Benefits of the Mob: 4 Outstanding Innovations Found in the Crowd

Crowdsourcing is a helpful tool when it comes to innovation. Companies are discovering the benefits of using the masses to generate new and innovative ideas. Although many have succeeded, some companies, such as InnoCentive and Kaggle, have failed. Successful crowdsourcing creates new experiences and solves major problems, but it can also come with problems such as the lack of confidentiality, communication, and IP contamination. To succeed in crowdsourcing, organizations need to perform certain actions such as putting crowd suggestions into effect, letting the crowd know about their own internal suggestions, avoiding campaigns that did not produce many ideas, and showing newcomers that it cares. The article provides atypical examples of successful crowdsourcing innovation such as planting a forest from the sky, creating small wrappers without causing plastic waste, planning a city’s future, and creating a waste-free future by using Nike Grind materials. The success of crowdsourcing depends on the ability to manage a large number of participants with a multitude of ideas. The article concludes by suggesting organizations take ownership of the process and use a management platform to bring together the right crowd and manage resources.