4.5 Case 4 - Crowd funding on Kickstarter
4.4.5 Layout of the Kickstarter page
The entire Kickstarter layout was build based on the following assumption and guidelines:
● Extremely clear and easy to understand what Voltset is. The basic concept “a module that works with smartphone with two test wires.” should be understood within 3 seconds.
● Use pictures and figures instead of words.
● Cut down time spend for users to reach user’s goal.
The validation process was a fast changing, ongoing process during the 45 days of the campaign. Therefor components of the campaign was updated frequently for improvements.
Following the Voltset team would be discussing the setup of the Voltset Kickstarter page.
The first impression card
The first impression card (Figure 4-16) has two
components, a small space for illustration followed by a text box for short description of 135 characters max. The Voltset team used a simple smartphone and a Voltset module to show readers this is a device that works with smartphones.
The two test leads and the USB cable shows it’s a sensor of
some sort. The main color is black and red to increase visual contraction and to present a steady and serious touch and feel.
The Pitch line
Short description was updated several times based on the wording the Voltset team learned from supporters. Capitalized words were there to emphasize on the key message. So viewers would pick up the words that was relevant to them and read more. “Voltset- World’s smartest
Figure 4-16 the first picture your potential buyer would see when visiting Kickstarter.
This makes the first impression and decides if they will click it or not. Source: From this study.
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multimeter for smart devices. VOLTSET connects to smart devices and turns them into SMART MULTIMETERS, allowing you to TINKER, LEARN and COLLABORATE with electronics.
Intro video
The video was constructed to be short, about one minutes and thirty seconds for the entire story.
In a good case, the “wow” moment should be within the first 30 seconds. The sequence was to introduce Tom as a maker and to express the key message “We believe smarter tools can empower people and make all the difference.” (11 sec) After that is introducing what Voltset is, and how it is different from before.
It was to be sincere, exciting and forward looking. The video was to present the Voltset module, and to let the user to understand the why part by allowing them to fill in the blank for their own application. This was intentionally set up to open up possibilities to increase product readiness even for bigger market opportunity.
With maker and tinkerer as our primary target in mind, the video was set to be targeting anyone who wish to become a maker or a tinkerer in a daily set up which they could relate easily through the car example.
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GIF Illustration
The GIF illustration is a short (3second) animation that automatically plays itself. The team used this to express the bottom line what the Voltset team needed the readers to understand.
Product Strength
Through previous study, the Voltset team found an interesting information. The innovators who were willing to support the project were all very capable themselves usually equipped with at least one or many multimeters or similar electronic equipment. The team picked out some of the common models drafted a comparison table. This was to show me-too customers what they are likely to have already and how it would be different with Voltset.
Different Models
Once the visitor understands what Voltset was and how was it different from a tool they can relay to easily. The different models of Voltset and different accessories were illustrated here.
Figure 4-17 Page layout for key components 1 Source: From this study.
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More Product Details
Detail about the application design was presented under this section.
At the time, the movie Ironman was very famous and the team thought it was a good idea to give the UI a touch and feel similar to the movie Ironman and Tron for a technological future feel.
Compatibility
The Voltset team presumed the visitors to be technologically awarded and well informed. They would want to know if their device could be supported or not before buying in.
Pledge Options
The pledge options was created to quickly communicate with potential backers of what they would get for what kind of support.
Options were organized in order of pledging amount. All rewards were turned into graphics for easy viewing. To set up pricing, the following factors were considered:
● Through study popular multimeter models on Amazon, the team wanted to focus on a CAT III level multimeter for common household usage. The acceptable pricing ranges from 25USD to 300USD. Different accuracy, different quality has a big effect on the pricing. Some of the most sold meters had different tiers. Around 30USD, 55~75USD, and above 150USD.
● Voltset should have less components compare to a normal multimeter, therefor should cost less to build. This was a misleading assumption.
There should be two types of buyers, one who just wants to have a portable Voltset multimeter with a lower price tag and higher number of buyers. Another one wants the premium version, higher price, lower quantity.
Figure 4-18 Page layout for key components section 2. Source: From this study.
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Backer Special
This section was created especially for electronic enthusiasts. The picture shows a special designed badge that says Kickstarter Limited Edition on the PCB board. The PCB board was the heart of the device. The mark was put here to remind anyone who opened the device to honor
themselves how special they were. The badge was put here to encourage backers to pledge through Kickstarter.
Stretch Goals
Stretch goals was to encourage backers to share the project within their personal channel. It is a great way to reach like-minds from your backer.
This section was not posted until the project were getting close to 50,000USD since the Voltset team had no idea how things would go.
After the team had reached the initial goal, the team put in each stretch goals one by one. In other words, backers would only see the next one or two future stretch goals at a given moment. Some of the stretch goal idea came from communication with new backers to understand what they would be interested in.
Delivery Timeline
This section is required. However, 84% of the top projects from Kickstarter shipped late. (Pepitone, 2012) The common norm is that Kickstarter project proposed delivery timeline is only a suggestion. This section shows the understanding of the team to carry out this project from where they are to the end. But often, the actual project progress update is more important.
Media Coverage
This is to show endorsement of the project. It often starts with little or no media coverage and grow from there.
Figure 4-19 Page layout for key components. Source: From this study.
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Maker Network
This section was dedicated for cross promotion between projects. Voltset stands for a R&D maker community, therefore bridging communities fits in the scope of
the campaign.
Project Story
Backers on Kickstarter are more like ‘shareholders’ in a sense that they want to get to know how the project started and how it was shaped. Any internal documents could be highly interesting for backers to get
insights about the project.
The Team
This section was set up to acknowledge the people who were actively contributing on the project. The Voltset team tried to emphasize the diversity of the team by putting flags and writing out the specialties of each person. A ‘complete skill set team will give more confidence for backers to support.
4.4.6 How was the test carried out?
Once the Voltset team hit launch, there was no turning back. The Voltset team had at least one person on the media channel 24/7
monitoring any blog posts and to suggest bloggers to post articles about Voltset. Questions were pouring in daily from experts requesting for special functions or recommendations for special applications.
Although the Voltset team had at least 4 person on the job night and day. The experience was very overwhelming.
After two days, all of the placeholders in the introduction video were replaced. Besides answering questions, coming up with new strategy to boost awareness, Tom attended several hardware meet up in the Bay Area, California. Many of the questions were repeat questions
Figure 4-20 Page layout for key components. Source: From this study.
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which the Voltset team could not answer easily on the spot. After the first week, the team created a ‘List of questions’ to address all of the requests the Voltset team have gotten. Constantly spamming bloggers was not an easy task to do and the yield rate was not pleasant. For the most part, the team was focused on executing and innovating on the following three tasks through anyway the Voltset team could find:
● Increase publicity awareness
● Fine-tune the pitch through A/B testing.
● Customer relations: answering countless questions; finding out answers, and brainstorming for new and exciting ways to stimulate the crowd.
Prior to the Kickstarter launch, the Voltset team had accumulated a list of people who are
interested in following the project. The Voltset team had created several media kit containing the project pitch line, images, URL with trackers and send out to these person asking them to also share the news. The team was very careful about not to inflate any orders trying to keep the data clear for future analysis. It is well known that many crowd funding campaign would get investors or bulk distributors to put in a big chunk of money at the first couple of days to make the
campaign look live. The team wanted to ensure not to get any inflated number that might mislead the Voltset project in the future thus choice not to proceed this path. The following picture shows the Kickstarter campaign had a strong momentum at the start, all coming from individual buyers.
Figure 4-21 Kickstarter pledges per day - Voltset. Showing a strong start with close to 8000USD within the first 24 hours.
Source: Kicktraq.com and from this study.
The first day the Voltset team successfully acquired 68 individual backers. Data shows the first day was the strongest interns of supporting power out of all the days. The numbers for 2nd to the 4th day were still relatively high. Without enough evidence to know the actual cause, the Voltset
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team suggest this is the delay in response from supporters from the initial e-mail and the media pack. Kickstarter suggested a 30day campaign to keep the momentum strong. Looking at the data, it does feel that the first 30 days had more buyers compare to the last 15 days excluding the last three days.
Three day before the end of the campaign, Kickstarter would send an e-mail to visitors who was interested in the project to remind them before the campaign is over. This is a good reason why there was a peek at the last three days. Viewers saw the e-mail from Kickstarter, came back to check out the campaign, thought it was now or never so pledged at that time.
Figure 4-22 Kickstarter backers per day - Voltset. Showing a strong start with close to 70 backers within the first 24 hours.
Source: Kicktraq.com and from this study.
Running a campaign was not all that glory of a job. It takes work to keep the number up. I remember during one of the days, around the 30th to 40th day of the campaign, the total pledged amount were close to zero in the morning. Towards noon time, the number turned negative. The reason was that some of the backers decided to withdraw due to personal reasons. The number turned positive towards the end of the day. Below is a chart of the number of dollars pledged vs.
larger public exposure from day 0 to day 45.
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As the funnel analysis suggests, the first factor that determines how many people would go through the process that the designer designed is the number of people who initiated the process.
In other words, it is the number of people who knows about the campaign. Getting publicity is obviously a key factor to attract more visitors.
4.6 Summary
In this chapter, the Voltset team went through four product iteration cases. They were significant since the second case was the longest attempt in time with least success. The third case was the first breakthrough which brought the project paying innovators. This means after one year, the project finally have completed the first build-measure-learn product iteration cycle to increase product readiness. The fourth case was a demonstration of a more intense product iteration platform which allow Voltset to reach more buyers globally.
Voltset is a redesigned multimeter for makers (WIRED UK) 06-28 Voltset - intelligent multimeter for
your smartphone
(www.engineering.com) 05-28
Kansas City Maker Faire 06 15 Hot Kickstarter 28
tech campaigns A smart multimeter that
could supercharge the maker movement (Fast Co.) 06-28
kalamata 06-19 Open
Electronics 06 13
Figure 4-23 Pledge amount vs. date vs. major public exposure. Source: From this study.
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5 Research Discussion & Findings
Starting something new suggests there is not much history to trace back as reference to project forward, and the journey might be filled with unknown. One of the most common unknown, after having a new idea, could be “: what to build exactly”? The author had not found an easy answer for that question which would guarantee a sustainable and profitable business. Under this study, by looking back at the experience, the Voltset team might come up with insights to answer the question:
“How to build up product readiness through validation testing?”
With the following sub-questions:
● What steps are there from the first flash of the idea to its first customer?
● When building a product, who to listen, when to listen and how to listen?
● What other insights were found from this experience?
To remind the readers, product readiness in this study refers to how much does the startup know about what is the right thing to build as the business offering? It's more of a finding out what is the right it to build instead of finding out how to build it right.