This is a true story about how with the help of the right people and the right Idea Management tools, you can take your products to a new level and gain a competitive advantage.
First steps – start a campaign and set up the right tools
In January 2018, we decided to let our Valo Partners have their say (even more so than normal) on the roadmap of our Valo Idea Management Tool. So, we launched an idea campaign for our partners.
For gathering the ideas from the Partners and for nurturing them, we used – of course – the Idea Management Tool itself! If you don’t know what Valo Idea Management is, here’s an overview.
We set up an instance of the Idea Management Tool and invited our 400+ partner users there. In a matter of minutes, the ideation tool was ready to use and innovating could begin. We then announced the campaign and communicated the rules of the game to the Partners, via our active Partner Yammer Network. The campaign lasted throughout the month of January 2018. Whoever got the highest score by the end of the campaign, would be rewarded with an Amazon gift card worth 100 euros. (The “scores” are a built-in gamification feature in Valo Ideation Tool; You get scores for submitting new ideas and commenting other people’s ideas.)
During the ideation campaign – active moderation is key
It was so exciting to see new ideas coming in, and our partners actively contributing to them. Every morning I woke up, the first thing I did was check for new ideas and score updates in our Idea Management tool.
During the campaign, we kept up the spirit and increased the awareness of the campaign among our Partners by publishing frequent score updates to the Valo Partners Yammer Network.
Outcome – 41 awesome product ideas and one happy Dutchman
By the end of January, we had collected a total number of 41 ideas, all of which were being actively discussed and improved in our Idea Management tool.
Erwin Verlinden from Advantive got the highest scores. Of course, this campaign was a joint effort by many people. This great outcome wouldn’t have been possible without the dozens of active people who contributed. Other top ideators included Peggy Boltz from PointPro Solutions, Maarten Eekels from Portiva, Jeff Collins from CoupledTech, and Jonathan Stuckey from Spoke. Just to name a few.
Now, less than half a year later, some of these ideas have already found their way into the product; In the latest Valo release, we have published the Top Ideas Web Part and improved the customization options of the tool. These were some of the most popular features that came up in the ideation campaign.
A final word on the Idea Management campaign
Innovation is a big trend in many organizations at the moment. With this example we have shown you how you can launch an Idea Management campaign very quickly, get hundreds of people to actively contribute to it, supported by an engaging innovation platform. Use it within your own organization, or in a wider (partner) network, as we did.
I want to thank our amazing Partners once again, for their priceless contribution! Wait for the upcoming releases later this year – more of your great ideas will be put into practice!
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