Readiness tips for crowdsourcing the first-time, and every time after

I spent much of the day yesterday with Carrie Maynard at PWC working out the game plan to launch and manage a community which PWC is creating to uncover how Canada can best lead in a digital economy. It’s an initiative that combines some of the things Chaordix is most passionate about - change making, technology and tapping a crowd.

As we countdown to launch, it was a chance to bravely run through some crowdsourcing worst case scenarios that are worth it….

1. Nobody comes - like the party where you have set out appetizers for 50 and 3 guests show. This is a risk when there’s no thinking on crowd recruitment and promotion. So it’s avoidable, but if it does happen the loss is really in face and time. And that’s always the risk of innovating.

2. Nobody comes and everybody notices - this is a twist on #1 where paparazzi on the front lawn merrily shoot photos of you hucking appetizers in the trash which they publish alongside scathing reviews. This one hurts a little - especially with condolences rolling in for weeks. Best response here - read the criticism, re-plan and announce improved round #2 right away.

3. Lots of people come, some have an axe to grind - The first time (expect this more than once) that a casual stranger in the community slags the host or panel will be… uh uncomfortable. Our advice there, trust that the crowd is up for open mic night. The host and panelists should comment back with their perspective. Don’t worry about getting everyone agreeing - that’s dull really - and members joined to see differing ideas and debate.

4. People crash the party for the free food - if members are eligible for participation rewards when they contribute - submit, vote or comment - even when entry is a blind draw there’s a chance that lurkers who aren’t really doing the heavy lifting will steal the loot. Just like at the airport when the most impatient guys worms his way into getting the best last seat on the plane. Online life mirrors offline. It’s not the Holodeck but trust that hackers worldwide are unlikely to organize a commando effort for a free iphone. What’s more technology lets you track gaming and collusion - you can solve and manage the anomalies. And you can always special prize an overlooked contributor.

5. There’s a power failure - this is part of what Chaordix is paid to worry about. As much as technology is based on logic and math, there’s still an element or pure chance in making it work non-stop. I say this even knowing that we perform at least quarterly audits of our system stability, security and impenetrability of our code to risk. Beyond great redundancy plans, the main thing to remember if this does occur is to not be Tiger Woods. Act fast and honestly admit something’s up, say you’re sorry, solve it quick and invite everyone warmly back after the hiccup is fixed. If you have any sense of humour at that point, look at the spike in traffic you’ll see as the critics all lend you new member leads as they heckle your site.

6. It’s a bit of a dud convention - lots of people show, but you don’t feel like they are smart or saying much interesting. Good that we rip off the Band-Aid here and tell you this is HIGHLY likely to happen. The thing about inviting in unfiltered members of the public is they will bring along widely varied ideas. Some you won’t want to spend time on. Some will have you thinking for days. The whole value of crowdsourcing versus just a suggestion box is the crowd helps to filter the quality from the quantity. And prepare for a few surprises in where that quality will come from. We’ve all had a friend’s visiting cousin turn out to be the most interesting and entertaining guy at our party.

PWC’s Canada’s Digital Compass project is sure to raise the profile of Canada’s opportunity to lead on a global stage in technology. It demonstrates that PWC is willing to take risks to bring its clients innovative thinking that will help them best compete. It will hopefully get some Canadians connected and talking that would otherwise not have met. It is also sure to demand a little courage. We salute PWC and all of our clients who take risks to catalyze new possibilities.

Stefan Lindegaard is a speaker, network facilitator and strategic advisor who focuses on the topics of open innovation, intrapreneurship and how to identify and develop the people who drive innovation. He wrote a great post on his blog about recognition for innovation. Here’s what he had to say:

Recognizing and Rewarding Innovation

You need to consider your reward programs carefully before you launch idea campaigns or other innovation initiatives. You need to consider what kind of behaviour and which kind of results that should be rewarded and you need to consider how to reward this.

I believe most companies really long for an organization full of self-motivated employees that see innovation as a natural part of the business and their work. For this to happen, I believe recognition is a much better tool than financial rewards.

Such recognition should be made as public as possible and it should involve a high-ranking executive if relevant and possible. Recognition can also be accompanied by small gifts such as a dinner for two (it pays to remember the spouse of a hard working employee). Enough to matter but not so much that it over-shadows the recognition given.

Like this, the employees get a pat on the shoulder and they can better explain to colleagues, family and friends what they do and that their work is valued by the company. Such recognition should of course also enhance the prospects of a promotion. For the company, this is a great chance to promote innovation within the company. Nevertheless, I am amazed how often companies do not execute on such opportunities.

Why is recognition so important? I remember a conversation I had with Google employees a few years back. I asked them what actually drives people at Google and they replied: First of all, there are very few places where you get the chance to really make a difference and see your work being used by millions of people. The other thing is that Google has some of the brightest employees in the world. It feels great to impress such colleagues. That drives us.

If employees at what is considered one of the most innovative companies in the world are driven by impressing each other, I think this goes in other innovative organizations as well. And with such a driver, recognition can help create innovative behaviours and results.

On rewarding and recognizing innovation, there are a couple of things that we should be aware of:

Participation versus contribution. Getting people engaged in innovation initiatives – especially idea generation campaigns - can be a challenge in some companies. Then you might have to focus on recognizing and rewarding just for participation. But in the long run, recognition and rewards should be given to those who really contribute towards the desired outcomes.

Internal versus external recognition. As companies go outside the corporate boundaries to innovate, they have to deal with issues on how to reward and recognize external contributors. This is something that will get a lot of attention in the coming years.

If we look beyond private people contributing to initiatives such as Dell IdeaStorm and MyStarbucksIdea, then we have professional contributors in the form of employees at partner-companies and individuals who contribute either directly or through intermediaries such as InnoCentive.

Recognition definitely still plays a role here, but the challenge is that external contributors do not stand to gain much from corporate recognition. It becomes more of a question on how to make the contributors look good in the larger eco-system. This is difficult and thus financial rewards might be more relevant here.

Big rewards versus small rewards. Innovation is team-work and if companies begin to offer big financial rewards on an individual basis they could set people up against each other. Be careful about turning colleagues into rivals.

As I said first, I believe recognition is a better tool than financial rewards. It would be great to hear your take on how to recognize and reward innovation.

The community manager in me hates it when people talk about launching a crowdsourcing community as though it is something that’s disposable. I much prefer when people are worried about keeping their community engaged and rewarded. It shows that you are willing to invest in the people that are investing their time in your product or brand. To achieve a a community where people stay and contribute, here are methods I’ve proven to be effective:

5. Trickle the rewards. Members need to be getting something out of the community on a regular basis. If your crowdsourcing community is focused on one big goal (Check out our Netflix scorecard as a good example), think about how you can divvy up the reward so that people don’t get discouraged or lose interest long before the goal is met. .

4. Give incentives for diverse contributions. Different kinds of members need to feel like their contributions are just as important as the next person’s. Consider rewarding active members, friendly members, members who refer others to the community, members who consistently leave insightful comments. It’s also worth rewarding straight up “quantity” i.e. most contributions and “quality” i.e. highest voted contribution.

3. Say little. Make it meaningful. Make your site’s purpose evident and your calls to action clear.  Simply display what’s new to returning visitors and they’ll be more likely to put in more time. Leave room for contributors to have their say, versus having to spend time reading about yours.

2. A little hand-holding goes a long way. Show people what they can be doing. A really  intuitive site is a big part of this, but make it ultra easy with a get-started wizard that coaches new members or a personal reach out from the community manager. Make it your mission to have new members stay versus recruiting another new member… your membership will grow faster!

1. Now tell us about you. Make it your business to highlight everyone in the community – even the “lurkers.” Encouraging sharing of interesting personal or professional facts on profile pages, introducing members with similar interests and suggesting ways for members to contribute are all easy ways to make members feel valued and promote belonging.

Photo by Rasmin

Crowdsourcing Definition #2: What is Group Think (and how to avoid it)?

Here’s a question just in to us that we hear all the time “How do you deal with the loud talker problem? You know, the people that just like to talk and talk in an online community and can skew the impression of a need. It’s the same problem that you get when you do a focus group.”

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