As the collective intelligence helps solve business problems

Collective intelligence, or "wisdom of crowds" - a concept that describes a high efficiency of group decision-making relative to the individual. One person, no matter how expert he may be, is limited to their own knowledge and subjective worldview. At the same time a large group of people, even with the average level of knowledge, can offer many alternative solutions and select the best.

What is the "wisdom of crowds" and how to make it work

The term (Engl. crowd wisdom) has gained in popularity in 2004. American journalist and financial analyst James Shuroveski same name published a book in which to put forward four basic principles necessary for "the wisdom of the crowd":

• The diversity of opinions. Each participant of the "mob" (a group of people solve one problem) express their opinion, even if it may seem absurd to others. On this principle, for example, the method of brainstorming. The more people give their answers, the more effective running the "wisdom of the crowd" in a particular task.
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• Independence of the members. Members of the team should not experience any outside influence. Under the influence of external factors "crowd" spontaneously broken into groups of like-minded instead of expressing each participant's own opinion. The authoritative judgment subject matter experts subordinates Statement of other team members and thus reduces the number of candidate solutions. Therefore, the best organization of the poll - anonymous voting in which participants do not know the answers others.
• Decentralization opinions. The most effective "crowd", composed of people of different ages and social groups living in different cities and countries, unfamiliar with each other. That difference in outlook, experience and knowledge base provides maximum diversity and alternative viewpoints.
• Aggregation of opinions. When all the responses from the participants received, it is time to process them. It is important not only to collect all the options, but also to combine them and to formulate an optimal solution. This is the most important stage, without which all other work does not make sense.

If all four conditions are met, the "wise crowd", consisting of thousands of strangers to each other people can actually be more effective than recognized experts.

What tasks helps solve the "wisdom of the crowd"

Crowdsourcing during project work

Crowdsourcing is the basis for the influx of new ideas and better options. For example, an entrepreneur you need to choose the design of the training course or site online store. The goal - to get an unbiased opinion of the target audience. This can be done in two stages.

First stage

Arrange a competition for the best work on the creation of design one page of your site on the site such as Fl.ru or Dizkon. Specify their wishes to the design, add successful examples of a guide, set the deadline. So you get several options for work, and at the same time to vote whether or not the contractor is able to meet deadlines. Choose the number of options that you like.

Second phase

Choose the best design layout. To get an objective opinion, as it will be well accepted by visitors, create a poll. Have participants vote for their favorite option.

You can take advantage of:

• social networks, a poll among friends in Facebook or "VKontakte";
• messengers, e.g., by running a rating Telegram-channel;
• services for surveys, such as google Surveys or "Yandex. Sight».

Pre analyze whether the target audience platform. If your friends in social networks do not meet this requirement, then you have to place your design options in communities with your desired contingent on a fee basis. Unlike Facebook, "VKontakte", a platform designed specifically for the organization of the survey, only help to attract the target audienceOn the basis of more specific targeting settings. The minimum cost of running the survey on "Yandex. View "- 1500 rubles per 100 completed questionnaires. In Google Surveys price ranges from 0.1 to 10 dollars for a fully completed application form.

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• Specify the start and end date of the task and its stages when you set up. Timing depends on the duration of the project. For example, if you develop a minimum viable product (MVP) cloud service, the collection period It takes into account the feedback of users who need Y time to work with your product and give feedback.
• Keep an eye on the progress of work, to make adjustments to the "wisdom of the crowd", if something goes wrong. For example, if a large number of experts offers options that do not match the instructions, you may need to change the conditions. For example, you have asked the developer community, whether the platform will operate for Internet voting on blokcheyne, but did not specify what plan to use smart contracts for collect votes. Users will not be able to provide comprehensive feedback without knowing these details. In this case it is necessary to supplement the initial information about the job goals and principles of smart contracts.
• After task using the "wisdom of crowds" is defined as the result correspond to the TOR and your expectations, as well as the efficiency of the site to vote for crowdsourcing, you used. Selection of the optimal solution depends on the type of project: it can be built on precise calculations, if technical task, and on the basis of observations and personal experiences - in sociological or political studies.

Collect the views of the target audience and the experts

Consumer survey can be useful for small businesses. For example, you want to open in a particular area of ​​a pizzeria or a sushi bar. Before proceeding to action, it is desirable to collect the views of local residents to ensure business hypothesis. "Wisdom of Crowds" lets you know whether a similar institution customers need, what it should be and that they may not like the existing ones. The survey will help you choose the best place to determine the level of demand and the degree of competition in the chosen area.

To collect opinions fit social networks and platforms for commercial surveys. As mentioned above, in the last entrepreneur can use the more detailed settings. For example, to collect the views of only those who love pizza, do not like sushi, and not to leave their district. "Narrow" settings poll also help to attract participants who will share their position more willingly and answer questions more due to the fact that the issues relevant to their interests and lifestyle.

Here is the algorithm that helps to collect the views of the target audience and the experts:

1. Choose the format: polls or forecasts.
2. Determine the purpose of collecting opinions: hypothesis testing, feedback on the current situation in the business forecast for the future business events or market indicators, such as the rise and fall of shares of the largest companies on the stock exchange. For example, Starbucks in 2008 launched a customer survey on the topic of improving business and received more than 150 000 offers, 277 of which were used.
3. Pick a platform for collecting the views of the organization.
4. Make a list of questions, depending on the research objectives. Determine whether they are open, i.e. implying any number and format of responses, or require an unambiguous answer (e.g., in the form of digital values ​​or "yes / no").
5. Assign a start date and the end of the survey or collection forecasts.
6. Summarize, analyze the data.
7. Determine the efficiency of the selected area for surveys and forecasts.

What else do you need to consider

"The wisdom of the crowd" is still a new tool for the business, which may not have been fully investigated. Therefore, when using Shuroveski concept in practice should not forget about the pitfalls.

• Make sure that the task you are going to be solved with the help of "the wisdom of the crowd", can not be made faster and cheaper in other ways, for example by using internal resources.
• When using crowdsourcing is necessary to study the audience and participants selected site (for example, with enhanced service options SimilarWeb). In addition, it is useful to get acquainted with both the site itself and from other sources, paying particular attention to solving problems similar to yours. This approach will help to evaluate the competence of the experts and to reduce the number of useless advice from amateurs or - even worse - bots.
• "The wisdom of the crowd" is not a panacea for everything. Do not think that it can help you solve any problems. If the problem is associated with a specific business area, maybe your team will understand better than people from the outside. should not hold the "crowd" the tasks that require highly specialized knowledge and experience, such as creating aircraft engines and nuclear reactors, design of buildings or the creation of an internal IT-systems, taking into account the particular enterprise.