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Archive for the ‘Crowd Sourcing’ Category

Co-creating Ideas

This triangular relationship is just as important when it comes to co-creating ideas as part of a well thought through innovation process. This helps to avoid Arthur C. Clarke’s two dangers when trying to see into the future – the “Failure of Nerve and Failure of Imagination”.

“The Failure of Imagination occurs by failing to discover vital facts or not even admitting to the possibility of their existence and the Failure of Nerve happens when with all the relevant facts at our disposal we fail to see their inescapable conclusion because they were not marshaled correctly.” So when it comes to using co-creation for innovation purposes there are some important principles that need to be followed. Here are just three of them.

“Bottom up is not enough. Bottom-up processes are great but in order to be effective they need to be complemented by solid strategic direction and expertise. Successful innovations emerge at the intersection of three, sometimes very different, agendas: the consumer and his needs, the brand and its strategy (vision, strategy, commercial viability), the expert and his vision (market knowledge and expertise, market trends).

Allow group thinking as well as individual thinking. Group thinking is generative and provides elements of validation, but it is also skewed towards social conformity. On the other hand, individual thinking provides a more independent idea generation process but it’s not generative. The best ideas often come from building on each other’s contribution rather than coming up with the final solution in one go. A balanced innovation process needs to ensure both the dynamics are well represented.

Open up. Allow ideas to come from anywhere and allow consumers to take you to places you wouldn’t expect to be taken to. Opening up helps keep the Failure of Imagination at bay by enabling contributions by non-experts or non-professional users. This has been made much easier by consumers’ increasing desire to be listened to and involved more directly in what a brand does and says.”

From “Designing Relevance: How Open and Agile Research Methodologies can Help Complex Organizations Respond to Change and Stay Relevant” A Nokia & Face Innovation Case Study

More on Nokia & Face Project Relevance here http://www.facegroup.com/casestudies/nokia-designing-relevance

The team over at mycustomer.com recently asked Saul to give them a  lowdown on co-creation and how it works in practice. He duly obliged and  his efforts can be seen on the My Customer website here. His article covers the basics of co-creation, explores its value, as well as understanding how and why it works. Below are a few extracts:

Co-creation is about collaboration. It’s about working together to solve problems, uniting a range of perspectives and approaches to an issue. Very often this collaboration involves consumers working directly with professionals from inside and outside a client organisation, to define and create a range of outputs, from strategy to communications, from products to experiences.

Co-creation can help break the yo-yo effect of research and development, where clients go back and forward between creative agencies, research agencies and their audience. By working with your consumers, rather than directing stuff at them in the hope that it will stick, clients get a real sense of what works and what doesn’t as the ideation takes place. Ideas emerge, develop, are refined and validated in collaboration with your audience, in real time. No need to wait around for endless tests.

Why co-create?
Much of the growth of interest in co-creation as an approach and philosophy comes against a backdrop of dramatic changes in the communications landscape in recent years. The evolution of the internet has had an enormous impact on the way that businesses interact with their audiences, and vice versa. It is near-impossible to underestimate the extent to which social media has empowered consumers to voice their opinions, create and distribute their own content, and, as active stakeholders in the brands they consume, to set a new agenda for producer-consumer relationships, and in many ways the advent of co-creation is a corollary of these developments.

How?
There are, of course, different approaches to co-creation. The heart of the co-creation process we have adopted is typically a face-to-face workshop, but the ideal model involves a multi-staged approach to insight generation/opportunity shaping, ideation, validation and refinement. We often talk about reversing the research funnel, starting by consulting the crowd, moving on to work with defined online communities, then collaborating with an intimate group of co-creators.


Crowdsouring is a buzzword that has been knocking around for a while now. There is a lot of thought, theory and ongoing conversation about it, and we’re starting to see brands begin to use it in various different formats.

But how does it work in the research & innovation world?

‘Journey To The Centre Of The Crowd… And Back Again’ explores crowdsourcing from it’s definition and gives hints, tips and strategy advice on how you can implement crowsourcing for innovation.

Screen shot 2010-03-11 at 09.54.14

Listen to the crowd, but do not lose control!

Let’s be clear I don’t believe the crowd (without being very selective 
about your crowd) alone can give you fully formed insights, npd ideas 
and creative executions. I do believe however that the crowd and the 
web should play an instrumental role in research, planning and 
innovation. So here are 3 ways that the crowd should be used to help 
you crack these types of briefs:

Listen to the crowd

The web hosts conversations on pretty much every subject a researcher 
or planner could ever want to know about. In fact it is the biggest 
research resource we have access to so start using it. There are a 
number of tools including our own pulsar social media monitoring and 
analysis platform that allow us to listen to the crowd. When you start 
listening you will quickly find consumer problems that need solving, 
what brands are hot and not and lots of opportunities to engage with 
Pro-am consumers. Listening in real time to what consumers are 
discussing is addictive and very powerful if it feeds into an adaptive 
planning process.

Ask the crowd

Crowdsourcing is best used in the early stages of a project. Again 
there are lots of platforms you can use – we have developed our own 
platform that we are currently using for www.cocreatelondon.com. The 
process starts by giving consumers a clear question or challenge to 
respond to. What you will get back is a diverse mass of topline ideas, 
thoughts and some fully rounded responses. The role of the planner/
researcher with the help of clever filtering software is to look at 
the patterns from this data. What lays behind the ideas – in short what 
are the insights. Insights that can be used by planners to build 
platforms for innovation or communication.

Crowd wisdom

By opening up ideas in a crowdsourcing community for comment and 
rating you can see clearly user-generated clusters. This engagement 
amongst the community can highlight the strong ideas or themes; but 
just as importantly it can start the process of collaboration and 
co-creation to make ideas better and more appealing.


Co-Create London has been live for exactly 10 days and thus far we are ecstatic about the results! As this is being written we have received 249 ideas from 191 people and a staggering 2,219 votes have been cast!!!

We thought we would let you know what’s been going on over at CoCreateLondon.com, starting with the Top 10 ideas on the site so far as voted for by Co-Create London users.

1) Free Wi-Fi hotspots in public spaces across town – 127 votes
Free WiFi access seems to be something that Londoners want to see in the city. However there has been some backlash to this with other users asking – how would WiFi make London a better place?

2) Open library-style book kiosks/ book swap system in Tube stations so Londoners are never without reading material on the underground! – 63 votes
Bringing some culture & entertainment to the transport system is something that has been a running theme on the site. This idea has been the pick of the bunch with a strong backing from Co-Create London users.

3) Oyster Card becomes Oyster London card – pay for anything in London up to the value of 20GBP – 58 votes
A few users have been quick to say that this idea has already been explored by TFL but didn’t go ahead due to financial regulation complications. However, making it only for small payments adds in a new angle and would encourage spending.

Could it be used for other purchases beside travel?

Could it be used for other purchases beside travel?

4) Tube Tunnels as giant immersive flipbooks. We all travel miles & miles underground everyday through black tunnels. The Tube carriages have all got amazing windows to look outside of the train at… well, nothing. Wouldn’t it be nice if the walls of the tunnels were covered in series of pictures that vary gradually from one to the next, so that when the trains goes through the tunnel they get animated? – 56 votes
A new model for artists, creative types, brands and advertisers to get involved with. Would brighten up millions of Londoners journey to work but is it feasible?

5) Simply by putting air conditioning on the tubes would improve life in London during the Summer 100% – 56 votes
Boris has introduced air conditioning on the circle line and, as some Co-Creators have noted, there have been cut backs on energy use in stations to reduce heat but is it even possible for there to be a totally cool tube?

6) Annual Open Labs Day…Similar to Open House Weekend, but celebrates our city’s vast and under-appreciated science culture. The public get to question real scientists in working labs, and explore London’s scientific history (Darwin, Newton, Hooke, Faraday, Franklin, Jenner, Davy, Maxwell…) through open days at places like the Royal Society, Royal Institution etc. – 54 Votes
Exposing and helping the public understand the great scientific significance and heritage London has is a great idea! Could be amazing with the right marketing behind it, but will it get backing from Boris?

Boris has unveiled air-conditioned tubes on the circle line but can he do this for the whole of the tube system??

Boris has unveiled air-conditioned tubes on the circle line but can he do this for the whole of the tube system??

7) A swimming lane system on Oxford Street, people who want to walk slowly and browse you walk on the inside of the pavement (nearest the shops), people who have got to go places and are in a hurry walk on the outside (nearest the road). This would stop all the pushing, shoving, barging, dodging, frustration, pain etc that walking on Oxford Street causes!! – 49 votes
The human congestion on Oxford Street causes frustration for thousands. The new crossing at Oxford Circus has been a success so why not go one step further and create a manageable, easy and beneficial system for the rest of the street?

8 ) Turn Empty Shops in to spaces for performance, places to learn a new skill and mini-markets for creative local residents to sell their wares. – 46 votes
It is no secret that there are lots of empty retail spaces in London, especially after the recession. Why not do something positive with this free space? Giving it back to the community could help regenerate areas and encourage potential buyers.

9) Instead of the Oyster machines making the same beeping noise when you go through, each one has a different musical note, such as a piano key.  – 45 votes
Would a series of these small, fun and quirky ideas cheer up commuters and make travelling in the city more fun? The users on the Co-Create London site seem to think so!

Outdoor dancing, big in China, could it be introduced in London???

Outdoor dancing, big in China, could it be introduced in London???

10) Encourage more frequent outdoor dancing – 412votes
China and Japan have been doing it for years, it is hard to imagine Londoners getting involved though. Would be amazing if the right scheme was set up!

Throughout this week we will be running through some of our favourite ideas and releasing more information about the journey Co-Create London is about to go on!

What Would You Do To Make London A Better Place?