February 19, 2007
Project Manager is Key to Crowdsourcing
- Cambrian House
- Crowdsourcing
- Entrepreneur
- It's Just Lunch for Networking
- Jumble Lunch
- Spoil My Spouse
I’m not going to go in depth on this subject right now, but I’ve been thinking a lot about how important it is for a project that is being crowd sourced to have an incredible project manager. The better the project manager, the more successful the idea will be.
If you hearken to any venture capitalist or angel investor I’m sure that they would tell you that the management team associated with a business is more valuable then the actual idea. If an investor believes in the management team and specifically the leader of that team, then investors will start opening up their wallets.
Crowdsourcing is no different. In fact, it might even be more important. Managing a crowdsourced project is about motivating people who are either interested in working for free or some future hope of wealth. This is definitely simplifying the situation, but the point is that a project manager of a crowd sourced project has a variety of ways to build a business. The methods they choose to employ could alienate the entire community if they aren’t careful.
I’ll address more on this subject later, but I think it will be absolutely critical for Cambrian House to determine how they are going to handle the various project managers in their new crowdsourcing model. There are a ton of questions to be answered. For example…
Who will be the project manager of an idea?
How much influence will the idea submitter get in determining a project manager?
Can a person working a full time job be a project manager in their “free time?”
What share of the project does the project manager receive in the idea?
What’s the process for replacing a defunct project manager?
What share of the idea will a project manager keep if they no longer have time to work on the project? (severance package?)
Will Cambrian House be able to get enough project managers involved in the community?
My own personal questions involve my two ideas: Jumble Lunch and Spoil My Spouse. I can’t be the “leader” of both projects. Which one should I do and which one should I give to someone else? Is there someone else interested in working on these projects? I currently am leaning towards working on Spoil My Spouse since it matches my skills and interests more than Jumble Lunch. However, there is tremendous momentum behind Jumble Lunch. Decisions Decisions!!
I am very pleased to see practicalities being addressed.
The nitty-gritty realities/day to day processing of the CS business model appears to be processed at CH in a healthy way. The public offering of such demonstrates a huge commitment to the CS business model.
Your willingness to open up the discourse demonstrates leadership. What better encouragement and support to others who are either contemplating or beginning to manage such questions!
I caught a long but “crucial” rant at http://www.briansolis.com/2007/01/enough-already-getting-social-media.html that was addressing similar/related questions. How quickly is management going react to the changing culture of business on the web? Dell appears to have reacted. http://www.dellideastorm.com/
“the management team associated with a business is more valuable then the actual idea” comment could also be an interesting conversation, I don’t know about that myself unless you’re only talking about practicalities.
Alan.
Some nice links Alan. I really like the Dell link. The amazing thing is the audience that they are immediately able to capture when they open up new initiatives like this. My biggest problem with the Dell site is that you can see on the list that it is completely overwhelmed by what I call “Digg users” These are people in technology that know what linux, firefox and open office are and can tell you why it matters. I’d be interested to know what percent of Dell’s users are “Digg users” My guess is a relatively small percentage. I know that when I talk about any of the above topics with my non tech friends they just give me a blank stare. We’ll see if Dell has a way of capturing these users preferences.
I agree that CH’s open business model is refreshing and exciting. I enjoy the discussions that are created and hopefully we are creating something that effects generations.
As far as talking practicalities, I rarely don’t talk about practicalities. I think a story teaches so much better than theory.
Food for thought:
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbrsa/en/issue/0702/article/R0702A.jhtml
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbrsa/en/issue/0702/article/R0702A.jhtml#section19