Thank you for participating in the Lotus Knows IdeaJam

August 25 2009

Having now been in front of some large Lotus community audiences in Australia over the last few days, I'm starting to understand how impactful the Lotus Knows IdeaJam was.  People are talking.  Customers and partners have expressed interesting, excitement, and hope over the input that went into the Jam during 72 hours last week.  Yes, there are a few complaints of it being shut down too soon or late ideas not being fully vetted, but this is the nature of any short-term collaboration.  Considering that over 20,000 votes were cast on nearly 1000 ideas, I think there was more than adequate participation to get a real sense of market priorities.

Of the top 20 ideas (by popularity), several are already in progress from IBM's side.  But they can be accelerated, amplified, or adjusted based on Jam input.  Others are just good votes for "Lotus Knows...." taglines.   I loved some of these, and admire the creativity that went into the Jam.

The big question now is "what's next".  The hardest part here is that IBM can't pre-commit or announce business decisions or direction.  It takes time to get new ideas through the system, and even for in-process ones to come out the chute.  We're now discussing how or what kind of report card can be produced...it would be great to have a "X% of the IdeaJam top vote getters have been implemented" statement in the Lotusphere 2010 keynote, for example.

Now comes the next phase -- where the marketing of "Lotus Knows" to end users actually begins.  I was pleased to learn from my marketing colleague here in Australia that the local team is on-board to start doing some "Lotus Knows" advertising, before the end of 2009 in fact.  I suspect the same conversation is happening in many other countries simultaneously.  Because vote-getter #2 was to raise IBM internal awareness of what "Lotus Knows", and I can see that many IBMers took it upon themselves to start that process immediately.

Lotus Knows the next IBMer who sends me a PPT presentation is going to get an earful about Symphony, because Lotus Knows we need to be demonstrating that value to clients.  It's just one subtle way I'm adjusting my behavior following the IdeaJam.

Ed Brill Melbourne, VIC Australia Category: Add/View Comments [14]

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  1. 1  Stuart McIntyre http://blog.collaborationmatters.com | 8/25/2009 1:49:16 AM

    It was a great exercise Ed, thanks to the IBM team for organising and especially to Elguji for hosting the site. I am awe of the work that Bruce and Matt have done on IdeaJam - the way in which that app worked under such load was mighty impressive to see.

    Just one element of feedback from me - I agree that closing the site to new ideas after a limited period is the right thing for this initiative, but I wish we could have had another 3 days or so to continue adding comments and votes. This would have allowed all ideas to have a more equal chance of being voted up, and also have allowed users to reflect on their choices from the more rushed initial period. Just my 2c...

  1. 2  John Foldager http://www.izone.dk | 8/25/2009 2:14:24 AM

    One solution - for next time - might be to allow for posting and voting for 3-4 days and then only voting for additional 3-4 days.

    Agree with Stuart that this has been great. Thanks, IBM!

  1. 3  Suma  | 8/25/2009 6:13:15 AM

    "Of the top 20 ideas (by popularity), several are already in progress from IBM's side. But they can be accelerated, amplified, or adjusted based on Jam input. Others are just good votes for "Lotus Knows...." taglines."

    Just curious if the top 20 is for all the themes put together or for each of them :)

  1. 4  Eric Tomenga  | 8/25/2009 9:59:24 AM

    Great idea but when I tried to get in, I was denied access to submit or vote. However, I can cast my votes now so away I go.

  1. 5  Eric Tomenga  | 8/25/2009 10:02:48 AM

    Wait a minute, I can submit my ideas now. Someone is listening to those above.

  1. 6  Neil Wainwright http://www.nexonia.com | 8/25/2009 11:56:07 AM

    Hi Ed. I'm looking forward to IBM's response to it. If it can be directly linked back to the ideas and votes, that would be best. We just put effort into communicating to IBM, so now it's IBM's turn to get back to us about what we said. I know you feel it should be a 2-way street, and I hope it comes to fruition. FYI...Lotusphere is a long way away to give feedback. We gave you our thoughts in 72 hours, how about IBM respond in 14 days? ":-)

  1. 7  Charles Robinson http://www.cubert.net | 8/25/2009 1:08:29 PM

    @6 - There were several thousand people giving their thoughts. I think Ed's team is a little smaller and it's going to take some time to sort through what just happened. Even so, I would like to see a response well before the end of the year. Follow-through and commitment and all that stuff, you know.

  1. 8  Eric Tomenga  | 8/25/2009 3:45:08 PM

    You can remove my all or my first two comments. The Idea jam that I was linking too was the openNTF version which in it's own right chock full of good ideas too.

  1. 9  Gavin Bollard http://dominogavin.blogspot.com | 8/25/2009 9:12:03 PM

    Glad you're being reactive about Symphony. (The PPT files)

    The best marketing for us in terms of office was to circulate a bit of promotional fluff from MS showing the new features of office 2010 - particularly the amazing full-screen file open/save dialog.

    There is no incentive to migrate that is quite as effective as showing how unusable the next generation of an already bloated product has become.

  1. 10  Felix Binsack  | 8/26/2009 2:23:28 AM

    Let's hope that Steve Mills will participate in the Lotusphere OGS. Great chance for him to clarify some irritations he has caused. Better 7 years late than never.

  1. 11  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 8/26/2009 4:02:17 AM

    Felix - that particular idea didn't exactly get a lot of votes.

    { Link }

    I actually asked Picciano about this for Lotusphere 2009 ... Mills is after all my 3rd-line manager. Steve doesn't typically speak at the individual brand events but if there was something specifically that made sense for him to do, I'm sure we could do that.

  1. 12  Felix Binsack http://Timetoact.de | 8/26/2009 9:49:21 AM

    Ed, many People did not want Steve Mills to speak at Lotusphere OGS because of what he (suppuously) said in 2002. I think that is even more reason to speak at Lotushere.

    Ed, you voted for this idea, thats why thanled you - not the general public.

  1. 13  Henning Heinz  | 8/26/2009 10:11:12 AM

    Well for me there were just too many ideas and too little time. Still a huge success of course.

  1. 14  Dirk Boehm http://www.schurter.com | 8/31/2009 7:48:33 AM

    Returned from vacations and too late to participate - I have to agree into the fact, that it was given not enough time to users to contribute their ideas. What a pity!