summary
IdeaMapr is a startup I founded to help local governments collaborate with their communities on civic decisions.
Local governments have the most direct impact on our daily lives. They make decisions that affect everything from what grocery stores we can access and how we commute to work to what types of parks our kids play at. Governments consider hundreds of these decisions every year and need to gather input from the public on all of them. These civic decisions are a tremendous opportunity for people to shape the communities they live in.
We built a simple online survey tool to help these communities to work through complex civic decisions.
IdeaMapr was acquired by Neighborland in 2019 to work together to empower people to shape the development of their neighborhoods.
Project Role
Founder, Product Management, UX Design, Writing
Project Duration
3 Years
I interviewed over 50 practitioners in the field of public involvement on what they need to successfully involve the public in civic decisions.
Access to the process is a vital concern. Most of these decisions occur at in-person meetings that many cannot easily attend. These processes are also usually complex and difficult to structure in a way so that regular people can participate in a meaningful way. At the end of a process, it is very difficult to summarize what was said and who participated, which is needed to ensure that all major concerns were addressed as best as possible.
To have a successful process you need to make it open, make it high quality, and tell the story of that quality.
IdeaMapr has a simple survey structure that guides participants through even the most complex projects with ease. The public can participate even if they cannot attend a meeting in person. With powerfully interactive tools the public can interact with tradeoffs, learn about alternative solutions and suggest their own improvements in a structured and easy-to-follow engagement. Reports break down results to tell the story of what happened in the engagement. At the end of project, after you’ve had thousands of participants, you can summarize who participated and clearly articulate what they said.
quick tour
As easy as a survey but much more powerful and interactive.
Participants can select locations on a map and add their comments.
Set a budget and have participants choose which combination of ideas they would like to support.
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