Disruption in Innovation: Steve Rader Breaks the In-House Expert Habit

On the Disruption Interruption Podcast, Former NASA Open Innovation Leader Steve Rader explains why fast-moving technology is exposing the limits of the full-time, in-house expert model and how organizations can use global talent networks to define problems better and access specialized knowledge faster.

TAMPA BAY, Fla., Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Skills gaps are now the biggest barrier to business transformation, according to 63% of employers surveyed by the World Economic Forum. Employers also expect 39% of workers' existing skills to be transformed or become outdated by 2030 as artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, and other emerging technologies reshape the expertise companies need.

As the number of specialties grows, Steve Rader, Founder of Crowd Resources Consulting and former Program Manager for NASA's Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation, says organizations that depend solely on permanent, in-house teams may struggle to access the knowledge a particular problem requires. Rader joins host Karla Jo Helms (KJ) on the Disruption Interruption Podcast to explain how open innovation can expand the pool of people available to solve complex problems. "Understanding the problem is paramount to solving it," Rader says.

The In-House Expert Model Cannot Cover Every New Specialty

Technology is creating increasingly specialized areas of knowledge for companies to navigate. Rader points to information technology as one example. Work that may once have fallen to a generalist can now require specialists in cybersecurity, cloud computing, networks, software, and other disciplines. At the same time, many of the technologies creating those specialties cross industry boundaries.

He cites technologies including artificial intelligence, 3D printing, software, and open application programming interfaces (APIs) as tools available to a much larger scientific workforce. He describes these as "building block technologies" because "they encapsulate a ton of complexity" while remaining broadly accessible. "Most of them don't belong to one industry or one domain," he says. "They apply to everyone."

Finding that knowledge can be difficult because it may not exist where an organization expects to look. Rader says a useful technology may have been developed in another industry, described using unfamiliar terminology, or remain behind proprietary barriers that conventional search engines cannot reach. "If you think you can Google the latest and greatest technologies to help you innovate, then you don't understand the landscape that we live in."

Open Talent Expands the Innovation Bench

After decades of applying open innovation at NASA, Rader now brings that experience to organizations through Crowd Resoures Consulting. His approach starts with clearly defining the problem, then determining what kind of outside resource the challenge requires. He advises companies to identify what the product or process is trying to accomplish, who the stakeholders are, and which measures matter before deciding where to look for expertise.

Depending on the challenge, that may mean using an expert network, bringing in freelance talent, running a competition, or working through a larger crowdsourcing platform. For startups and growing companies, those options can reduce the pressure to hire every capability as a permanent role. Research from Upwork found that 49% of full-time workers relied on freelancers to address critical gaps in their work, while 48% of CEOs expected to increase freelance hiring.

Rader says access to flexible talent can help organizations respond as new technical needs emerge. "Go build an ecosystem of freelance experts that can expand and contract as you grow," Rader says. "In the open world, you can always find a cutting-edge technology expert."

Links

Disrupting the Future of Work: How Open Innovation and Global Talent Are Rewriting Problem-Solving with Steve Rader

Disruption Interruption is the podcast where you will hear from today's biggest Industry Disruptors. Learn what motivated them to bring about innovation and how they overcame opposition to adoption.

https://omny.fm/shows/disruption-interruption/disrupting-the-future-of-work-how-open-innovation-and-global-talent-are-rewriting-problem-solving-with-steve-rader

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steverader/
Company Website: https://sites.google.com/crowdresources-consulting.com/home

About Disruption Interruption^™ 
Disruption is happening on an unprecedented scale, impacting all manner of industries — MedTech, Finance, IT, eCommerce, shipping, logistics, and more — and COVID has moved their timelines up a full decade or more. But WHO are these disruptors and when did they say, "THAT'S IT! I'VE HAD IT!"? Time to Disrupt and Interrupt with host Karla Jo "KJ" Helms, veteran communications disruptor. KJ interviews bad asses who are disrupting their industries and altering economic networks that have become antiquated with an establishment resistant to progress. She delves into uncovering secrets from industry rebels and quiet revolutionaries that uncover common traits — and not-so-common — that are changing our economic markets… and lives. Visit the world's key pioneers that persist to success, despite arrows in their backs at www.disruption-interruption.com.

About Steve Rader
Steve Rader is the Founder of Crowd Resources Consulting and a former NASA Program Manager for the Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation. During his decades at NASA, Rader worked across fields including flight operations, software, communications, sensor networks, and space architecture before helping lead the agency's use of open innovation and crowdsourcing. His work connected NASA and other federal organizations with global talent communities, expert networks, and challenge-based approaches to complex problem-solving. Through Crowd Resources Consulting, he advises organizations on open innovation, open talent, and accessing expertise beyond traditional organizational boundaries.

About Karla Jo Helms
Karla Jo Helms is the Chief Evangelist and Anti-PR^® Strategist for JOTO PR Disruptors™. Karla Jo learned firsthand how unforgiving business can be when millions of dollars are on the line — and how the control of public opinion often determines whether one company is happily chosen, or another is brutally rejected. Being an alumnus of crisis management, Karla Jo has worked with litigation attorneys, private investigators, and the media to help restore companies of goodwill into the good graces of public opinion — Karla Jo operates on the ethic of getting it right the first time, not relying on second chances and doing what it takes to excel. Helms speaks globally on public relations, how the PR industry itself has lost its way, and how, in the right hands, corporations can harness the power of Anti-PR to drive markets and impact market perception.

References

• Liu, T., Monahan, K., & Matsuda, T. (2025, January 15). The most in-demand skills for 2025: Navigating skills-based work in a dynamic economy. Upwork. upwork.com/research/in-demand-skills-2025
• World Economic Forum. (2025, January 7). The future of jobs report 2025. weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/

Media Inquiries:
Karla Jo Helms
JOTO PR™ 
727-777-4629

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