ReDesign Me!

Redesignme.com is an interesting new platform that allows companies to harness the imagination and ideas of hundreds of people to create new products and services.

The idea is very simple. A company posts a ‘redesign’ project outlining the scope, limitations, expectations etc… Users who are interested in the area submit their solutions/ideas and the community rates and discusses each suggestion. Finally the company selects the best ideas and rewards them with points that can redeemed to buy products on the same site.

I guess most people are not doing it for the points. The website appeals to people who believe they have the ‘next great idea’. Real Companies posting real projects makes it a lot more ’serious’ than abstract discussions. Going by the activity on the site, there are a lot of people who are willing to put in a lot of effort (illustrations of schemes, 3D mock-ups…) to participate in the development of products and services.

For companies, it is a great way to harness the potential of what is fashionably called ‘crowdsourced innovation’. From 100 ideas, a company might actually find something that is really useful. Coming from ‘consumers’ rather than ‘consultants’, the ideas might reflect real needs though they sometimes lack a ‘business case’.  

www.redesignme.com