprofit innovation, social business, strengths and weaknesses|

Metrics and Measurements for Open Innovation and Ecosystems

Given the difficulties in developing and working with metrics and measures for open innovation and ecosystems, I have pulled together some inspiration and insights from several articles.

Ideascale2021-12-07T16:03:50-08:00September 29th, 2016|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Open Innovation, Strategies|Tags: analytics, branding, collaborative innovation, Crowdsourcing, customer engagement, ecosystem, ecosystem happiness, innovation metrics, innovation networks, innovation success, innovation value, leadership, measure innovation, metrics, Open Innovation, organizational capability, ROI, scorecard, sustainable growth|

The Next Level of Open Innovation: Is Your Organization Ready?

Getting started with open innovation and developing the right foundation for open innovation has been a key challenge at many companies in the last three to five years. Now, internal as well as external forces are moving these companies towards the next level of open innovation in which we go beyond just products and technology and start to explore how a more open and collaborative mindset can be applied to all more business units and functions. Think procurement and engineering as examples.

Ideascale2021-12-07T16:01:07-08:00September 13th, 2016|Categories: Open Innovation, Organization & Culture|Tags: Change Management, culture change, executive sponsor, industry innovation, Innovation Management, Innovation Strategy, innovation training, leadership, Open Innovation, Product Development, transparency|

Mad Scientists and Creativity Labs

Managing solitary and collaborative innovation: All innovation is based on creative ideas which are generated and developed by passionate people working alone and with others. Both solitary and collaborative work are important to the effective development of innovation in organizations. The key for leaders is to effectively promote both.

Ideascale2021-12-07T16:00:56-08:00August 30th, 2016|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Leadership, Organization & Culture|Tags: brainstorm, Collaboration, collaborative innovation, convergent thinking, Creativity, creativity lab, divergent thinking, Employee Engagement, experiment, idea management, Ideation, innovation champion, innovation lab, innovation life cycle processes, innovation team, leadership, personality types, talent management, team building, Teamwork|

3 Reasons Crowdsourcing is Good for Small Businesses

Running a small business is not easy, especially when the small business is just starting out. Any misstep, even well-intentioned, can cause a serious setback. But have no fear! There’s a whole untapped squad of people out there ready to work for you for free! Here are three ways crowdsourcing is good for small businesses.

Rob Hoehn2021-12-07T15:58:27-08:00August 15th, 2016|Categories: Organization & Culture|Tags: business development, cost savings, crowdfunding, Crowdsourcing, customer engagement, efficiency, IdeaScale, resource allocation, ROI, small business, SME, smes|

Involving the Crowd in Product Development

Even before the term was coined in Wired Magazine in 2006, crowdsourcing was utilized as a way to accomplish goals. The strategy had been used for several hundred years before it was officially given a name, but since being named, crowdsourcing has grown into a huge field, spawning subdivisions of the strategy and being used for a multitude of purposes. Wikipedia is one of the most recognizable and mainstream instances of crowdsourcing, designed to elicit and compile knowledge from the masses. Crowdsourcing has been used in real time to track public transportation and traffic updates with various apps.

Rob Hoehn2021-12-07T15:58:00-08:00July 18th, 2016|Categories: Strategies|Tags: business strategy, crowdfunding, Crowdsourcing, goal setting, idea management, IdeaScale, Ideation, Innovation Strategy, LEGO, Open Innovation, Product Development, veronica mars, Wired|

Challenged by Innovation? Someone May Have Already Solved Your Problem

In 1946, Soviet inventor and science fiction writer Genrich Altshuller developed a methodology called TRIZ. It became known as "the theory of inventive problem-solving" and was based on a simple premise: across different disciplines and applications, the same challenges occur again and again. Unfortunately, people keep solving nearly identical problems from scratch. The main lesson from TRIZ is this: if you understand how your innovation challenge is similar to someone else’s, you can reapply solutions that already exist, instead of reinventing the wheel time and again.

Ideascale2021-12-07T15:58:02-08:00July 12th, 2016|Categories: Enabling Factors|Tags: case study, copycat, Creativity, fuzzy front end of innovation, idea management, Ideation, innovation, inspiration, knowledge sharing, knowledge transfer, Open Innovation, Problem Solving, technology transfer, trend, TRIZ|

Why Crowdsourcing is Critical to the Future of Education

Educational institutions have the reputation of being slow-moving behemoths, but this label is undeserved. According to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, the educational sector worldwide is more innovative than it gets credit for.

Rob Hoehn2019-10-15T15:22:06-07:00May 16th, 2016|Categories: Open Innovation, Strategies|Tags: academic innovation, Collaboration, community, Crowdsourcing, data, education, engagement, gamification, IdeaScale, industry innovation, online education|

Navigating the Make versus Buy Decision: A Crowd Sourced Check List

Product managers facing the make versus buy decision for their organization have a lot to consider. Biases abound. In this article, the innovation architect Doug Collins shares what was on the minds of senior product management leaders on this topic when they convened, recently. Their top 10 factors follow below.

Ideascale2019-10-15T15:22:16-07:00February 16th, 2016|Categories: Strategies|Tags: Communication, competitive advantage, Crowdsourcing, decision making, Employee Engagement, enterprise innovation, Open Innovation, Product Development, product management, resrouces, strategic partnership, time-to-market, venture innovation|

How Innovation Develops Among Individuals in Niche Social Networks

In the current digital arena, social networks have touched the lives of almost every human being on earth, allowing us to share life's novelties with friends and loved ones. However, social networks are not restricted to sharing and commenting on pictures, but giving rise to innovation among individuals to help make our world a better place.

Ideascale2019-11-28T09:24:01-08:00February 11th, 2016|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Enabling Factors, Strategies|Tags: Crowdsourcing, Ideation, Innovation Management, innovation networks, niche, social media, social networks|

Clear the Mystery Around Innovation Crowdsourcing: Learn from the Pros

So you’re thinking of tapping your employees or customers for ideas. You’ve read some exciting crowdsourcing case studies and it seems like a no brainer. Or you’ve used a consultant but now want to go it alone? What could possibly go wrong? If you’re like a lot of first timers, you’ll get the software all set up, announce the challenge, and sit back with great expectations!

Ideascale2019-10-15T15:22:20-07:00January 18th, 2016|Categories: Leadership, Organization & Culture|Tags: Crowdsourcing, customer engagement, Employee Engagement, Failure, idea management, IdeaScale, innovation campaign, innovation consulting, innovation training, online training|