Editor’s note: The following Q&A is an extension of a webinar about external innovation hosted by Doug Williams, Director of Innovation Strategy at Planview IdeaPlace. The questions were provided by webinar attendees.
Q: When it comes to external innovation, can you provide some examples of incentives for participation? Also, can you give some examples of exchange of values?
DW: Incentives are every bit as important in an external challenge as they are in an internal challenge. Everyone invited to participate in a challenge of any kind will ask themselves this simple question: “What is in it for me?” The key difference between working with internal crowds and external crowds is that there are far fewer — if any — intrinsic rewards that you can offer to an external crowd. Internal crowds appreciate the visibility of participating in and perhaps submitting a winning idea in a crowdsourcing challenge. They appreciate the opportunity to be recognized as a top collaborator or top innovator in a public forum like a town hall meeting much more than a free sweatshirt or $50 gift card.
With external crowds, the incentive typically must come in the form of some “thing” — cash rewards or prizes are popular, but are not the only options. The opportunity to visit the sponsoring company’s headquarters and present their idea, or have the opportunity to work with a team to bring the idea to life, are two options that have a cost to the sponsor company but may have a perceived value to the recipient that is much greater. That’s where the “exchange of value” comes into play. The incentive you offer must be in line with the value of whatever it is you are asking the crowd to provide. Asking them to simply vote? Conduct a lottery to hand out SWAG to 10 random winners. Asking for a creative response to a brief, such as a video or design? Consider 10 monetary awards ranging from $5,000 for first down to $500 for 6th-10th. Asking for new product or service concepts, or technology to help solve a problem? Your reward had better include some form of licensing arrangement, or all you will hear are crickets.
F: Hur kan du förnya dig externt utan att exponera immateriella rättigheter?
DW: Hur man hanterar immateriella rättigheter är den vanligaste frågan när det gäller extern innovation. Det fruktade svaret är: "Det beror på." Vi ställer vanligtvis tre nyckelfrågor när det gäller immateriella rättigheter:
- What kinds of ideas are we looking for? Ideas may be new to the world, a feature/product enhancement, a more straightforward process, or operational improvement. When you run down that kind of continuum, the importance of IP protection starts high and diminishes as you go.
- What is the source of these ideas? Who comprises the crowd, and what are their expectations? A partner in your supply chain may have no interest in IP retention if their idea helps make a process more efficient. On the other hand, sourcing opportunities from startups will require firm IP protection in order to engage in any meaningful interactions.
- Hur utvecklad är IP? Om de idéer som lämnas in är av typen "Det vore trevligt om ni kunde...", bör IP-restriktionerna vara låga, eller till och med obefintliga. Delvis eller helt utvecklade idéer skulle kräva en viss överenskommelse mellan parterna, med högre förväntningar på immaterialrättsligt skydd för dem som erbjuder en beprövad och pålitlig lösning.
Other factors can also come into play.
First, an external challenge doesn’t necessarily mean that it is a challenge conducted in an open, public forum. If you choose to work with a selected private external group, then you can require agreeing to terms and conditions that include non-disclosure agreements provided by your legal department.
För det andra kan externa utmaningar innehålla "slutna" inlämningsformer, så att andra externa deltagare inte kan se de idéer som har lämnats in. I det scenariot skulle publiken inte kontrollera idéerna eller samarbeta för att förbättra idéerna, vilket är två viktiga aspekter av de flesta öppna utmaningar (interna eller externa). Detta ger dock en viss trygghet för den som lämnar in idén att hans eller hennes immateriella rättigheter inte kommer att delas med andra, även om de skulle omfattas av de krav på överföring av immateriella rättigheter som ni beslutar att införa. Generellt sett gäller att ju strängare kraven på immateriella rättigheter är till företagets fördel, desto mindre sannolikt är det att du får några intressenter (se diskussionen om utbyte av värde tidigare i detta inlägg).
Third, external challenges can place the burden on the external crowd to ensure that anyone submitting an idea has taken steps to protect their own IP. In its Frontier challenges, Siemens warns participants against submitting ideas or solutions that incorporate unprotected IP.
Q: What are the expectations of feedback on an external challenge?
DW: With external challenges, you are building a community. Effectively communicating with that community will make the individuals feel important and well-informed, which will encourage them to participate in future challenges. Just as with internal challenges, it is critical that you close the loop with external challenge participants by letting them know how the challenge ended. Even if your challenge process doesn’t allow you to share the winning ideas with all participants, a simple “thank you” will go a long way in showing the crowd that you valued its participation.
F: Hur effektiva är externa utmaningar i en B2B-miljö?
DW: As I discussed in the webinar, there are many use cases for external challenges, including B2B scenarios, such as challenges with supply chain vendors, current partners, or start-ups/entrepreneurs. How effective they are depends on how closely you follow our best practices, of course! In all seriousness, the effectiveness of any challenge hinges (1) how well you have aligned the question with the target audience; (2) how well you communicate to/with that audience, and (3) whether the exchange of value you establish is considered fair to the audience.
F: Vilka erfarenheter har företag som deltar i externa utmaningar av Planview IdeaPlace för intern innovation/idéutveckling innan de lanserar externa kampanjer?
DW: It is very common for our enterprise customers to run several internal challenges before launching an external challenge. In most cases, the program sponsor simply wants to ensure that the team has a chance to get familiar with the software and the crowdsourcing process before engaging in a more public arena. However, some clients face business objectives that require use of an external challenge (such as Unilever and UNHCR), so they dive right in without any prior internal campaign experience. I would note that most customers engage Planview IdeaPlace’s Services team when they run their first external challenge. We guide the process, share best practices, and transfer knowledge that our customers can then leverage to run future external challenges.
F: Hur tar du dig an hindret från en organisation som säger att "det ingår inte i vår policy att samla in idéer från våra kunder"?
DW: That’s a pretty substantial barrier! It takes a lot of work to change a policy like that. It reminds me of one of the as defined by my friend Rowan Gibson in his book of the same name, namely “Challenge Orthodoxies.” A few questions come to mind: Why is this the policy? When was it put in place, and by whom? What are the downsides to gathering ideas from customers? What if we had an online tool we could use to solicit ideas from customers, allow them to work together to improve those ideas, and then let them help us identify the best ideas to take action on? Maybe there is a good reason for this policy. Then again, maybe there isn’t!
