Prioritizing product development lines

• US 7,853,496 B2
• Filed: 11/18/2005
• Issued: 12/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cox Communications Incorporated (Cox Enterprises Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Cox Communications Incorporated (Cox Enterprises Incorporated)
• Inventors: Starbird, Ray H., Hightower, Scott C., Poffenberger, Michael L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kalinowski; Alexander
• Assistant Examiner(s): TINKLER, MURIEL S
• Application Number:
  US11/283,089
• Publication Number:
  US 20060116950A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,852 Days
• Field of Search: 705/35, 705/36.R, 705/37, 705/10, 705/14.11, 705/14.18
• US Class Current: 705/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0208 Trade or exchange of goods or services in exchange for incentives or rewards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0216 Investment accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for maintaining building serviceability information for geographic locations. The disclosed systems and methods may include forming a future market in which the product developments lines are equated to stocks. Furthermore, the disclosed systems and methods may include determining participants in a trading session of the future market and setting rules governing how the trading session in the future market will operate. Moreover, the disclosed systems and methods may include opening the trading session for the participants, closing the trading session for trading and evaluating market session trends and participant purchases to determine the priority of a product line in relation to other product lines.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of prioritizing product development lines within an organization, the method comprising:

using the computer to form a future market in which the product development lines are associated with stocks, the product development lines including at least a video e-mail product, a movie download service product, and a desktop toolbar product;

determining participants in a trading session of the future market;

setting rules governing how the trading session in the future market will operate, the rules comprising requiring a participant to be involved with at least a plurality of market transactions to be eligible for a reward and replacing at least one of the stocks with another stock when the at least one of the stocks falls below a certain value, wherein the reward is issued to the participant when the participant is closest to final results of the trading session and when the participant is involved with at least the plurality of market transactions;

opening the trading session for the participants, wherein when the trading session is open, the participants trade the stocks based on a likelihood of a product development line associated with a stock will at least one of transition into and fail to transition into a design phase, wherein a first likelihood indicates a collective expectation of the participants that the product development line will transition into the design phase, driving a price associated with the stock higher than an initial trading value, a second likelihood indicates a lack of a definitive opinion by the participants regarding the transition of the product development line into the design phase, maintaining a price associated with the stock at the initial trading value, and wherein a third likelihood indicates a collective expectation of the participants that the product development line will fail to transition into the design phase, driving a price associated with the stock lower than the initial trading value;

closing the trading session for trading, wherein the future market has a tertiary outcome with respect to a trading price for the stocks at the close of the trading session, the tertiary outcome comprising a zero dollar stock price for the product development line which will fail to transition into the design phase, a fifty cent stock price for the product development line for which there is a lack of a definitive opinion by the participants regarding the transition of the product development line into the design phase, and a one dollar stock price for the product development line which will transition into the design phase;

processing, on the computer, computational data regarding the stock trades made by the participants during the trading session, the computational data comprising at least stock purchase prices and stock sale prices during the trading session;

evaluating trading session trends and participant purchases, based on the computational data, to determine the priority of a product development line in relation to other product development lines, wherein the priority is determined from a tier system based on performance of the stocks during the trading session, wherein the tier system comprises a top tier, a middle tier, and a bottom tier, wherein the stocks in the top tier have the one dollar stock price, indicating that the stocks are popular among the participants in the trading system, and wherein the stocks the stocks in the top tier are associated with product development lines which are allocated a majority of organizational manpower and resources thereby saving the organization time and money in manpower and resource allocation; and

displaying, by the computer, a user interface comprising information for the participant to participate in the trading session, the information comprising a net worth of the participant, changes to the stocks due to market fluctuation, a ranking of the participant with respect to other participants, during the trading session, and a stock portfolio of the participant, and wherein the user interface provides a link that provides supplemental product information for the participant to make an informed decision for a given stock sale or purchase.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining how questions concerning certain stocks are presented to the participants.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising determining acceptable answers to the questions presented to the participants.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising setting the stocks to their initial values prior to opening the trading session.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising monitoring the trading session and adjusting the trading session due to circumstances occurring during the trading session.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising collecting supplemental data for the trading session for correlating trading session data and a baseline interpretation of product development importance by the organization.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising rewarding the participants for their participation in the trading session based on predetermined criteria.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising reporting trading session data to individuals within the organization.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the participants are provided with information about the product development lines associated with a given trading session.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein trading session data can be provided to individuals within an organization in a plurality of formats.

11. A computer-readable storage medium which stores a set of instructions which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform a method for prioritizing product development lines within an organization, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:

using the computer to form a future market in which the product development lines are associated with stocks, the product development lines including at least a video e-mail product, a movie download service product, and a desktop toolbar product;

determining participants in a trading session of the future market;

setting rules governing how the trading session in the future market will operate, the rules comprising requiring a participant to be involved with at least a plurality of market transactions to be eligible for a reward and replacing at least one of the stocks with another stock when the at least one of the stocks falls below a certain value, wherein the reward is issued to the participant when the participant is closest to final results of the trading session and when the participant is involved with at least the plurality of market transactions;

opening the trading session for the participants, wherein when a market session is open, the participants trade the stocks based on a likelihood of a product development line associated with a stock will at least one of transition into and fail to transition into a design phase, wherein a first likelihood indicates a collective expectation of the participants that the product development line will transition into the design phase, driving a price associated with the stock higher than an initial trading value, a second likelihood indicates a lack of a definitive opinion by the participants regarding the transition of the product development line into the design phase, maintaining a price associated with the stock at an initial trading value, and wherein a third likelihood indicates a collective expectation of the participants that the product development line will fail to transition into the design phase, driving a price associated with the stock lower than the initial trading value;

closing the trading session for trading, wherein the future market has a tertiary outcome with respect to a trading price for the stocks at the close of the trading session, the tertiary outcome comprising a zero dollar stock price for the product development line which will fail to transition into the design phase, a fifty cent stock price for the product development line for which there is a lack of a definitive opinion by the participants regarding the transition of the product development line into the design phase, and a one dollar stock price for the product development line which will transition into the design phase;

processing computational data regarding the stock trades made by the participants during the trading session, the computational data comprising at least stock purchase prices and stock sale prices during the trading session;

evaluating trading session trends and participant purchases to determine the priority of a product development line in relation to other product development lines, wherein the priority is determined from a tier system based on performance of the stocks during the trading session, wherein the tier system comprises a top tier, a middle tier, and a bottom tier, wherein the stocks in the top tier have the one dollar stock price, indicating that the stocks are popular among the participants in the trading system, and wherein the stocks the stocks in the top tier are associated with product development lines which are allocated a majority of organizational manpower and resources thereby saving the organization time and money in manpower and resource allocation; and

displaying a user interface comprising information for the participant to participate in the trading session, the information comprising a net worth of the participant, changes to the stocks due to market fluctuation, a ranking of the participant, with respect to other participants, during the trading session, and a stock portfolio of the participant, and wherein the user interface provides a link that provides supplemental product information for the participant to make an informed decision for a given stock sale or purchase.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11 further comprising monitoring the trading session and adjusting the trading session due to circumstances occurring during the trading session.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11 further comprising collecting supplemental data for the trading session for correlating trading session data and a baseline interpretation of product development importance by the organization.

14. An apparatus for prioritizing product development lines within an organization, comprising:

a computer, wherein the computer is used in;

forming a future market in which the product development lines are associated with stocks, the product development lines including at least a video e-mail product, a movie download service product, and a desktop toolbar product;

determining participants in a trading session of the future market;

setting rules governing how the trading session in the future market will operate, the rules comprising requiring a participant to be involved with a minimum number of a plurality of market transactions to be eligible for a reward and replacing at least one of the stocks with another stock when the at least one of the stocks falls below a certain value, wherein the reward is issued to the participant when the participant is closest to final results of the trading session and when the participant is involved with at least the minimum number of the plurality of market transactions, wherein the minimum number of a plurality of market transactions to be eligible for a reward comprises at least fifteen transactions;

opening the trading session for the participants, wherein when the trading session is open, the participants trade the stocks based on a likelihood of a product development line associated with a stock will at least one of transition into and fail to transition into a design phase, wherein a first likelihood indicates a collective expectation of the participants that the product development line will transition into the design phase, driving a price associated with the stock higher than an initial trading value, a second likelihood indicates a lack of a definitive opinion by the participants regarding the transition of the product development line into the design phase, maintaining a price associated with the stock at an initial trading value, and wherein a third likelihood indicates a collective expectation of the participants that the product development line will fail to transition into the design phase, driving a price associated with the stock lower than the initial trading value;

closing the trading session for trading, wherein the future market has a tertiary outcome with respect to a trading price for the stocks at the close of the trading session, the tertiary outcome comprising a zero dollar stock price for the product development line which will fail to transition into the design phase, a fifty cent stock price for the product development line for which there is a lack of a definitive opinion by the participants regarding the transition of the product development line into the design phase, and a one dollar stock price for the product development line which will transition into the design phase;

evaluating trading session trends and participant purchases to determine the priority of a product development line in relation to other product development lines, wherein the priority is determined from a tier system based on performance of the stocks during the trading session, wherein the tier system comprises a top tier, a middle tier, and a bottom tier, wherein the stocks in the top tier have the one dollar stock price, indicating that the stocks are popular among the participants in the trading system, and wherein the stocks the stocks in the top tier are associated with product development lines which are allocated a majority of organizational manpower and resources thereby saving the organization time and money in manpower and resource allocation; and

displaying a user interface comprising information for the participant to participate in the trading session, the information comprising a net worth of the participant, changes to the stocks due to market fluctuation, a ranking of the participant during the trading session, and a stock portfolio of the participant, and wherein the user interface provides a link that provides supplemental product information for the participant to make an informed decision for a given stock sale or purchase.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the product development lines associated with the top tier, the middle tier, and the bottom tier comprise the video e-mail product, the movie download service product, and the desktop toolbar product.