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History

In 2008, the IdeaScale service was first offered.⁵ It launched in tandem with President Barack Obama's Open Government Initiative.⁶ In its first year, IdeaScale was adopted by 23 federal agencies. It served many organizations, including the Executive Office of the President of the United States.⁷

The company is privately held. It was bootstrapped without venture capital funding and has become profitable.⁸ In 2016, IdeaScale acquired Innovationmanagement.se⁹

In 2022, the company hired a new executive, Nick Jain, to take over for retiring CEO Rob Hoehn.

Features

Users create a profile on IdeaScale and once they are members of a community, they can submit ideas, comment and vote on other ideas, and the most popular ideas are prioritized at the top based on the number of votes the idea receives.¹⁰ Once a promising idea has been identified, the software allows teams to form around the idea. The team can add more information to the idea, refine it, propose it to leadership and the best ones are selected using sophisticated decision matrix capabilities.¹¹

The company uses the freemium model of engagement, offering free communities on an open basis and additional, customized functionality to paying clients.¹²

Notes

References

1. Esposti, Carl (Oct 7, 2010). "IdeaScale". Crowdsourcing.org. Archived from the original on December 11, 2012. Retrieved February 3, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20121211040000/http://www.crowdsourcing.org/site/ideascale/wwwideascalecom/1596 ↩

2. Gregory T Huang (8 February 2010). "IdeaScale Used for 24 Government Sites". http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2010/02/08/ideascale-used-for-24-government-sites/ ↩

3. Brier Dudley (Jan 20, 2010). "Seattle's IdeaScale tapped for Obama feedback effort". Seattle Times. Retrieved August 10, 2015. http://blogs.seattletimes.com/brierdudley/2010/01/20/seattles_ideascale_tapped_for/ ↩

4. Procter, Richard. "IdeaScale's crowdsourcing platform lets customers give rich feedback to businesses, governments". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved 13 February 2015. http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/print-edition/2015/02/13/ideascale-rob-hoehn-crowdsourcing-software-startup.html ↩

5. Crowdsourcing Launch for Survey Analytics at Daily Research News Online, Sept. 30, 2008 http://www.mrweb.com/drno/news8955.htm ↩

6. Herman, Justin (September 15, 2011). "OpenGov Citizen Engagement Tool: Frequently Asked Questions for Federal Agencies". HowTo.gov. Retrieved February 3, 2013. http://www.howto.gov/web-content/requirements-and-best-practices/open/tool-faqs ↩

7. Rao, Leena (February 7, 2010). "IdeaScale Powers 23 Crowdsourcing Sites For The U.S. Government". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 3, 2013. https://techcrunch.com/2010/02/07/ideascale-powers-24-crowdsourcing-sites-for-the-u-s-government/ ↩

8. Venge, Brian (January 19, 2011). "SBK020 Are You Listening to Your Customers?". Small Biz Kaizen. Retrieved February 3, 2013. http://smallbizkaizen.com/index.php/2011/01/are-you-listening-to-your-customers ↩

9. "IdeaScale Acquires InnovationManagement.se to Enhance Comprehensive Innovation Offering" (Press release). https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ideascale-acquires-innovationmanagementse-to-enhance-comprehensive-innovation-offering-300217794.html ↩

10. Miles, Stephanie (October 4, 2010). "IdeaScale – Empower Your Customers". AppVita. Retrieved February 3, 2013. http://www.appvita.com/2010/10/04/ideascale-empower-your-customers/ ↩

11. "IdeaScale Launches Idea Incubation". Crowdsourcing.org. Archived from the original on 25 February 2015. Retrieved 24 February 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150225021152/http://www.crowdsourcing.org/document/ideascale-launches-idea-incubation-/35995 ↩

12. IdeaScale. "IdeaScale Pricing & Signup". IdeaScale. Retrieved February 3, 2013. http://ideascale.com/pricing/ ↩