Is Crowdsourcing Disruptive?

There was an excellent post by Hutch Carpenter on the blogging innovation website.  In the article, he asked the question – “Is Crowdsourcing Disrupting the Design Industry?”  He makes an excellent case for the value (and pitfalls) of crowdsourcing design work.  As readers of this site know, I have used design crowdsourcing on several occasions.

In response to the article, I wrote…

I use crowdsourcing for some of my designs. And I have to admit, I do sometimes feel a little bad. It’s clear some people put a fair amount of thought into their designs. Sadly, there is typically only one winner.

Having said that, as a consultant, no one feels bad for me when I spend days or weeks developing a proposal that does not get awarded to me. We recognize that it is the cost of doing business.

Let’s face it…for some design work, it might be just as fast to develop a rough concept as it would be to develop a compelling proposal. Crowdsourcing can reduce the time and effort involved in selling design services.

And crowdsourcing, when done correctly, can give you (the “Seeker”) benefits that you would not get through conventional means.

Right now I am running a crowdsourcing competition for a design for my Personality Poker cards. The competition has been running for 2 days, and I received some amazing designs. Because I did a blind competition, everyone has to develop their own idea, rather than simply build on the idea of someone else. This is enhancing the level of creativity significantly.

The winner will get follow on work from me in fleshing out the concept and in future design work. [NOTE: The competition is over and I received 32 designs of which a half dozen of them were fantastic]

I used to use eLance (an eRFP site) for design work. But the results were not always great. Plus each designer has to submit a proposal and decide upon a fee. With 99designs, the designer knows the “prize” and can decide if they want to invest any effort at all.

It’s not spec work that is changing the rules. It is access to the masses. Personally, I would prefer to pay for a solution than a proposal.

I do think, if done well, design crowdsourcing can be beneficial to all involved.

Crowdsourcing has the potential to give designers a reach they have not previously had.  Although their cost per design might go up, their cost of acquisition might actually go down. Proposals are a cost of doing business – and you don’t win every proposal.  Spending time/money on finding customers who want the proposal in the first-place is another cost – and you don’t acquire every customer you target.  Mailing marketing materials to potential customers is another real cost.  The list goes on.   The real cost/time associated with marketing/selling design services is not insignificant.

Crowdsourcing allows you to convert your marketing/selling time into design time.  Your only cost is your time to develop the submitted designs.  This feels like a much better use of design resources.

LG Electronics Open Innovation Competition

Last year, LG Electronics ran an open innovation competition in search of the next generation cell phone.

If you did not enter last year, you have another chance to win $20,000.

According to their press release…

LG Mobile Phones, the fastest growing mobile phone brand in North America,  is partnering with crowdSPRING, an online marketplace for creative services, and Autodesk, a leader in 2D and 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software, to hold an innovative competition to define the future of mobile communication.  Starting on March 15^th, LG Mobile Phones will give consumers the chance to design their vision of the next revolutionary LG mobile phone and compete for more than $80,000 in prizes.

The competition will award over 40 winners.  The first place winner will be awarded $20,000, one Wacom Intuos4 medium tablet, and Autodesk industrial design software.  The second place winner will be awarded $10,000 and Autodesk SketchBook Pro software, and the third place winner will be awarded $5,000 and Autodesk SketchBook Pro software.  To reward as many people as possible in the name of creativity, LG will also be giving out a whopping 37 honorable mentions at $1,000 each.

You can  read all of the rules, and enter the competition, on the crowdSPRING website.

Last year, LG Electronics shared some of their insights with me.  There were 835 submissions from 324 individuals.  Of the ideas submitted, 25% were deemed “good.”  I’ll be curious to see how they do this year.

I also hope to find out if anything was done with the winning solution(s) from last year’s competition.  Although these competitions generate some nice PR, at the end of the day, the real value is derived through the implementation of innovation.

Good luck!

Open Innovation Design

Nearly 2 years ago, I used open innovation to develop the logo used on this site.

I am now using open innovation again to help redesign my Personality Poker cards.

As you know, later this year, the Personality Poker book will be published by Penguin’s Portfolio imprint.  The publisher designed the book cover (we aren’t prepared to share that with the world quite yet).  Then, based on that design, the backs of the Personality Poker cards were redesigned to match (image left).

Yesterday, I launched a design project on 99designs.com, the leader in design-based open innovation.  Last time I ran a competition, I had some interesting learnings.

One of the challenges had to do with people building on the ideas of others.  In some respects, this was great.  As a good design was developed, others could help refine and improve.  However, as my article points out, there was a downside: how to choose a winner.

But the other downside associated with a collaborative challenge is “group think.”  As soon as the first idea is thrown out, it tends to influence the thinking of the other contributors, narrowing the set of ideas generated and reducing divergent thinking.  I discuss this concept in my article on the “hand dryer vs paper towel debate.”

Therefore, for the poker card redesign, I decided to go with private submissions.  That is, no one can see what others are submitting.  I will write more about my experience with this next week.

If you are interested in reading the design brief without having to logon to 99designs, you can read it here (pdf).

Or, if you want to submit your own designs for my challenge, go to the 99designs website.

Podcast on The Brain Advantage

Brad Kolar is one of the brightest guys I know.  He and I worked together in Accenture back in the mid-90′s.  He has been a contributor to all of my books.  And now he is the co-author of a fascinating book called “The Brain Advantage. ” I had the privilege of receiving a review copy and loved it so much, I provided an endorsement.

“For years, experts have been teaching leaders so-called soft skills. To date, there has only been anecdotal evidence to support their theories. Finally, The Brain Advantage turns these theories into hard science. Anyone with half a brain would buy copies for their entire organization.”

Recently I interviewed Brad for a podcast.  What you will hear are 40 minutes of fascinating dialogue about the brain, leadership, and innovation.  By better understanding the brain, you can help unleash the full creative potential of your organization.

Stream the interview…

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Or download the mp3

Is it Dali Time…Or Hammer Time?

Yesterday I met with Jeff Boudro, the “Director of Really Cool Stuff at Staples.”  And from spending time with him, I can attest to this being the truth!

Case in point is the picture left…

Jeff bought a clock that has 9 dials, each one representing a different timezone.  For example, the top row of clocks from left to right are Los Angeles, New York, and Buenos Aires.

There are two problems with this clock.

1. The clock runs on 9 batteries.  This means that they are constantly being changed.
2. Jeff left the clock on a heater once and melted the bottom middle clock.  If you click on the picture, you will be able to see a larger version.

Instead of throwing it out, Jeff got creative.

He relabeled the melted clock “Dali” to honor the artist’s famous paintings.  If you are not familiar with Dali’s melted clock, you can see an example here.

Then he (and his team) got thinking.  What other times could there be?

Bottom right is “Yabba Dabba Do” time, to honor the late, great Fred Flintstone.  That clock is permanently on 5PM.  No more batteries for that one.

Bottom left is now “Hammer Time.” I’m not sure why the time appears to be random.  Maybe the battery died because “u can’t touch this” clock.

The middle row’s clocks are labeled “Yesterday,” “Today” and “Tomorrow.” They all tell the same time.  Nice.  I’m curious what time the “tomorrow” clock will tell on December 21, 2012, the last day of the Mayan calendar.  Supposedly there is no tomorrow after that day.

Here’s where we need your help…

What would be some cool labels for the top three clocks? If you have any suggestions, please submit them as comments.

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