It’s been a while since I wrote about idea management platforms; lots has changed and new opportunities to improve have been revealed since then in terms of technologies, processes and web community behaviours.

The first system I designed was a category driven platform that worked like this:

Add an idea (Idea Initiator):

1. select a category for your idea

2. select a sub-category (based on previous selection)…etc as relevant

3. add a title for the idea

4. describe the idea

5. submit the idea

6. receive confirmation email

Managing the ideas (Category Owner):

1. assign a category to a dedicated category owner

2. recieve email notification – (time to action clock starts ticking)

3. reviewes idea and contacts initiator for more detail as required

4. applies appropriate action to idea

5. initiator receives notification of action/comments applied to idea

6. action & comments are posted for community view & comment

>>Opportunities to improve:

In time sensitive environments like call centres, taking time to find the right category for your idea can be time consuming and distracting. I have observed that the most relevant, customer-focussed ideas come from areas where there is direct contact with the customer, but often those flashes of raw brilliance while the customer is on the phone or facing you, can be diluted by the time you dig through the category tree and arrive at the description section.

Looking at the Category Ownership aspect, the opportunity to improve provides for increased flexibility, visibility and accountability around the way ideas are managed and shared within that community.

This improvement can be enabled through the use of tagging.

At a high-level, this is the way tagging can make it quicker and easier for the idea initiator to articulate the opportunity to improve.

Add an idea (Idea Initiator):

1. input the description of your idea

2. submit

Meanwhile, throughout the business, interested parties have ’subscribed’ themselves to certain keywords/phrases that are relevant to their part of the business and for which they would like to receive alerts should an idea come though that contains those keywords or phrases in its description.

Managing the ideas (Category Owner):

1. subscribe to keywords/phrases of interest

2. receive notification of match/es

3. comment and/or take ownership of idea

4. apply relevant action and comments

This way, categories are flexible and actually determined by initiator input, as opposed to being dictated by the system.

Additionally, anyone in the business can ’subscribe’  to any keyword or phrase, giving more people more visibility of ideas that are coming through. Criteria can be set in the system to indicate which subscriber each idea is most relevant to based on their subscriptions and where they sit in the business.

Once someone decides to take ownership of an idea, the rest of the business gets immediate visibility of that fact and can interact directly with the owner in need.

In terms of system design and architecture, this model is a significant improvement. It is true web2.0 in the way content is driven and managed by the entire community, rather than constricing input to architectural design, organisational structure and categorisation.

After obtaining funding and support to develop the initial system, the challenge for the innovation/community manager will be to get the improved system across the line. A forward thinking decsion maker/wallet holder, will have no hesitation approving the new system, and in fact will be open to ongoing system enhancements and improvements as web technologies and communities dictate. I do however feel for those of you who had to struggle to get your initial system approved; this is a change piece that you have to work through and gain support for.

I have developed detailed mock-ups of an improved system that operates as described, if you want to know more about the design and processes, email me: ericimbs@gmail.com