Crowdsourcing case studies
Recently we published some thoughts on innovation and crowdsourcing. In that post we named some sound case studies on the application of crowdsourcing to innovation processes and promised to publish more case studies in the field. In a previous entry, Procter & Gamble’s crowdsourcing process was introduced. This case study shows a corporate crowdsourcing initiative supported by an innovation intermediary platform like NineSigma. These platforms, coined as “innomediaries”, focus on exploiting the knowledge of a community of experts to address technological challenges faced by firms.
Other examples, like IBM’s Innovation Jam, focus on braimstorming processes to seek for new product/service ideas. The Innovation Jam, launched for the first time in 2003 (called “Value Jam” at that time) is a huge orchestrated online brainstorming process. In the first execution experiment it just focused on IBM’s employees but in a second iteration in 2006 the process included different partners within IBM’s innovation ecosystem (e.g. customers, suppliers,…).
But crowdsourcing examples may not originate from the need for new ideas only. It can be used for process innovation as well, like GetSatisfaction is showing. This online platform provides the means for crowdsourcing the technical support process. Users are able to register in the platform, enter company names or faulty products they have bought in order to contact other customers who may be experiencing similar issues and might have answers. Many companies are already providing support through this platform, either directly on it -paying power users and through tipping processes- or embedding it within their customer support Web page section. Besides, customers can post suggestions for the existing products, so the platform turns out to be useful both for users and firms in order to stremline technical support processes and as source of innovative ideas as well.
In sum, there are different kinds of uses companies can make of crowdsourcing processes. In coming posts we will be analyzing the different crowdsourcing models to boost innovation processes within firms. Meanwhile you can have a look at this comprehensive list of open innovation & crowdsourcing examples classifed according to different criteria.
