Idea Box Widget – crowdsourcing for employee proposals

Overview

The Idea Box is crowdsourcing for internal proposals – with the crucial difference that every submitted idea has a visible status. Whoever submits an idea later sees what becomes of it: “New” → “In review” → “Planned” → “Done”. Exactly what’s missing in classic suggestion boxes that swallow ideas and never report back.

Architecture: Data Table with status workflow

Like Pulse Check and Kudos Wall, the Idea Box is a runtime user data widget with a Data Table backend. The table has five columns:

On submit, the widget POSTs a new row with status: 'new'. The status workflow is managed by an editor manually in the Data Table in the Widget Builder – a clear setup without approval logic in the widget itself.

Key features

1. Inline submit form

Two fields: title and description. The author comes from the user context. One click on “Submit idea” – and the idea lands in the list.

2. Four statuses with colored badges

• New (blue) – freshly submitted, not yet evaluated
• In review (amber) – being evaluated by innovation/management
• Planned (purple) – on the roadmap
• Done (green) – done, visible as a success

The colors come from Tailwind classes and are clean in dark mode too.

3. Sorted by submission date

The last N ideas (5–20, via slider) sorted by submitted_at desc. Whoever submits a new idea sees it at the top immediately.

Setup in 5 minutes

1. Create a Data Table in the Widget Builder with the five columns above
2. Copy the table GUID
3. Add the Idea Box widget to a page
4. Paste the GUID into the setting
5. Publish, done

The status is set by the editor (or an innovation manager) later directly in the Data Table – no separate backend needed.

Configuration

7 settings, all editor-time:

• tableGuid – required
• Title, subtitle
• maxItems – slider 3–20
• showForm – submit form on/off
• accent_color – color picker
• theme – light or dark

Connect External Systems

The Idea Box works out of the box with the built-in Data Table — but you can also pull ideas directly from your existing project management system or sync them back.

• Jira – Manage ideas as issues in a dedicated Jira project and automatically mirror status to the intranet
• Monday.com – Maintain an ideas board in Monday.com, the widget shows the live status
• Asana – Employee suggestions as Asana tasks with automatic status updates
• Notion – Use a Notion database as a flexible alternative to the Data Table
• Microsoft Forms + SharePoint – Collect ideas via Forms, store in a SharePoint list, and display in the widget

FAQ

Can employees vote on ideas?

Not in the current showcase – that would be a second column and a second API call. An extended example with voting comes in a follow-up article.

Can ideas be submitted anonymously?

By default no – the widget reads user.firstName from the Staffbase context. If you want anonymity, set the author value in the template to a fixed string.

How do I moderate inappropriate ideas?

Via the Data Table in the Widget Builder. Editors with write permissions can delete individual rows or change the status.

Related widgets

• Kudos Wall – recognition with the same architecture
• Poll Widget – for structured polls
• Anniversaries Widget – for automatic anniversary recognition