In December 2023, the Innovative Users Group (IUG) and Innovative, Part of Clarivate announced an IUG Member Exclusive Enhancement Process.

How does this process work?

  • Working Groups select up to 20 idea candidates per cycle and clarify the requirements.
  • Product owners assign effort point values to each idea.
  • IUG members vote to prioritize ideas for implementation.
  • Innovative commits to deliver enhancements within 12 months.
  • Product owners will follow-up with Working Groups to ensure that enhancements meet the requirements laid out in the ideas.
  • You can find out more by reviewing this video.

How does this process work with Idea Exchange?

  • Ideas used in this process will primarily come from Idea Exchange submissions.

How many people are there in each Working Group?Can more than one individual from the same member organization be on a Working Group?
  • Yes, we would consider multiple people or the same person from an organization for participating in one or more Working Groups. 
  • However, If there were more people than slots available, part of the selection process might involve placing the person into only one of the Working Groups.
Do I have to be in a Working Group to vote in the final prioritization process?
  • No. Each member’s site contact can vote.
  • Working Group members can only vote on the final selections if they are ALSO the site contact for their organization.
How will this process accommodate lesser-used systems features?
  • This process is not explicitly designed to address this issue. 
  • Working Groups would need to take this into consideration as they select the ideas for pointing. It is one of the reasons Working Groups and their library make-up will be so important to this process. They may choose to focus on such ideas for some voting cycles. 
  • Alternatively/additionally, users of those features could make a point of drumming up support for related ideas, and improve their chances of being selected by product managers directly from Idea Exchange. 
  • Ideas will need to be championed by their supporters to be implemented.
Will prioritization be broken out by module?
  • At this time there is no plan to do that. There will be one Working Group for each product listed in the agreement. However, Working Group members could choose to run some of the prioritization cycles with an emphasis on a particular module or other subset of ideas.
How are smaller ideas distinguished from larger ones?
  • The Innovative pointing process will assign points relative to the cost of implementing each idea. 
  • The evaluation process could result in a single large idea or multiple smaller ideas being implemented.
Why were some previously selected ideas moved from the Product Board back to Idea Exchange?
  • A small backlog of ideas from timed challenges in Idea Lab (the former enhancement process) were moved back to Idea Exchange.
  • These were items that have been on the Sierra and Polaris Product Boards for some time without being assigned to a specific release.
  • This move allows members to reassess their value. Some ideas might be less relevant now compared to a few years ago.
  • The new agreement will prevent such a backlog in future by limiting the number/size of selected ideas and ensuring that they are assigned to a release.
  • This approach was agreed to by IUG and III.

Is this the exclusive way new product features will get developed?

  • The benefit of features that make it through this process is that they will have a guaranteed delivery date.
  • Innovative will continue to use other market signals and information from additional sources to determine all the features to add to their products.

What products are currently part of this agreement?

  • Polaris
  • Sierra*
  • Vega Discover
  • Vega LX Starter
  • Vega Promote
  • Additional products may be added in the future
Definitions
  • Steering Committee: This is IUG’s main governing body or board. Steering Committee members are elected through an annual process. 
    • For this process the Steering Committee’s main roles are: Signing the agreement with Innovative, establishing the Working Groups, establishing a voting process.
  • Working Group: A group of 6 to 12 people, per product in the agreement, appointed by the Steering Committee. They select a list of ideas to be further refined and then pointed by Innovative.
  • Site Contacts: One person, per IUG member organization, who will be able to cast votes on the final selection of features to be added to a product. This is the same person who can vote in Steering Committee elections. 
  • Product Owners: Innovative employees who are responsible for the development of specific products or features.
  • *Sierra: Per Clarivate, the Sierra MEEP process will NOT include ideas related to the products listed below. However, related ideas can still be selected by product managers from Idea Exchange.
    • Circa
    • Course Reserves
    • Decision Center
    • Encore
    • ERM
    • Express Lane
    • INN-Reach
    • Innovative Phone Alerts (may be added as its own product in a future MEEP agreement)
    • Mobile Worklists
    • SMS Alerts
    • WAM
    • Web Bridge / Link Resolver
    • WebPAC