Matt Greeley of Brightidea on Long-Form Narratives of Ideas

Matt Greeley, the Founder and CEO of Brightidea, is on The Killer Innovations Show to discuss the launch of their new idea incubation tool, BrightIdea Memo.

Matt has been involved in idea management systems (IMS) since their early days. In 2005, BrightIdea launched the first-ever online innovation platform. During my time at HP, I worked with Matt on the earlier versions of Brightidea while they serviced us. At CableLabs, where I am now CEO, we have been utilizing Brightidea for almost a decade. Brightidea acts as an innovation pipeline platform, similar to how Salesforce is a sales pipeline platform. The platform’s goal is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization’s innovation process, leading to financial impact. Since innovation tends to be messy, having a non-restrictive tool at your disposal is essential.

Executives and IMS

In the past, most executives did not understand the true value of a tool for ideas. With today’s fast innovation pace, leaders are tasked with even more challenges. Due to constant disruption, many executives are now recognizing the importance of innovation. Idea Management Systems (IMS) have transformed from simply capturing ideas to helping organizations find ideas with the highest value. It’s all about taking an idea and identifying how to mature it.

Long-form Narrative Ideas

Amazon no longer uses PowerPoint to present ideas to executives. Jeff Bezos swapped out PowerPoint for six-page memos. These memos get sent out to the executives before each planning meeting. At CableLabs, we have also banned PowerPoint. This helps executives avoid wasting time learning about ideas during meetings. Narrative writing utilizes a process I like to call backcasting. You write things backward, starting with the launch date, using a press release. The press release puts the customer first by focusing on how they would view the solution. A core benefit of this practice is organizational alignment. Long-form narrative writing gets the entire organization involved in the visioning exercise from the start. This provides a much broader ecosystem of input.

The Launch of BrightIdea Memo

BrightIdea Memo is a tool that sets up teams for long-form narrative writing around an idea. The platform acts as a home for outside-the-box projects that still need to incubate. You can start with a blank document or use a press release template. The tool allows for collaboration, has AI writing software, and sports a peer review function. Brightidea Memo guides users to get their 6-page memo actionable and ready for executives.

Check out Brightidea Memo at Brightidea’s website here.

About our Guest: Matt Greeley

Matt Greeley is the Founder & CEO of Brightidea, the global leader in On-Demand Innovation Pipeline Management (IPM) software. Previously, Matt consulted for Wrenchead.com and co-founded Silicon Valley enterprise software provider Alyanza Software, which Niku acquired. Matt has a Degree in Computer Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology and studied Creativity and Marketing at Stanford University.

To know more about Matt Greeley, listen to: Matt Greeley of Brightidea on Long-Form Narratives of Ideas.