Brightidea · Innovation Cloud

Time Period

2018-2019, 2020-2021

Disciplines

Product Design, User Experience, UX, Strategy, Product Management, User Research

I started at Brightidea as a Senior Product Designer but soon transitioned into a hybrid Design/Product Management role as I became more involved with defining strategy and requirements.

Feature Design: Idea Management Fundamentals

I began by focusing on the core needs of idea management users, including managers, sponsors, moderators, and administrators.

As our customers matured and their innovation programs grew more complex, they faced new challenges in managing interconnected systems of programs and processes. To address these evolving needs, I focused on enhancing capabilities related to:

  • Discovery across the system:
    • Tagging
    • Categorization
    • Related ideas
    • Advanced search
  • Flow of ideas between activities:
    • Sharing
    • Moving ideas
    • Copying or duplicating ideas
  • Evolution
    • Spinning out new, related ideas
    • Linking ideas
    • Merging duplicate or similar ideas
Move and copy ideas from one innovation pipeline to another
We rebuilt the Move and Copy Idea operations for usability and performance. Previously users were likely to get errors and failures if they attempted to move more than 20 ideas at a time. The operation could also take minutes to complete, and it was unclear if data would be lost or hidden as a result of the operation. We addressed these issues and more in the updated version.
Parent-child merge operation
Duplicate and similar submissions are incredibly common in practice, so being able to link and merge ideas is critical. Here is a solution for parent-child merging of ideas—essentially all ideas are preserved as individuals, given a hierarchical relationship, and exhibit corresponding behavior & messaging throughout the platform.

Seamless Integrations for Enhanced Productivity

To maximize the value of our platform and support our customers’ diverse workflows, I led the development of various integrations with popular tools and platforms. These integrations streamline key tasks, such as capturing ideas, enriching brainstorming sessions, and managing project execution.

Capture Ideas Where They Happen

Recognizing that ideas often emerge during everyday interactions, we developed integrations with platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams. These tools enable users to effortlessly save ideas from chats. This transforms fleeting thoughts into actionable ideas with minimal friction and no switching of platforms.

Capture ideas directly from Slack messages, including images and attachments
Capture ideas directly from Slack messages, including images and files
Refine idea details and users between Slack & Brightidea
Ideas are automatically populated and user accounts are linked for immediate one-click submission; users can also refine or enhance details without leaving the app
Capture ideas directly from Slack messages, including images and attachments
Capture ideas directly from Teams messages, including images and
Refine idea details before submitting
Ideas are automatically populated for immediate one-click submission; users can also refine or enhance details without leaving the app

Capture Ideas on the Go with Voice Integration

Inspiration can strike at any moment, even outside of work hours. With Brightidea’s voice integration for Alexa and Google Assistant, users can capture those fleeting ideas instantly, hands-free. Simply speak your idea, and Brightidea will securely store it in a personal repository for later review and development.

Never Lose an Idea with Email Submission

Prefer to jot down your ideas in writing? Brightidea’s Magic Inbox provides a simple and secure way to capture ideas via email. Send your thoughts to my@brightidea.com, and our amazingly simple UX backed by Brightidea’s intelligent system will automatically:

  • Detect your company and route your idea accordingly
  • Protect your intellectual property and company data with enterprise-grade security
  • Support new user registration for seamless onboarding

All you need to remember is “My Brightidea.”

Brightidea action for Google Assistant
Brightidea action for Google Assistant: save ideas anytime anywhere using your voice assistant. I would even use this personally with my Bluetooth earbuds while riding my bike.
Marketing/launch video illustrating Magic Inbox
Marketing/launch video illustrating Magic Inbox: capture ideas including attachments and tags by simply emailing my@brightidea.com

Project Management Integrations

To address a top customer request, we provided project management integration with apps like Jira, Asana, Monday.com, etc. I designed and managed the development of a native Jira integration, a bridge to Zapier, and a rules-triggered outgoing webhook feature to help automate customer worklows and extend Brightidea’s capabilities beyond idea management.

Use webhooks to trigger actions to or from Brightidea, either through Zapier or directly to web apps like Airtable, Asana, ServiceNow, Google Sheets, etc.
Webhooks provide a general solution to trigger actions in or out of Brightidea, either through Zapier or directly to web apps like Airtable, Asana, ServiceNow, Google Sheets, etc.
Connect a Brightidea pipeline to your Jira project to transfer ideas
Direct integration with Jira allows users to connect a Brightidea pipeline to a Jira project and then link or transfer ideas between the platforms

Impact

Brightidea is a profitable, growing, bootstrapped company with functioning products used by some of the best known companies in the world. Our engaging employee experience and professional-grade management tools make Brightidea the #1 customer-rated idea management platform for 3 years running (during my tenure). Brightidea has served over 2.5 million users worldwide, and more than $15 billion in customer-reported business impact has been logged on the platform (at time of writing).

This is a small sampling of things I worked on at Brightidea related to core products and platform. Read more about Programs and Whiteboard–two new product launches for which I served as Product Lead.