IdeaScale - Crowdsourcing R&D
The hot idea of the moment for large companies is to outsource their research and development efforts to their customers. Who knows your product better than your most loyal fans? If they can collectively agree on the best way to improve it, it must be good, right? Dell did it with IdeaStorm (our coverage), Starbucks did it with My Starbucks Idea (our coverage), and Salesforce did it with IdeaExchange. Now a new web app called IdeaScale is offering that same basic premise as a packaged service for companies of any size.
What GetSatisfaction does for customer service, IdeaScale is aiming to do for research and development -- though perhaps on a more local, private level. IdeaScale offers a way for companies to solicit ideas and allow customers to rate, discuss, and brainstorm for the company. The app works in more or less the same way as the sites from Dell, Starbucks, and Salesforce. Users submit ideas, rate them via a Digg-style voting mechanism, and discuss them with one another.
The company can go in and mark off which ideas are being implemented or considered, and leave status updates for users curious to see how an idea is progressing from brainstorm to finished product.
IdeaScale is currently in public beta and is a free service right now. Eventually, the company plans to offer both free and paid versions utilizing the "freemium" model that they already use for their Question Pro app. IdeaScale has their own copy of the softare running at http://questionpro.ideascale.com/.
A more public implementation of the same idea is featurelist, which takes the same Digg-style community feedback concept and makes it more public -- similar to GetSatisfaction's approach to customer service.
Comments
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Yeah, but what's the benefit to the user? Maybe it's my ignorance speaking, but how does this help me as a consumer?
Posted by: SoftwareSweatshop | April 21, 2008 1:54 PM
@SoftwareSweatshop: It gives consumers a direct line to management and makes it easier for them to organize around a specific feature request. We've seen it work already at Dell (with the release of Linux-based desktops) and Starbucks (which is planning to make wifi free at shops) -- those are customer ideas that benefit the customer. It remains to be seen if they'll benefit the company, of course.
Thanks for alerting us to this web service Josh. I went straight ahead and signed up.
Brilliant for consumers and vendors wanting to propose, discuss, rate, prioritize new product/service development ideas and more
Posted by: Ian Goldsmid | April 21, 2008 2:01 PM
As similar Web site/service for open source software exists with Cofundos.org (http://Cofundos.org). Users of open source software post their feature requests and bid small amounts which pooled together might ultimately trigger their development.
Posted by: Sören | April 21, 2008 2:17 PM
@SoftwareSweatshop I would agree with Josh -- The current models of surveys also does not really provide any incentives-- Yes some companies compensate users for participating in a survey - but MOST (read 99.9%) of companies do _not_ compensate each and every one anyways.
When is the last time you got something by taking a survey?
IdeaScale offers the ability to get compensated by making sure your suggestions are at least heard by senior management _without_ getting diluted - although it still does not mean that it'll get implemented -- but in theory you get a fair shot of getting heard.
Posted by: Vivek Bhaskaran | April 21, 2008 2:40 PM
Fevote started doing Digg-style voting for ideas a long time ago. They call them "suggestion boards".
http://www.fevote.com
Also, why doesn't Yahoo's Suggestion Board get any love?
http://suggestions.yahoo.com
Posted by: CHris | April 21, 2008 4:20 PM
I have seen FeVote before and didn't like it for some reason. I think it may have to do with the colors of the site. Also, there was http://www.CollabAndRate.com which seems to have fallen off the face pf the earth (which is a shame since that is a Clever domain name ;) )
While I think these services are great, I think they would be more useful if they tired into a broader customer service app/suite.
Posted by: Jason | April 21, 2008 10:29 PM
P.S. I LOVE their logo- nicely done.
Posted by: Jason | April 21, 2008 10:32 PM
RWW doesn't seem to accept trackbacks, so here's my view on this all:
http://broadstuff.com/archives/871-Crowdsourcing-RD-a-hit-or-myth-affair.html
Posted by: alan p | April 22, 2008 3:32 AM
While any way to influence a company's management can be helpful, I wonder if this will work best where there is a passionate customer base that's already engaged and wants a voice. Otherwise, finding and/or nurturing that customer base is the hard part. Getting suggestions is the easy part, IMO.
Posted by: Deborah block-Schwenk | April 22, 2008 11:27 AM
Hi All: Thought you might be interested in a Crowdsourcing event at Stanford on May 20th, 2008 sponsored by VLAB. Jeff Howe from Wired who coined the term crowdsourcing will be moderating a panel with VCs and crowdsourcing companies like Cambrian House.
http://www.vlab.org/article.html?aid=184
Posted by: HW from VLAB | May 7, 2008 3:23 PM