5 Myths of Open Innovation
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Tammi Spring, Director, Glider
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5 Myths of Open Innovation
- 1. 5 Myths of Open Innovation Tammi M. Spring CSW Arctic | Europe 2018
- 2. One Concept, Many Names: ● Open Innovation ● Crowdsourcing ● Collaborative Innovation ● Hackathons ● Ideation ● Prize Competitions 5 Myths of Open Innovation | T.M. Spring
- 3. Most common quips: If we build it, they will come… Details? Figure those out later. Fast! Just a few months to finish. This is going to be so easy! Cheap, cheap, cheap! 5 Myths of Open Innovation | T.M. Spring
- 4. Myth: Easy | Reality: Skills & Resources Required “It’s a knife fight every day.” The challenges: Culture change, disruption, growing pains Personality profile for open innovation staff: ● Chameleon ● Social ● Risk-taker ● Tenacious Lead by example: Ongoing training for everyone from legal to finance, marketing, tech and in between. 5 Myths of Open Innovation | T.M. Spring
- 5. Myth: Details Can Wait | Reality: Details Determine Success Having ill-defined rules, structure, or process is a recipe for chaos and failure. Structure creates stable and safe environments. Provide clarity around: ● The problem or task ● Process ● How to succeed ● Rules* ● Intellectual property and other rights ● Rewards Love the problem, not the solution. *Rules are not requirements 5 Myths of Open Innovation | T.M. Spring
- 6. Myth: Fast Track | Reality: Time is Relative Perspective is relative to past performance and ability. Set realistic expectations. Start with clearly defining the problem, the project, the need, the goal. Allow for variables. ● Time: 5 year R&D timeline can be reduced to 2 or 3 years. ● Acceleration: 10, 50, or 1,000 people work on a project simultaneously. ● Infrastructure: 6 mo. to 1 yr. of program planning and infrastructure building. 5 Myths of Open Innovation | T.M. Spring
- 7. Layers of Open Innovation Communities Collaborate with others: 1. Outside your organization/project 2. In your industry 3. In a similar or related industry 4. The public (in country) 5. The world (no limits!) Your Project 1 5 3 4 2 5 Myths of Open Innovation | T.M. Spring
- 8. Myth: Build & Instant Traction | Reality: Community Development Required The 10% Rule Marketing to and Curating a Diverse Community is: ● The most important thing you can do ● One of the most difficult things you will do ● And will ultimately determine your greatest success. Crowd Sites & Platforms vs. Build Your Own Engage People with Radical Hospitality: ● Personal invitations and authenticity ● Low barriers to entry 5 Myths of Open Innovation | T.M. Spring
- 9. Myth: Cheap | Reality: It’s an Investment Contributors give you time, intellectual capital, solutions Trust is your greatest currency. Do your research and know what potential contributors value. Rewards are required. Money: Be fair and generous (Investment for you, risk for collaborator) Incentives: Real-time feedback, networking, promotion, introductions. Post-project follow-up: Share your results, listen and learn about theirs. 5 Myths of Open Innovation | T.M. Spring
- 10. 5 Realities of Open Innovation “Without trust we don’t truly collaborate; we merely coordinate or, at best, cooperate. It is trust that transforms a group of people into a team.” – Stephen R. Covey 1. Skilled staff and financial resources are required. 2. Details determine success. 3. Accelerated timelines and results are achievable. 4. Radical hospitality with community reaps rewards. 5. Trust is your most valuable currency. 5 Myths of Open Innovation | T.M. Spring
Editor's Notes
- One concept, many names: The terminology evolves with technology advancements, but it is the same work people have been doing for thousands of years -- working together to solve problems, invent tools, and improve society. I started in the late 90’s with digital engagement, which evolved into community-based online crowdsourcing, and quickly to science and technology-based innovation methodologies. Here to talk about: Myths, lies and trust. Along the way, we’ve learned and fine-tuned best practices that are the core tenets of successful crowd-based strategies. But what we often hear are these…
- These… what I call “myths” of open innovation and crowdsourcing initiatives. They’re what we hear most often about why and how to tap into a decentralized, crowd economy. Cheap, save us so much money, practically free. And FAST. Launch to results in a blink. In lieu of details, we get “Vague, non-committal hand waving.” So EASY, just get a couple staffers to do it on the side. And the last - a riff from “field of dreams” a movie about a baseball field built in Iowa where ghosts of old players appeared… If you build it they will come. That means that without any or minimal effort, simply creating the thing will magically draw people out of nowhere to provide miraculous interactions. Who among you has heard any of these? Who among you has said them? I have been guilty of saying these exact words; especially in the early days when I needed to CONVINCE people to give us the runway to do these projects, to build momentum and consensus. We knew it then as we know now -- they’re little white lies. Lies of compassion and partly denial -- designed to get us through the pains of culture change and uncertainty. Ultimately to the rewarding results that come from collaboration and drive innovation. Let’s break these down and give you a reality check, along with the gold standard of methods to set the stage for your success.
- We’ve created this monster. You make it look easy, and fun! It is, right. We looove the people! And their brilliance! And this work is also riddled with challenges: culture change, disruption, growing pains. Some of our organizations say they want these new tools and methodologies. I say I want to skydive. But they don’t really want new, they want comfortable with a splash of pizazz. “We’ll keep our feet on the ground, thankyouverymuch.” Until you demonstrate success and show them what you get when you leap. Countless # of times I have consoled colleagues in tears, one at the closing celebration of his crowdsourcing project. They were often thrown in with no preparation, little support, and they survived and thrived because they fit the personality profile. Your OI people lead in the dark, they have no fear, are secure with skills in working with legal, contracts, intellectual property, marketing, online technology, communities. They have difficult conversations, disrupting the status quo internally and externally. They are okay with failing; it’s not personal. Pick up the pieces and try something else. These staff make everything look easy and smooth on the outside and to organization leaders, they encourage and support matrix-operations with legal, technology, policy, budget, and procurement. But behind the scenes, it is “a knife fight every day.” This duality is a conundrum. When you are given limits -- no we won’t work with x people, or y company. Stay in country. No students. Flip that story -- this is often exactly who you should be working with, and it is your job to make it happen. How do you win over internal stakeholders? Lead by example within your company. Be inclusive, encourage voices and contributions from unusual sources, have open meetings. It will help others learn and understand your process in real time. There’s a tinge of irony in a crowd/open -based company’s leadership that is siloed and top-down management. Managing open innovation is not easy, but it is awesome. That euphoric high you get from a successful collaboration and the energy of a group’s achievement is unparalleled in the business world.
- Rules and structure create safe and stable environments Your community must know your expectations, their obligations, everyone’s rights, and clearly defined rewards. No surprises. Especially not after the project has launched. While hammering out details, post this on your walls: Love the problem, not the solution. If you or your colleagues have something in mind that will be “the answer” then you’re missing the point (and starting to love a solution). When you focus on the problem to be solved and are passionate about highlighting this as a goal for people to reach, it gives the community a rallying point from which they create unique visions for solutions. Be open to what comes. Resist the temptation to control or censor the crowd. This will play significantly in your community development. In every well-planned and executed open innovation program, people have surprised and delighted organizers with their contributions.
- In OI, you will do multiple things simultaneously, in a situation where every decision affects all other decisions, yet nothing can go forward until the full equation is outlined in excruciating detail. It is a live puzzle where the final picture is unknown. Perspective: What does your timing look like without crowdsourcing? Could you even do the project by traditional methods? Start with asking the right question. If you ask the wrong question, everything falls from there into an file of unusable results. Spend 6 months to a year identifying and fine-tuning that problem statement, question, or clearly defined goal and ask. In nearly every science and tech OI project, managers later say they wish they’d spent more time on problem definition and pre-launch research and planning. In a real timeline, your company has a 5 year R&D project with a $3 million-dollar budget. With OI, you can condense that timeline down to 2 years and see a cost savings of a quarter to one half of your traditional budget. The bonus, you get a handful, dozens, or even hundreds of collaborators who are now part of your team. You have a faster way forward. Even if it didn’t achieve results, you will know to cut losses.
- Communities are key. This is where you will spend years of time, effort, and resources. It is one of your most significant investments. So… how “open” do you want to be? The green is your project -- we must get out of that bubble to begin. Collaborate with others: Outside your organization/project In your industry In a similar or related industry The public (in country) The world (no limits!) Best results come from the 3rd layer and beyond. It is where people are knowledgeable, but not so close to the problem that there is a prescribed way of doing things. And excellent teams can be built with a combination of people from multiple layers.
- If you build it, they will come / marketing and #1 job of building community Community is key. Diversity of crowd will exponentially raise odds of viable and actionable solutions. The 10% rule of engagement and action. 1mm or 100k, 10k, 1k, 100, 10. Marketing and curating community (see list) Ways to do this: Build your own platform / use another to try first, learn with training wheels, whitelabel. HeroX, freelancer, mechanical turk, and/or hire a experienced consultancy. Building your own platform pros/cons. Radical hospitality Have a mission and communicate that clearly. Appeal to the head and the heart of contributors. Personal invitations: Be human. Be the personification of the brand/community. Be available. Have low barriers to entry: Make it easy for contributors to say yes and participate.
- Enter your financial framework with this base knowledge: Trust is your greatest currency. A community needs to trust that you are collaborative, have set up fair rules, and will value their contributions. They’re looking to make real connections and have an impact, not to put their work into a vague abyss or to be left alone. This trust goes back to how you set up the rules of engagement, intellectual property rights, how you curate the community, the timeline and the ask of people who will work with you. There is also financial trust: Don’t toy with people. Example of multiple-step process with no reward until the final -- all risk on part of external contributors. At minimum, it’s cheap and inconsiderate of the hosting organization. It is not welcoming and not truly understanding of the levels of effort or value of the crowd. Offer rewards at every gate, thank people for participating. Rewards are required. Respect and reward your users, in a way that makes them feel valued and appreciated. 3 pts The bottom line: Your out of pockets costs will include any cash incentives and the costs of implementing the non-cash incentives, a crowdsourcing platform; marketing, advertising, and recruiting budget; and at least four to six staff or contractors to: lead the program, handle legal issues, manage contracts, manage the external community, subject-matter experts for the project, judging and analysis, and any administrative and organizational needs. Strongly suggest that you don’t do a light-touch project to “try” open innovation. Jump in with something that is meaningful and important. It will cost you about the same and you’ll be happier and have a better chance of moving forward by working on something that matters. When the community trusts you, when you are trustworthy, people will feel safe, encouraged, and supported in a high-risk, innovative environment. With this, you will see amazing results.
- What we do and the way we work is fun. It is both terrifying and awesome, these feelings I experience with favorite things in life - love, adventure, and business -- the situations where we take on great risk and can experience the most incredible rewards. “Without trust we don’t truly collaborate; we merely coordinate or, at best, cooperate. It is trust that transforms a group of people into a team.” – Stephen R. Covey I encourage you to break the myths of our industry, to lead with respect and trust, and to take on the most excellent realities of open innovation that will challenge and reward you, and in our own little way - change the world.