This approach involves putting your problem and design criteria onto an online platform and engaging as many people as possible in a collaborative idea development process.

Anyone with access to the internet can see the ideas that have been proposed on these collaborative ideation platforms. These ideas can then be voted on and improved upon by ‘the crowd’ in a number of iterations in order to develop a workable solution. The aim is to make the process as transparent, dynamic and collaborative as possible.

As with the first approach in this module, you will first need to set the problem and design criteria. You can commission or work with problem-solving platforms to refine your Challenge Brief so that it is suitable for the type of challenge you are creating. This will then be posted online to a crowd of problem solvers.

Individuals or groups can propose ideas and solutions which others can add to and refine. You will need to be engaged in the process throughout and you should use your social media platforms to continue to encourage people to contribute. You can eventually choose a winning solution after the crowd have reviewed and refined the submissions into a manageable number.

There are a number of platforms that you might use, but the most prominent and well-used platform for social impact is OpenIdeo. Watch OpenIDEO’s video instruction on the methodology: