Perspectives on Innovation

Last week, InnoCentive Solver Corinne LeBuhan presented her winning solution to the Economist Human Potential Index Challenge at the Economist Human Potential conference in New York. In honor of the event, we reached out to a few Solvers and asked them to send us a video of themselves, talking about what it means to them to be Solvers, and asking them to define “Human Potential”.  The video was shown during InnoCentive CEO Dwayne Spradlin’s presentation at the conference.   Enjoy!

Some of you may have noticed elsewhere an announcement regarding the recent publication of “The Open Innovation Marketplace” by myself, InnoCentive co-founder,  Alph Bingham, and InnoCentive CEO, Dwayne Spradlin.  We wanted to communicate directly with you about this bit of news because you are an integral part of it.  In this book, we often reference you and your contributions as we speak of a Solver population and the amazing capabilities of that network, punctuated with a few concrete examples.

But let’s back up and make clear that this book is not and was not intended to be “The InnoCentive Story.”  Not that such a book shouldn’t be written — just that, this is not it.  As Dwayne and I point out in the Afterword, “…there were a few areas …that we could not address sufficiently in the book. First was the desire to tell InnoCentive’s story from its founding to the present—and forward, to what might come next. Indeed the story is like no other, and is one that we love to tell … (and another missing piece) was the call for many more case studies telling the amazing stories of InnoCentive’s Solvers and their ingenuity and dedication in finding solutions to problems.  … there is no doubt that we are at the center of a hotbed of activity that is shattering all the prior notions of how innovation happens, how organizations should access and manage talent, and why people do what they do. We observe and facilitate unbelievably inspiring stories of the power of crowds to do everything from accelerating industrial research, to imagining new business opportunities, to accelerating cures for neglected diseases.”

But of course the experiences of InnoCentive and the impressive stories of Solvers could not be neglected altogether, and we point out in the preface that:  “As executives of InnoCentive, we have used our own business as a laboratory (italics added) for understanding open processes and for examining the way innovation is practiced by ourselves and our many customers and partners…” (more…)

Hi everyone—

Earlier this year we made some exciting incremental changes to the InnoCentive website: Most recently we added Solutions 2.0 and the Challenge Browser, which were significant feature adds/enhancements.

Looking ahead, we’re working on additional changes that will make it much easier to find information and navigate the site.

I’m writing today with an opportunity for you to get involved: I’m pleased to invite our Solver community to participate in the InnoCentive.com Preview Program. Here are the details:

Overview

The Preview Program is designed to provide a select group of Friends of InnoCentive (Seekers, Solvers, other invited guests) with early access to a pre-release version of InnoCentive.com. In the process, you will have the opportunity to preview the upcoming release and in exchange agree to provide hands-on feedback to ensure a smooth release and introduction of the new version to all users.

Details

The primary objective of the Preview Program is to validate that the software is ready to be released. The Preview program has been limited to 10 participants who represent the different users of the site. If you agree to participate, you are expected to be actively engaged in the program and to provide feedback.

There are two phases to the program.

The initial phase is focused on the new site content and information architecture, and will take place during the week of June 21^st. You will be asked to spend 60-90 minutes reviewing the new site content and providing feedback.

The second phase of the program is aimed at validating the site as a whole – content, look and feel, navigation, ease of use; this second phase will take place the week of July 6^th. You will be asked to spend 1 – 2 hours using the site and providing feedback.

You are invited to participate in one or both phases of the program.

All you need to participate is a computer, an Internet connection, a little time, and a willingness to give us your honest opinion.

The Preview Program is open only to registered Solvers.

To find out more about participating, please send an email to beta@innocentive.com as soon as possible. There are a limited number of spots available, and we’ll take them on a first-come basis, so email now!

We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks for helping!

JD

Renowned innovation expert Steve Shapiro has recently joined InnoCentive as VP of Strategic Consulting.

On July 1, 2009, I joined InnoCentive as the “VP of Strategic Consulting and Chief Innovation Evangelist.”  Although I just joined the company, for several years now, I have marveled at how the InnoCentive Solver community could tackle problems that have plagued businesses and society for years.  You are changing the world.  And I am thrilled to now be part of your team.

As I followed InnoCentive and observed the success of the Solver community, it got me thinking about how problems are solved.

From my research on innovation personality styles, I have observed that there are two broad ways of solving challenges: relational/creative and rational/analytical.

Steve Jobs, President of Apple Inc, once said, “Creativity is just having enough dots to connect . . . connect experiences and synthesize new things. The reason creative people are able to do that is that they’ve had more experiences or have thought more about their experiences than other people.”  This beautifully articulates how creative/relational problem solving works.

To date, most InnoCentive Challenges have been more technical in nature and are typically solved through a more rational/analytical approach.

When looking at these two styles, I realized that InnoCentive Solvers are perfectly positioned to use BOTH innovation styles.  To explain why I believe this, let’s explore what happens in the brain when solving Challenges. (more…)