anesa "nes" parker: what are challenge prizes and why are they important?

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Challenge PrizesAmbitious yet achievable

goals that capture thepublic’s imagination

Sitra PresentationNovember 7th, 2016

Monitor DeloitteNes Parker: @nesparker

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Challenge prizes are helping humankind explore our world

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Today I will discuss the following:

What are challenge prizes and why are they important?

What are some examples of challenges prizes that deserve more attention?

When are challenge prizes not the answer?

What’s the future of challenge prizes?

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What are challenges prizes and why are they important?

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Challenge prizes are an example of open innovation and have the following attributes

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They can have a major impact in domains fundamental to our collective well-being

They exist at the precipice between the ambitious and the achievable

They are compelling and intrinsically motivating to a diverse group of thinkers

They have a “Goldilocks” level of specificity and focus

5They can serve as the impotence for techniques and technologies that solve practical human problems that would lay untouched without market drivers

6Source of all content: Goldhammer, et al., “The Craft of Incentive Prize Design: Lessons from the Public Sector,” Deloitte University Press, 2014.

Prize designers are capturing the public’s imagination and unlocking their creativity by pursuing the below outcomes

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Prizes harness the power of diversity to create laboratories of innovation, and in so doing, they can be incredible tools for change

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What are some examples of prize challenges that deserve more attention?

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Mapping Dark Matter

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Highlights from our research

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Haiti Mobile Money

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When are challenge prizes not the answer?

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Challenge prizes can help deliver fast, innovate solutions, but there are a few factors to consider

Prize designers need to understand the risk tolerance and capabilities of their potential participants before committing to the use of a prize that requires their engagement to be successful

If the universe of participants is small and known, then a prize may not be necessary. Instead, use other types of challenges, such as “pay for performance” approaches that issue grants or contracts with milestone-based payment terms

A prize’s strength comes from its ability to incent participants to create novel solutions, so prizes should not be used when there’s a clear, established, effective approach to solve a problem

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What’s the future of challenge prizes?

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The question “what should we do” is arguably becoming more important than “what can we do.”

Challenge prizes are an important innovation strategy to help us wrestle with this question.

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Thank you

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Back UP

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Despite the unique nature of each prize, designers often turn to five design elements