At
TopCoder, we are asked a lot of questions and we understand why. Our
community of more than 409,000 developers, algorithmists and digital
designers combined with how we produce assets via our Open Innovation
competition methodology is a brand new idea to many who are seeking a
new way forward in innovation and productivity. We’ve been astutely
listening to all of your questions and thought it would be valuable to
the vast majority of our current and future blog readers to begin a new
series dubbed “Just the FAQ’s”. A tad tongue-in-cheek it is, but this
series is specifically crafted to provide you with answers to questions
that we are being asked on a consistent basis. Today’s FAQ topic is:
How do you attract the right talent from your community to a brand new technology?
Whether
we are in with an existing client or chatting with a potential one that
is thinking of joining our community and accessing our competition
platform, the question of how we position our community to work on very
specific, or even brand new technologies comes up quite often. So let’s
review a few ways TopCoder does exactly this.
First,
it’s worthy to mention that the very absurdity of the pace of
technology, just how fast things move these days, is a big driver of
enterprises to explore our platform and capabilities. They recognize
they can no longer “island hop” and chase the newest technological
evolution that requires hyperspecialized talent to produce within it. A
big advantage of joining and accessing a community like TopCoder is that
the community members are continuously updating, honing and learning
new skills on an individual level. As new technologies, languages and
preferences emerge, those already plugged into the community can enjoy
the benefits of a community that is continually educating “itself”. Back
to how we attract the right talent to new technologies, there are
several, structured ways we go about this task.
#1 – Shout, Shout Let It All Out
Operating a global community of more than 409,000 people has taught us that communication out to the individuals who comprise the whole is paramount in enabling a desired reaction. Luckily, at our disposal today are myriad ways to communicate with our members. When we have a new technology or challenge we are attempting to attract individuals to, we create a communication outreach campaign that often includes some combination of the following:
- News Item Post -community.topcoder.com/tc is a great visibility tool. TopCoder members not only visit this page quite often, but any news item featured on this page (pictured above) is also delivered via email to our members. This is a great asset and our first and foremost ‘weapon of choice’ to get the word out and in a hurry.
-
TopCoder Forums – Inside our community is a network of very popular forums. It’s a main communication channel for community members and making sure this news hits the intra-airwaves provides another touch-point to our members.
- TopCoder is Social – Our Facebook page has over 5,180 fans, Twitter is near 3,500, G+, LinkedIn, YouTube … you get the idea. Often our social members are very engaged participants who compete rather often and therefore they are a perfect group to target with the newest competitions.
- Survey Says! – Good old fashioned surveys out to the community work great! Often we’ll offer community members a chance to win a TopCoder t-shirt just by filling out the survey and we’ll get back honest answers on their abilities in that skill and their interest level in learning more about a new technology.
It
also doesn’t hurt when publications such as Mashable decide to cover
ambitious Open Innovation challenges as they did for this NASA /
TopCoder effort – ‘The Ultimate App’
#2 If You Build it, They Will Come
You
may or may not know that at TopCoder, our clients join our community,
access our platform and then execute scores of projects on top of the
platform. Our clients are bringing a very high-volume work load to our
members. This work is rarely of the “one off” variety. Instead it is
dozens and even hundreds of projects per quarter. There is another word
for this in the business world, a pipeline.
If
a client is serious about gaining an advantage in a specific new
technology, we encourage them to put in a pipeline of work, not just a
singular project. Why? Our members are very smart and those who compete
professionally are routinely checking the pipeline of opportunity coming
their way. If they are being advised to “hone up” on a particular skill
or language and then can pair that advisement with a robust pipeline of
work on the horizon, the individuals do the hard work and come prepared
to compete.
Many
competitors are here to gain skills and have fun competing, others make
their living (and good ones) winning TopCoder competitions. If they can
visualize and understand an opportunity, they will ramp-up and take
advantage of it.
#3 Show Them the Money
Typically
we will work with our clients and encourage them to offer higher than
normal prize amounts for new technologies. This helps attract both
members with that particular skill set and top rated TopCoder members
who have shown a propensity for quickly acquiring a new skill or
language. An increase of a few hundred dollars in prize money can have a
very positive impact with regards to contest participation and
therefore the outputs born from competition.
Predicting Success While Failing Fast & Cheap
We
guide our clients and assure that they understand that as we align the
community to a new technology, there will most likely be a learning
curve and we may not realize a 100% success the first time “out”. We
simply have to plan for this and do so by communicating openly with our
clients that this may take several attempts, tweaks and iterations
before the assets are consistently strong in the new technology. Being
part of a community from the client’s perspective has some interesting
shared benefits. Often, another client’s experimentation will directly
benefit your outputs down the road.
The
TopCoder platform also features a predictive analysis engine that
allows clients to visualize the likelihood of success during the
registration phase of any contest. If the right level of talent and
reliability rating are lacking, meaning those registering to compete on a
particular piece of code, algorithm challenge or design do not often
produce quality outputs, the predictive engine will alert the client and
recommend that the contest does not proceed past registration. In other
words, something is “off” prior to “launch” and it’s best to take the
rocket off the launch-pad, examine why we weren’t attracting the right
level of talent, and prep the contest to launch again at a later date.
Often
the reasons for a non-healthy registration are easily recognizable and
therefore correctable. The point is, all of this adjustment is taking
place before a contest moves forward, meaning the client is saving both
time & money.
Finally,
if a contest does fail – and yes it does happen – this means the
outputs received did not meet a standard of acceptance, no prize monies
are rewarded and the client does not pay for that contest. In today’s
marketplace, the ability to experiment, try often, fail fast and cheaply
and as a consequence of attempting more, succeed more often, is a key
reason enterprises decide to join the TopCoder community.
Just the FAQ’s – Wrap Up
In
this world of platforms and communities it is one thing to have
gathered your masses. The real skill is in being able to communicate to
them as individuals and to drive actions that equate to hyperspecialists
from within the community, self-selecting new opportunities and
choosing to compete. At TopCoder, through time, trial and error and
continuous refinement, we have a defined process that most often results
in great success for our clients and our community
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