Tag Archives: innovation tools

Crowdsourcing is a “sourcing” not just a “crowd”

Posted on November 5, 2016 by Eugene Ivanov

As I admitted on one occasion, I hate being a terminology cop. Yet my professional life, both as a bench scientist and innovation manager, provides plenty of examples of a mess that ensues when people start discussing things without first … Continue reading →

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We’re long past the stage of asking whether crowdsourcing can do this or that

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Eugene Ivanov

Recently, I came across an article describing how Chinese smartphone manufacturer ZTE is engaging its customers in crowdsourcing the design of a new device. I admit that it was the article’s title, not content, that caught my attention: “Can crowdsourcing … Continue reading →

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I know you, I know you not. (How we find experts.)

Posted on October 16, 2016 by Eugene Ivanov

In one of my previous posts I wrote that when facing a problem the majority of organizations have a natural inclination to begin the problem-solving process with engaging experts. Such an approach makes sense when an organization dealt with a … Continue reading →

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The first rule of crowdsourcing: know what you want, understand what you need

Posted on October 6, 2016 by Eugene Ivanov

I like to argue (for example, here) that the most important factor that defines the ultimate success or failure of any crowdsourcing campaign is the ability to properly identify and articulate the problem–technological, business or social–that the crowd will be … Continue reading →

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Know your neighbor (The virtues of crowdsourcing)

Posted on September 15, 2016 by Eugene Ivanov

Before I turn to the virtues of crowdsourcing, let me tell you a story that happened 7-8 years ago. I worked with a client, a statistician in the consumer product field. (To tell this story freely, I changed the industry … Continue reading →

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Is crowdsourcing pitting “experts” against “amateurs”?

Posted on September 5, 2016 by Eugene Ivanov

In my previous post, I argued that one of the reasons crowdsourcing hasn’t yet become a mainstream innovation tool is the uncertainty over what crowdsourcing can (or can’t) do, meaning that many organizations struggle with identifying problems that can be successfully solved by … Continue reading →

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Can crowdsourcing fix your marriage problems?

Posted on August 28, 2016 by Eugene Ivanov

  I think that one of the reasons crowdsourcing hasn’t yet become a mainstream innovation tool is the uncertainty over what crowdsourcing can (or can’t) do. I’m often asked the same question: can crowdsourcing solve this problem; what about that … Continue reading →

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Crowdsourcing: two approaches, two different outcomes

Posted on July 24, 2016 by Eugene Ivanov

In my July 16 post, I set out to prove that crowdsourcing is a very cost-effective tool allowing solving problems at much less cost compared to other innovation tools, and, therefore, the low popularity of crowdsourcing, of which I wrote … Continue reading →

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Now, what about money?

Posted on July 16, 2016 by Eugene Ivanov

In my previous post, I wondered why as efficient innovation tool as it is, crowdsourcing is still seldom used by organizations. I offered two answers to this question. First, formulating a question to crowdsource requires careful deconstruction of the underlying … Continue reading →

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Cloudy Vision, Cloudy Execution

Posted on April 14, 2016 by Eugene Ivanov

  As every high-quality report on innovation, Accenture’s 2015 U.S. Innovation Survey is a mixed bag of news. On the one hand, responses provided by “500 managers and executives with roles in innovation at large U.S. companies” paint a bright … Continue reading →

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