Crowdsourcing user solutions: which questions should companies ask to elicit the most ideas from its users?

Abstract

When companies crowdsource users’ ideas, some ask their users for any ideas they may have while others present specific problems they need help in solving. This paper explores whether different approaches elicit different numbers of ideas shared by users. Two experiments in different organizations were conducted to determine which types of simple verbal stimuli are most effective for improving the users’ ideation process. It was shown that simple but specific problem statements presented by a company resulted in the highest number of relevant ideas being given by its users. Companies who look for inspiration and insight into users’ needs are advised to make specific ideation challenges so that users produce and share a larger number of ideas.

Keywords:

• Idea generation
• ideation
• open innovation
• communication
• user ideation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.