What have I been talking about for the last year? (Part 3 - a case study)

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been going back over almost a year of this blog and summarising my content. I’ve written two retrospective posts. Firstly, looking at the processes and mindset needed to successfully launch products via crowdfunding, and then for the second one I went back to basics to address the question: what is Kickstarter?

This week I’m going to recap a series of posts I wrote covering the whole process of my last Kickstarter campaign from start to finish.

There’s an awful lot to think about when running a Kickstarter project and hopefully this case study will provide insight into every aspect of that.

Prologue

Earlier this year I ran my eighth Kickstarter campaign. It was a relatively modest project, which means it’s now all done and dusted only a few months later.

I did it as part of Kickstarter’s Make 100 initiative which is where creators offer a limited edition of 100 of whatever they’re making.

For my project I was attempting to break the world record for the smallest deck of playing cards. For the Kickstarter I would offer 100 limited edition decks.

It all worked out really well and I’m now a world record holder.

Kickstarter - step-by-step

Although it was quite a small project I still had to do all the things I would’ve done for a larger one, so this case study is a neat summary of how I went from idea to delivered products.

Each week during my work on the project, I posted about my experience as it happened.

Step 1: the beginning (& frickin’ lasers)

Here are my key considerations when kicking off a new product development project.

Step 2: Pre-launch

The pre-launch phase is a critical part of a Kickstarter campaign. Here’s what you need to do before launching.

Step 3: Launch

A lot of the work is already done at this point. Here I discussed my final preparation for a Kickstarter campaign and then launch day!

Step 4: How to actually make the thing

You’ve come up with a product idea, Kickstarter has shown you that people actually want it, and you have some money. Now you have to make it.

Step 5: What happens when you hit your target

My campaign ended successfully and I had a plan to get my product made. Here’s what I did next.

Step 6: Final design for production

Making is actually the easy bit. That isn't to say that the whole process is easy, otherwise everyone would do it. What I mean is that it's not difficult in the way that most people think. Here’s a bit more on my design process.

Step 7: fulfilment & shipping

If everything’s gone smoothly up until this point, you’ll need to ship your product to people. This isn’t the most exciting part of the process, but it’s obviously important, and may not be as daunting as you think.

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Running a Kickstarter project, however small, involves a lot of moving parts. You pretty much need to think about all the same things as you would when making anything, or starting any scale of business.

It’s an incredibly rewarding process and if you have a product idea I highly recommend you give it a go.

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If you have any questions or suggestions for subjects you’d like me to cover in the future, or would like help with your own Kickstarter project, please feel free to get in touch.

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