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What did we find?

Information needs to be sorted around people, not content

[MicroMeme: A conversation with your immediate network about what they think is the most important]

First, we vetted the 100 vendors to submit to a vendor product catalog, over 50 submitted which we used the data to pair down who were appropriate for the Wave report. Hands-on lab evaluations: I spent up to 6 hours with each vendor in a windowless room to evaluate their product live using common customer scenarios. I grilled the executive team, and discussed their strengths and weaknesses. Product demos. We asked vendors to conduct demonstrations of their products’ functionality. We used findings from these product demos to validate details of each vendor’s product capabilities. Customer reference calls. To validate product and vendor qualifications, Forrester also conducted reference calls with up to three of each vendor’s current customers for a total of up to 27 customer calls. We collected hundreds of screenshots, presentations, samples, reports and all of this information was entered in a multi-tab spreadsheet that accounts for thousands of cells, scoring, and detailed explanations which clients can use to toggle up and down specific needs as in some cases, specific feature needs may need to be highlighted over others. In the bottom links, I’ve made my research process very transparent, and have indicate the other three other blog posts documenting this laborious research effort.

Related Resources I’ll be updating this section as I see interesting voices from media, vendors, brands and customers. Read Write Web: Report: Community Platforms Market Led by Jive Software and Telligent Leverage Software CEO Mike Walsh (and other vendors) have responded in the comments Josh Bernoff: Picking a community vendor? We’ve evaluated a bunch . . . Tom Humbarger: Questions if these vendors are eating their own dog food read Walking the “Social Media Walk” Telligent’s corporate blog chimes in and makes the report available for you. Read more about this Wave Research project: Part 1: Starting the Wave Part 2: Data Collection Process Part 3: The Analysis Process Part 4: Announcing the Wave, the final report

Friendfeed is an example of the trend the web is headed: content sorted by people, not by topic.

"finding new products and services that meet not only the functional needs of consumers for tasty food or clean clothes but also their wider aspirations as citizens."

A first step is to formally integrate innovation into the executive planning agenda

Second, executives can make better use of external talent for innovation, people who bring proven tools and multi-disciplinary thinking. Bring them in as your innovation partner and have a formal innovation program that span across different business units and geographies.

Finally, identify leaders to help foster an innovation culture based on creativity and trust. In such a culture, people understand that their ideas are valued, trust that it is safe to express those ideas, and oversee risk collectively, together with their managers. Give them space to experiment.

Brainstorming is really about purposeful use of creativity and imagination.

Purpose is really the heart of any business strategy and should provide the guiding principle for corporate strategy (and brand).

The next big issue is “authenticity”?  Today this word carries extra meanings thanks to the Internet.  This is not something one can “buy” with big ad dollars. This is truly how brand differentiates and is strongly associated with trust, not just brands but also on a corporate level. Adv agencies (including interactive and direct mkt agencies) fundamentally operate differently and are not really good candidates for innovation and design explorations.