Services

Pressure tested process, Exponential results.

Services

Pressure tested process.
Exponential results.

Services Overview

From the kick-off of your program to the announcement of the winners, we’ll be by your side, providing guidance and expert advice. We’ll work with you to ensure a value-added experience for every participant. By delivering value, even to those who don’t win, we can increase the quality of your intended outcome, build a community of dedicated solvers, and align your organization with the latest trends in crowdsourcing and brand marketing.

Our services ensure that your competition will exceed its established goals.  Let us help you discover the model for a competition that’s right for your organization, so that we can meet your needs and help solve your most challenging problems.

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Analysis
Program Discovery
We use multiple tools to understand and determine what type of program would be best suited for your initiative before starting program scoping and design.
Analysis
Program Scoping
We will present the type of program that meets your needs; calibrate incentives to attract participants; create submission and scoring processes; advise your marketing strategy; and finalize all legal terms and conditions.
Design
Program Design
Our team will build a custom roadmap from the initial build, through the launch and all the way to the selection and awards that keeps you informed and activates your stakeholders throughout the process.
Design
Branding
From naming to logo design and branding development we'll provide all the assets you'll need to create a memorable brand for your initiative.
design/Development
Website Design & Development
We will deliver a compelling visual website for your competition that is tailored to complement your brand and attract participants, providing them with a clear, open, and transparent experience.
development
Platform Customization
We will customize our platform and online infrastructure to support participant registration, foster collaboration between applicants, facilitate submissions, to support the judging process, and to produce the final results.
Development
Outreach & Engagement
We will build a custom strategy to engage and activate networks of problem solvers to make sure your competition attracts the talent best suited to meet your needs.
Support
Support
Our team will run webinars, Q/A sessions, monitor forums, and more to provide applicants the support they need to submit their best ideas and make sure that they are judged by the merit of their solutions instead of their ability to navigate an application.
Support
Reporting
We will provide and analyze metrics to fine-tune each phase of participation, including statistics from participant registration to completion of each submission, and during judging we will ensure a successful review process through close coordination.

Full Scope of Services

Carrot's full service process will take you from ideation and scoping through the complete execution of our program using our proprietary platform and expert team. Our robust suite of services include, but are not limited to:

Program Discovery

Program Scoping

Program Design

Branding

Website Design

Website Development

Project Management

Platform Customization

Outreach & Engagement

Customer Support

Judge Training

Judge Recruiting Plan

Reporting

A Look Into Our Process

When designing your program, we follow a rigorous program of research, design, and execution. From your kick-off meeting to your selection committee, we learn about the intent of your organization and identify the most appropriate path to get you the results you need.

01 Kick Off

We dive in with your team to fully understand your challenges and desired outcomes.

02 Program Design

We provide in-depth market research to design and deliver the best program for your competition.

03 Brand & Website

We will build a unique look and feel for your program that connects with and speaks to your vision and mission.

04 Platform

Carrot's proprietary software platform is uniquely built to optimize user engagement and ease throughout the competition process.

05 Launch

We will guide your applicants through the registration and application process with webinars, Q/A sessions, and technological support to make sure your program is open, transparent, and fair.

06 Support

We excel at customer service, and will be here to guide and support your program to ensure that you, your participants, and your stakeholders have an exceptional experience.

Our Guarantee for You

Carrot is, first and foremost, a service business. We work with you to develop custom programs that are tailored to build a pipeline of crowdsourced innovation built specifically for your needs. From start to finish, we are your guide for launching and managing any innovation challenge. 

By embracing an open, transparent, and fair approach to sourcing solutions, our clients have realized more cost-effective and impactful results. Rather than relying upon a limited set of established providers, we help you tap into a broader pool of talent.

How much will this cost?

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Carrot charges on a fixed-fee basis with multiple tiers of services and with optional packages of features customizable to your needs. We do not charge as a percentage of your award(s) nor do we price our services against the capacity of your budget. We’re happy to provide more details and provide an estimate, simply Book a Demo

When is a competition most effective?

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Any time you need others to compete for your resources or attention, competitions are more efficient and effective than other approaches.

Solving problems requires investment. Once you are ready to find the right team or technology to meet your needs, sourcing those opportunities is always a challenge. By sponsoring a competition, you are merely replacing traditional models, like RFPs or other procurement methods, with a more open, transparent, and fair platform. By expanding the aperture, you will find new and exciting solutions.

Learn more about the types of competitions available to you.

Prize Programs

Prizes only pay for solutions, yet engage a wide and deeply committed pool of participants working to solve your challenges.

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Achievement Awards

Showcasing prior achievement is a longstanding tradition across a wide range of fields, but the times are changing.

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Requests for Proposals

Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and other forms of product or service acquisition represent a complicated language that must be improved to get new and better results.

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Crowdsourcing Contests

Competitions to Engage Broad Audiences

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How long does a typical program take to build?

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From the start of any engagement to launch, it takes between 3-5 months to design and develop your competition. During that process, we will recommend specific phases of submission and assessment, to ensure that you are attracting top performers and that their proposals are scored as precisely as possible. Depending upon the number and type of each phase, the actual competition may take between 6-12 months. We will work with you to determine the duration of your program to ensure it meets your needs.

How does this work?

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Every client has a different set of needs. At Carrot we will design your competition, brand it, build it, and run it for you. Our approach ensures that each program is customized for your intended outcome. This means that our clients often meet with us on a weekly or bi-weekly basis during the initial stages of program design, and then on a less regular basis during each active competition phase. We have clients that have dedicated as few as 2-3 staff and others that have empaneled multiple stakeholder parties and key partners. We will work with you to assume as much of the responsibility as you need or want.

Who owns the outcome?

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You own the assets. This is an important aspect of our services. As individuals, organizations, and/or teams register to compete, that data is yours. Similarly, we will work with you to establish ownership of any intellectual property submitted through your competition. Our ambition is to provide you with the concepts and the assessment data, so that you can select the best solution(s) to meet you needs, but we also see value in the full range of proposals. You get to pick the winning solution(s), but you also gain a more complete understanding of the many other technical approaches that may change your perspective or shift your strategic approach to implementation.

I already have a program and need help.

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Over the past two decades, the use of prizes, challenge competitions, and fellowship programs has grown at a pace of ~18% per year. Today, corporations, foundations, and government agencies are replacing RFPs and other forms of procurement with prizes. So, it is not unusual for us to work with clients who have started a program only to find that the structural and operational challenges are too great or that scaling it requires expertise. At Carrot, we help our clients realize the potential that inspired them in the first place. We are your guide to improving any program that invites others to compete for your resources.

How can we entice the world to solve your most important challenges? Let's start today.

Book a Demo

5 Unexpected Benefits of Running a Competition

Here's the simple truth: you have more important things to worry about than becoming a competition expert. Download this free PDF to learn five ways that we can help you save time and money.