Should Crowdsourcing Be Your New Innovation For Your Next Product or Process?

Editor's Note: Mark Dohnalek is President & CEO of Pivot International, the Kansas-based global product development, engineering & manufacturing firm.

New ideas and concepts can come from anywhere – not just Board Rooms. And, while we've always known this, proof is in the success of online platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo where enterprising designers communicate ideas, collect funds and feedback to create new products or enhance current solutions.

Crowdsourcing has brought thousands of ideas to shelves that might never have been built or entered the marketplace – not to mention extending lifecycles of earlier versions. But crowdsourcing isn't just for independent inventors because it has the potential to improve a company bottom line by avoiding waste in both money and resources.

Getting input from “the crowd” can make a difference in company branding too. Customers pay attention and want to know you are advancing their experience and not just repackaging nearly the same version of what they've already got. Effective crowdsourcing can stop you from building or expanding a product that no one will use or won't use for very long.

Even so, crowdsourcing isn't right for every company. Below are what you should consider when deciding if crowdsourcing is the right approach for you:

Access to a much larger pool of creativity. Burnout happens and no matter how hard you try, sometimes teams just can't muster up another idea for a great product. Crowdsourcing provides access to untapped creativity of hundreds and even thousands of minds. New ideas from new people can jump-start the brainstorming process, giving product designers a running start on a new product idea or adding valuable and exciting features to ones that already exist.

Cost-effectiveness. Crowdsourcing can also be highly cost-effective, if you consider that the people who are giving ideas or feedback are doing it for free. In addition, it's much less expensive to get crowdsourced feedback before mass-producing a product, rather than do a couple of small tests on your prototype and release it into the market. Whenever possible, find your own customers and ask them specifically because they will respond. From price point to materials used to multiple uses – find out what they deem important and factor that in when you do move forward.

Lack of confidentiality. If your product or solution could be an industry game-changer—then the last thing you want to do is give hundreds of people access to an early version of it. Even if you were to have everyone sign confidentiality agreements, it's a risk when you involve that many people who are not otherwise aligned you're your company.

Potential for unusable ideas or difficulties in production. Imagination will be abundant but you can expect many unusable ideas or inefficiencies in the product development process. Even though the enthusiasm will be appreciated, it can create wasted time and resources for many members of your team.

Overall, crowdsourcing has more potential to help your efforts than harm them – as long as it's done correctly. If you're unsure, then simplify your crowdsourcing with a focused strategy. It's possible to use the crowd only at the beginning of the process or when you have a working prototype that users can test out. But once you have an operational product on store shelves – keep up with customer reviews and comments because that will be your best crowdsourcing for growth moving forward.

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