Mark Smith
· 2 min read
Innovation Contests
This post was originally published in 2023. Some details may have changed since then.
🤖“Innovation Contests” are how you turbocharge your digital transformation and ready your organization for AI.
In a recent contest a group of employees came up with an idea that would save the business over $10million in Australia and New Zealand in the first year. Here’s how 👇🏽
So what is an ‘Innovation Contest’?
It’s where we empower employees to:
▶️ Learn how they can use the Microsoft Power Platform to rapidly solve business problems
▶️ Come up with solutions to problems that they’re facing in their day-to-day work
▶️ Prepare a value proposition for how it will benefit the company
▶️ Create a presentation on the idea and the impact for the business
▶️ The winning solution was funded by our vendor and we built it
Win win. ✅
The company unlocks the innovation and problem solving potential sitting within its employees. The employees get to solve meaningful problems, make work easier for themselves and others, and get recognition and rewards.
Imagine what would be possible in your organization if you had those closest to the challenges come up with value adding solutions. 💡
__________
How is it different from a Hackathon?
The difference is that we give people time to learn and interact with the Low-Code tools & apps through learning sessions in the lead up to the contest.
Rather than needing them to develop deep skills with the tech, they focus on unpacking the problem they want solved and a potential solution for this problem (we use the double diamond process in Designing Thinking to achieve this). 🔷🔷
Part of this involves understanding the business impact of the idea. The ideas then go before a jury of their peers to decide the winning solution, the first one to be built.
_________
What now?
Want to turbocharge Digital Transformation and get AI ready? 🦾
I help organizations run these Innovation Contests. We only have space to do two of these per month across ANZ, get in touch if you're interested and I will validate if we can secure funding to do this for your organization.
They’re incredibly effective, fun and engaging.
Got any questions about them?
Mark Smith
Principal AI Strategist · Microsoft MVP
Helping people build practical AI skill in the Intelligence Age.
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