When Scentsy launched its open innovation program in 2014, they had a goal of manageably engaging with more than 100,000 consultants that were scattered around the globe. To do so, they created the Scentsy Family IdeaShare and launched dialogues that they hoped would give them a better understanding of potential client needs and desires, possible new product offerings, and more. What they did not expect was that from the ideas generated on that community, they would find an idea for their top-selling product of all time.
That idea (the Mason Jar warmer) along with more than eighty other product ideas helped Scentsy build a community around great ideas and helped them tap into one of their greatest knowledge bases: their employees. And they were able to do that all within the space of a year. Progress like that is not only rare, it’s legendary since the average product development time can be anywhere from sixteen months to over two years.
There are many reasons that Scentsy was able to shorten their development lifecycle, but one of the reasons that they did it so successfully was because they used the principles of open innovation in order to shorten the change management cycle. They asked the crowd for great ideas, the crowd validated those ideas and then the team at Scentsy was able to deliver on it. But there are a few reasons why crowdsourcing and open innovation can shorten the change management cycle overall.
The Crowd Moves at Cloud Speed. Because all suggestions, discussion, and feedback happen in the digital world (and in real time) – it is possible to see popular decisions and good ideas emerge swiftly in a format that is constantly updated. Change is no longer hindered by incessant refining, it is possible to see ideas emerge and get refined in real time.
Communities Form Around Ideas. Once great ideas have been shared in a public online forum, not only do those ideas gather vote and comment support, they also gather fans and evangelists who can help see that idea through to completion, and possibly even develop it. In this way, an open innovation community is both a breeding ground for great ideas, a tool to nurture resources, and a communications platform.
Validates Decision Making. Oftentimes, it takes awhile for a good idea to become a reality, because an argument has to be made for its implementation. R&D teams take a lot of time to host focus groups, send out surveys, and fund studies, but in an open innovation community a lot of that research happens organically within the tool. Qualitative information (like ideas) is paired with quantitative information (like comments, votes, views, shares) and it is easy to see what is popular and why without any of the costs associated with traditional R&D.
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