Project and side-hustle tracking platform for employees in full-time positions.
I am building a platform that encourages entrepreneurship within organisations.
We aim to unlock the creative potential in every company, empowering employees to make a difference by working on projects that really matter.
On our platform, companies will be able to create workspaces dedicated to their employees. Employees can then propose ideas and innovative solution or just give feedback to their organisation. Everyone will be able to see the suggestions and upvote or downvote them.
These ideas can then turn into full projects that employees can work on during their downtime. A timeline (similar to IndieHackers/products) will show the project updates. Other employees will be able to give feedback or collaborate on the project.
We are trying to solve staff retention. I work in a creative agency where staff retention is even lower than usual. This often happens because employees are not motivated to work on what they think is really important.
By allowing them to give transparent feedback to their organisation and turn their ideas into full paying projects we hope to solve this very old but crucial problem.
I was looking after innovation awards in a Google sales department a long time ago so I know a few things about this topic that might help.
Are you targeting incremental ideas that improve current products/services, or ideas that could potentially be the core to a new business? there's a big difference between the two and hence the pitch (and final product) should be very different.
I think the biggest challenge for a project like that is encouraging employees to participate. I'm sure employers will want an activity of this sort to happen internally (incremental improvements or new businesses spinning off of it), but how do you get employees to engage with it?
In a relatively large corporation, an important factor in driving motivation is working on something exciting without serious financial risks (which independent entrepreneurs face). If you're after such ideas, make sure that the company defines a clear program for innovators and their career progression. How much time could they get to work on the idea? What happens if the product didn't pass validation? Can they return to their post if things didn't work out? How much time could the company have them on the payroll if things didn't work out and they were looking for another job within the company?
It's also important to think of other factors in this mini-ecosystem within the company: how do you connect innovators with those who could execute? In many cases, innovators could be in Sales without much technical knowledge. Could an idea owner hire others in the company to work on it? Could they use external freelancers? Who signs off on budgets for new ideas/projects?
If you're after a product that targets ideas offering incremental improvements, then it's a much simpler problem to solve, I think. People naturally want to improve what they work for many reasons. The motivation is there, all you'd have to do is foster it and encourage them (rewards of some sort) to keep submitting ideas to the tool.
All very good points!
As an added note let me say that one of the crucial factors that drives motivation even in smaller organisations (especially creative agencies and consulting firms) is working on those exciting projects without, as you said, the financial risk of being an independent entrepreneur.
This is mostly the reason why people join agencies and consulting firms. To have a variety of projects and not being “chained” to a single one. But often this results in working on projects or clients that either do not resonate with your values or that you do not find interesting.
Given the fact that this is the market I honestly know the best, it is also the one I’m going after at the beginning. Later, once the product finds validation in this market I’d love to expend and think about what implications are there if you bring it to large corps.
It also goes without saying that there are more challenges but also more problems to solve in the smaller market. Google ( especially with google X) dedicates a large sum of money to fuel this venture unit inside their company. Same thing do lots of other large corps and businesses.
However how can you foster innovation without having a dedicated unit inside your company? What happens if you don’t have the money or the expertise to develop such a venture unit?
Those innovators (employees who have an entrepreneur mindset and want to work on exciting projects) are likely to leave the organisation and either attempt to run their own business or go somewhere else where their creativity can foster.
PS
Your background sounds so interesting. I’d love to chat further if you can. I think your knowledge would be very valuable for what I am trying to achieve :)
Hello, Please explore GitHub, if you haven't already. It might have features similar to what you are looking for. Issues, votes, contributions etc.
Yes thanks @raghum. It is indeed somewhat similar to github as a concept. But very much oriented to all types of initiatives/innovations (not just tech).
I will, thanks.
Such company internal projects usually are handicapped by the fact that a) IP is owned by the company thus participants holding back from their full potential b) finding the right partners and sponsors becomes a challenge.
That said, Google 20% time projects were a success!
If you have some innovative ways to address these then I think it has potential
Very good point!
How do you motivate employees to work towards something that ultimately benefit the company more then them?
We started experimenting but generally the most straightforward ways are:
Interesting idea!
There are two ways to validate this idea:
How would you approach this?
Maybe a double sell as well, but that's even harder!
Cheers,
Jonathan
Thanks for your feedback!
I successfully proposed this inside my company and I am building it trying to use this opportunity as a trial. Following a top-down approach.
However, my aim would be to make it into a stand-alone product that then can be sold externally to several different organisations through a SaaS model.
Sorry to be so dry, but have you covered yourself from a legal standpoint?
Make sure you will own this project!
No need to apologise :) I do agree that this is a tricky side. Maybe I wasn’t 100% clear.
At my company I’m trying to establish the framework (very similar to Google 80/20 mentioned above by @VinayRajagopal). I read a lot about it and we started experimenting. What I’m doing in my organisation, as I said, is attempting to nail the best practice. Understanding the set up and the context that will grant a product like this to flourish. As a company, we are not building this platform. But it is something that ultimately I would like to achieve as an external project, detached from my organisation. And then exiting my company with all the knowledge acquired in terms of what set up a platform like this needs in order to be successful.
But, please feel free to shoot any feedback my way. There are lots of aspects that I might have not considered :)
Hi Lorenzo,
Many employees have clauses in their contract that anything they develop while working at the company (even in their own free time) is owned by the company. I know, it's a dick move, but it exists.
Watch out for that :)
Cheers
Jonathan
PS I'm doing free consults for the community, if you'd like, feel free to book me - https://calendly.com/jonathanoron
That is very true. Which is the reason why I started from developing a framework rather than the platform itself. Once this will find validation and I will be ready to take the step forward I will make sure to talk about this with my employer in order to find the best solution for both.
Looking forward to it :)