Pushing the envelope is easier with AI and robotics on your side.

Innovation no longer needs to be a slow, incremental process. As all industries undergo rapid AI-driven transformations, we’re seeing massive shifts in how teams collaborate, communicate, and execute projects. Construction is no different.

For industry leaders like Hamzah Shanbari, Director of Innovation at Haskell, AI is an essential tool in optimizing construction workflows and ensuring that all stakeholders operate with the most up-to-date information. We sat down with Shanbari to discuss how to build a culture of innovation, run high-impact events like the Big Pitch, AI’s growing role in innovation technology, and his book, Paperless Builders: The Why, What, and How of Construction Technology.

Watch the full interview below, or read on for a curated selection of key takeaways.

Key takeaways

• Assign a dedicated team to own and implement winning ideas, rather than relying on idea submitters to carry them forward.
• Adopt a mindset of experimentation and be open to failure — this is essential to unlocking AI’s full potential and driving real innovation.
• Treat innovation events like cultural moments that bring cross-functional teams together and elevate idea contributors in front of leadership.
• Use AI-powered simulations early in the design process to predict risks, validate feasibility, and optimize outcomes before construction begins.
• Leverage AI and robotics to augment human labor, improve safety, and attract the next generation of talent to the construction industry.

Don’t Hand Off Ideas—Own Them

Many organizations struggle to turn hackathons or pitch ideas into real-world outcomes. Survey data tells us that only 29% of projects move beyond the event and are implemented. Therefore, the problem lies in follow-through. Hamzah points out a common pitfall: companies assume that the person who submitted the idea should also lead its execution. But innovators already have day jobs, and without structured support, ideas stall.

“That statistic is sad. A lot of companies try to give ownership to the outcome of a hackathon or event to the people who submitted the idea. And I think that’s where they mostly die — because those people have full-time jobs. What we did differently is that we, as the innovation team, even though we’re still small and nimble, take full responsibility for running the entire project. Yes, the idea owners are 100% involved as their time permits — they attend meetings, give feedback, and help shape it — but we’re the ones seeing it through to deployment.”

At Haskell, the innovation team doesn’t just facilitate the pitch event — they actively develop and implement the winning ideas. The original submitters stay involved as advisors and champions, but the heavy lifting belongs to the team that has the tools, time, and mandate to bring ideas to life. It’s a model that ensures momentum doesn’t end when the event does.

Execution matters just as much as ideation. That’s why we developed Hackathon 5: To help you turn employee ideas into implemented outcomes, faster and more reliably than ever before. Read our launch announcement to learn more.

Embracing Change Is the First Step Toward Innovation

Despite AI’s immense potential, many organizations struggle with adoption. The biggest challenge isn’t the technology itself, it’s the mindset shift required to embrace change. Many leaders are hesitant to implement new tools that could disrupt long-standing processes, especially in the construction industry. However, as Shanbari emphasizes, failing to adapt means failing to innovate. Without an open mindset, businesses cannot harness the full potential of AI to drive progress.

“I start the book with chapter one: Change Is Hard. Literally, chapter one, because if you can’t overcome that hurdle, everything else in the book is going to be irrelevant to you. Change is hard because it’s the fear of the unknown. It’s the fear of what else is on the other side of this technology implementation… I’m preaching that it’s okay to not know. It’s okay to experiment. It’s okay to fail and learn from that and do it again. And without overcoming that hurdle at the beginning, before you even embark on anything that has to do with innovation and technology, if you are not willing to fail, you are not willing to innovate.”

Shanbari’s perspective underscores a crucial point: Experimentation is key. AI thrives in environments where leaders and teams are willing to iterate, take calculated risks, and use failure as a learning tool. Those who hesitate to integrate AI into their operations risk falling behind competitors who embrace these rapid advancements.

Create a Cultural Moment, Not Just an Event

For Haskell, the Big Pitch isn’t just a pitch competition, it’s a cultural event. By bringing together leaders and employees from across business units, the event fosters connection, visibility, and momentum. It’s a space where everyone in the room shares the same goal: surfacing something innovative that could shape the future of the company. This sense of collective purpose has proven to be just as valuable as the ideas themselves.

“What I love about Big Pitch is it really gets a lot of people in the same room with one common goal — something different is going to come out of this. That’s what excites me the most. We’ve got BU leaders, vice presidents, even presidents in the audience. Not necessarily judging or participating, but showing up to support the people who are brave enough to bring their ideas forward and pitch to an executive panel. That visibility and energy is what makes the Big Pitch so unique for us.”

This format not only boosts engagement but reinforces the message that innovation is a shared responsibility. From executives to first-time contributors, everyone plays a role in making the event, and the ideas it generates, a success. That kind of shared ownership can’t be replicated in a suggestion box or one-off R&D meeting.

AI-Powered Simulation Is the New Future

As AI continues to evolve, its capabilities extend far beyond design. Simulation technology is transforming how projects are assessed before they even break ground. By using AI-driven simulations, teams can test the feasibility, safety, and community impact of projects, minimizing unforeseen issues and optimizing outcomes before construction even begins.

“There’s going to be a whole kind of mandatory step between design and construction. We can start as early as conceptual design, which is that simulation aspect. With all these advances in technology and AI, we can simulate. We can say, here’s the design: Is it constructible in the time frame and the budget that you’re setting for this? Is it safe for the employees or workers to be on that job site? What other impacts is it going to have on the local community? So there are so many different things that you can be simulating before you even step foot on the job site and start deploying people. I think that’s going to be a fundamental change.”

With AI-driven simulations, companies can anticipate obstacles long before they occur, leading to more efficient and cost-effective project execution. This predictive capability ensures that businesses are making decisions backed by data, rather than relying on intuition or outdated processes.

Robots Aren’t Our Enemy

A common concern surrounding AI is the fear that automation and robotics will replace human workers. However, Shanbari asserts that these advancements are designed to complement human labor, making jobs safer, more efficient, and ultimately more rewarding. Not only that, but the inclusion of advanced technology may help draw a younger audience to the field, a demographic that Shanbari believes is missing from construction.

“People kind of get wary [that] robots are coming for our jobs. No, they’re coming to augment your job, to make it easier, safer, more efficient, you know, and help us with the great labor shortage that we are dealing with as an industry, because it’s not attractive enough as an industry for the young generation to get into. Hopefully, with all this technology, robotics, AI, and different developments, we can start attracting more and more of the new generation in different fields that we don’t incorporate in the construction industry right now.”

Rather than eliminating jobs, AI-driven automation is filling critical gaps in industries struggling with workforce shortages. By taking on repetitive or hazardous tasks, robots allow skilled workers to focus on higher-value aspects of their roles, ultimately driving greater productivity and job satisfaction.

AI As a Catalyst for Change

AI is no longer a distant concept. It is actively transforming industries by enhancing communication, optimizing design, and streamlining operations. Leaders who embrace AI-driven tools will find themselves at the forefront of their fields, able to iterate faster, solve complex challenges, and execute projects with unprecedented efficiency. As Shanbari’s insights demonstrate, AI is not just a tool;  it’s a game-changer.

Brightidea helps organizations turn ideas into impact. Schedule a Hackathon 5 demo today to see how we can help revolutionize your next event at Brightidea.com.

Former Google, Atlassian, and McKinsey leader shares his perspective on fostering innovation, overcoming organizational blockers, and the role of AI in the future of high-performing teams.

Innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum — it thrives in environments that encourage experimentation, rapid iteration, and real-world feedback. Few people understand this better than Dan Chuparkoff, a product management veteran who has spent over 30 years leading teams at some of the world’s most innovative companies, including Google, Atlassian, and McKinsey & Company. Today, as a keynote speaker and innovation consultant, Dan helps organizations navigate the evolving landscape of AI, remote collaboration, and the future of high-performing teams.

We sat down with Dan to discuss what separates high performers from the rest, how AI is reshaping the innovation process, and why hackathons are a game changer for companies that want to turn ideas into impact.

Key takeaways

• Structure hackathons around execution, not just ideation. Ensure that hackathons focus on building and shipping real prototypes that can be tested and refined.
• Test ideas in the real world, not just in meetings. Move beyond committee-driven idea selection and focus on gathering customer feedback as early as possible.
• Start with the smallest, most actionable version of your idea. Prioritize small, fast experiments over large, complex plans to accelerate innovation.
• Create a dedicated space for safe experimentation. Encourage employees to explore new ideas in a controlled, low-risk environment before committing resources.
• Use AI as a brainstorming partner, but trust human judgment for decision-making. Leverage AI to generate ideas, but rely on human experience and strategic priorities to decide which ones to pursue.

Structure Hackathons Around Execution, Not Just Ideation

Many organizations host hackathons but struggle to turn the resulting ideas into real products. They’re often treated as brainstorming events rather than platforms for meaningful innovation. While creativity and idea generation are crucial, hackathons should be designed to drive actual execution. Dan’s experience at Atlassian offers a valuable lesson into how hackathons should be approached.

“At Atlassian, we had ‘Ship It Days,’ which was different from the typical hackathon. The only way for an idea to count was if it got shipped — it had to be deployed and functional by the end of the event. A lot of companies assume they have an ideation problem, but in reality, they have an execution problem. The challenge isn’t coming up with ideas; it’s making sure those ideas don’t just sit in a backlog collecting dust. The best hackathons are designed to force real action.”

By shifting the focus from brainstorming to building, hackathons become powerful tools for driving measurable impact. Instead of merely celebrating creativity, organizations should integrate hackathons into their long-term innovation strategy. This means structuring hackathons in a way that ideas are not only generated but also validated, tested, and refined. When executed effectively, hackathons empower employees, fuel innovation pipelines, and drive meaningful business outcomes.

Test Ideas in the Real World, Not Just in Meetings

Many organizations fall into the trap of spending too much time debating and analyzing ideas rather than acting on them. Companies that succeed in innovation prioritize rapid experimentation, allowing real customer responses to dictate direction rather than internal debates. This approach helps avoid bias, ensures a more agile strategy, and allows for faster adaptation to changing customer needs. Many organizations rely on internal committees to vote on ideas, but Dan believes that’s a flawed approach.

“The companies that really do it well are the ones that get the little seeds of ideas into the market as soon as possible and start paying close attention to customer reactions. It’s not about debating which ideas seem best in a boardroom — it’s about putting something in front of real users and letting their responses shape the direction. Customers don’t always articulate exactly what they want, but their behavior tells you everything. Capturing data, identifying early excitement, and iterating based on real-world use — that’s what separates successful companies from those stuck in endless planning cycles.”

Instead of relying on opinions, the most innovative companies use customer feedback to validate ideas. They shift from a mindset of perfection to one of continuous improvement. By engaging real users as co-creators in the innovation process, companies build products and solutions that are more aligned with market needs.

Start With the Smallest, Most Actionable Version of Your Idea

A common misconception about innovation is that big ideas need big launches. Many companies hesitate to take action because they believe their ideas need to be fully formed before going to market. This mindset often leads to prolonged development cycles, unnecessary complexity, and missed opportunities.

Instead, successful teams focus on what Dan calls ‘finding the smallest, most actionable version’ of an idea. This approach reduces risk, accelerates learning, and increases the likelihood of success. By breaking down a big vision into smaller, testable components, teams can rapidly validate assumptions and iterate based on real-world feedback. This method also ensures that resources are spent efficiently, focusing only on what truly resonates with customers rather than what seems good in theory. Dan argues that truly effective teams focus on finding the simplest version of an idea to test first.

“People often get caught up in making something perfect before they share it, but that’s the wrong approach. The only thing that really matters is getting something tangible in front of customers as quickly as possible. The best teams are the ones that understand how to strip an idea down to its core — what’s the smallest, simplest thing we can test right now? If you wait until you’ve built everything, you’ve wasted valuable time. The key is to release, gather real-world data, and iterate. That’s where real innovation happens.”

This philosophy is deeply rooted in agile principles, but many teams lose sight of its essence. Instead of embracing agility as a means of fast learning through iteration, they become bogged down by overly rigid frameworks, excessive documentation, and unnecessary bureaucratic processes. True agility isn’t about following a prescribed set of rituals, it’s about learning as quickly as possible through small, incremental experiments. Successful innovators create feedback loops where each small test informs the next step, leading to faster adaptation and a better end product.

Create a Dedicated Space for Safe Experimentation

One of the biggest blockers to innovation is the lack of a safe space. Many organizations, particularly those in highly regulated industries, are reluctant to take risks. True innovation requires a balance, allowing room for safe failure while maintaining strategic oversight. Companies that encourage controlled experimentation benefit from rapid learning cycles, where employees can test bold ideas in a structured but low-risk environment.

Creating a culture where experimentation is encouraged, rather than penalized, is key to long-term adaptability and success. Dan believes that organizations must be intentional about building ‘sandboxes’: Dedicated spaces for teams to explore new ideas, refine emerging technologies, and iterate without the fear of repercussions.

“The most innovative companies foster a culture of experimentation. Whether it’s AI, automation, or any other emerging technology, teams need the ability to play, iterate, and experiment without immediate high stakes. If a company’s first exposure to a new technology happens only after it’s already widely adopted, they’re already behind. The best organizations give their people the space to explore — whether that means personal projects, dedicated R&D time, or internal hackathons — so that when the time comes to make a strategic decision, they’re prepared.”

Encouraging employees to test new tools and approaches in a low-risk environment accelerates learning and helps organizations adapt faster. Companies can implement experimentation frameworks, such as innovation labs, pilot programs, or cross-functional ideation sessions, to ensure that new ideas don’t just sit in a backlog but get actively tested. Organizations that cultivate this mindset gain a significant competitive advantage, as their teams develop a deep familiarity with emerging trends before they become industry standards.

Use AI as a Brainstorming Partner, But Trust Human Judgment for Decision-Making

AI has made it easier than ever to generate ideas, but Dan warns against treating it as an automatic decision-maker. While AI can quickly produce thousands of suggestions, its limitations lie in its lack of human intuition, emotional intelligence, and strategic foresight. The real power of AI lies in its ability to augment human creativity by generating diverse perspectives, helping teams break through mental roadblocks and streamline ideation. Organizations that learn to balance AI’s speed with human discernment will find themselves making better, more informed decisions.

“AI is an incredible brainstorming assistant, but it doesn’t have the context or judgment to determine what’s actually valuable. If you need 150 new ideas, AI can give them to you instantly, but it won’t necessarily tell you which ones to act on. That’s where human judgment comes in. The best approach is to use AI to help with ideation — pulling from a wider range of possibilities than we might naturally consider — but then have people apply their knowledge, intuition, and experience to decide which ideas should move forward.”

The key is to use AI to enhance human creativity, not replace it. Teams should implement structured decision-making frameworks that incorporate AI-generated insights while ensuring that human experts validate and refine the final selection. Successful integration of AI requires organizations to establish clear guidelines for how AI-driven ideas are evaluated, tested, and refined. Companies that adopt this hybrid model of combining AI’s computational power with human creativity and strategic thinking will stay ahead of the competition and create more innovative, impactful, and sustainable solutions.

Turning Ideas Into Impact

Dan Chuparkoff’s insights reinforce the importance of real-world testing, iterative development, and creating a culture of experimentation. At BrightIdea, we help organizations put these principles into action. Our innovation management platform provides teams the tools to capture ideas, run experiments, and scale their best solutions. Whether you’re looking to optimize your ideation process or drive execution with hackathons, we can help you turn your best ideas into measurable impact. Contact us today to learn more.

Want to hear more from Dan? Follow him on LinkedIn and keep an eye out for his upcoming book, The Innovation Machine, coming fall 2025.

Introducing Hackathon 5

Innovation is accelerating, and there’s no room for inaction. AI isn’t just changing industries—it’s rewriting the rules of success. If you’re not harnessing its power, someone else is, and they’re moving faster than you think. The future is uncertain, but one thing is clear: you need to innovate or die.

Your teams are full of untapped potential. They’re ready to contribute and solve big problems—but they need the space and the tools to do it. A hackathon is the fastest, most powerful way to kickstart innovation in your organization. It’s the defibrillator for your innovation program—a jolt of energy that brings fresh ideas and real solutions to life in record time.

Enter Hackathon 5 – the most complete solution for organizing your hackathons. Our latest release enhances the previous version with powerful features, keeping hackathon organizers, participants, and judges at the forefront.

So, pick a date. Let them innovate!

The Full Brightidea Hackathon 5 Solution

With 25+ years of innovation expertise, we know that hackathons are more than just good ideas—they require the right strategy, tools, and support. That’s why we’ve developed Hackathon 5, a complete solution designed to make every hackathon a success.

Our approach combines three key elements:

• Coaching & Support: Get as much or as little help as you need from experienced innovation consultants. Whether it’s strategy, setup, or customization, we provide hands-on support to keep your event on track.
• Proven Process: A step-by-step methodology guiding you through every stage, from planning and team formation to execution and judging—our structured approach ensures an efficient, engaging, and results-driven event.
• All-in-One Platform: Our powerful hackathon software streamlines every aspect of the event with automation, collaboration tools, and real-time analytics—delivering a seamless experience for organizers, participants, and judges.

With this complete solution, Brightidea helps you to not only run successful hackathons, but also foster a culture of innovation that drives real business value. The Hackathon 5 release brings powerful enhancements to help you manage, engage, and scale your hackathons with ease.

A Better Experience for Participants

What would a hackathon be without happy participants generating the next best ideas to succeed? From start to finish, participants will now enjoy a smoother hackathon experience. From joining an event, forming teams, collaborating, and keeping updated with phases and timelines, these new features help keep everyone on the same page:

• Participant Onboarding Wizard: Help new hackathon participants get started quickly with ease. The reimagined interactive onboarding wizard walks hackathon participants through registration, event details, and team formation. Teams can also take advantage of Brightidea AI to help create a team image for branding purposes. Reduce the noise and back-and-forth questions of new participants. By streamlining this process, participants can hit the ground running and stay focused on what matters—creating bold new ideas.
• Persistent Countdown: Keep participants aware of time limits by displaying the current phase and time remaining across all relevant event pages. Integrated with the Scheduler and Phase Widget, it ensures participants stay focused and on schedule, whether in the main event view or their project room.
• Winner’s Page: Make your hackathon wrap-up seamless with the Winner’s Page! This feature provides a clear and organized way to announce winners and celebrate their achievements. Once the top projects are selected for the Hackathon, they’ll automatically show on the Winner’s Page, making it easy for everyone to see who won. With a polished design and clear messaging, the Winner’s Page ensures a smooth and professional event conclusion.

Empowering Hackathon Judges

Judging is a critical part of any hackathon, and we’re making it easier than ever for judges to evaluate submissions efficiently. We now offer a tablet-optimized judging experience for seamless live scoring.

• Tablet Judging Experience: Designed with a responsive, optimized interface for iPads and tablets, Brightidea Hackathon 5 enables judges to review and score submissions seamlessly. The larger, touch-friendly interface allows for an intuitive and efficient scoring process, making it easier to navigate projects, view attachments, and provide ratings quickly via slider scales.
• Judging Audio Comments: Judges can now provide verbal feedback using recorded audio, offering richer and more nuanced evaluations than traditional text comments. This feature allows judges to convey tone, emphasis, and detailed insights, ensuring participants receive constructive and personalized feedback on their projects.

Smarter Tools for Hackathon Organizers

Organizing a hackathon is no small feat, but our latest updates give organizers more control than ever before. From the crucial planning phase, through to voting and business implementation, we’ve taken considerable time to develop features that put hackathon organizers in the driver’s seat:

• Automated Event Scheduler: The Automated Event Scheduler simplifies event management with Brightidea’s Hackathon Process. It syncs with the Analytics Dashboard, keeps participants updated on their stage, and allows organizers to set phase times, send targeted emails, and communicate through blogs. Organizers can also rename phases and provide task descriptions and remaining time.
• Advanced Analytics Dashboard: The Advanced Analytics Dashboard simplifies measuring impact by integrating with the Event Scheduler to provide a real-time summary of your hackathon’s success through metrics like engagement, participation, and ROI. It supports data-driven decisions by allowing you to set goals, monitor milestones, and evaluate marketing effectiveness. You can identify which communications boost participation—whether a CEO email increases engagement by 20% or a system email has little effect—enabling you to optimize strategies in real-time for greater event success.
• Editable HTML Email Templates: Hackathon organizers can now set up automated, customizable email templates for event invites, alerts, and important updates. Whether you’re welcoming new registrants or reminding teams of deadlines, this feature ensures consistent messaging and seamless outreach with new HTML capabilities, allowing you to include headers, logos for branding support, enhanced link capabilities and CAN-SPAM compliance updates.
• Hackathon Email Alerts: Running a successful hackathon requires clear, engaging communication. The new pre-built email alerts make it easy to announce your event, send updates, and keep participants informed. With five new email templates added to the library, a few triggers for messages include: first idea view, 24-hour submission deadline, and event closeouts. Keeping participants informed and engaged without lifting a finger.
• Dashboard Nudge Button: Streamline communication by instantly pulling up the emailer with pre-configured recipient groups and a pre-populated message. Whether reminding participants to select their final team or prompting action before deadlines, this feature ensures smooth coordination by deeply connecting key event sections.

But Wait, There’s More

Our team has been hard at work enhancing our hackathon solution with additional updates and features designed to streamline hackathon operations and improve the overall user experience. These updates include:

• Self-Service Licensing: Expand your innovation footprint with a new self-service licensing option. Hackathon admins can now purchase hackathon licenses directly through a user-friendly interface without having to jump through previous hurdles.
• Hidden Vote Counts: Organizers can choose to hide vote counts during the voting phase for greater control over the process and unbiased participation.
• Customer Support Tickets: We’ve fixed ~80 important support issues, making sure customer feedback shapes every update.

Don’t Let Your People Fall Behind

The world is in overdrive. AI is revolutionizing industries, market shifts are relentless, and the competition isn’t slowing down. If you pause, you’re already obsolete. The only path forward is through bold, relentless innovation—right now.

A hackathon isn’t just a launchpad; it’s your survival strategy. It’s how you break barriers, accelerate transformation, and unleash the collective power of your staff to fuel innovation. With Brightidea, you get more than a platform—you get the ultimate innovation engine, designed to supercharge your teams and propel you ahead of the competition.

The time to act isn’t tomorrow. It’s not next quarter. It’s now. The future belongs to those who take it. Are you ready?

Let them innovate.

As we stand on the brink of a new year, filled with promise and potential, we’re thrilled to unveil our latest software release. This isn’t just an update; it’s a testament to our shared commitment to innovation, growth, and resourcing for a brighter future. As you finalize your plans and set up company-wide resources for a successful 2025, rest assured knowing we’ve got your back.

We’ve meticulously planned and crafted this release, ensuring it embodies the spirit and ambition that defines you—our community—to GO BIG!

This. Is. It. The moment we take a bold step forward, equipped with a range of new features designed to empower and inspire all departments across your org. We’ve poured our hearts into this update, envisioning the countless ways it will help streamline your workflows, spark creativity, and drive success. So, as you embark on this journey into the new year, know that we’re right here with you, cheering you on and developing the tools you need to plan and conquer the brave new challenges that lie ahead. Together, let’s make the new year truly extraordinary!

Introducing Department Idea Box

Introducing a backlog for all! We get it—backlogs can be overwhelming, but they’re also a goldmine of potential progress. That’s why we’re thrilled to introduce new features designed to help you tame the beast. With our latest updates, you can transform your backlog into a lean, mean, prioritizing machine. Say goodbye to chaos and hello to clarity as you easily organize, track, and conquer workflow with these new features.

We’ve officially launched a new app under the Idea Box family, “Department Idea Box.” This is great for a single department that needs to collect, prioritize, and move ideas into effective work streams. This is the first Brightidea app that generates a multi-pipeline flow on the backend. Ideas can be routed into one of three streams based on complexity and ROI:

1. “Strategic Project Pipeline” for high-risk, high-cost, high-complexity ideas
2. “Backlog” to park ideas waiting for prioritization
3. “Just Do It” for low-risk, low-cost, low-complexity ideas

In addition to the app rollout, we also have some improvements to our Stage Gate functionality which is tightly coupled with the strategic project work-stream:

• Improved Scoring Tools: A floating gate scorecard has been introduced for more dynamic evaluations. You now have the added ability to edit and update scorecards, ensuring alignment with evolving project needs.
• Streamlined Workflows: Core workflow improvements for greater efficiency. Updates to pipeline setup, now available at the main template configuration level. Adjustments to app step and stage configurations for enhanced template management.
• User Experience Enhancements: Updates to action items, making task management more intuitive.

Streamline Your Flow with Efficiency

In today’s fast-paced world, efficiency is the key to success. Whether you’re managing a team, running a business, or simply trying to stay on top of your personal tasks, streamlining your workflow can make all the difference. That’s why we’re excited to introduce our latest software release, designed to help you achieve just that. With a suite of new features and enhancements, we’re here to transform how you work, making every task smoother, faster, and more intuitive. Let’s dive in and explore how you can streamline your flow with our latest updates:

• Enhanced Duplication: Administrators can choose which elements to replicate when duplicating an initiative. This makes it easy to select between using the default configuration or individually copying specific settings from the selected initiative.
• Copy Project Room: You’ve asked, so we’ve delivered! You can now seamlessly copy Project Rooms, similar to the copy/template creation options available in Whiteboard and Memo.
• Rich Text Editor 3.0 (BETA): We are excited to announce the beta release of the updated Rich Text/HTML widget. This update enhances the user experience by allowing you to configure widgets on site home pages. To try it out, please contact your customer service representative.

Enterprise-Grade System Management

Managing complex global systems can be tricky. Our latest release introduces a suite of enterprise-grade features designed to elevate your system management game. With these new capabilities, you’ll have everything you need to stay organized, efficient, and ahead of the curve.

• Brightidea AI: Has been enhanced with the power of AI for collaborative brainstorming! Our improved AI-powered Whiteboard now allows you to easily generate ideas, create images, and engage with a chatbot. Packed with features, Brightidea AI helps you expand ideas using sticky notes, organize and summarize concepts on your board, correct grammar and spelling, provide summaries, and adjust the tone of your content. As always, administrators have the ability to enable or disable these functionalities for users.
• Improved Label Management: We have extended label editing to View Idea 3.0 and Expertise to give administrators more extensive control over messaging to their users.
• Advanced Timezones: For global teams, we’ve closed the gap to ensure all areas of the site respect time and date formats within the entire platform. Our advanced timezone feature also ensures daylight savings is respected.

Project Room and Whiteboard Upgrades

We’ve enhanced our Project Room and Whiteboard features to make collaboration seamless and intuitive. The Project Room updates help streamline navigation and search, while the Whiteboard updates help your team communicate and customize ideas with precision.

• Project Room UI Updates: We’ve enhanced the left navigation menu with a more streamlined UI. This update provides a more condensed view, including efficient object name editing through double-clicking. Furthermore, we’ve added the ability for users to include external app-specific links (e.g. Google Doc, Box, Jira, etc.)
• Project Room Search: You can now search across all Project Rooms under userhome for faster access to the content you seek.
• Emojis: We have enabled emojis in idea comments and on the Whiteboard canvas. Users can now express their opinions, making it easier for them to support and engage with each other with a vast emoji library.
• Eye-Dropper Tool: We’ve expanded our existing color palette in Whiteboard. With the ability to select a color anywhere on your desktop, our new eye-dropper allows you to select and set colors for all objects, text, and other elements.

Platform Performance Enhancements

We’re committed to ensuring our platform runs as smoothly as possible. That’s why we’ve made significant updates under the hood to boost performance and reliability. These improvements are designed to provide you with a faster, more stable experience so you can focus on what you do best:

• Critical System Upgrades: We’ve significantly updated core components across our platform, delivering noticeable performance, security, and functionality improvements. These upgrades enhance load speeds, bolster overall system stability, and position us to integrate future innovations seamlessly. The result? A more reliable, efficient, and modern platform experience for our customers, ensuring that your work is supported by cutting-edge technology every step of the way.
• File Uploads: Our improved file upload process ensures enhanced scalability, reliability, flexibility, and security behind the scenes, providing a seamless and robust experience for users.
• Text Engine Improvements: We’ve updated the text engine in Whiteboard for better readability, performance, and interactions. To streamline workflows, we have made considerable updates to bullets, text box sizing and functionality, default text options, text links, hotkeys and more!
• Customer Support Tickets: No large release is complete without customer feedback! We’ve resolved 200+ high-priority support tickets through rolling prioritization and execution throughout this cycle.

The much anticipated Winter 2024 release is more than just a set of new features—it’s a reflection of our commitment to empowering your innovation journey. We can’t wait to see how you’ll leverage these tools to GO BIG and achieve even greater success in the dawn of a golden age of innovation & transformation.

Here’s to a year of big ideas, seamless collaboration, and groundbreaking innovations. Let’s make 2025 our most innovative year yet!

GO BIG!
Brightidea team

We’re constantly inspired by the stories our customers bring to the table. In our inaugural season of The Synthesize Podcast, “Just Say Hackathon,” we dove into hackathons through conversations with innovation leaders from companies like Dell, 3M, Amtrak, and more. We’re proud to announce the wrap of season one with eleven impactful episodes related to the art of hackathons! Season one conclusion:

No strangers to innovation, these companies are constantly tackling the whirlwind of global change, from technological breakthroughs to geopolitical shifts.

Season one of The Synthesize Podcast introduces listeners to the impactful practices that drive these companies forward. Hackathons emerged as a pivotal approach for pushing boundaries and cultivating innovation, whether it’s sparking employee ideas, refining a groundbreaking concept, or implementing strategies that withstand the ever-changing market.

We also got to hear firsthand from those driving hackathons within their organizations. We discussed why hackathons are essential to any innovation strategy, how to set up a successful event, and,‌ most importantly, how to measure their success.

Under the tutelage of our esteemed hosts, Matthew Greeley, CEO of Brightidea, and Margaret Kelsey, engagement expert, we’ve wrapped season one and have our sights on bringing season two to life where we’ll dive even deeper into topics that matter most to innovation leaders.

Don’t miss your chance to stay informed and inspired—subscribe to The Synthesize Podcast today:

There is no sugar-coating it: the world is changing faster than ever. Depending on your perspective, this moment represents either the biggest threat or the greatest opportunity of our lifetimes. Embrace the new, and untold riches are up for grabs. Cling to the old for too long, and you may find yourself stuck in neutral, as the others speed past. It’s time look beyond ideas. It’s time to to DRIVE THE PROCESS all the way from insight to productivity and profits. With Brightidea by your side, you won’t just survive this period of disruption—you will accelerate bravely into the future, leaving the competition in the dust.


Introducing Brightidea Innovation Cloud 4.0, with features designed to empower Innovation teams to drive a more structured approach to managing their innovation pipelines. From enhanced collaboration tools to cutting-edge AI capabilities, we’ve got everything you need to put the pedal down and win.

Deep Support for Demanding Innovation Workflows

The Stage Gate process is a proven, linear methodology that helps organizations prioritize, allocate resources, and de-risk projects. With this addition, we’re empowering you to make data-driven decisions and increase your chances of project success.

This core platform update is available, by default, on several apps within our app families to support the diverse use cases. This includes a new app as part of our Idea Box family, Innovation Process, Incubate from Lab, Venture within the Ecosystem family, and lastly, Transform from the Transformation family.

Now Available In These Apps

 
This powerful tool will revolutionize how you manage your projects, from inception to launch. By automating project room creation and enabling seamless scoring against predefined gates, you can now focus on what truly matters – driving large innovative concepts to market.

Features include:

• Customized and Pre-configured App: The mentioned apps have updated core workflows to support the new action items and models a Stage Gate process creating a more efficient build out.
• Stage Action Item: Introduces a new action item that pulls together all the assets and activities teams need to support the phase of the project the concept is currently within, allowing the team to collaboratively work toward the next gate approval.
• Gate Approval Action Item: Customizable scorecard, with the ability for evaluators to complete their evaluation directly in line within the Project Room, tracking progress and managing final scores.
• Customizable Project Room Templates: Ability to set-up a Project Room, per initiative, automatically creating the room on the record. We have generated default project rooms to support the top use cases that can also be used out of the box.
• Connective Tissue Within the Entire Platform: Utilize cutting edge and competitive tools like Whiteboard, Memo, Business Impact tracking, etc.

Core Platform Enhancements for Maximum Efficiency

To help you work smarter, not harder, we’ve introduced several key updates to our platform:

• View Idea 3 for All: After an extended Beta period, we’re rolling out our advanced idea management tool, View Idea 3, to all apps by default. This means richer idea capture, better collaboration, and improved decision-making across your organization. With this rollout we also updated our tag subscription functionality!
• Enhanced Rules Engine: Our upgraded Rules Engine delivers greater flexibility and control over your workflow automation, saving you time and reducing errors.
• Scheduler Improvements: We’ve made it easier to visualize and manage your events with our enhanced Scheduler, including synching the work with front end site design components, like the Phase Widget.
• Quicker Idea Intake: Addition of an enhanced Quick Add to all app solutions for administrators and evaluators to quickly add ideas, bypassing submission form, but capturing key notes, categories, etc.
• Cleared our Backlog: Closed over 200 customer related bugs and issues within this last release cycle.

User Experience and Collaboration Boost

We’re committed to making your experience as seamless and enjoyable as possible. That’s why we’ve introduced:

• Centralized View of all Ideas: End users can now access and view all ideas they have permission to see in one convenient location to better source, track, and find ideas across initiatives.
• Team Size Management: Introduction of hard caps on team size, limiting submission and growth at a specific admin determined size.
• Group Management: Improved UI experience in creating and managing groups and a rollout of the beta feature for group, evaluator assignment.

Foundational Whiteboard Enhancements

Our Whiteboard tool continues to be a core capability to grow, evolve and capture your team’s thinking and processes, in a boundless manner. Some core updates for you include:

• Bi-Directional Syncing: Ensure data consistency between your platform and Whiteboard with our enhanced bi-directional sync, which will update data within your platform and the stickies on your board.
• Updates to our Default Templates: UI updates to all our Brightidea system templates, and reminder, users can customize and set system templates for all users in their innovation platform to utilize.
• Micro Interaction Improvements: Updates to our line width customization, object scaling, and hotkeys all to improve efficiency within the tool.
• Performance Upgrades: Updated our core Whiteboard infrastructure helping with improved speed and performance when working with our core components.

Innovating at the Frontier of Collective and Artificial Intelligence

Our AI capabilities continue to evolve. With the latest version of frontier models, our AI engine is smarter and more powerful than ever, so don’t forget to utilize our core features to ensure your innovation process is more efficient and accelerated.

• Suggested for You: Get customized platform updates and user activity within your Userhome, filtered based on similar activities that you have completed in the tool.
• Brainstorm Brilliantly: Our Whiteboard tool’s AI-powered brainstorming feature helps you generate fresh ideas and explore new possibilities to kickoff a session or power through a stall.
• Idea Acceleration: Our AI can assist you in developing and maturing idea descriptions and details within the submission and View Idea 3 processes.
• Idea Development: Within our Memo tool, use AI as an outside source to help you validate and expound on a business case and/or idea positioning.
• Scout Smarter: Our Scout app uses AI to identify potential vendors and automatically imports them into your pipeline, saving you valuable time.

The Winner’s Circle

As business leaders we must cultivate an “innovation mindset” within our teams and throughout our organizations. Right now you now have unique and deeply-integrated capabilities to support the complex Innovation Processes within your organization. These tools enable you to achieve the essential balance between velocity and control. With the right mindset, the best tools, and an engaged team you can achieve extraordinary things.

So, fire up those engines and take this baby for a test drive. We can’t wait to see the amazing things you will do with BIC4.

Stay bright
Brightidea team

Battling the charter of tech transformation with company mobilization is a constant yo-yo for those in leadership positions. Layered on top of times of uncertainty – looming economic turbulence, upcoming elections, and rapidly accelerating technology, it can feel like the reins are slipping away.

A recent McKinsey article, “How Innovative Companies Leverage Tech to Outperform,” underscores the critical role of innovation currently and dissects the commonalities between companies that are succeeding.

The McKinsey article highlights key takeaways that resonate with our mission at Brightidea:

• Innovation is a strategic imperative, not a luxury. Companies that prioritize innovation during downturns outperform their peers in the long run.
• Companies with strong innovation cultures are more likely to succeed. Organizations with a strong innovation culture scaled the impact of their digital transformations twice as effectively as those with weaker cultures.
• Technology is a game-changer. The right tools can empower your workforce, streamline processes, and maximize the ROI of your innovation efforts, offering more competitive advantages.
• Operational models cannot stay stagnant. Companies unlock the most value from technology when it is applied to innovating their business model rather than focusing on disconnected use cases.

Brightidea Can Help Bring These Insights to Life

Brightidea’s innovation management software goes beyond simply being a platform; it’s a strategic partner in your organization’s innovation journey. Here’s how Brightidea empowers you to act on the insights presented by McKinsey:

Cultivating a Culture of Innovation
Brightidea fosters a culture of innovation by breaking down silos and encouraging participation from everyone in your organization. Our platform provides a central hub for idea submission, making it easy for employees to share their ideas, regardless of their department or level, and engage in their peers’ concepts.

With the Hackathon application, there are even more opportunities to break through the departmental silos and help cross-team and organizational collaboration through the Participants Finder and exploration tool. Participants can register with their expertise and mark if they want to recruit or join teams. We help facilitate conversations within the platform – and through our teams and Slack integrations.

This diverse influx of perspectives and participants fuels a richer innovation pipeline and fosters a sense of ownership within your workforce, the culture of innovation is a foundational brick to the success of a program.

Streamlining the Innovation Pipeline
Gone are the days of scattered ideas and inefficient processes. Brightidea offers a centralized platform for the entire innovation lifecycle. From initial ideation to development and implementation. We work to streamline all collaboration and communication between team members, administrators, and those parts of the evaluation process.

Submitted ideas are properly vetted, refined, and progressed through the proper stages, maximizing their potential for success.

Data-Driven Decision Making
Effective innovation isn’t just about generating great ideas; it’s about identifying and nurturing the ones with the most significant impact. Brightidea empowers you to measure and analyze your innovation efforts. Our platform tracks the progress of ideas, captures feedback, and offers valuable data insights. Ensuring you prioritize the right ideas based on strategic fit, potential impact, and feasibility, ensuring your resources are directed towards the initiatives with the greatest chance of success.

By leveraging Brightidea’s comprehensive capabilities, you can:

• Move Beyond Brainstorming: Brightidea goes beyond the initial spark of inspiration. Our platform facilitates collaboration and refinement, transforming raw ideas into actionable plans.
• Balance Short-Term Wins with Long-Term Bets: Not all innovation is created equal. Brightidea helps you manage a healthy mix of incremental improvements and disruptive, game-changing ideas. Our platform allows you to nurture both types of innovation, ensuring a steady stream of success stories while also positioning yourself for future breakthroughs. 
• Drive Measurable Results: Innovation shouldn’t be a black box. Brightidea empowers you to track the progress of your ideas, measure their impact, and gain valuable insights to continuously improve your innovation efforts.

Embrace Innovation and Secure Your Competitive Edge
In today’s dynamic business landscape, innovation is no longer optional. It is just too important to be left to chance.

It’s the key to unlocking growth potential and securing a competitive edge. By prioritizing innovation, that means you need to prioritize a tech stack that will help you win. By leveraging the power of Brightidea’s innovation management software, you can transform your organization into an engine of creativity, turning groundbreaking ideas into real-world results.

The sun is shining, the days are hotter, and the feeling of Summer Lovin’ is in the air. Here at Brightidea, we’re not just talking about beach volleyball and backyard barbecues (although those sound pretty amazing too). This summer, we’re celebrating that deep kind of love – the love we have for our amazing customers and the incredible ideas you bring to the table.

We’ve been listening closely to your feedback, and we’re thrilled to unveil a wave of exciting, core upgrades and fixes designed to make your Brightidea experience even smoother. From streamlining your core platform to enhancing workflow and initiative management, these enhancements are all about empowering you to capture those brilliant ideas and turn them into reality. So, get ready to dive into some Summer Lovin’ with Brightidea by your side!

Summer Lovin’, Happened So Fast…

We worked to deliver core configuration updates, requested directly from our customers to ensure you are getting the most efficient use out of the platform. This work includes:

• Ability to add groups as evaluators to more nimbly manage action item assignment (CER-26557, CER-26556).
• All initiative exports now have the ability to be scheduled, delivered within a custom time that works for the site administrator (CER-26263).
• Addition of Whiteboard and Memo counts to the user activity report (CER-24739).
• Ability to search for text within your Whiteboard to help with wayfinding and information organization.
• Closed just under 100 customer support tickets since our last release.

Tell Me More, Tell Me More…

The Project Room feature delivers against the need for teams to collaborate in order to augment, track, and better define an idea. With this release we continue to evolve the offering based on direct customer feedback.

• Can now add a team image to the project room to better identify and rally your team on the Project Room goal.
• Ability to sort and filter all of your team’s tasks within the Project Room’s task page (CER-26506).
• When adding a new Whiteboard or Memo to the project room, can generate from system or custom templates.

Ba dum, ba dum, ba dum-dum-dum…

In our Spring release, we launched core updates to our Hackathon app to ensure that you’re delivering a successful event the first time, and every time. With this release, we wanted to add deeper customization to the features your teams have adopted and are asking for.

• Updated our default Project Room template that is spun up for Hackathon teams’ utilizing the tool to brainstorm and mature their idea.
• Added the ability for Hackathon event managers to customize the Project Room template that is used.
• Updated the Phase widget to honor the timezone set by the administrator within System Settings.

But, Oh Those Summer Nights

We hope this summer sizzle of updates empowers you to turn up the heat on innovation within your organization. We’re excited to see the amazing things you create with Brightidea by your side.

Stay bright,

Your friends at Brightidea

Spring Ahead With Hackathon 4

As winter relinquishes its icy grip, we observe with delight, as new blossoms and life break through the snow. Every year at this time we rejoice in this cycle or rebirth and rejuvenation. If innovation were a season, it would definitely be Spring.

This release, we look to harness that feeling of anew, and bring to you several platform wide updates, as well as a focus on our Brightidea Hackathon solution.

This past year, our Hackathon solution has empowered companies, and we have seen an exponential growth in its utilization. We see one new event launched every four days, with more than 150,000 sessions around the world.

Now, we’re thrilled to unveil a refreshed offering designed to streamline your process, boost engagement, and unlock even greater potential, plus some goodies within our core configurations.

Our Expert Coaches Guide You from Start to Finish

Our team dove deep into our Hackathon offering, developing an enhanced point of view around running a successful, world class Hackathon. Through external research and customer insights, we have developed new assets and guides for our clients to use as a framework for success.

• New and improved Hackathon playbook, which you can find within our apps pillar in the product as well as our updated Knowledge Base Article.
• A detailed Hackathon wiki offering best practices and key activities needed to drive external or internal Hackathons.
• Updated engagement structure for pulling the Professional Services team into the event to help advise, collaborate, or guide your teams.

Self-Guided Participant Onboarding

Team building and making the right connections can unlock not only the success of a project, but also help scale the event across the organization. Some critical updates:

• Created an in-depth onboarding flow that guides the user through the event registration, surfacing the most valuable tools to them based on their use case. This includes access to Project Room, teammate search, etc.
• Created a holistic participant page where users can search and recruit teammates by expertise, certifications, availability, etc.
• Enhanced application process lets participants apply to specific teams, and existing members can accept, reject and message those prospects.

Custom Evaluator Ordering and Navigation

Hackathon judges will often be executive, c-suite members or external partners who do not regularly login to system, which means administrators are carrying the burden of logging them in, guiding them to the right action item, and monitoring for completion. Well, we heard you and we now have updated features to help.

• Admins can manually update the order of projects, which will be reflected on all action item manage and completion pages.
• Introduced the ability to send an ad hoc email to the evaluators to quickly remind them of the action item location and actions they may need to take.
• Added main navigation links to direct judges to their open action items. Also have the ability for admins to copy the link and send directly to the evaluators.

Tools & Techniques for Admins

Forget time-consuming configuration. Our platform is now prepped to launch a successful Hackathon out of the box.

• Updated the default configuration. This includes more direct statuses, a recommended template for the use of categories, and more defined steps and stages to allude to multiple rounds of evaluations.
• Experience a streamlined event-focused design with our new Hackathon event site view. Inspired by our intuitive Memo and Idea Box interfaces, it ensures participants and evaluators get straight to the action, ideal for departmental Hackathons with defined scope and event phases.
• Enabled View Idea 3 as the default record view for some of our most utilized apps; Idea Box, Memo, Gig, Hackathon.

Additional Brightidea Innovation Cloud Updates

Our team has worked diligently in bringing upgrades across the platform to ease usability across our entire toolset. This includes:

• Updates to our submission form, including the ability to invite users to register directly from the teammate field, as well as the ability to add a Whiteboard directly onto your submission.
• Multiple Project Room updates to support management of your teams and ideas, including automating the creation via the rules engine.
• Continuous improvement to our Rich Text/HTML 2.0 widget, including the support of HTML5 tags.

Our Work Continues…

In this ever-evolving landscape of innovation, we wish you continued growth and the realization of your full potential.

And just know, we are right there with you, already hard at work synthesizing even more exciting features for the Summer and Fall releases, so stay tuned. We can’t wait to share what’s next on the horizon, just through the clouds.

Stay Bright,
The Brightidea team

As the year draws to a close, a sense of quiet reflection settles over us. We’ve witnessed moments of immense hardship – technological shifts, social fractures, and economic uncertainties that tested our resilience.

Yet, amidst these trials, and during the holiday season, we ground ourselves in tradition, looking to reconnect with those we love. So, to our cherished customers and friends, we offer this handful of updates. May it bring a touch of ease to your days and a spark of joy to your hearts.

Togetherness: Team Updates for You and Them

It’s always better to have teammates when working toward goals, and well, we made sure to bring that over to our software with two new updates to our team submission capabilities.

The first update is teams can help brand their submissions with the new team name feature. When submitting or editing a team, those included can create a team name to be associated with the submission. This will then be displayed on the record or any preview of the record, as well as any exports for the initiative. (CER-16795)

The second is we have expanded the team size limit we have in our Hackathon app to all offerings. Now admins can set a specific limit to the count of people on a single submission. (CER-18804)

Connection: Project Room Continues to Evolve

Within our Fall 2023 release, we gave you Project Room. And we are seeing customers rapidly adopt this new tool to help drive collaboration and accountability within their teams. In ensuring teams have the right content and information all in one place we have added some exciting updates.

We brought the file management capabilities within Team Workspace over to our Project Room capabilities. Upload all of your files directly into the room to keep teammates and reference materials updated. (CER-26286)

We also improved the task functionality. Now you can add multiple ‘tasks’ pages to a single Project Room, mapping tasks to specific milestones throughout the project’s life cycle. And, in addition to user assignment, status, and date details per task, you can now add comments, allowing more async updates and the ability to track progress with more granularity. (CER-18676)

Tidying Up: Collaboration Just Keeps Getting Easier

Since our Whiteboard launch we have now seen more and more teams gather and bring their pipeline’s ideas into a more open, collaborative space.

To help your teams continue on the progress you will see several updates from us.

• Our smart matrix, which comes with several templated x- and y-axis labels, now allows users to input a custom field so you can rank ideas on any variables needed. (Dare we say naughty vs nice) (CER-24764)
• Whiteboards can now be added directly to a Record to help supplement and enhance your concepts. (CER-26248)
• You can now add, edit, and remove links to any objects within the board. And remember, you can also copy a link to a direct location within the board to help teammates find relevant content. (CER-25392, CER-24735)
• Simplified and updated toolbars and menu dropdowns to help you more efficiently access key, differentiating tools, such as our AI integration and pipeline connectivity.

Here’s to a brilliant 2024…

We have good reasons to be optimistic about the coming year. Ceasefires glimmer on the horizon, economies show resilience and a sense of renewed civility is afoot. One thing is for certain though, change is coming; fueled by a relentless tide of technological progress.

We hope you’re setting ambitious goals for yourself and drafting more targeted and impactful objectives for your teams. We’re here to be your partner in progress, helping you unlock maximum value for your organization.

Brightidea’s future is brimming with excitement. We’re planning some powerful updates, key fixes, and groundbreaking capabilities that we hope will amaze and astound you. But before we dive into the new year, a word of immense gratitude. To our customers, friends, colleagues, and collaborators: you are the heart of Brightidea. Your faith and trust fuel our mission to save the world with the power of bright ideas. Thank you.

Until we meet again, stay bright, stay curious, and may the best ideas win.

The Brightidea Team