Mercury's Blog - Latest Comments in “Wisdom of Crowds” and innovation – It’s not working

Re: “Wisdom of Crowds” and innovation – It’s not working

jedc_mercury — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 09:26:37 -0000

I think I addressed this more on my original post here:
http://blog.mercury-rac.com...

To quote that post:
"I believe that while you can use prediction markets to help quantify innovative ideas, using PM’s to prioritise ideas is a poor use of the tool."

Prediction markets are great when you have a rather well-defined idea or innovation. For example, in the final stages of creating a new consumer product it would be very useful to determine what the company (and distributors) think demand of that product will be in order to manufacturing figures correct. But when you're dealing with 30+ different early-stage ideas, all of which will change as they become more and more real, prediction markets are a poor tool. There is simply too much uncertainty for a market to be of much use; other tools are more appropriate.

I think if you go and read my earlier post you'll see that I've probably addressed your concerns.

Re: “Wisdom of Crowds” and innovation – It’s not working

Simo H — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:38:45 -0000

What prevents companies from using, say, PMs further "down" the innovation value chain? Don't you think some companies do it already?

Take Google, I think they have used PMs to get quantifiable data in all phases of "innovation" and implementing ideas into practice. Intel has used them to get predictions on how products will do in markets (lots of examples from using PMs in final stages of "innovation process").

So, I don't agree, although I think you could be right for blaming companies focusing too much on front end.

Re: “Wisdom of Crowds” and innovation – It’s not working

jedc_mercury — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:39:06 -0000

I know, I know... but I had it in good quality from iStockphoto! But
then again, shouldn't we be talking about LED's soon, anyway?

Re: “Wisdom of Crowds” and innovation – It’s not working

fnazeeri — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:56:32 -0000

Jed, nice post, but for Pete's sake, use a picture of a CFL...an incandescent bulb is so 19th century!

Re: “Wisdom of Crowds” and innovation – It’s not working

jedc_mercury — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:47:24 -0000

Thanks, Liz.

It seems that a lot of prediction market-based applications tend to focus solely on ideas, which I think is unfortunate and misses most of the innovation process. Action is so much more important than the idea when making innovation happen. I really like what InnoCentive is doing, but also think there's a potential for another whole range of applications to help companies that have trouble defining their problems.

Thanks for commenting,
Jed

Re: “Wisdom of Crowds” and innovation – It’s not working

Liz Moise — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:16:28 -0000

Thanks for a great piece on innovation, we also find that people throw the word "innovation" around casually to mean any good idea. We have found that open innovation is a very effective tool for businesses, but only like you said, when they have a very clearly defined problem or challenge they need help with. As with any good design, or idea, the solution is only effective if the problem is clearly defined.
If you'd ever like to speak with someone at InnoCentive or learn more about the latest things we're developing, feel free to call me directly.
Regards
Liz Moise
Marketing Manager
InnoCentive