Groups are used in smartcrowds to keep things that are similar in nature together in an easy to find place - depending on what you are using smartcrowds for, your Groups might be used for Ideas, or Proposals, or Surveys, or anything else where collaboration and input from others can lead to positive change.
All Groups exist within Crowds, and whilst we refer them as Groups, your organisation might refer to them by different names within different Crowds, for example 'Challenges', 'Campaigns', 'Initiatives', 'Topics' etc. If you haven't already done so, you can find out more about Groups here.
An Admin user or a user with Group Creator permissions within a Crowd can add a Group to that Crowd.
To do so, go to the Crowd you wish to add a Group to and scroll down the page until you see 'Add Group' (or whatever Groups have been labelled in your Crowd) and you will be brought to the configuration/edit screen.
In the example Crowd above, Groups are being referred to as 'Challenges', and the things that are added to the challenge are being referred to as 'Ideas'.
When you've selected the Add Group (or whatever Groups have been labelled in your Crowd) button, you'll see a screen simlar to the exampel below:
On this screen, the first thing to do is to give your Group a 'Name' - our advice is to keep it as short but descriptive as you can.
You'll also need to add a 'Description', which is used to give more information and background on the Group or Challenge. You can use rich text to make this as engaging as possible for your members.
If your Group is being used for an ideas Challenge, we normally recommend organising the description into the following sections:
Background - set the scene for why the Challenge is being run
Mission - a short description of what you are looking for
Deadline - when the Challenge will end
Assumptions - a list of things that people can assume when responding
Constraints - a list of things that people should consider, and avoid, when responding
You should also add an engaging Image for your Group, and if you have any supporting documents to link to or upload, you can do this here to.
After this, you will be asked to choose the people who will join the pool of potential Moderators, Assessors and Authorisers for this Group. You can choose as many as you wish for each of these roles. View this article for more info on these roles and their permissions
Settings
Status - The options here will be Draft, Published and Completed. Upon creation, you will only be able to select Draft, this allows your to set up the entire Group's settings before setting it live to the rest of the Crowd. Standard users will not be able to see Draft Groups.
Restrict add Idea to Group Owners and Assessors - This setting is used if you only want Crowd members to be able to view Items. This may be the case if their feedback is required through comments, likes or surveys, but you do not want them submitting ideas themselves. Ask smartcrowds Support if you think this is the option for you and we can help you set this up.
Submitter / Assessors can edit Idea after assessment - This restricts any changes being made to a Submission after an Assessment has been made. This can be switched on and off for either the Submitter or the Groups' Assessors.
Allow Brain Fuel - Here, you can decide if Brain Fuel is activated for the Group. Click here for more on Brain Fuel.
Set Maximum Word Count for Submission Description - Sometimes users can get carried away when submitting their ideas. Setting a word count restriction on the Submission description can help to keep the submission or idea more succinct and clear.
Submission Description tooltip - This feature can help to give a little more information on what you are looking for in a submission. You may want to remind them to include certain information or define a format for their submission. The tooltip appears when a small "i" icon hovered over.
Start and End Date - This is the start and end date for a Group. The end date is optional but is particularly helpful if you are running a Challenge which has a specific deadline by which all submissions need to be made.
Deadline (days) following submission - This particular setting is determined by the Crowd settings, so cannot be altered from this page. It refers to the number of days by which an assessment needs to be made.
Set Deadline based on ‘End Date’? - This is the only way you can change when an initial Assessment is due. You will use the Deadline (days) following ‘End Date’ setting to select the number of days after the end date of the Group an assessment needs to be made.
For example - If this setting is not on, submissions with different submission dates will have different due dates for assessment (e.g. 14 days after submission), but with this setting switched on, all Submissions within the Group will have the same due date for assessments (e.g. 7 days after the end date).
Submissions Requires a Decision? - This refers to the sub-status changes that need to happen before a plan can be added or a Submission can be closed. So a Submission needs to be set to Planned, Not Planned or Shortlisted before any action after an assessment can be performed.
Send Assessment Notifications Manually? - This setting will suppress all automatic notifications for due Assessments until you perform the 'Request assessment' action, this will then trigger the automatic notifications