Work · Module
Ideas & Innovation
Challenges, fair evaluation and stage gates that turn ideas into pilots and features
Ideas & Innovation collects ideas from employees, customers and partners, evaluates them fairly, and moves the best ones through stage gates into funded pilots, projects or product features.
What it does
Ideas & Innovation is an add-on eligible from W4 and not yet scheduled. It gives organisations a structured way to ask for ideas, judge them fairly and act on the good ones.
Challenges and submissions
A challenge is a campaign with a question, an audience (workspaces, groups or portal audiences), dates, evaluation criteria, sponsors and a budget envelope. Ideas can be submitted on the web, on mobile, on WhatsApp or as Indic voice notes, with attachments and template fields per challenge. AI drafts from voice or WhatsApp become visible only after the submitter confirms them.
Anonymous submission seals the submitter's identity so no tenant user can see it by default. Unsealing needs an R4 decision with DPO or owner review and a recorded legal basis, and agents can never unseal. Before an anonymous idea is published, AI warns the submitter privately if the text could reveal who they are.
Fair evaluation
- Voting and discussion with one vote per member per idea, no self-voting, an optional vote budget and moderated comments.
- Duplicate clustering with explained merge suggestions; merges keep all contributors and de-duplicate votes.
- Evaluation panels score on the challenge criteria. Panel members declare conflicts of interest before scoring, and blind review can hide the submitter and other scores.
- Stage gates such as screening, business case, pilot and scale, with approvers. Funding decisions are R3.
From idea to impact
An approved pilot creates a Project from a pilot template with budget and success metrics. A product-fit idea is promoted to a Product Management feature with its votes as evidence. At GA, a business case builder drafts costs, benefits, risks and assumptions, with every number labelled as an estimate with its input. Recognition defaults to points and badges, and monetary rewards go through People Payroll or Expenses (verify tax treatment). Funnel analytics, external ideas from customers and partners with IP terms (verify with counsel), goal alignment and pilot outcome tracking linked to the ROI Ledger are also planned.
Safeguards
Submissions that look like grievances or whistleblowing are flagged privately. With the submitter's consent they move to Whistleblower & Ethics and leave the idea system.
Features
What Ideas & Innovation includes
Challenges
Question, audience, dates, criteria, sponsors and budget envelope.
Idea submission
Web, mobile, WhatsApp and Indic voice submissions with template fields.
Anonymous submission
Sealed identity; unsealing only by R4 decision with recorded legal basis.
Voting and discussion
One vote per member, no self-voting, optional vote budget and moderated comments.
Duplicate clustering
Explained merge suggestions that keep contributors and de-duplicate votes.
Evaluation panels
Criteria scorecards, conflict-of-interest declarations and blind review.
Stage gates
Configurable stages with approvers; funding decisions are R3.
Pilot to project
Approved pilots create a Project with budget and success metrics.
Promote to product
Ideas become Product Management features with votes as evidence.
Business case builder
AI-drafted cases with every figure labelled as an estimate (GA).
Recognition and rewards
Points and badges; monetary rewards through Payroll or Expenses (GA).
Misconduct routing
Grievance-like submissions move to Whistleblower & Ethics with consent (GA).
Workflow
Challenge to pilot or feature
- 1
Launch a challenge
- 2
Collect ideas by web, WhatsApp, voice or portal
- 3
Moderate, merge duplicates and flag misconduct-like submissions
- 4
Members vote and discuss
- 5
A panel evaluates after conflict declarations
- 6
Screening gate advances or rejects with feedback
- 7
A business case is drafted and reviewed, then the funding gate decides
- 8
Funded ideas become pilot projects or product features; pilot outcomes go to a scale gate
AI
AI skills and Digital Employees
Voice and WhatsApp idea drafts
Drafts ideas that become visible only after the submitter confirms.
Duplicate clustering
Suggests merges with explanations.
Re-identification risk warning
Privately warns anonymous submitters whose text may reveal them.
Misconduct-like submission flag
Flags possible grievances visible only to the submitter and innovation manager.
Business case drafts
Drafts cases with every figure labelled as an estimate.
Digital Employees that use this module
They act through the same governed Actions as people; risky steps wait for approval.
Frequently asked questions
Can anonymous submitters be identified?
Not by default. Identity is sealed, and unsealing needs an R4 decision with DPO or owner review and a recorded legal basis. Agents can never unseal.
How are conflicts of interest handled?
Panel members declare conflicts before scoring, and blind review can hide the submitter and other evaluators' scores.
When is Ideas & Innovation planned?
It is eligible from W4, in Year 3, subject to the plan's prioritisation scoring.
See Ideas & Innovation in your workflow
Tell us about your team and the outcomes you want. We will walk you through the apps, the Digital Employees and the plan for your industry.