How can you measure the ROI of co-creation initiatives in BRM?

1 Define your objectives and expectations

Before launching a co-creation initiative, you need to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve and how you will measure it. Depending on your specific context and goals, you may have different objectives and expectations for your co-creation project. For example, you may want to increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, or retention; improve product quality, functionality, or usability; reduce costs, risks, or time-to-market; or foster innovation, learning, or differentiation. You should also consider the expectations of your co-creation partners and align them with your own. By defining your objectives and expectations upfront, you can set the direction and scope of your co-creation initiative and establish the criteria and indicators for evaluating its success.

2 Choose relevant and reliable metrics

Once you have defined your objectives and expectations, you need to select metrics that will help you measure the performance and outcomes of your co-creation initiative. Metrics are quantitative or qualitative measures that reflect the progress and results of your co-creation activities, so it's important to choose metrics that are relevant to your objectives, reliable in terms of data quality and validity, and easy to collect and analyze. Examples of metrics that can be used to measure the ROI of co-creation initiatives include customer metrics such as customer retention rate, net promoter score, customer lifetime value, or customer referrals; product metrics such as product performance, features, feedback, or sales; process metrics such as process efficiency, effectiveness, speed, or cost; and partner metrics such as partner satisfaction, trust, commitment, or value.

3 Use a balanced scorecard approach

A balanced scorecard is a strategic management tool that helps you monitor and evaluate the performance of your co-creation initiative. This approach captures the holistic value and impact of your strategy, as well as identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It typically consists of four dimensions: financial, customer, internal process, and learning and growth. With a balanced scorecard, you can answer questions about your financial performance and profitability, customer satisfaction and loyalty, improvements to internal processes such as innovation or delivery, and how co-creation enhances organizational capabilities like knowledge or culture.

4 Communicate and share your results

The final step in measuring the ROI of co-creation initiatives is to communicate and share your results with your stakeholders, such as your co-creation partners, your management, your employees, or your customers. By communicating and sharing your results, you can demonstrate the value and impact of your co-creation efforts, as well as solicit feedback, suggestions, or recognition from your stakeholders. Communicating and sharing your results can also help you build trust, transparency, and accountability among your co-creation participants, as well as foster a culture of collaboration and innovation in your organization. You can use various methods and channels to communicate and share your results, such as reports, presentations, newsletters, blogs, social media, or events.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?