Ready to submit an innovation idea? You see the repetitive tasks, the bottlenecks, and the opportunities for improvement every single day. That on-the-ground knowledge is the most valuable input into your innovation pipeline, and it’s the one thing no AI model can generate on its own.
What SilkFlo adds is everything that comes after the idea: a Value Driver classification, a guided set of follow-up questions, and a forecasted business case, usually in under two minutes.
Two Ways In #
1: The Opportunity Finder. #
Right on your Personal Dashboard, describe your idea in a sentence or two, whether it’s an automation idea, a GenAI agent, or a new workflow, and watch SilkFlo turn it into a fully structured, scored idea in seconds, complete with a live ROI forecast. This is the fastest way to submit, and it’s available to everyone.
2: The Submit Idea button. #
Tucked in the side menu, available from anywhere in the app. Handy if you’re deep in the Pipeline or a Dashboard and don’t want to navigate back to your Personal Dashboard first. Same result as the AI Idea Box, just a step-by-step version.
Either button gets you to the same place. What actually determines your experience from here is your role, not which button you clicked:
- Standard Users are guided through a short, four-phase Modal.
- Admins can use either view – Full Assessment by default, or the Modal if you want the simpler path.
Both are covered in full below.
Understand Value Drivers First #
Every idea in SilkFlo gets tied to one or more Value Drivers, the strategic outcome it’s aiming for:
- Cost Reduction
- Revenue Growth
- Productivity
- Customer Experience
- Risk & Compliance
- Employee Experience
Your Value Driver isn’t just a label. It determines which follow-up questions you get asked and which formula SilkFlo uses to forecast your business case. A Cost Reduction idea gets asked about labour hours and process volume. A Risk idea gets asked about the cost and probability of the event it’s preventing. You don’t need to know this math yourself. You just tell SilkFlo what outcome you’re going after, and it asks the right questions to build the case for you.
The Guided Modal (Standard Users) #
Available to: All Users
Whichever button brought you here, you’ll land in the same four-phase Modal.
Starting from the AI Idea Box #
Type your idea into the box and hit Generate Idea. SilkFlo reads your description, works out the likely Value Driver, and opens the Modal below with as many fields pre-filled as it can manage. Step through the four phases as normal, correcting or adding anything it missed.
Admins can choose between using the modal and the full assessment.
Starting from the Submit Idea button #
You’ll walk through the same four phases from a blank start:
Phase 1: The Spark #
Give your idea a name and a short description. There’s an Enhance with AI button tucked inside the summary box if you want help sharpening your wording. Then pick your Value Driver (or drivers) from a simple set of cards, no dropdowns to hunt through.
Phase 2: Context & Team #
Tell us which Business Unit and Area the idea affects, then assign a Process Owner. Add any collaborators here too. Each person you add gets their own row with a role (Developer, BA, and so on) and a quick tooltip explaining what that role can see and do.
Phase 3: Impact Details #
A short set of questions tailored to the Value Driver you picked in Phase 1. These use simple, tappable choices (three clear options side by side) rather than a slider, so you’re picking a category instead of guessing at an exact number.
Phase 4: Value Review #
Before you submit, you’ll see your idea’s initial scores laid out clearly, giving you immediate feedback on its potential before it even reaches the review team.
Submit, and you’ll land on a clean success screen. From there it’s a one-click Return to Dashboard.
Didn’t finish? Click Save as Draft at any point to pause and pick it up later without submitting for Review.
What Happens Next #
- Instant scoring on submission, so you know where your idea stands straight away.
- A dedicated idea profile page where you and your colleagues can track progress, add comments, and watch it move through the pipeline.
- Your expert review team is notified automatically for a detailed assessment.
- Your idea starts in the Review stage, ready for that assessment.
- Visible any time in your Personal Dashboard or under Explore > Ideas.
The Full Assessment (Admins) #
Available to: Admin Users Only
Built for Business Analysts, Process Owners, and Consultants who need a richer case upfront, without waiting for a second review pass. Ideas submitted this way skip the Review stage entirely and land straight in Assess.
Starting from the AI Opportunity Finder Box #
This is where things get genuinely fun to watch. Type your idea into the box and hit Generate Idea:
- You’re taken straight to the Full Assessment page, no waiting screen. Fields start filling in live in front of you (name, summary, pain points, impact), each one flagged with a small ✦ AI suggested badge as it finishes. Edit anything directly and the badge updates to show it’s been changed by you.
- If your description didn’t give SilkFlo everything it needs, a short card appears with one to three plain-English questions, things like “How many people currently do this task?” Answer what you can, or click Skip for now to move on with partial data. Simple ideas often skip this step entirely.
- As your answers land, the ROI sidebar updates in real time and finishes with your headline number counting up, alongside estimated hours saved and a confidence rating (High, Medium, or Low) showing how closely your description matched its Value Driver.
Starting from the Submit Idea button #
Fill in the Full Assessment yourself. Every idea starts with the same core details, whichever Value Driver you pick: name, summary, Business Unit, Location, Process Owner, Collaborators, and Applications Used.
From there, the questions adapt to the Value Driver (or drivers) you selected, so you’re only ever answering what’s actually relevant to your idea:
- Productivity: task frequency and volume, processing time per transaction, how many people currently do the task, and what percentage of the process you expect to deflect or automate.
- Cost Reduction: where the cost comes from (labour, external services, software), labour cost per employee, and your expected cost deflection.
- Revenue Growth: which metric you’re targeting (conversion rate, deal size, customer lifetime value, and so on), its current and target value, and the revenue per unit of improvement.
- Customer Experience: which score you’re moving (NPS, CSAT, or CES), its current and target value, and how many customers are affected.
- Risk & Compliance: the cost and likelihood of the risk event, whether this is a mandatory response to an existing issue, and, if relevant, questions on data sensitivity and AI governance.
- Employee Experience: which metric you’re targeting (eNPS, retention, or time spent on tedious work), its current and target value, and how satisfied your team is with the process today.
You won’t see every question above on a single idea, only the set that matches what you picked in Phase 1.
Didn’t finish? Click Save as Draft at any point to pause and pick it up later without submitting for review.
What Happens Next #
- Advanced scoring the moment you submit, giving you a fuller picture than the standard scorecard.
- A dedicated profile page where you and your colleagues can track progress, add comments, and watch it move through the pipeline.
- Straight to Assess. No Review stage detour, since the detailed groundwork is already done.
- Visible any time in your Personal Dashboard or under Explore > Ideas.
Ready to submit your first idea? Head to your Personal Dashboard and give the AI Idea Box a try, or use the Submit Idea button if you’re already elsewhere in the app.
