This guest post from our client KONE highlights how a Power Platform hackathon with Forward Forever and Microsoft led to the creation of a scalable, structured idea‑intake and delivery model: KONE Power Pipeline. Our guest writer David Haslam at KONE outlines how a streamlined submission process, automated routing, and a consistent IT assessment framework transformed informal idea sharing into a transparent, prioritized pipeline supported by embedded Copilot capabilities.
Introducing Our Guest Writer: David Haslam at KONE
I’m David Haslam, a Product Architect at KONE. I work with business teams to translate problems into Power Platform solutions across automation, apps, and AI. Recently we have teamed up with Forward Forever to co‑create citizen‑dev guardrails, energize makers through hackathon events, and shape the architectural practices that keep innovation moving.
Making Ideas Move: Building a Clear Path from Ideas to Impact at KONE
When we kicked off a Power Platform hackathon together with the Forward Forever and Microsoft team, we wanted to give participants a hands‑on way to explore what low‑code tools could do. Competitors worked from a pre‑selected list of predefined use cases, building solutions in teams and presenting their results. But something interesting happened: as they built, they started spinning off new ideas of their own — clever improvements, fresh use cases, and unexpected opportunities.
That experience made something crystal clear: KONE is full of great ideas that made sense to build on the Power Platform, but we didn’t yet have a central way to capture them, evaluate them, and turn them into prioritized, high‑impact outcomes.
Historically, ideas travelled informally – knowing whom to ask, sending a few emails, having a call, then slowly piecing the project together. It worked, but it wasn’t scalable. The hackathon highlighted not only people’s creativity but also the gap in how ideas entered our workflow. We needed a transparent, consistent way to receive and evaluate ideas.
How the Pipeline Took Shape
Our team had been thinking of building an idea‑intake tool for some time, but the hackathon was the nudge that turned intention into action. Our platform owner had already created a solid operating model, and I turned those ideas into a working workflow. That became the foundation of KONE Power Pipeline – a structured, intuitive way to move ideas from submission to IT assessment to planning and delivery.
I started with a simple principle: the intake experience must be friendly for the submitter and useful for IT. That meant identifying the essential questions we needed – business impact, urgency, budget, technical notes – but keeping the form clear and easy to complete.
Once the logic was defined, I shifted to UI/UX. I browsed design communities like Pinterest and Dribbble, collecting visual references that felt clean, modern, and approachable. I drafted layouts, tested variations, and built a first version directly in Power Apps, using hard‑coded placeholders to refine the feel before connecting real data.
Within one month — alongside my regular workload — the MVP was ready:
A guided idea‑intake form
Automated routing and notifications
A structured IT assessment workflow
A visible, shared backlog for all use cases
Piloting, Feedback, and Momentum
We piloted quickly. A few bugs surfaced and were resolved just as fast. Once we began showcasing the tool, the feedback was super positive. People appreciated having a clear place to submit ideas and transparency into what happens afterward.
The timing aligned perfectly with our 2026 roadmap, which focuses on identifying and delivering the highest‑impact use cases across KONE. The KONE Power Pipeline gave us the structure to support that ambition.
What’s Now Possible
With the Power Pipeline in place, we can now:
Track business impact across all incoming ideas
Prioritize fairly, using consistent criteria
Standardize IT assessments with the right information upfront
Automate notifications for both IT and business stakeholders
Use an embedded Copilot to summarize the backlog, answer questions, and guide decision‑making through generative AI
Instead of chasing ideas, we’re moving them — clearly, consistently, and based on measurable value.
Lessons Learned
Design for the contributor first: A friendly intake experience increases both quality and volume.
Start small, scale fast: A strong MVP beats a perfect blueprint.
Good UX is a force multiplier: People trust and adopt tools that feel modern and intuitive.
Automate the repetitive work: Routing and notifications shouldn’t depend on memory.
Make impact visible: Transparency drives engagement and better decision‑making.
Innovation doesn’t start with tools — it starts with removing friction. The Power Pipeline has done exactly that for us. And now, instead of ideas getting lost in inboxes, they’re moving swiftly toward impact.
