The Solver’s Edge

Matthew Gaiser, a Solver: Open Innovation inspires solvers to demonstrate subject matter expertise while problem solving

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Hello solvers,

Welcome to The Solvers Edge Podcast, the podcast that takes you on a journey of why, how, and when does open innovation matter.

I’m your host, Iliriana Kacaniku and today I have the pleasure of introducing you to Matthew Gaiser, a software developer and an exceptional solver of open innovation challenges.  He discovered open innovation when pursuing internship opportunities. The quest for internship led him to MindSumo,  an open innovation platform that in Matthew’s words enables potential employers to evaluate potential candidates' professional skills via challenge-based testing. Since then, he has solved 426 challenges and won over 250 of them. Listing each one of them would take more than 50 pages of a resume. He has been an obsessive problem solver since his childhood. For him, open innovation challenges seem to be a lifeline of problem solving regardless of whether he has a job or pursuing one.   He shared profound insights about open innovation that pertain to both solvers and seekers.

Listening with a solver’s hat on, I found it valuable that:

  • Open innovation challenges help demonstrate validated basic understanding of a subject matter
  • Experience with open innovation challenges matters in the career pursuits

    • And interestingly, when switching hats to the innovation seeker’s one, being courageous and intentional with the design of the open innovation challenges really stood out. So,

    • Start with a very small scale of open innovation as it provides that first hand experience needed for further adoption of open innovation.
    • Be intentional about the problem you’re trying to solve and what you are trying to accomplish, and
    • Address barriers-to-entry for solvers by being innovative how to reward solvers for the time they took to solve  - to encourage most talented people to engage with the challenge and take valuable time out of their other pursuits, especially if they are pursuing new employment opportunities, have some prizes at the end, so even if people don’t win, they still feel that they got something for their time.

      • What about you? Did anything else stand out or resonate with you more strongly? If yes, we’d love to learn. So feel free to share them with us at [email protected]. We would love to hear from you.   In the interim, follow us on Spotify, or Apple Podcast, or Google Podcast and subscribe to our newsletter so you do not miss out on our next episodes.

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      The Solver’s EdgeBy Kaptivate LLC