The 10 P’s of Picking a Partner* - (* for successful crowd-solving!)

Over the past five years, SeaFreight Labs has served as Project Advisor for 16 humanitarian crowd-solving projects, commonly called open-innovation “challenges”.  All of these challenges were run on the Innocentive platform, a part of Wazoku (www.innocentive.com). We are very proud that 14 of these projects awarded prize money to one or more solvers – an 87.5% success rate. 

Each challenge had a number of marketing partners that helped promote the problem far and wide to people beyond the Innocentive ‘crowd’.  One of these partners was a competitor to Innocentive called HeroX (www.herox.com).  Recently, Habitat for Humanity decided to run a follow-up challenge to their 2022 challenge titled “Malaria Prevention through Innovations I Home Design or Home Life”.  This new challenge was run on the HeroX platform in 2025 and titled “Reducing Malaria in Homes with Improved Air Cavity Ventilation”.  This challenge is expected to award prize money to one or more solvers in late 2025 or early 2026.  SeaFreight Labs serves as Project Advisor for the project.

Now that I have experience with crowd-solving success on two different crowd-solving platforms, I have a good understanding of what is needed to maximize the odds for a successful humanitarian crowd-solving project.  By happenstance, all of the characteristics I want to highlight begin with the letter “P”.  Here is my list (in alphabetical order) that can serve as advice on things to look for when picking a crowd-solving vendor.   The starred items are the ones I think are most important.

1. *People (otherwise known as ‘the crowd’). 

2. Platform.

3. Price.

4. Prize management.

5. *Problem definition

6. *Process.

7. Progress monitoring. 

8. Project management support. 

9. *Promotion & marketing

10. Property protection (Intellectual property)

My comments on each item are below.

1. *People (otherwise known as ‘the crowd’).  Crowd-solving is based on dual premises that 1) no organization employs all the experts in the world; and, 2) no single individual or team knows everything or can think of everything regarding a specific problem.   The magic happens when someone from outside of the Seeker team learns about the problem and applies their unique background and perspective in a way that was not previously considered.  The key to this is exposing the problem statement to as big a group of people as possible, from as many different perspectives as possible.  Hence, the size of a crowd and the composition of a crowd are both vital to getting diverse submissions of high quality.  An existing crowd of “solvers” is a valuable asset for any crowd-solving vendor.  Sometimes Solvers work on multiple platforms but sometimes they only work on one.  It is important that your vendor is constantly working to increase the size and diversity of their crowd so that every challenge you run will have the best chance of being seen by a person with the right insights to submit a winning solution.
   

2. Platform.  A crowd-solving project is run entirely on the internet.  The vendor needs to offer a platform that enables the Seeker to 1) publish the problem statement; 2) allow potential solvers to review the problem and easily submit a solution; and, 3) efficiently review all the submissions and run a judging process that leads to one or more winners.  The platforms offered by different vendors will differ in countless ways.  Each one will likely have a design theme that carries through all of the functions.  Some platforms will be more focused on self-service while others will do more ‘on the back end’.  I have found that both design extremes can lead to project success.
   

3. Price.  This is obviously an important criteria in any vendor selection.  It is important to remember that the cost of an engagement will include the fees you pay to your crowd-solving vendor PLUS the award fees you pay to winning solvers.   You will likely pay the vendor fees up-front before your project begins.  You only pay a solver award if a solver provides a solution that meets your published requirements.  You, as the Seeker, determine the amount of the solver award during the challenge design process.  You should be sure that the amount of the award is less than the value of a solution to the problem you are looking to solve.
   

4. Prize management. A successful crowd-solving project results in one or more prize awards being paid.  The payment of the prize involves two separate steps:  1) verification that the winning solver or solver team is who they say they are and that they certify that they own the intellectual property contained in their winning submission; and, 2) payment of the prize amount, which often involves a cross-border financial transaction.Different vendors handle this process in different ways.  You should understand from your vendor what the vendor will do for you as part of their service and what you will be expected to do yourself.
   

5. *Problem Definition.  Writing a ‘good’ problem statement is critical to ultimate success of your crowd-solving project.  If the statement does not define your problem in a way that will eventually deliver value to your company, it is poorly written and of no practical utility.  But if the problem statement is too hard or too ambiguous, it will not attract solvers.  An open-innovation challenge without solvers is like a tree falling in the woods; does anybody care?      Talk to your potential vendors about how they navigate this quandary.  Their answers will help you select the best fit for your situation.
   

6. *Process.  Along with People, Platform and Promotion, the Process is a key differentiator between vendors.  There are so many decisions to make along the way where a mistake will cause a challenge to deliver poor submissions.  A repeatable process which has delivered success in the past is the best way to achieve success in the future.Look for a crowd-solving vendor that has run hundreds or thousands of successful challenges on their platform.  And find out about the steps that are included in a vendor’s proprietary process.  This will allow you to compare what different vendors see as important.    If you are experienced in crowd-solving, this will not be as important for you.  But, if you are just learning how to use the crowd to help you, a solid process is a great way to avoid failure.   
   

7. Progress monitoring.  Crowd-solving is a back-loaded process.  By this I mean that you do a lot of work to define your problem and publicize it to the world and then you wait for 60-120 days to see what submissions you get.  During this waiting period, you will be intensely curious to know if anybody cares about your problem.  Different vendors offer different ways to monitor the traffic to your challenge-definition page and to track submission-related activity.  Ask the vendor to show you these reports and explain which are self-service and which are managed by the vendor. 
   

8. Project management support.  I think running your first few open-innovation challenges by yourself would be extremely difficult.  So, I suggest that you be sure your vendor offers project-management services that can coach you on all the other aspects of getting to success.  Find out what is included in their service offering and then take advantage of their expertise.  In my case, I found a rhythm of a weekly project calls at a fixed time every week was a great way to efficiently work issues and keep a project moving forward effectively.  We also did look-backs after each project to create ‘lessons-learned’ that benefited us for future projects. 
   

9. *Promotion & marketing.  A vendor’s captive crowd is a tremendous asset that helps an open-innovation challenge get off the ground quickly and have a good chance of finding solvers with the right background and interest to respond to a specific challenge.  Find out what a vendor can do to promote your challenges to their current crowd and how the crowd engages with new challenges. It is also good to look for additional people not yet in the vendor’s crowd that might have other experiences of value.  Find out how the vendor can help you with external marketing to try to attract new people.  My experience is that about half of the winners of humanitarian challenges were new additions to my vendor’s crowds. Another important area of promotion is the ability to host informational webinars for solvers during the solicitation phase of the challenge. These webinars allow solvers to ask questions about the challenge and allow the Seeker to refine the challenge statement to improve the chance that submissions will be valuable. The last category of promotion that I think is important is how the vendor can help you promote your work internally and to interested parties.  Find out about what type of showcase website the vendor offers to allow you to highlight your work and successes. 
   

10. Property protection (Intellectual property).  In the world of innovation, tight control of intellectual property is vital.  Ask your potential vendor about how they ensure that every solver is legally bound by a set of terms and conditions – both with the vendor AND with you as the Seeker.  Make sure that your legal department can include any provisions specific to your company or organization.In addition, you should ask the vendor about how they provide intellectual property-protection in the judging process. 

Picking a proper partner for your crowd-solving project is vital for success.  I hope that my list of capabilities helps you streamline your vendor-selection process.