Founded in 1701, Yale University provides instruction in the liberal arts and sciences, and offers a curriculum of remarkable breadth and depth. As part of their comprehensive program, the Information Technology Services (ITS) department at Yale University implemented a plan to achieve a culture of innovation and a critical component of that plan was their use of IdeaScale. Learn about Yale's fast-track moderation strategy for processing dozens of ideas through a complete process lifecycle within a 2-week timeframe.

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YALEUNIVERSITY
YALE INNOVATION FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
BEST MODERATION STRATEGY
IDEASCALE

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Founded in 1701, Yale University provides instruction in the liberal arts and sciences, and offers a
curriculum of remarkable breadth and depth. Today, Yale has become a truly global university –
educating leaders and advancing the frontiers of knowledge not simply for the United States, but
for the entire world. As part of their comprehensive program, the Information Technology Services
(ITS) department at Yale University implemented a plan to achieve a culture of innovation and a
critical component of that plan was their use of IdeaScale.
When CIO Len Peters joined the University, one of his first objectives was to create a “think box”
for suggestions and ideas. What began with this very simple premise slowly blossomed over the
next few years into a truly holistic approach for the entire organization that has begun to bear
fruit.
Benefits include:
• Generating and implementing useful new ideas to improve the Yale community’s experience
of IT services
• Improving operational efficiency through streamlining processes
• Empowering staff to shape the future of the organization
• Motivating, retaining and hiring skilled staff by means of providing a challenging and creative
environment.
In Fall 2013, the alignment team conducted a pilot of the process to demonstrate its value and
effectiveness to ITS leadership. The pilot participants were the University's Student Technology
Collaborative, comprised of about 150 students who provide a wide range of consultation and
support for technology at Yale. The process was put to work helping them improve two of their
homegrown web applications. In a two-week sprint, dozens of ideas ran through the complete
process lifecycle, with a handful being approved and implemented. The pilot was an inspiring
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Yale University
Yale Innovation for Information Technology
Best Moderation Strategy
YALE UNIVERSITY

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IdeaScale inflows and ou@lows are managed by a process tailored by Yale, which provides an end-
to-end framework for connecting great ideas with successful implementation.
CommunicaHon is a crucial component of the process, both for operational efficiency as well as
authentic engagement. Every possible outcome of iteration through the process is paired with loop-
closing communication.
Yale ITS is an organization of almost 450 people. In order to effectively operationalize department-
wide ideation, Yale uses a distributed system model to spread the workload across the organization
as evenly as possible.
Process Roles include:
• User: the general population of the organization, generating and submitting ideas into IdeaScale.
• Champion: our most engaged and enthusiastic staff, they model the innovation behaviors that we
want to transform into habits for everyone in ITS.
• Leadership: those with the authority to make decisions about if, how and when to move forward
with ideas generated by users.
• Idea Owner: the individual charged with overseeing the execution of a particular idea that has
been approved by leadership.
• Alignment Team: maintain the process, advocate for innovation, interface with leadership, and
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What Did We Learn From Yale?
YALE UNIVERSITY

4. FOR MORE INFORMATION
sales@ideascale.com
Global / Americas
+1 800-­‐549-­‐9198
Australia
+61-­‐02-­‐9037-­‐8414
United Kingdom
+44-­‐0-­‐808-­‐189-­‐1476
The Yale ITS ideation process has two phases. Each phase utilizes a number of moderation activities
within IdeaScale to achieve its goals. The process phases include:
4YALE UNIVERSITY
The intake/triage phase
This phase covers the generation and
categorization of ideas, along with the cyclical
refinement of an idea until it is deemed ready to
be presented to leadership. Yale relies heavily
on the champions in this phase. They use
IdeaScale to collaborate with users, teasing out
further details about ideas and helping to polish
them into the most presentable form possible.
ExecuDon phase
Champions present leadership with ideas to be
considered for implementation. When an idea
receives approval, leadership assigns an idea
owner to carry it forward to completion. The
idea owner is to the execution phase as the
champion is to intake/triage: they are the
powerhouse workhorses of this phase.
IdeaScale is their vehicle for driving ideas
forward from vision to reality.
New Zealand
+64-­‐080-­‐099-­‐5088