Why You Should Engage IP, Legal, and Key Stakeholders Early in New Crowdsourcing Programs

There is a marked difference between running a project or
two through a crowdsourcing platform versus structuring a program for your organization
so you and your teams can use crowdsourcing, at will, and at scale. We serve
both types of customers at Topcoder and the exciting news—for the broader gig
economy “industry”—is that many more companies are now interested in
understanding how to plan for, set up, and execute through crowdsourcing. The
reason is simple. This type of labor option allows them to ramp productivity
and innovation for their enterprise.

For our customers looking to use crowdsourcing at scale, we
have honest and flat advice. Engage your legal team early.

Concerns about IP, data privacy, confidentiality, risk and
compliance run high when starting any new crowdsourcing program. Companies
experienced tapping crowd talent say, across the board, that upfront
communication is important to establish trust and ensure all stakeholders are
informed and have the opportunity to make critical adjustments early on in the
development process. Engaging IP, legal and other key stakeholders throughout
the process ensures that projects are designed in ways that both protect the
company andmove quickly toward end goals. Here are four strategies to
help secure a successful program.

Address IP From the Start

Step one for any project is to engage IP counsel early and
thoughtfully, making them part owners in the process, to help open innovation
projects proceed smoothly. Pull pertinent information together into a tidy
package and run problem statements and the terms, conditions, and communication
plans by IP counsel. A proactive structure and packaging of the IP conversation
shows that people in the program have respect for protocol, chain of command
and stakeholder opinions. This approach avoids typical hurdles and ensures a
positive outcome. Though some IP counsels can be difficult, most like to be
innovators. Often they get called in when there’s a problem or to clean up a
mess—a highly stressful situation that can be avoided if they’re engaged as
partners early on in a smart way that doesn’t burn through a lot of their time.

Get Corporate Counsel On Your Team

In addition to IP counsel, be sure to reach out to the
corporate business counsel to alert them about the program and find out their
needs for review and approval. Package materials for review, including a
high-level description of any communication plan. Share what you’ll be doing,
the objective behind it, what needs to be reviewed, the decisions corporate
counsel needs to make too support you and by which date you’ll need their
review and decisions. Plan to allow for a two-week response turnaround.

Offer In-Person and Online Support Resources

Create a small team of program managers who consult with
employees if they have questions once they are involved with the program and
create a comprehensive resource site that contains all the program information,
along with answers to FAQs. The site can include information on how to best
identify which tasks should be done by employees, which are best done working
with a supplier and which could be worked on in collaboration with on-demand talent
or crowdsourcing.

Create a Compliance Video

Standardize compliance requirements, and make them easier to
understand and follow, by creating a training video for employees to watch
before engaging with a program. The video can include everything from login,
security, permissions and administrative control, or include information about what
makes a great project post, budgeting guidance, who to contact in your legal
department for guidance, and more.To find out more about how to begin or advance a crowdsourcing program, check out our playbook, “How to Thrive in the New Economy of Work: The Ultimate Guide to Adopting Open Talent Models within Your Organization."

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