Top 3 Innovation Initiatives you can Launch Right Now

As an all-in-one innovation platform, Ideanote can be successfully used in a manner of different ways. Open innovation, idea management platform, employee motivation tool – the possibilities are, if not endless, then at least plenty.

Fret not! We’ve picked out three of the most interesting Ideanote projects, with our best tips and tricks on each.

1: Transform Your Customer Experience

Why not collect customer and partner ideas for how to transform your services? Actually, research has shown that open innovation has 3 times higher success rate than innovation done in-house.

The most successful companies know that their all-star teams can’t do everything themselves

And you guessed it, open innovation in an excellent Ideanote project to get started with.

The most successful companies know that their all-star teams can’t do everything themselves, so they combine the insights of their customers with the knowledge of their employees to capture ideas for groundbreaking new products and solutions.

Why Should You Care?

Open innovation can be applied to different areas, with different goals and outcomes. For example:

Innovate products and services - Want to invent the next Big Mac? Then open innovation is your best bet. Actually, radical product innovations stem from open innovation that invites customers or partners. Both offer a refreshing perspective on your frontlines as they appear from the outside.

Find better solutions faster - Businesses that use open innovation platforms enjoy 74% average return on investment on submitted projects. On top of that, a case company revealed how a 15-year-old problem was solved in 2 months based on the 113 received solutions. In short, capturing more and better ideas gets the job done faster.

Become a pioneer - P&G is a pioneer in open innovation. In less than five years, their revenue went from $43 billions to $83 billions with 50% of their products developed through collaboration with external partners. In other words, open innovation done right is most definitely worth your while.

So why not make your first Ideanote project about delighting your customers by including them in the future of your business?

2: Break Down Silos

Do you experience symptoms like limited collaboration, information blockages or lack of alignment? Then you might be suffering from a case of silo mentality in your business - Yikes! The second Ideanote project we propose is breaking down organization silos.

A whopping 55% of companies work in silos

Did you know that a whopping 55% of companies work in silos? Siloing happens when departments work in isolation and don’t communicate or share information with one another.

As a result, if you want to be truly innovative, the invisible walls between departments must be torn down, to allow a free flow of information across the whole of the organization.

Why Should You Care?

If you fail to open the door to new radical innovations that may transform your business, you will have to bear the organization consequences. Instead, act now and enjoy the many benefits:

Spark Creativity and Keep Up Motivation - 86% of executives and employees blame team issues and project failures on poor collaboration and miscommunication. in fact, connecting people with different mindsets, perceptions and ideas will have them looking at problems and challenges from entirely new perspectives. Real diversity increases creativity, and who knows what that might lead to!

Boost Efficiency - When the one hand doesn't know what the other is doing you end up with either no one doing anything or teams trying to solve the same problem at the same time. It’s like trying to open a jar with both hands working on the lid, but no one to hold onto the jar. Break down silos to align your teams and tasks, and pop open that jar in a jiffy.

Customer Experience - This is the area that often pays the heaviest price as departments lose sight of the company as a whole. A recent study reveals that 35% of companies believe that working in silos delivers an inconsistent experience across touchpoints. With a solid idea management system, you connect and harmonize all parts of the customer experience. Just like it should be.

This Ideanote project is a great way to start using our platform. Not only do you create relationships across teams you also develop new innovative solutions - win-win!

3: Streamline Your Innovation

You need to structure your innovation projects, or you might as well stop trying.

Presenting: innovation management. Today's third Ideanote project. It’s all about capturing, developing and processing ideas into a big fat pipeline of new interesting projects that can help you grow and keep relevance.

Swinging your innovation guns aimlessly around, targeting buzzwords such is only going to result in expensive, failed projects.

Why Should You Care?

Swinging your innovation guns aimlessly around, targeting buzzwords such as disruption and blockchain is only going to result in expensive, failed projects. Consequently, you need a way to structure a strategy around innovation.

Capture the right ideas - Innovation management is all about capturing the right ideas and keeping your innovation pipeline fully stocked with new interesting project ideas. In sum, an innovation platform can help you not only collect these ideas, but also keep them in a good process so no ideas are lost or forgotten. In fact, Ideanote ensures continuous idea collection and maturing, so you always have new projects to fuel your growth.

From research article to action point - An innovation management platform is your gateway drug to an innovative culture. It’s a step on the way to becoming an innovation pioneer, helping you plant seeds of sharing, creative thinking, and collaboration. It helps you train your workforce in considering how new inventions could be incorporated into your product and services.

Internal + external = Ideanote - Don’t do like most companies who collect customer feedback on one platform and internal ideas on another. This creates silos between external and internal innovation, resulting in a loss of innovative qualities. Use Ideanote to connect customer and partner insights with employee knowledge in one place to reach new levels of innovation excellence.

Start Your Own Ideanote Project

Now you might be thinking, “that sounds cool, but isn’t it complicated and expensive to get started?”

The short answer is no. Simply follow the steps below and get started on your very own Ideanote Project.

1 Claim Your Ideanote Space

Action Point: Go to app.ideanote.io and start your free ideanote trial.

Check out any of our feature-rich Paid Plans on trial, so you can find the best match for you and your business.

“But I don’t like free stuff…”

Said no one ever.

2 Challenge People to Come Up With Ideas

Action Point: Create a Mission on your new Space.

When creating Missions to collect ideas, we’re big fans of something called the 'How Might We’ method used by creatives at Google and Facebook.

This method helps you brainstorm new opportunities using the power of language. Actually, instead of merely asking “what are your ideas?”, you can use 'How Might We' questions to get people thinking differently.

Here are a few examples of brilliant Missions from Waffles & Co asking customers for help coming up with new product ideas for Valentine’s Day using ‘How Might We’:

✔ How might we improve our services?

✔ How might we expand our waffle selection?

✔ How might we improve our digital efforts for you as a customer?

Now try to come up with your own ‘How Might We’ question for your first Mission.

3 More people = More ideas

Action Point: Settle on an audience and share your Mission.

What customers, partners or others will you be inviting?

After you’ve created your Mission, you can use our Shareable Link for Missions and send it in a newsletter to your customers, post it on relevant partner channels, or share it with the whole wide world on your website.

Ideanote gives you full access control, so you’re always in the driver’s seat. If you’re having trouble setting up the audience for your Mission, you can always consult one of our detailed step-by-step guides.

4 Context is key

Action Point: Include proper project-context when sharing your Mission.

Whoever is on the receiving end of your Mission, make sure they know what it’s all about. You can either include a description within the Mission itself or if you’re sharing it in an email or a blog post, you can add some interesting context for the audience to enjoy.

You’re free to incentivize people to participate in any number of creative ways, but we find that the key ingredient in successful crowdsourcing is ongoing feedback. This provides rich context as a project unfolds and helps promote audience ownership.

✔  Let the audience know what will happen to the ideas you collect

✔  Acknowledge people for their participation

✔  Provide ongoing feedback as ideas are collected, developed and implemented

5 Share and enjoy your success

Action Point: Break open the champagne!

You’ve successfully set off on a journey to bring new innovations into your life and the life of your business. So sit back, relax, and get ready to bask in the glory that is your newly found innovation success.

Tell the world what you’re doing. Share it on social media. Shout it from the rooftops. You’ve earned it!

Bonus

Hopefully, you are ready to take on your own Ideanote project. If you have questions regarding your specific journey or you have considerations that you’d like to chat about, please reach out either via Intercom or shoot an email to hello@ideanote.io, and we’ll get back to you in no time. After all, that’s why we get out of bed in the morning.

More tips, tricks, and marvelous resources

Here are some of our favorite Ideanote hacks and knowledge bombs for breaking down silos like a pro:

Improve structure by using Teams

Set creativity free

Supercharge engagement by adding more Missions

Boost idea collection with multiple Space Admins