Creating Innovation Partnerships for Better Outcome
“It takes two flints to make a fire.” ― Louisa May Alcott
We talk a lot about collaboration when we talk about innovation. We can get better ideas, valuable feedback, and meaningful conversation when we are open to collaboration. But this conversation remains at the participant level. What about creating innovative partnerships to expand the reach and effectiveness of your initiative? In the groundbreaking book: “CrowdStorm” the authors outline the various partnerships for innovation to pursue to ensure success in your project. If you have got a great idea for an innovation initiative that you want to take to the next level, consider partnering with these types of organisations and individuals:
Media Partners
Finding a media partnership for innovation is a great way to boost your publicity and tap into your target markets on a low budget. Search for a media outlet that will be a good fit for what you are trying to achieve with your initiative. Get creative about who you approach, the media is no longer just big print publications. There are a number of popular on-line media outlets that your potential participants frequent. Get in touch with these outlets and offer them something valuable as part of an innovative partnership. Things you can consider offering: Promoting their outlet at your event, exclusive interviews or stories about your event, sneak peak at production of products and services.
Expert Advisors
It is great to get peer feedback, but sometimes participants are looking for expert advice or mentor ship. If mentor-ship or a judging panel are part of your competition, it is essential you find an influencer in your field. Not only can these innovative partners provide great feedback to participants, they can also build social proof and help draw attention to your event. Even if your initiative is not a competition that involves judging or expert advice, experts can still play an influential role in the process. For example, they can help keep the team on track, pull out actionable items, and general help evaluating ideas.
Financial Underwriters
Including a financial incentive in an idea contest can help attract highly skilled and thoughtful participants. Yet finding financial partnerships for innovation is a project all on its own. If you are part of a bigger organisation, you may already have the resources and connections to find investors and financial backers to provide investment opportunities for your participants. If you do not readily have access to these resources you should create a plan of action as soon as possible. We have talked before on this blog about the importance of following through with projects once a competition is over. Having the right resources (financial and other) is imperative to making this work. Keep in mind, financial does not necessarily mean cold, hard cash. An innovative partnership with a well known distributor, for example, can provide the same benefits as a monetary backing.
Online Spaces and Communities
Online spaces help you recruit participants, manage contests and projects, and build community. Creating an innovative partnership with an organisation that supports these needs can help your initiative run smoothly and efficiently. There are a number of tools on the market that provide a range of features to help you run your contest more smoothly. Here are some of the top features to look out for:
1) Ease of use. This is number one for a reason. Make it easy for participants to participate! If participants are struggling with navigating the system and uploading ideas they are unlikely to provide much value and may lose faith in the contest. Test out any product before purchasing to make sure it is straightforward
2) Prompt support. If something goes wrong during your contest you want it to be fixed right away. Work with a company with a reputation for great customer service
3) Storage space. Know how much you will need and make sure the tool can provide this amount of storage for you. If documents and images will need to be uploaded it is important to make sure you have some wiggle room.
Some other features you may want to think about are: Detailed statistics, exporting abilities, user rankings, and hosting. These will depend on your particular project.
Production Partners
Depending on the size of your firm, the help you will need to actually produce the ideas that come out of your innovation project will vary. If you are providing cash prizes and mentor-ship to your contest winners, they may become the production partners themselves. If you are a bigger organisation you may take production into your own hands. If you are providing a service rather than a product it is unlikely you will need a production partner. If none of these are the case you will need to look for a third party organisation to help you get your product or service on the market. Where you find this partner depends on your organisation and product. Looking for innovation partners that have a good reputation in your industry, or organisations you already have a relationship with are good places to start. This is also where your expert adviser can contribute her knowledge to help you find the right innovation partner.
What innovation partnerships have you fostered during your projects? Do you agree or disagree with this list?
For more information about creating partnerships and the crowdstorming process check out “CrowdStorm” by Shaun Abrahamson, Peter Ryder, and Bastian Unterberg.
