Tag Archives: Open Innovation Tools

What Can Crowds Do?

Posted on December 7, 2019 by Eugene Ivanov

Since the 2004 publication of James Surowiecki’s highly influential book, The Wisdom of Crowds, the idea that large groups of people are smarter than a few individuals, no matter how brilliant, has been gradually gaining prominence in academic circles, business … Continue reading →

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Being an expert: traveling the same road again and again

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Eugene Ivanov

There are several reasons for the slow adoption of crowdsourcing as a practical problem-solving tool. One of them is the lack of trust in the intellectual power of the crowd, its ability to tackle complex problems. Almost everyone would agree … Continue reading →

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Crowdsourcing: two approaches, two objectives

Posted on November 13, 2019 by Eugene Ivanov

In my previous post, I reminded the original definition of crowdsourcing by Jeff Howe: “the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people … Continue reading →

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What is crowdsourcing?

Posted on November 1, 2019 by Eugene Ivanov

In recent years, crowdsourcing has become a popular topic in business publications and social media. Yet, its acceptance as a practical problem-solving tool has been slow. Why? Because there is a widespread, often completely paralyzing, uncertainty over what crowdsourcing is … Continue reading →

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Is your shovel good enough to hit the nail?

Posted on October 21, 2019 by Eugene Ivanov

Imagine you’re outside and need to hit the nail into the wall to hang a picture. You select the nail of the correct size and then look around for an appropriate hitting tool. You pick up a new, shiny shovel … Continue reading →

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We’ll get back to you. Or not.

Posted on January 17, 2019 by Eugene Ivanov

During my time at InnoCentive, there was a job I and my colleagues hated the most: collecting clients’ feedback to contributions by the members of the InnoCentive crowd. The clients would post a problem to the InnoCentive website, and a … Continue reading →

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Crowdsourcing “in reverse”: asking crowds to ask questions

Posted on February 27, 2018 by Eugene Ivanov

It’s important to understand that crowdsourcing is first and foremost a question, a question that you ask a large and, ideally, diversified crowd of people. And for as long as it’s well-thought-out, properly defined, and clearly articulated, it doesn’t really matter … Continue reading →

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Crowdsourcing 2.0

Posted on February 15, 2018 by Eugene Ivanov

I like to argue, only half-jokingly, that crowdsourcing is very simple. It consists of only two components: a question and a crowd—a question that you present to a crowd and a crowd that you assemble to answer this question. And … Continue reading →

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One more time about “innovation terminology”

Posted on February 6, 2018 by Eugene Ivanov

In a recent HBR article, Scott Kirsner suggests ditching the term “corporate entrepreneur.” Kirsner names a number of reasons why corporate innovation, especially in large firms, is different from true entrepreneurship. One is bureaucratic shackles that restrict the development of … Continue reading →

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Don’t “fiddle” with the crowd — ask it better questions instead

Posted on November 16, 2017 by Eugene Ivanov

(This post originally appeared on InnovationManagement.se) As the examples of successful use of crowdsourcing to address complex technical, business and social issues grow in numbers, so do the instances of failed crowdsourcing campaigns. To make crowdsourcing a widely recognized idea-generating … Continue reading →

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