Crowdsourcing Collaboration
I’ve begun recording episodes for Season 2 of the Cool Collaborations podcast and I just finished a super fun conversation with … well … you’re going to have to wait to see who I interviewed. But, I can give a tiny sneak peek on the topic we discussed.
Crowdsourcing!
If you’re like me, then you probably went “huh?” Are crowdsourced solutions really collaboration?
Let’s start with what crowdsourcing is. We’re all familiar with crowdfunding, where someone is seeking monetary donations for a particular cause or project. If something about the crowdfunding appeals to us, then we plunk down some money. The existence of the Internet has enabled the ability for two-way interaction to a big enough group of people to make crowdfunding work. We put up a story and our ‘ask’, and anyone to whom it appeals can participate. And the beauty is that people have the freedom to provide what they can.
In contrast, crowdsourcing is a way of making use of the wisdom of the crowd to come up with solutions to specific questions. We can not crowdsource relatively simple questions like “I need a new logo” on platforms like Fiverr and Upwork, and get an answer back from anyone interested and capable of answering your question. We can also put highly complex questions out for a crowdsource solution; think of the current $100M Prize for Carbon Removal currently posted on XPRIZE. The profound beauty of these more complex crowdsourced questions is that they may draw solutions from unexpected sources. It seems like the ultimate meritocracy in that the best solution wins. Period.
Here’s a great example, one that is mentioned briefly in my soon to be released podcast episode.
How do you get excess oil off of a potato chip that has just come out for the fryer?
Shaking them hard enough to get the oil off ended up with a bunch of broken potato chips. This was the problem that faced a major manufacturer of potato chips. Too much oil or a bunch of broken chips. The experts in the field were stumped.
So, they crowdsourced the problem to a broad selection of people. And the solution came from a decidedly unexpected place, a concert pianist. The violinist saw the potato chip as being similar to something they had experienced when they played their violin when it was wet. (I presume they were out in the rain or something). The violist noticed that when they played certain tones on the instrument, the water on the surface would jump and dance on the surface.
The violinist suggested to the potato chip manufacturer that certain audio tone might cause the oil to bead up and jump off the chips, the same as water droplets jumping from their violin. It worked!
What I like about this particular example is that it demonstrates the huge potential of lived and living experience. The solution came not from any old violist, it came from the experience on one violist who had the experience of playing a wet violin and had noticed what was happening when they played. You could not have targeted that specific type of expertise or experience. It could only be found through crowdsourcing.
So, back to my original question. Is crowdsourcing a form of collaboration? As you well know, I like to characterize collaboration as having three fundamental pieces. Problem, people, and creativity. Crowdsourcing can be simple or complex, but it can have all three properties. In crowdsourcing, there is always a problem and always a group of people. The need for creativity (a creative solution) depends entirely on the problem being posed. Whenever a crowdsourced problem requires a novel solution, I would suggest that it is collaboration.
Have any of you used crowdsourcing to find a new and novel solution to your problem. I’d love to hear about it in the comments below or by emailing scott.millar@collaboration-dynamics.com.
Happy Collaborating.
Scott Millar, through Collaboration Dynamics, often works as a "peacemaker" by gathering people with different experiences and values and helping them navigate beyond their differences to tackle complex problems together.
Season 2 of the Cool Collaborations podcast is coming this fall. Join Scott as he explores fun stories and insights of successful collaboration with guests from around the world, and then dives into what made them work. Cool Collaborations is currently available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify.
