Enlisting the Public in Product Innovation

Check out this interesting site, InnoCentive.com, that solicits help from creative thinkers in the general public to solve critical problems in product development and design, in fields ranging from business to engineering to life sciences. Through its Open Innovation Marketplace, InnoCentive connects companies, government agencies, academic institutions, and non-profit organizations (the “Seeker” organizations) with a network of more than 125,000 engineers, scientists, inventors, and business people (the “Solver community), a network that anyone can join. The Seekers post challenges on the marketplace, and each challenge is assigned a cash award that ranges from $5,000 to $1,000,000, given to the Solver who submits the best solution (as determined by the Seeker).

Hat tip: Freakonomics blog