For each new challenge, OpenIDEO will set a challenge question and a call to action. Past challenges have featured questions like ‘How might we inspire and enable communities to take more initiative in making their local environments better?’ and ‘How might we better connect food production and consumption?’. The challenge will commence with the online community sharing existing stories, tools, case studies and examples to help gain an understanding around the challenge topic and inspire solutions. The community will build on each other’s ideas for solutions, before suggestions are whittled down to a shortlist for strengthening, iterating and protyping – preparing them for greater impact. This will result in ten winning ideas being announced – based on a mix of community evaluations and expert feedback – before the solutions are introduced into society to create impact.

Taking the digital platform into offline mode, OpenIDEO is now encouraging community members to host OpenIDEO Meetups in your local area to put faces to the brainstorms, give participants a voice and sense of ownership, and connect in person with likeminded folk to create a local impact. Groups come together to run deep-dive brainstorming sessions, build prototypes and gather local insights to enhance the online community collaborations. OpenIDEO is encouraging interested folk to create local meetups to help design solutions for the current challenge of ‘How might we make low-income urban areas safer and more empowering for women and girls?’.