{"id":28792,"date":"2018-11-12T15:21:52","date_gmt":"2018-11-12T20:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\/"},"modified":"2018-11-12T15:21:52","modified_gmt":"2018-11-12T20:21:52","slug":"openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenIdeo \u2013 Using Open Innovation to Tackle the Biggest Societal Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an increasingly connected world, what is a global company\u2019s obligation to solve societal issues and how do they accomplish this? For IDEO, a leading product design firm, the answer is OpenIdeo. OpenIDEO, an open innovation platform, was founded in 2010 with the goal of connecting people to solve a wide range of high impact, global problems. OpenIDEO partners with companies to create a \u201cchallenge\u201d centered around one societal problem that is opened to the entire community to create a solution via design thinking. The design thinking process includes exploratory, concepting, and prototyping phases.1<\/sup> Through the various challenges, OpenIDEO has many learnings that have impacted process improvement and product development.<\/p>\n

The OpenIDEO platform has allowed the company to scale their design thinking model across the world. To date, 58 challenges have been completed and over 16,232 ideas were submitted.2<\/sup> Because open communities only succeed if there is engagement, the platform was designed to encourage contributions from the community members by rewarding high quality work with likes, feedback, comments and recognition.7<\/sup> It has become clear that the power of collaboration leads to more innovative solutions, developed at a quicker pace.\u00a0 OpenIDEO is providing a better understanding of users and increasingly relevant places to prototype ideas. \u00a0Some of the key tasks in design thinking include gathering data, understanding the user and the context of the problem. OpenIDEO has allowed for an expanded network to contribute to this exploratory phase, resulting in a greater, global understanding of a problem. Even though there might on average be less quality ideas, the diversity and breadth of ideas contributed and variety in methods used to conceptualize them drives an overall more innovative solution.3<\/sup> The geographical diversity of OpenIDEO members gives a larger testing ground for the prototyping phase. The community members will be able to test out concepts and provide feedback based on different cultures, climates and other contextual factors. Additionally, the OpenIDEO community has become a vast resource for internal IDEO teams to bring new ideas and concepts into their product development process.6<\/sup><\/p>\n

Moving forward, OpenIDEO has three focus areas to increase the impact of the platform: prioritizing inclusion, supporting scale and changing systems.2<\/sup> OpenIdeo is building tools to ensure that new, diverse members are contributing and joining the community. Because the value of the platform is driven by the participants, it is vital to cycle in new users from different geographical, socio-economic, religious and political backgrounds to continue to submit diverse ideas. They have created a Community Manager role, an employee or community member, that is responsible for reaching out and involving different members.4<\/sup> They are also experimenting with tapping into social media channels like Facebook to recruit users in specific regions or industries. A medium-term initiative will be to create offline programs that remove the barriers for participation for certain groups of users.2<\/sup> To help scale innovation, OpenIDEO has begun offering cash prizes to the users who come up with the Top Ideas and is providing mentorship, trainings and more overall support. The goal is to ensure that as many users as possible are getting value from the process. Additionally, OpenIDEO wants to shift the power structure and relationships in the social sector by connecting unlikely parties. OpenIDEO has also launched focused initiatives dedicated to one issue, such as extreme poverty, and is looking to create more for other issues including climate change.5<\/sup><\/p>\n

In addition to the strategy and actions outlined above, I recommend that OpenIDEO creates tools that not only recruit new members but re-engages and excites existing users. OpenIDEO has a core group of users that account for the most activity during the concept phase.4<\/sup> In addition to recruiting new members, they must go a step further to ensure that the new members disrupt these power users. There should be incentives for the peripheral members to contribute more which could be accomplished by using a data algorithm to recommend challenges specifically catered to their strengths. Additionally, OpenIDEO should implement a feedback loop to members who contributed to a challenge so that they feel like real impact was made and are more likely to contribute again. My final recommendation is to create a real time text translator on the platform to bridge the language barrier between users.<\/p>\n

As OpenIDEO continues to scale and tackle bigger societal issues, I am concerned whether they can maintain the close knit, team environment present within their community or whether they are biting off more they can chew. What obligation does OpenIDEO have to it\u2019s community to ensure sponsors implement solutions? Will the cash prize incentive change the collaborative nature of the OpenIDEO platform? (767 words)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1<\/sup> OpenIDEO, \u201cApproach,\u201d https:\/\/www.openideo.com\/approach<\/a>, accessed November 2018.<\/p>\n

2<\/sup> OpenIDEO, 2017 Impact Report, \u00a0<\/sup>[https:\/\/oi2-openideo-rwd-prod.s3.amazonaws.com\/generic_file\/6d21258d-f1e2-4611-8ad3-d2b040401cac.pdf?utm_source=Direct<\/a>], accessed November 2018. \u00a0<\/sup><\/p>\n

3<\/sup> Andrew King and Karim Lakhani, \u201cUsing Open Innovation to Identify the Best Ideas,\u201d MIT Slaon Management Review<\/em>, 44, nos. 1 (Fall2013) p. 41-48, ABI\/INFORM via ProQuest, accessed November 2018.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/search-proquest-com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu\/docview\/1438826527\/1F7B55BE02AE4F9FPQ\/1?accountid=11311<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/sup> Mark Fuge, \u201cAnalysis of Collaborative Design Networks: A Case Study of OpenIDEO,\u201d Journal of Computing and Informational Science in Engineering, <\/em>14, nos. 2 (June 2014), ABI\/INFORM via ASME, accessed November 2018.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/illiad.hul.harvard.edu\/illbasicauth\/HLS\/pdf\/5079839.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

5<\/sup> Jason Rissman, \u201cCelebrating Five Years,\u201d OpenIDEO Stories<\/em> (blog), OpenIDEO.com, Sept. 28, 2015, [https:\/\/stories.openideo.com\/celebrating-five-years-7182d3e79ab1<\/a>], accessed November 2018.<\/p>\n

6<\/sup> Chris Luebkeman, \u201cDesign is Our Answer: An Interview with Leading Design Thinker Tim Brown,\u201d Architectrual Design, <\/em>85, nos. 6 (July 2015) p. 34, ABI\/INFORM via Wiley Online Library, accessed November 2018.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu\/doi\/epdf\/10.1002\/ad.1922<\/a><\/p>\n

7<\/sup> OpenIDEO, \u201cFrequently Asked Questions,\u201d https:\/\/challenges.openideo.com\/faq<\/a>, accessed November 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OpenIDEO aims to utilize design thinking and open innovation to solve the worlds toughest problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11609,"featured_media":28799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"class_list":["post-28792","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","hck-taxonomy-country-united-states"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/rc-tom-challenge-2018\/","yoast_head":"\nOpenIdeo \u2013 Using Open Innovation to Tackle the Biggest Societal Issues - Technology and Operations Management<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"OpenIdeo \u2013 Using Open Innovation to Tackle the Biggest Societal Issues - Technology and Operations Management\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"OpenIDEO aims to utilize design thinking and open innovation to solve the worlds toughest problems.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Technology and Operations Management\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/Openideo-2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"751\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"247\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\\\/\",\"name\":\"OpenIdeo \u2013 Using Open Innovation to Tackle the Biggest Societal Issues - Technology and Operations Management\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/4\\\/2018\\\/11\\\/Openideo-2.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-11-12T20:21:52+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/4\\\/2018\\\/11\\\/Openideo-2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/4\\\/2018\\\/11\\\/Openideo-2.png\",\"width\":751,\"height\":247},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Submissions\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/submission\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"OpenIdeo \u2013 Using Open Innovation to Tackle the Biggest Societal Issues\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/\",\"name\":\"Technology and Operations Management\",\"description\":\"MBA Student Perspectives\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"性视界Action\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/d3.harvard.edu\\\/platform-rctom\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"OpenIdeo \u2013 Using Open Innovation to Tackle the Biggest Societal Issues - Technology and Operations Management","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"OpenIdeo \u2013 Using Open Innovation to Tackle the Biggest Societal Issues - Technology and Operations Management","og_description":"OpenIDEO aims to utilize design thinking and open innovation to solve the worlds toughest problems.","og_url":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\/","og_site_name":"Technology and Operations Management","og_image":[{"width":751,"height":247,"url":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/Openideo-2.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\/","url":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\/","name":"OpenIdeo \u2013 Using Open Innovation to Tackle the Biggest Societal Issues - Technology and Operations Management","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/Openideo-2.png","datePublished":"2018-11-12T20:21:52+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/Openideo-2.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/11\/Openideo-2.png","width":751,"height":247},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/openideo-using-open-innovation-to-tackle-the-biggest-societal-issues\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Submissions","item":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"OpenIdeo \u2013 Using Open Innovation to Tackle the Biggest Societal Issues"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/","name":"Technology and Operations Management","description":"MBA Student Perspectives","potentialAction":[{"@type":"性视界Action","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hck-submission\/28792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hck-submission"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/hck-submission"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11609"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hck-submission\/28792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}