May 17th, we’ll be streaming news, updates, and exciting announcements direct from Quirky HQ, including an update on the results from our Presale and Product Evaluation Task Forces. More details to come, but clear your schedules now.
A ginormous THANK YOU to everyone who stopped by our lil’ shindig last night. We stayed past 2am wrapping thousands upon thousands of Wrapsters, and as a result, we’ll be able to fulfill our March orders without the additional packaging expense. A fun video (and better photos) of the festivities is on the way, but we didn’t want to delay telling you that you seriously, seriously rock. Like, big-time.
Love, The Quirky Team
A few weeks ago, during a Community Q&A, I addressed our plans for scaling the business and improving some of our existing processes.
Two of the most crucial processes we have in place at Quirky are Product Evaluation and Presale.
Both of these processes together have delivered us amazing new products and inventors over the course of the past year and a half… but we agree… the process could be more fun, more collaborative, and deliver better results.
It’s time we take a holistic view at improving both of them. We’ve assembled an amazing group of people to help us make Quirky a better place.
Each task force is made up of relevant community members and Quirky staff.
I won’t be participating in the task forces, because I want to make sure that the groups have full creative control to imagine crazy things and define what the different options might be. I’ll jump in towards the end and help narrow things down.
I’m really excited to see where this goes. Below are the presentations that will kick off the process.
All of our task force members will be briefed and invited into a project management app in the next few hours.
Pumped!
There are many things we ponder here at Quirky. Why is the sky blue? Why does Internet Explorer suck so badly? What’s the deal with the ragtag bunch that hangs out on the northeast corner of Broadway and Houston on weekday mornings? What kinda crazy sauce is Charlie Sheen on, and where can we get some?
One particular pressing question on our minds recently is: How do people vote on Quirky?
You’re the only ones who can help us answer this question, so with the help of some community members, we put together a quick voting behavior survey.
By filling out this survey, you’ll be helping us reimagine our product evaluation process so that it’s more fun, fair, and user-friendly. Plus, we’ll be selecting five community members at random to receive a special Quirky gift pack, including those sweet Quirky t-shirts you’ve been drooling over. What are you waiting for?
Oh, and special thanks to Judi Sigler, Clinton Fleenor, Peter Provart, Jene Hullett, Stacy Prince, Pete G., and Michelle Brewster for helping to put this together.
Did you know that almost exactly three years ago, Quirky’s platform (then known as kluster) launched at TED2008? (Robin Williams LOVED us.)
Yup, we have history with good ol’ TED, and this week, Ben, Mike Lacy, and Jason Port(o-Dog) are back in Long Beach to “rediscover wonder” and listen to inspiring TED Talks with luminaries from around the world at TED2011.
One of our favorite TED Talks comes from author Elizabeth Gilbert, best known for inspiring divorcées around the world to purchase round-the-world airplane tickets. In the talk, she speaks about the agony of creating, and proposes that every person has a “genius” within us. It’s a talk that resonates with us at HQ, and it’s something we wanted to share with all of you.
What are your favorite TED Talks? Tweet them to us, or share them on the forum.
During this week’s staff evaluation, we did something that we haven’t done since the birth of Quirky: we did not select an idea for Product 96, our Cooling brief.
Ben explains the decision at the beginning of this week’s Eval Recap video, below.
To summarize: We recognize the problems with our existing system, and we’re committed to making it better. The solution is not going to be easy, nor is it going to take the form of a quick fix. It’ll be a rolling process, and an iterative one.
Over the weekend, we’ll be going into the forums and reviewing all the posts to get a feel for the problem, and check out the solutions you’ve all proposed. We’re also going to dive deep into the data we’ve gathered over the past 96 evals to see what that holds.
In short: We get it. We’re on it. And with you, we’re gonna make it better. Help us by joining the conversation.
1. We’ll be monitoring our site activity live through awesome interactive data screens. Comment, vote, and submit on our site during the broadcast and you can get famous.
2. We’re naming the winners for Product 91 and our Promo Item brief. Your winning idea could be announced on air!
3. Right before the show, we’ll be closing out the community evaluations for Product 93 and the Kitchen Organization brief, launching community evaluations for Product 95 and the Cooling brief, and kicking off submissions for Product 97 and our epic Back to College brief. Lotsa action.
4. 10 completely awesome products you had a hand in, and the stories of how those products were brought to life. *tear*
5. “Pissed” is apparently a curse word in HSN Land. Ben is so screwed.
We’ll also be celebrating the occasion at Quirky HQ, and we want to invite you to be a part of the action. Come back to the blog tomorrow morning for updates, and join the conversation on Twitter with hashtag #QuirkyOnHSN.
Oh, and have we mentioned how FREAKIN’ EXCITED WE ARE?! ‘Cause we are. Freakin’ excited, that is. And we hope you are too. 
Don’t forget, everyone: Town Meeting tomorrow. Be there or be cuadrado.
Tuesday, January 25 | 7pm | Quirky’s uStream Channel
Got questions for Ben and the team? Post ‘em in the forum.
It’s been an amazing year, dear Quirks, and we’re looking forward to continuing the amazingness in 2011. Here’s our holiday weekend sched:
Sat, Jan 1 – Quirky office is closed
Sun, Jan 2 – The community team will be online, but not in the office
Happy New Year’s!!!
It’s a rough life here at Quirky. A surprise holiday gift arrived from Mister Fred Ende, ideator of the popular holiday gift, Click ‘n Cook.
We did our best to wait until the rest of the team was back in the office, but a week is a long time to wait for delicious cinnamon bun waffles and pancakes. So we busted out the office Click ‘n Cook to mix…
flip…
and serve!
Then there was nothing left to do but attack the mini-pancakes and waffles! Oh wait. Oh no. The waffles are attacking back… watch out, Marni!
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