5 Effective Crowdsourcing Rules for Startups

With world abuzz with news around crowdsourcing and more and more brands using the same for multiple kinds of requirements, it seems that's the way forward for businesses to grow. It is an incredible way for organizations - big or small - to not just cut costs but to also ensure that they have consumers share feedback just at the right time. It is also a wonderful way for most brands to connect with their consumers and advocates.But is it that simple? Can you just put your requirement out in open and expect the work to get done just like that? Most businesses who would have tried crowdsourcing would have had a different experience. Crowdsourcing your requirements to folks who neither understand your brand well nor have a complete picture of how the solution will have an impact on your businesses requires a lot of homework to be done.

Here are 5 rules to aid your crowdsourcing efforts:

Rule 1: Do your home work well

Do get in detail a document ready for your requirement including as much information as possible. Unlike the traditional model, crowdsourcing doesn’t allow a continuous discussions & hence it is better to share as much information as possible. However, the information should help drive thoughts for the provider, whether it’s for testing or for design requirement or ideation.

Rule 2: Try to be above the average on price points

Most providers are driven by the budget for the project and as single crowdsourcing platform provides multiple project opportunities to participate, the budget you select will play a significant role in driving the kind of people who participate and the kind of participation

Rule 3: Share detailed feedback

Your feedback will help providers improve. Engage with them and make it more interactive. Your feedback will help drive more thoughts and clarity to move in the right direction. Even when you find options or solutions going in completely opposite direction, try to drive them back. This will enable you to not only share thoughts with the provider but also open up for newer options

Rule 4: Timeline

Choose the timeline very carefully. Many a times clients go ahead aggressively giving far too less time for providers to participate and other times this timeline is extended reducing the urgency of participation

Rule 5: Socially Engage

Engage with your network socially to drive more traffic to your requirement. There's no harm using your network to add on to the platform's network to get the best results.

About the Author

Manik Kinra is Co-founder of Jade Magnet, a creative crowdsourcing platform. Jade Magnet has around 15,000 people in the ecosystem and has served over 500 SMEs across the globe providing various design solutions. Manik drives marketing and sales for Jade Magnet and writes regularly at various forums on crowdsourcing, marketing and SMEs