Why Atomization is the Key to Success in Open Innovation

At TopCoder, we like to break things down. No, we don’t mean spontaneous dance-offs in the halls of our Glastonbury, CT headquarters, but rather we are referring to the atomization of the work before our community of more than 412,000 developers, algorithmists, and digital design creatives. We break down projects, some small, some medium-sized, and some rather complex and quite large-scale projects, into the elements of atomized work and innovation that must be accomplished to create a very successful whole. In fact, the very process to atomize the work itself is most often accomplished via a specific competition where the output is the atomized road-map forward. After successfully atomizing the work, we then host highly specific competitions to create the parts and through our community, powered by competition, we create best in breed atomized assets throughout the entire production life-cycle. And yes, if you were wondering how we put Humpty-Dumpty back together again, that too is a specialized competition we call Assembly. Then the asset can be tested and even de-bugged, all through, you guessed it, specialized competitions.

It’s good to understand that TopCoder creates assets through this highly structured and purposefully rigorous process. What is more powerful to understand is why we do it this way. Last September we released a popular blog post that discussed the 6 Important Ways Crowdsourcing is Different than Outsourcing. This linked article is a good start, but it’s time to move this discussion forward. 

Now, as Crowdsourcing and Open Innovation models evolve further, another distinction must be drawn. There is a fundamental difference between utilizing an Open Innovation challenge for a one off contest, even if it’s a large-scale “Grand Challenge” vs. having a defined, repeatable process in place to continuously innovate via an Open Innovation platform. At TopCoder we call the latter EOI or Enterprise Open Innovation and at the heart of the ability to continuously innovate is the fact that we utilize atomization to the utmost.

Join TopCoder on Tuesday, July 10th for this free webinar: Achieving the Complex in Open Innovation: Why Atomization is the Key to Success - Space is limited. Register Now.

Join this discussion as we canvass:

• The differences between EOI v. Moonshot Open Innovation
• The 7 Benefits of Atomization in Open Innovation
• 2 Client Case Studies – one from an enterprise client, one from a government client – both exceptionally complex, large-scale projects

Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing are turning a page for the better. Enjoying a process that legitimately scales is the only way to shift mentality within an enterprise. This isn’t about hosting an open competition to boost your marketing and brand. This is about productivity and everyday innovation. And at TopCoder this is possible, at least partly, because of atomization. Register for the webinar, and experience why.