“There's a way to do it better—find it.” —Thomas A. Edison

Innovation means to improve or replace something—a process, a product, or a service. In fact, the word innovation is derived from the Latin verb innovare, which means to renew. Most leaders and changemakers know: Failure to innovate at the right time and/or in the right way can result in catastrophe...

One of the best ways to improve anything is to surface pain. Specifically, if you can identify where your employees, team members, or customers are experiencing real (versus perceived) pain, you've won half the battle.

POPin's Crowdsource capabilities allow you to listen at scale by asking open-ended questions while giving the people 'closest to the action' a safe, efficient way to dynamically engage with you and others to surface real problems and blockers. Better yet, you can then use this feature to engage that same community of people to identify potential solutions.

Use the below detail to guide your POPin session Titles and Questions.

Where do we most need to improve (a.k.a. innovate)?

No sessions launched. After analyzing the top responses to session 1, select an innovation area you want to solve for. The best case scenario is that you target the top-voted pain point. However, constraints might direct you to tackle other items in the session results first. Via email or meeting, communicate with session participants what you have selected and why. Ask them to brainstorm solutions prior to launching session 2.

This question moves away from crowdsourcing ... and towards crowdsolving!

Based on our desire to improve [insert topic]: What is your top idea on how we can innovate what's in place today?

Tip: It's important to remind participants during this session's duration to vote on other people's ideas so the best ideas surface to the top!

No sessions launched. Assess responses from week three and determine what idea(s) you'd like to implement, right now. Via email or meeting, thank everyone for their participation up to this point. Be sure to communicate what ideas you have selected to execute on and why.

Based on the great ideas presented by this group, I've decided to execute on [insert chosen idea]. When you hear this: What's the biggest obstacle that might prevent us from being successful?

Tip: If you have decided to act on multiple ideas, right now, based on session 2 results: You'll want to launch multiple sessions—asking this question for each idea.

With responses to session 3 in hand, define the biggest obstacles that should be addressed in the execution plan for the this innovation cycle. Start to define and document who will be needed to properly manage those obstacles.

Based on our desire to improve [insert topic] with [insert chosen idea]: Who should be involved in the execution to ensure success?

No sessions launched. Build out your high-level plan using the information gathered from the sessions in this recipe. Fill in gaps as needed.

Remember, innovation doesn't only come from big, expensive initiatives. Quick wins can be very impactful and offer teams motivation when they need it. (Definition of Quick Win: An improvement that is visible, contributes to the organization, and can be achieved quickly.) Rinse and repeat this recipe on a scheduled basis and you and your team will be unstoppable!

Use the live Help chat to contact our Client Success Team if you'd like help executing this Success Recipe.