Well, here we go- in the coming weeks we hope to give the entire Quirky user experience a much needed refresh.
To start, however- we’ve addressed the heart of Quirky. The product evaluation process.
Today, the way we collect, curate, and choose ideas has completely changed. We’re confident that this is a giant leap forward. Is it perfect… probably not- that’s why it has “Beta” next to it.
Here’s what’s important:
1. Ideas now immediately go live after submission.
2. Ideas will each have 30 days to make it through evaluation.
3. At any point in that process, upon seeing positive traction within the community, the concept can be manually marked as “under consideration” by a member of the Quirky staff.
4. If your concept is “under consideration” the clock has officially stopped. You’ll be called by a Quirky Invention Ambassador who will work with you to understand everything there is to know about your idea.
5. We will pick several ideas each week from the bunch that are “under consideration”.
6. All ideas that are marked as “under consideration” will get a full report from a Quirky Invention Ambassador about why their idea was turned away (or selected).
Also Important
1. You can delete your idea from Quirky at any time throughout the process (with the exception of “under consideration”).
2. You can edit your idea at any time throughout the process.
3. Community members are now armed with several tools which will help you navigate the ideas that are up for evaluation: Sorting, Filters, Hide, etc.
4. If your idea is not selected, you can opt to have it included in a private Quirky archive. The archive is only viewed by Quirky staff and potential licensees under strict confidentiality agreements. The archive will allow us to remember your concept and contact you if we change our minds. It will also allow our newly formed Licensing department the opportunity to possibly procure a licensing deal for you.
We will be building collaborative tools into the early parts of product evaluation which will allow community members to help you draw, size up the competition, understand the market etc. We’ll be rolling these out slowly once we work out the kinks of the new system.
We are excited to test out what we believe to be a much more fair, easy to understand product evaluation process. We have also given our homepage a facelift- a nice simple greeting for new (non-logged in) Quirky users.
As always, we appreciate your feedback. Quirky is a constantly evolving organism.
31 Comments
kylewilke | 10/10/2011 6:34 PM
love love love love this
radam | 10/10/2011 6:48 PM
Awsome!
Bradleycox | 10/10/2011 6:53 PM
Nice!!
J.Andre. | 10/10/2011 7:00 PM
awesome…. looking forward to it. is there going to be a video talking about how influence will work in this new system?
Imants | 10/10/2011 7:00 PM
sounds exciting!
Clinton | 10/10/2011 7:07 PM
awesome x 2
…hoping the details of the community evaluation system result in “positive traction” for product ideas that are “popular for the reasons Quirky want’s them to be popular” (…eg., popular because the community curator likes the product idea, as opposed to because the community evaluator is supporting a person, etc.)
Fred Ende | 10/10/2011 7:13 PM
WOO HOO!
J.Andre. | 10/10/2011 7:14 PM
….just a thought (obviously we’re all excited to see the new system) Will there be anything like a ustream “demo” of how to use the new site?
Imants | 10/10/2011 7:18 PM
Clinton, “positive traction” shouldn’t necessarily mean “popularity”. Happy that Top5 has been killed finally!
Steve Crockett | 10/10/2011 7:24 PM
Sounds great, definitely a move in the right direction, cannot wait to see it in action!
MichelleB | 10/10/2011 7:29 PM
I look at it like a crowd gathering around various buskers in the street. Does it have instant impact, does it hold your attention for very long, are people telling their friends to come watch.
.
Hopefully popular means that those experienced or professional Quirks will jump on great ideas (acts) and collaborate with the ideator to refine and develop the idea to a full blown product concept.
Quirky will watch and wait for such activity and pounce on the concept to see if it had legs with retailers as well as view the analytical data for a match between the potential target market and the crowd now gathering and supporting the idea.
Alice | 10/10/2011 7:31 PM
Excellent, thanks!
tim hayes | 10/10/2011 7:41 PM
this is amazing, so pumped for this!
JerryMaguire | 10/10/2011 7:43 PM
Major Whoop! Will be watching the shakedown and may we all get the best outcome out of all this.
MarcR | 10/10/2011 8:12 PM
Looks like some good changes. Would love to see the “View Alphabetically” back in.
Brian Schamp | 10/10/2011 9:00 PM
I have a lot of confidence in you and your staff, Ben, and I feel you all have put a lot of thought and consideration into these changes. I’m excited to move forward with this new process and working together to make this company extremely successful. We have a great relationship going as you can see from the excitement and passion shared with all us like minded Quirks.
Thank you, Captain Quirk, (Sorry, had to:) for all for the work you have done and are doing to make this inventerprise available and possible to the inventor community. This is truly a symbiotic entity which benefits all involved. Thank you. Brian Schamp
matt | 10/10/2011 9:01 PM
Well, well done. So far…loving it.
davedahlin | 10/10/2011 9:22 PM
Is there a way to upload new images and remove existing images? I’m having difficulty once I get the new image loaded, the page goes blank to “New Product” screen.
Thanks All!
Brandon Craven | 10/10/2011 11:02 PM
I like it. Good job.
ChrisK | 10/11/2011 12:03 AM
I miss the clear sense of focus and deadlines. Like old site, this one would benefit from better ways to organize my eval. I do appreciate changes that might decrease gamesmanship while possibly increasing social promotion – presumably in hopes of growing a broader/earlier customer base rather than waiting for pre-sale.
But returning to point #1 – it’s more difficult to see “what to do right now, and how long I have to consider participating.” Not sure yet if this design speeds up or slows down my scanning of ideas and participating.
Abdullah Al-Harbi | 10/11/2011 5:33 AM
Looks a great system I love this improvement!!
PeteG | 10/11/2011 5:36 AM
Looking forward to participating once again… Wishing Quirky and the community much success with this new approach.
Aubrey Avila | 10/11/2011 10:01 AM
I really like it! Good job Quirky!!! I love the licensing addition, so cool:-))
nate | 10/11/2011 6:47 PM
Although the old site was confusing and hard to navigate… Why is there no more idea score? I for one would really like to know what people thought of my idea. The rating system gave us an accurate breakdown of what people thought, comment or not. Thumbs DOWN.
nate | 10/11/2011 6:57 PM
The old site was difficult to navigate and a bit confusing but one good thing is missing now. The idea score and the whole rating process. As an inventor it is greatly beneficial to know what people thought of the submitted idea. Comments are helpful but they don’t tell the whole story. Thumbs way DOWN.
baby | 10/11/2011 9:07 PM
having nothing but problems accessing members ideas,numbers are saying “no match found”! problems all day!
Ginger Cohen | 10/11/2011 11:27 PM
I’d like to understand what Most Active refers to on the Evaluation page. Is a submission active when it has votes, comments, or views?
Babs | 10/12/2011 10:09 PM
Wonderful! Good move. Thank you Quirky team!
Erin Ingraffia | 10/13/2011 8:50 AM
I like the new format! It does seem, however, that the ideas that are a bit into their 30 days are unlikely to be viewed unless they are already popular, as people are unlikely to keep scanning through when there are always new ones at the top. Any way to add an “ending soon” button to give another chance to the older ideas?
Steven G Bueche | 10/14/2011 8:10 AM
If Q got 500 a week and they couldn’t get to them all I see most inventions getting lost in a sea of thousands in a 30 day period. Not diggin this new system at all. It leaves your ideas out there long enough for anyone to steal them. Last weeks top five look like the ones that were submitted this week when I click on the link provided by another poster.
Bradley Sippl | 10/14/2011 1:10 PM
Outstanding job. You guys are the best. Now I feel like my Ideations have a better chance in the long run to be selected or secure a licencing agreement. Submissions will skyrocket! I am sure the navigation aspects of the website and voting/viewing will be refined along the way.
Great job Quirks.