Please forgive my typos.

Good idea. That would be valuable data to have as an inventor.

It seems like Quirky will take chances on making products that won't fit into their retail partners stores. Alot of ideas that are currently in "UC" will never be sold at Target or BB&B.

I'm mainly taking about ideas that don't even make it to UC. Wouldn't it be great to have some insight into what real consumers think, rather than other community members?

OK sounds like a great idea to me...so my questions is:
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Who's is going to provide this, what are their qualifications, and what's it going to cost me??
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Quirky is not going make 99.999% of ideas posted.

@RickJ,
Quirky can already do it...almost...at $10 per submission.

IMO if Quirky could attract 100,000+ casual voters a week (besides the inventors and idea submitters), that would come pretty close to being a sample of real consumers.
(Quirky's already intended to do this, so no shift in philosophy, just execution.)

If Quirky would then go further by giving us the ratio of vote/no vote by demographic, then we have tons of useful information.
(And Quirky already collects this information, so no shift in philosophy, just start displaying it.)

Here is what I just posted in GS

Originally voting was

a/ a factor in determining an ideas popularity and
b/ a way to create a report for the ideator.
(We could say badly designed market research)

So if you want to work with what you already have, why not do this. Why not turn the badly designed market research into better designed market research so that the ideator gets a report that is meaningful and the voter gets influence for doing something meaningful.

I propose that the only way to get influence is to have previously completed a demographic profile. This will be questions about who you are, where you shop, what your hobbies are ect... fill in as much or as little as you want.

When an ideator posts their pitch they are required to choose from a list of categories as to who they think are the target market for their idea. For example DOG OWNERS

The ideator is also required to create 3 survey questions for dog owners.

Those people who have previously identified themselves in the demographic profile as DOG OWNERS can earn influence by answering the questions and voting.

This means that we can flag ideas that might interest people in the weekly email and point them towards these ideas.

This is not the ideal scenario but much better than rewarding people for 'influence' and as you say 'their work' when their work is has no effect.

_______________________

@Clinton there are a number of reasons why a button for "I will buy this" will not work. Quirky believe as to do I, that ideas are not fully formed products, they are just ideas. To ask people if they would buy something that is still being developed may result in false results.

Most people cannot imagine the finished article so asking them such a black and white question will not be effective. Most people will say YES, why wouldn't they? They get influence if they say yes.

I think it is a better idea to ask things like - Do you have this problem? How important do you think this problem is in your life? Do you think this concept would solve your problem?

Genius Crowds just gave feedback on all ideas this last round which was kinda cool.:)

@Michelle, You raise two points...
...that people will just say yes since that's how they get influence,
...and that people are guessing about the product idea since most submissions are incomplete.

I agree those are both "bad" things, and that fixing them would benefit Quirky.

But I also think those are both Quirky issues...common to any of the ways the vote is done at Quirky.
...all forms of voting are going to have problems with people voting because that's how they get influence %
...and they are all based on people guessing what the product idea really is.

So, I don't accept them as problems with a "I would buy this" vote box specifically.

Problems for Quirky to solve? Yes.
Problems with, and reasons not to use, the specific "I would buy this" vote box? Nope.

Have you visited? http://www.innovationexcellence.com/ This is where you can blog about your idea , make a presentation and talk about your innovation invite people in your forum ! I'm also a member and it's free to sign up . Read about cool innovations that can be applied in every aspect of our daily lives. So many good articles to read...

I have been telling Q for a long time that paying people for votes will muddy any results BUT there is a saying I learned from John Lott and that is - "directionally accurate".
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I can see I am loosing that argument with Nathan so I am proposing a compromise to try to prove that there is a way forward that he might find agreeable.
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One of the features of my 'work around' proposed today, is that members must fill in a demographic survey prior to voting.
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This will mean that you expose your status as a "Dog Owner" prior to being asked to give you opinion on it. The demographic survey could come with a warning that states if you are caught lying about your status you may have your influence voided.
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I do find it amusing that they have no intention of using market research to choose ideas BUT have made voting a very important component and advertise the feedback as a key benefit for ideators.
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It must have at one time been important and abandoned becasue of poor execution don't you think?

Also its seems kinda late to get product testers providing feedback when it could have been gathered BEFORE it became tangible physical you know what.:)

It has become very clear that Quirky have no intention of taking advice about their product selections from the community or to make design decisions. I have given up on that score. The best we can hope for now is that they at least let US have the benefit of the community with market research for our ideas. Then when they don't pick our ideas becasue they personally don't 'feel it' we can still move forward with our ideas elsewhere.