Insights For Success

Strategy, Innovation, Leadership and Security

Crowdsourcing

84% of Kickstarter projects ship late

technologyEdward Kiledjian
Kickstarter is the most popular crowd-sourcing site and since its inception of 2009 has funded $376 million dollars for 34,000 projects. For product inventors, Kickstarter is the promised land where you they can fund their dreams quickly.
CNN Money conducted a review of the 50 most popular Kickstarter projects and found that things get ugly, very very ugly.
  • 8 of those 50 projects meet their delivery commitment deadlines
  • 15 of those 50 projects had not shipped yet (very very late)
  • 27 of those 50 projects were delivered late (usually 2 months but some were as late as a year)
Unfortunately it seems Kickstarter is more interested in taking its 5% cut and moving on rather than helping project supporters get fair treatment. Many analysts (yours truly included) have been asking Kickstarter to take a much more active role to ensure projects are delivered on time or to implement penalties for late deliveries.
Don't forget that the worst case scenario is that your project may never actually materialize and the project creator has no obligation to refund your investment. Unlike a credit card or Paypal, you have no claim of refund for abandoned projects.
My hope is that eventually enough people will be aware of these shady situations and will take their money elsewhere forcing Kickstarter to re-evaluate its position. I think consummer protection should be at the forefront of its mission statement.

Crowdsourcing design work with 99designs.com (a review)

Crowdsourcing, Design, Identity, Management, Outsourcing, Partnerships, StrategyEdward Kiledjian

If you are planning to start a new small business or have a small business that requires some design services, you may be tempted to try out one of the newer crowdsourcing websites. The first time a customer asked for my advice about these sites, I had no idea. As a manager in a larger organization, I have never used these types of services but decided to check them out. I asked my network of contacts and found a handful of individuals that provided their real-world experiences.

Wikipedia defines crowdsourcing as “Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community (crowd) through an open call.”

The site that came up most often was called 99Designs. The concept is simple, you submit a brief, determine how much you are willing to pay for a good design and you let the market bring you fantastic designs at an unbelievable price. At least that is the promise made by the site. Out of the 8 people I spoke to, only 1 had successfully run a project to completion using the site. This one person was satisfied and said designers in his area wanted close to $1000 for similar work (it cost him $300).

The 7 others had a very different perspective. They all said that very few designers actually came forward with design proposals and of the designs they received, nothing looked professional.  On a positive note, every one of the 7 was able to contact customer support and quickly get a full refund.

If you have enough time to wait and see then it may be worthwhile to give 99designs a try and see what you get. If you’re not satisfied, you can always ask for a refund. Who knows, you may be able to snag an amazing design for an unbelievable price.

Other crowdsourcing sites you may like to checkout

Chaordix

Crowdsourced Market Intelligence

PopTent

A site that allows you to crowsource design of a video commercial

Ponoko

Crowdsource the design and manufacture of your product ideas.