Your step-by-step guide to open innovation processes

Before diving into an open innovation process, it’s imperative to fully comprehend if this is the best option for you and your business and for the problems it’s facing. The first thing you have to determine is the direct consequence of your problem and why it’s relevant to seek a solution.   

An open innovation process tends to have the most relevance when we’re unsure of why this problem has surfaced, and at the same time, the best solution is unknown. 

Here’s a checklist of the things you’ll need to find success within an open innovation process: 

• Make sure you’re aligned with the objectives and strategies in your organization. 
• Have a plan with technical, human, and financial resources. 
• Ensure key subjects are committed to your cause. 
• Define clear conditions for participation. Consider intellectual property, timeframes, evaluation criteria for the ideas you’ll receive, incentives, and/or prizes for those who participate and win.
• Have the proper technological tools that allow for quick and efficient processing. 

Once you’ve checked off the checklist, remember that to keep the ideas within the organization, it’s recommended to answer these questions during the recruitment stages.

Strategic Objectives

1. What would you like to achieve through an open innovation process? 
2. Who and how do you define your challenge?
3. How will you decide which ideas to bring to fruition? 
4. What would the criteria be when selecting the best ideas? 
5. What will you do with all the other ideas that are good but can’t be implemented just yet? 

Resources & Responsibilities 

1. What resources do you have available to carry out the process and the ideas that you’ll be using? 
2. Who will coordinate the open innovation process? 
3. Who will select the best ideas?
4. Who will implement the ideas?

Target Audience 

1. What is your solution finder’s profile?
2. How will you communicate the challenge? 
3. What prizes or incentives will you be offering participants? 

Ideation process

1. What open innovation platform will I use to manage the proposals I receive? 
2. How will it favor participant interaction and the co-creation process? 
3. For how long will you be receiving ideas? 
4. Who will the intellectual property from the ideas belong to? 

Answering all these questions on time will favor the following phases that come with an open innovation process. It’s fundamental to remember that the most important information and its terms and conditions for participation are openly communicated, i.e. how and for what the ideas will be used. 

All of this so that the participants, whether fellow samaritans, scientists, product users, providers, collaborators or organizations know everything they need to know in order to be interested in participating. It’s essential to keep in mind that a successful open innovation process benefits both parties, and should be fair for all.  

That brings us to the next step; capturing your target audience. To do this, you must have the right communication plan. Here are some things to consider: 

Press release 

Write something that will get the attention of your target audience to announce the call to co-create, including its allies, objectives, prizes, and incentives for winners. Make sure to include the website where it’s possible, or wherever it’s easy to find more details and information. 

Social Media

Create some graphic pieces that you’ll be using throughout the entire time (launching, ideas, reminders of closing, winner announcement, etc.), include your logos and your ally’s logos and share the pieces with them as well, along with posting dates with their copies, hashtags and everything they’ll  need to unify communication and have a bigger impact. Tag all your allies and target resources for an ad campaign on social media and reach an audience outside your social media. 

With this, you’ll have everything you need to successfully go through an open innovation process. At TrippleUp we offer so many of the services you’ll need, with amazing communities ready to lend a hand! Join us to get started or to learn more about the benefits that come from open innovation.