Crowdsourcing is a process for assigning specific tasks to external actors who are typically notified of assignments via an open call. The purpose of crowdsourcing is to diversify a business's sources of innovation and knowledge and to create opportunities for developing more affordable and effective solutions. Crowdsourcing tasks can include a wide variety of tasks, such as the generation of novel ideas or the resolution of specific problems. 
Crowdsourcing is also an excellent tool for determining customer desires and preferences for future products. The 'crowd' can be motivated to participate in Crowdsourcing challenges both extrinsically and intrinsically. While some businesses compensate contributors financially, others rely on the crowd's loyalty to the company or on each participant's personal interest in the subject at hand.

 When and how to apply Crowdsourcing:

 Any company can implement Crowdsourcing in its ideation phase. However, our experience has shown us that Crowdsourcing does not work for very unimagi- native companies that will put the onus of finding new ideas on the crowd. lf you are already innovative; you can profit from Crowdsourcing:
Leverage your innovation potential by getting help from the crowd or intensify your relationship with customers by involving them in your ideation process. A side effect of crowdsourcing is that your customers will develop a stronger affinity for your brand. The market for crowdsourcing platform providers appears to be limitless - an increasing number of providers are opening their doors to serve extremely niche markets. Simultaneously, few providers are able to maintain their competitiveness over time.

Well-known companies that use this pattern are Wikipedia and Decentraland.