Who's reading the ideas ?

[waldo]

I'd like to share the SCN Innovation and Enhancements's Idea Space

There are a lot of good ideas, and I think a lot of people don't know or read that space.

Do you read, promote (or demote), and comment the ideas? Why?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Two reasons I have observed are:

• A very legal loaded NDA agreement (same goes for Code Exchange).
• Very low participation and then ideas are closed in batches without Product Management or Development having a look at it.

Some of my customers tried it as an (alternate) route to SAP Note 11 but it did not get them very far either.

For security topics, we then created our own wiki node -> SCN Security Functionality Wishlist.

Product Management helped create it and have a watch on it. Ideas which enjoyed a knowledgable discussion and moderator support generally got done without much beaurocracy for you, but depending on the functionality wish it can take anything between a day and a major release change with kernel dependencies which might not be backported.

Personally I dont use it as it is mostly not moderated, the people you need to be talking to are not reading it and then someone who does not understand your idea will reject it to meet some KPI.

That is my experience and feedback I get, but I also heard about a success when the idea was well planned with the correct people - however in that case I guess it is just documentation after-the-fact.

Cheers,

Julius

[nicolas_busson · Accepted solution]

+1 for Julius.

Had the same experience with sap idea place. I happened to post a few ideas and get a feedback after months or even a year asking me for which product version I'd like my ideas to be developed... and when I would need the enhancement.

Cheers,

Nicolas.

[stephenjohannes · Accepted solution]

Many years back I was asked to review prototype for one of the tools that eventually would end up as idea place.  Even with the different tool I gave this one strong piece of advice to SAP for using the tool:

"All ideas regardless of whether SAP wishes to use the suggestion or not use the suggestion, need to be followed up with feedback by SAP acknowleding receipt and within a timeframe whether the idea is under consideration".

Unfortuantely this practice IMHO has not been done by SAP is 100X worse than not implementing the suggestions.  The idea place concept should not be a channel where SAP can try to ignore customer, complaints, suggestions etc.  There needs to be publicly visible feedback on everything submitted within reasonable and finite time period by SAP regarding the suggestions.  Otherwise it's a worthless sounding board and people should go elsewhere including other vendors as necessary.

Once again SAP could choose not to implement 99% of the ideas but as long as they respond back to 100% ideas with feedback then the site is useful.   It's basic customer experience management, you don't have to give the customer everything they want, you do however have to listen & acknowledge the customer's conversation.  IE: You don't have to give away everything for free in order to provide a great customer experience.

The tool itsefl to capture feedback is less important than how you respond.

Take care,

Stephen

[Kuhan_Milroy]

Hi, Kuhan here - I head up Idea Place. I have a few comments to add.

The concerns over feedback about responsiveness, transparency and timeliness has been voiced before and has been taken into consideration and the model for how Idea Sessions are run is changing. Please see my blog in regards to this: http://scn.sap.com/people/kuhan.milroy/blog/2012/10/15/idea-place-to-start-a-new-experience-in-2013

Specifically:

• Improve the Ideation Management Process:  Whether or not an idea has reached a minimum amount of votes, it is clear customers look for SAP's position on each idea, therefore we will aim for every idea submitted to be reviewed. In addition product owners will be required to submit comments and notifications when the status of an idea changes.
• Provide more Transparency on the Process: The internal process was never published, making it difficult for customers to know what the path of their idea may be. Each idea session will be required to document and share the ideation management process, including insights into the review and implementation cycles. This will also help customer know what the cut-off date to submit ideas is.
• Raise the bar for new Innovation Campaigns: New Idea Sessions must meet the new standards. This will include communications and community engagement required to continue campaigns. And ultimately matching business goals and customer expectations with the type of campaigns.

At this point we've started rolling out new Idea Sessions based on the new model. I encourage you to have a look at the SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio Idea Session which just launched following the new model. https://ideas.sap.com/sbodesignstudio

Besides the clearly articulated phases, please see the About page on the Design Studio Idea Session for specific dates when reviews are done.

We are still in the process of shaping the new model requirements and these will differ to a degree between Idea Sessions on how they are exactly delivered but the above core elements listed will be covered - or we simply shut the idea session down.

As for log-on issues, we have done some changes to improve the experience and I know we had a few bugs that were fixed a few weeks ago.

@Jelena, I'll reach out to you directly to understand what problems you are having with log-in. Idea Place is part of the core SCN so same account and same logon - that should all work.

Cheers

Kuhan

[Jelena]

I posted a few ideas on Idea Place, but haven't gone back there in quite sometime. It's not part of SCN domain, so it's a separate logon, again waiting for eternity for the site to come up, strange errors, etc. I barely have enough time to check SCN.

Some very simple things like adding 'did not search' reason to the abuse reports have been there for ages. (We actually waited for almost 2 years on old SDN to get it and it was taken away for some reason.) Why should anyone bother adding more ideas (and then doing all the PR for them) when the existing ones are not going anywhere? It's very discouraging...

[Former Member]

<<<Why should anyone bother adding more ideas (and then doing all the PR for them) when the existing ones are not going anywhere?>>>

I'm sorry, but I must see this as a bit unfair.  SCN, like SAP, is a business.  You change nothing unless the change will pay for it self. 

So lets do the evaluation (my very simple evaluation):  Will you cease to use SCN if the feature is not added.  Clearly not, given how long the request has been out there.   Will other new users be drawn to SCN if it is added?  I don't think so.  Taking it one step further, will some people drop out of SCN if it is implemented.  Maybe yes.  Not that I would mind seeing them go, but I bet SCN would!

Well that is only a rudimentary test, but it fails that test.  I'm sure that better tests could be created but not by me.

I too have a request out there.  To me it makes a lot of sense.  But, I'm just me.  Many others may not get my point or see my reasons.  I don't think it will be created, however, if I don't request it then there is 0 chance it will be created.  So it is a large net win for me to have posted it...

Neal

[Jelena]

Neal, I believe it's fundamentally unfair to view SCN as a business. Sure, SAP is not obligated to accept or even review all the ideas but then the members are also not getting paid for posting the content here that draws traffic to SCN. If we think this way we will move into a dangerous territory very quickly.

Anyways, I was describing my personal feelings and reasons why I don't contribute to Idea Place (anymore). Others may feel differently and I'd certainly encourage anyone to share their experience in this discussion.

Just went to Idea Place, by the way, and it prompted me for certificate 4-5 times before I got to the SCN related list and in the process it threw several 'this tab was recovered' messages in IE and also lost this comment (which I began to type in another tab). Not sure I would be comfortable inviting others to visit a web site where basic navigation doesn't seem to work right...

[Former Member]

<<<Not sure I would be comfortable inviting others to visit a web site where basic navigation doesn't seem to work right...>>>

I totally understand that!

Neal

[Former Member]

Hi Jelena,

Thank you for your feedback. The idea of adding an option to Abuse Reports is currently in a Under Review stage: https://ideas.sap.com/ct/ct_a_view_idea.bix?c=8A060447-ED55-41EB-905E-C077161D66AC&idea_id=22EA4BD7-...

We have a ticket opened to implement this one.

Regarding the errors and other issues in Idea Place, I believe that   will be able to help.

Thanks and regards,

Oxana

[marilyn_pratt]

Thanks for promoting it here.

is doing a great job of surfacing the SCN ideas and helping promote changes to IT.  But perhaps you would like to write a blog that would outline some of your "fav" (favorite) ideas and why you think people should vote on them and read them.

That might get more visability .......

[waldo]

Hi !

Maybe you don't understand my thread.

Sorry, but I don't want to suggest other people to read or vote my favorite ideas.

I just want to know why Idea's place have so slow activity or poor participation.

I mean, "Coffee Corner" has a lot of people reading and participating (and I love it), but if I -or someone- have a new idea, we can't post it here (in Coffee Corner).  We should go to "idea place"; but there the idea dies alone because nobody read it

[marilyn_pratt]

Thank you for clarifying!  I agree that Idea Place is catching on sloooowly...but it is the only place where real "follow-up" and actionable steps can happen as it feeds the mechanism of change request from IT.  So getting more folks to voice their opinions and needs there should be helpful eventually.  It's a process.  It takes time but with help from and are working to make the ideas actionable and real.  They are dedicated to making sure that the idea...

As fun as it is to discuss things in the Coffee Corner (and it is an important place to "brew" ideas, we needed a tool where we could track how and if they will be implemented.

That's the way I understand Idea Place and I am all for giving it a chance cc. Former Member

[Former Member]

Hi Osvaldo,

The SCN Innovation and Enhancements category is a category for submitting SAP Community Network related ideas for improvement and innovation. Both new and existing ideas are being reviewed weekly.

The important role of community members is to influence the process by voting and commenting on ideas.  I would like to encourage you and other members to log in to Idea Place, vote and share feedback.

As I cannot advocate for other categories, I would like to emphasize that we value and anticipate our community members feedback. It is important!

Thanks,

Oxana

[nicolas_busson]

Hi Oxana,

Since you said the ideas posted on SCN Innovation and Enhancements category were reviewed weekly, I just checked a few ideas about the auto login, etc. All of them were still in "Submitted" status, although the desired functionality has been delivered. Then the following idea showed up:

https://ideas.sap.com/ct/ct_a_view_idea.bix?c=8A060447-ED55-41EB-905E-C077161D66AC&idea_id=DF3DBF78-...

It was posted 3 years ago, and I do believe that with SCN "on boarding" mission together with moderation for new-comers-with-less-than-30-points, you will agree that this idea could be set either to "archive" or "delivered". However; status is still "submitted".

So I think that's a good example of what we are saying here: maybe there is someone reading the ideas (as some of them gets finally implemented), but without feedback that's not something we can be aware of...

Cheers,

Nicolas.

[waldo]

Hello Nicolas, as you said, this example was posted 3 years ago, and it had only "15 views, 3 votes, and 0 comments"

I said to Marilyn, the ideas die alone becouse nobody read them

It's really sad.

Thanks all for your comments.

[nicolas_busson]

Well, I wouldn't trust the number of views because you will see that some ideas have 3 times more votes than views:

So how do you vote without viewing the idea first?

[Former Member]

Hi Nicolas,

You are correct. Thank you for pointing to these ideas! They indeed were not in the right stage, but now changed as expected.

We are working on category guidelines that will be posted in the category, this way making the process more transparent. The main concerns regarding voting, idea age and idea status relations will be covered and shared.

Please stay tuned and I'm grateful for the feedback and any suggestions.

Thanks,

Oxana

[nicolas_busson]

Hi Oxana,

Indeed I've been thinking about a way to help you "clean up" the ideas that do not have the right status. I thought I could open a collaborative document, but this doesn't make much sense because it will be outdated as soon as you fix it. So what do you suggest? Should I simply open a discussion thread in the SCN support space to log every idea which status should be changed?

Cheers,

Nicolas.

[Former Member]

There has to be a starting point for everything.  Waiting until you have a perfect starting point may mean that nothing ever happens.  Also, some BP solutions are iterative.

In other words, why not go ahead and start your collaborative Doc and see where it gets us.

Neal

[nicolas_busson]

Well, I guess you're probably right. It can't do no harm to create a collaborative document where everyone could add the ideas that would need some adjustments. So here we go:

Nick.

[waldo]

Great idea, and like said, the collaborative Doc should be fine.

An example: "Separate Messages / Mentions Icon" link: https://ideas.sap.com/ct/ct_a_view_idea.bix?c=8A060447-ED55-41EB-905E-C077161D66AC&idea_id=AA4673A8-...

(Sorry if the link it is too large, but SAP demote the ideas to "short" "the links" )

That idea to "separete messages" its "Under Review" status. Who is "reviewing" this?

[nicolas_busson]

Hi Osvaldo,

I added your question into the collaborative doc. Let's see what happens next.

[Former Member]

Hi Nicolas,

This is very helpful. These and other ideas will be addressed shortly.

Thank you for your time.

Regards,

Oxana