Idea Exchange - FAQ

A. Idea Exchange is an innovation environment, hosted by Innovative, designed for users to submit, discuss, vote, and prioritize ideas to improve solutions for libraries. It is based on the UserVoice platform.

Idea Exchange allows the Innovative community to provide input regarding priorities for new areas of development as well as enhancements to existing Innovative products. It also enables Innovative to take more timely action on user-contributed ideas.

A. Idea Exchange is open to all Innovative customers, from front-line staff to directors, to submit, comment on, and vote for ideas for product enhancements. You are not required to be a member of IUG to contribute to Idea Exchange.

A. The URL for Idea Exchange is https://ideas.iii.com.

1. Visit Idea Exchange at https://ideas.iii.com
2. Click the Sign In link in the top right corner
3. Click the Create an account link at the bottom of the pop-up box. While you can sign in with a Microsoft account, we recommend that you use your full business email address — the one associated with your Innovative library or consortium.
4. Enter your email address
5. Idea Exchange will display a numeric code (note this code AND leave the window open!) and send you an email with a verification link
6. Go to your email and open the email from noreply@trymagic.com with the Subject “Confirm email…” (Yes, really. It does look like spam.)
7. Click the Confirm email link/button
8. A new webpage will open asking you to enter the security code you saw back in step 5. Enter the code. 
9. The webpage will provide a “Login complete!” verification message
10. Go back to the webpage you left open in step 5
11. Fill out the boxes for name and password. The password must have at least 8 characters, one lower case character, one upper case character, one number, and one symbol ($, !, @, _, *, etc)
12. Check the box “I agree to the terms of service”

Click Create Account

A. Try pasting the link and/or resetting your password in an incognito browser window. Innovative loaded most of the accounts from Idea Exchange into UserVoice to preserve their participation in transferred ideas, and that has made it difficult for people to get into their accounts for the first time. Fortunately, it should be a one time work around.

Innovative solution: https://iii.rightanswers.com/portal/app/portlets/results/viewsolution.jsp?solutionid=230403205834033&guest=0 

A. Your avatar will automatically display if you have a Gravatar set up with the same email address that you are using for your Idea Exchange account. Go to https://gravatar.com/ to set up your avatar.

A. On the Settings page, linked to in the top right corner, you can change your name, email address, password, email notifications, language preference, export your data, and delete your account.

A. You can see your Idea Exchange activity by clicking your name or Settings link in the top right corner.

A. You are welcome to advertise your idea over any of the relevant mailing lists or forums. Copy the URL for the idea from the browser’s address bar. 

A. Comments should add to the conversation by adding new details, considerations, or local experiences to the original idea.

It can be quite tempting to leave comments that simply say things along the lines of “I like this too” in order to increase the comment count. However, if that is the extent of your comment please simply vote for the idea, or find a way to expand on just what it is that you like in the idea or what problem it happens to solve for your library…or both!

Innovative’s product owners are also especially appreciative of use cases (both for and against an idea). If you explain the circumstances around how a given idea will affect your library, that can be extremely helpful.

A. Ideas more than two years old are automatically archived. Archived ideas remain available for consideration by Innovative product owners. Some archived ideas have been selected for future product releases.

A. Don’t despair. Archived ideas are still reviewed by Innovative product owners and have even been selected for development despite being placed in the archive.

Depending on the reason your idea was archived, you may also wish to submit a new idea that addresses feedback your original idea may have received throughout the commenting and review process. For example, one fairly common issue that can lead to an idea failing a review is it being too broad in scope. If that is the case you can try submitting one or more ideas that break your suggestion into more discrete pieces that might be able to be more easily developed.

A. Idea descriptions support Markdown. Comments are plain text. 

A. An idea must be less than 10,000 characters. 

A. Idea Statuses can refer to the following:

• No Status – Status has not yet been assigned
• Under Review – Innovative is reviewing the idea
• Planned – Innovative is planning to implement the idea
• Completed – Innovative has implemented the idea
• Already Supported – The idea is already supported in the product
• Closed – The idea has been closed
• Future Possibilities (Idea Lab) – The idea was migrated over from Idea Lab (the previous idea platform), where it had made it to the Future Possibilities stage.
• Product Review (Idea Lab) – The idea was migrated over from Idea Lab (the previous idea platform), where it had made it to the Product Review stage.

A. Successful ideas will have a status of either Planned or Completed. A “planned” idea is one that has been selected by Innovative and is planned for an upcoming release. A “completed” idea has been implemented and is available in the product.

A. The UserVoice platform language settings translate standard UI text. Any custom text Innovative created, like categories and forum names, are not translated. You may change the language for your account on the Settings page, which may be found under your name in the upper right corner.

A. Please email us at enhancements@innovativeusers.org

A. The search function in Idea Exchange “ors” terms together. Try using fewer terms.

A. Idea Exchange is separate from Product Roadmaps. The Product Roadmaps show features that Innovative is committed to adding to the product in a future release. Product Owners manage the Product Roadmaps which can include features submitted through Idea Exchange or other channels. Providing feedback via the Product Roadmap helps to clarify the final capabilities as the design and development teams get ready to implement them.

A. The legacy Idea Lab system has been retired. If there are items you feel are still a priority, please contact us at enhancements@innovativeusers.org for help in submitting them to Idea Exchange.

A. Ideas that made it to the Product Review and Future Possibilities stages were moved from Idea Lab to Idea Exchange.

The Member Exclusive Enhancements Process (MEEP) has replaced Timed Challenges. Through MEEP, Working Groups select ideas, IUG members vote to prioritize them, and Innovative commits to implementing the top ideas within 12 months. You can learn more by visiting the dedicated MEEP page.

A. Comments from the older Idea Lab system were archived and will be referred to by Innovative staff as they evaluate ideas for possible implementation. Votes were not able to be transferred over.

A. Polaris libraries can still view these when logged in to the Supportal. If there are items you feel are still a priority, you can create them as ideas in Idea Exchange.

A. Send your suggestions to enhancements@innovativeusers.org.

A. Please email us at enhancements@innovativeusers.org. We are always happy to take your questions.

— The Idea Exchange Team at Innovative Users Group