3. Lessons learnt from
Tallan?
Not happy with the operations of Tallan
Expensive and time consuming recruitment
process
Evolving technologies results in high employee
turnover rate
More can be done to save clients time and money
Crowdsourcing was the solution!
4. TopCoder v1.0
Consulting Business Model
Host competitions with monetary rewards from
sponsors
Build community strength
Gain popularity
Winner gets a job with the sponsor
HR firm
• Looking to
hire
Client
• Held
Competitions
TopCoder • Winner got
hired
Crowd
5. TopCoder v2.0
Competition Based Model
Crowd sourcing Software Development
Tasks of Software Development Process
Task
Conceptual
ization
Specificatio
n
Architec
ture
Component
Production
Application
Assembly
Certific
ation
Deploy
ment
v.2.0 PM PM PM COM PM PM PM
• Looking for
software
application
Client
• Held
Competitions
TopCoder • Winner got
rewarded
Crowd
6. TopCoder v2.1
Competition Based Model
Dissatisfied with $20 mln in revenue
Platform Managers costs too high
Tasks of Software Development Process
• Looking for
software
application
Client
• Held
Competitions
TopCoder • Winner got
rewarded
Crowd
Task
Conceptual
ization
Specificatio
n
Architec
ture
Component
Production
Application
Assembly
Certific
ation
Deploy
ment
v.2.0 PM PM PM COM PM PM PM
v2.1 PM & COM PM & COM COM COM COM PM
PM &
COM
7. Did it work?
2007 2008 2009
Total Revenue
(million)
$18.31 $18.75 $8.44
Cost of Platform
Managers
(million)
$4.89 $4.59 $1.88
Cost of PM vs
TR (%)
26.7% 24.5% 22.3%
Decrease in contest from 2008 to 2009
Switched from hourly based consultation to monthly
fee
8. Types of Competition
Algorithm Competition
Attract new members
Retain existing members
Software Development Competition
Provide clients with specific solutions
Expand TopCoder’s catalog
11. Algorithm Competitions
Coding Phase
Lasts 75 mins
Contestants presented with the same 3 questions
Points awarded for successfully compiled solutions
Total time elapsed
Challenging Phase
Lasts 15 mins
Challenge the functionality of other competitors’ code
Successful challenge:
Defendant – loss of original submission points
Challenger – 50 point reward
Unsuccessful challenge:
Challenger – reduction of 25 points
12. Algorithm Competitions
System Testing Phase
Applied to all submitted code (not successfully
challenged)
Flawed code submission will lose all points
Automated tester applies a set of inputs
if submission’s output does not match expected
output, submission is considered flawed
All successful challenges will be added to the set of
inputs for the System Testing Phase
20. How to motivate the latent
pool?
Monetary Award
$50 for successful compilation of code by latent
pool (for 5 rounds)
1.5 times prize money if they are the winner
Prospective Jobs
