Ideation programs can be intimidating, and many community teams shy away from implementing them. Sometimes, it's because they feel they won't get buy-in from the Product team, or they think the initial support will eventually fade away. Especially in large communities, teams may also fear receiving a high volume of ideas that simply don't align with business objectives or are unrealistic. Managing that at scale can become quite cumbersome.
Fully open ideation programs are great and can generate significant value for both community members and business stakeholders if teams are aligned, there is proper buy-in from the Product organization, and ideas — along with their statuses — are managed appropriately. However, the reasons mentioned above for why some community teams choose not to create such programs are valid, and it is always preferable not to have an ideation program than to have a non-functional one in place.
Here's an alternative that might actually be a better fit for some organizations:
Brand-Driven Ideation
This approach to an ideation program eliminates some of the challenges found in traditional open idea exchanges:
- All ideas are generated internally — no more navigating through excessive noise
- Lower idea volume = lower effort for the cross-functional team managing the program
- No need to deliver “bad news” to idea authors
- The Product organization still needs to be involved, but with greater operational clarity and more focused effort
None of these advantages take away from one of the key benefits of ideation programs: involving the community in product development decisions. Community members still get to vote and choose which potential new features or product enhancements make it onto the roadmap.
How It Works
Product teams, along with other internal stakeholders, typically generate many product ideas, but only some are ultimately implemented. These ideas usually go through internal triage processes and generally align with business objectives while being applicable to a large enough percentage of the customer base.
A brand-driven community ideation program could become part of that triage process by providing insight from the customer base into what matters most to them from a smaller, curated selection of ideas published by the brand. This insight can provide valuable clarity around prioritization.
The designated resource from the Product organization (or the Community team) posts a selection of ideas in the designated category after they reach that phase of the triage process.
→ Community members vote
→ Idea statuses are updated by the team
Vanilla Configuration in Practice
First, make sure Ideas is enabled in your community.
Second, create a dedicated role for Product team members who will engage in the community (or use a generic Employee role if you don't mind all users with the Employee role being able to post Ideas). If one of the community administrators will be posting the ideas, the out-of-the-box Administrator role will suffice. Grant the role to the appropriate user(s).
Third, go to Settings → Post Types → Edit Idea → Creation Permission and choose the role(s) that can create Ideas.
Now, only those roles can create ideas, but all members can comment and vote if they have the appropriate permissions in the category where Ideas are posted.
Summary
If you have the necessary resources and long-term buy-in from the Product team, including an open ideation program in your community can generate significant value for the business, increase engagement, and offer the increasingly important co-creation element to your community members.
However, if running such a program is not feasible, creating a brand-driven ideation program may be an excellent alternative for your organization. Your Product organization handles the initial product idea triage and only publishes a smaller, handpicked list of potential product ideas for the community to vote on. This approach eliminates much of the noise while still engaging the community and gathering insight into what members want prioritized on the roadmap.
Win-win.
