System and method for enabling product development

• US 8,977,761 B2
• Filed: 08/25/2010
• Issued: 03/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Thomas, Tracey R., Chen, Katherine G.
• Primary Examiner(s): MIRZA, ADNAN M
• Application Number:
  US12/862,930
• Publication Number:
  US 20110153517A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,658 Days
• Field of Search: 709/228, 709/229
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users

Abstract

A comprehensive platform for developing digital products. A standardized process is applied to a product development effort and an online portal provides tools to aid the product development, assessment, funding and commercializing products. Project management, workflow and data security functionality enable consistent, efficient and secure interactions between users. Business rules, workflows, valuation models and rating methods may be user defined or based upon marketplace, industry or technology standards.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a computer-based system configured for facilitating a tournament and from a first user, standardized data for assessing an opportunity;

providing, by the computer-based system via an online portal and based at least partially upon the standardized data, a plurality of tools to the first user;

receiving, by the computer-based system, an upload of a first digital product, wherein the first digital product is associated with the opportunity;

identifying, by the computer-based system, the first digital product for participation in a product tournament, wherein the tournament comprises a plurality of digital products;

enabling, by the computer-based system, download of a subset of the plurality of the digital products by a plurality of tournament judges associated with the tournament;

determining, by the computer-based system and based on feedback from the plurality of tournament judges, a score for the first digital product, wherein the score comprises an aggregate of a plurality of scores received from the plurality of tournament judges;

determining, by the computer-based system, that the score for the first digital product is higher than a score for a second digital product;

determining, by the computer-based system and based on the score for the first digital product, that the first digital product is a winner of a first round of the product tournament; and

advancing, by the computer-based system, the first digital product to a second round of the product tournament.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first digital product comprises a digital service.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying comprises receiving, by the computer-based system and from the first user, a request to enter the first digital product in the product tournament.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the tournament judges comprise at least one of investors, industry experts, consumers and a panel.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the score for the first digital product for a first round of the tournament comprises aggregating the plurality of scores from the plurality of tournament judges.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the determining the score comprises determining the score based upon at least one of a number of downloads of the first digital product, a usage duration of the first digital product, a product evaluation of the first digital product, or a ranking of the first digital product.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first round comprises a plurality of winners and wherein the plurality of winners is entered into the second round of the tournament.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the tournament is judged via crowd-sourcing, wherein the plurality of judges comprises any entity that provides crowd-sourcing feedback.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the tournament is judged via the plurality of judges and via crowd-sourcing.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the crowd-sourcing provides a first component of a score for the first digital product for a first round of the tournament and the plurality of judges provides a second component of the score.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the winner of the tournament receives a credit toward at least one of the use of the online portal and the use of the plurality of tools.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the computer-based system and from the first user, a second version of the first digital product, wherein the second round of the tournament commences in response to receiving the second version, wherein the tournament comprises the first round and the second round.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first user creates the second version of the first digital product in response to feedback from the first round of the tournament.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising, providing, by the computer-based system, a tournament display interface for the first digital product, wherein the tournament display interface comprises at least one of a title, a description, a link for downloading the first digital product, a profile of a company that developed the first digital product and a profile of an inventor of the first digital product.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating, by the computer-based system and based upon the standardized data, a web page for the opportunity;

determining, by the computer-based system and based upon the standardized data, a plurality of experts for the opportunity;

selecting, by the computer-based system a first expert from the plurality of experts; and

receiving, by the computer-based system and from the first expert, feedback associated with the opportunity.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein, the plurality of tools comprises a search tool, a statistical scoring tool, an access configuration tool, a recommendations tool, a storage tool, a feedback tool, an expert advice tool, a web recording tool, a market research tool, a project management tool, a prototype tool, a demonstration tool, a connect and recommend tool and a mobile alert tool.

17. A system comprising:

a processor configured for facilitating a tournament;

a tangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the processor,

the tangible, non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

receiving, by the processor and from a first user, standardized data for assessing an opportunity;

providing, by the processor via an online portal and based at least partially upon the standardized data, a plurality of tools to the first user;

receiving, by the processor, an upload of a first digital product, wherein the first digital product is associated with the opportunity;

identifying, by the processor, the first digital product for participation in a product tournament, wherein the tournament comprises a plurality of digital products;

enabling, by the processor, download of a subset of the plurality of the digital products by a plurality of tournament judges associated with the tournament;

determining, by the processor and based on feedback from the plurality of tournament judges, a score for the first digital product, wherein the score comprises an aggregate of a plurality of scores received from the plurality of tournament judges;

determining, by the processor, that the score for the first digital product is higher than a score for a second digital product;

determining, by the processor and based on the score for the first digital product, that the first digital product is a winner of a first round of the product tournament; and

advancing, by the processor, the first digital product to a second round of the product tournament.

18. An article of manufacture including a tangible, non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computer-based system configured for facilitating a tournament, cause the computer-based system to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by the computer-based system and from a first user, standardized data for assessing an opportunity;

providing, by the computer-based system via an online portal and based at least partially upon the standardized data, a plurality of tools to the first user;

receiving, by the computer-based system, an upload of a first digital product, wherein the first digital product is associated with the opportunity;

identifying, by the computer-based system, the first digital product for participation in a product tournament, wherein the tournament comprises a plurality of digital products;

enabling, by the computer-based system, download of a subset of the plurality of the digital products by a plurality of tournament judges associated with the tournament;

determining, by the computer-based system and based on feedback from the plurality of tournament judges, a score for the first digital product, wherein the score comprises an aggregate of a plurality of scores received from the plurality of tournament judges;

determining, by the computer-based system, that the score for the first digital product is higher than a score for a second digital product;

determining, by the computer-based system and based on the score for the first digital product, that the first digital product is a winner of a first round of the product tournament; and

advancing, by the computer-based system, the first digital product to a second round of the product tournament.