Tuesday 4 August 2015

In defence of the failed Kickstarter

Table flipping considered harmful
I’ve read thoughtfully written blog posts and articles on failed kickstarters, how they ruin the reputation of talented people and talk almost in terms of fraud. These have convinced me that I approach Kickstarters differently to the authors.

When I back a kickstarter, I don’t assume it will deliver. I’m prepared to live with the disappointment that I may never get anything for the money I spend. It’s a risk I think worth taking. This isn’t from the experience I’ve had backing sixty three odd projects. Three of those projects failed to raise the funds, and several have been very late but not a single one yet has failed to deliver at all. My experience comes from twenty five years of software engineering where I’ve seen millions and millions of pounds spent on projects that don’t deliver. It the ‘real world’ projects fail often.

There is a huge debate about what Kickstarter is, and it doesn’t in reality matter what I think it is, except to me. And since I’m the consumer, it’s also all that matters to me. Kickstarter is a place to help kickstart, there is a clue in the name, cool projects. It’s not a online shop where I can get a discount for early adoption of finished products. That means there is always a journey for the creator to get from where they are now to getting something in my hands and that means there is risk.    

Kickstarter projects which are said to fail are also often criticised for poorly communicating when things aren’t working out as planned. Again, I turn to my job and I look at every single staff survey, HR report or management retrospective I’ve ever seen and I remember they all say that poor comms is the number one complaint, the number one issue to tackle. Humans it seems aren’t good, unless they are well-trained, at delivering bad news when they are personally under pressure. Having run a Kickstarter (£33,641 raised against a goal of £8,000, delivered two months late - here) I know how much emotional commitment it takes, which can only amplify the problem. So when people fail to communicate properly, I’m disappointed, but not surprised and not angry. I know that the creators are beating themselves up plenty, and pouring oil on that fire won’t make things better. 

On a final note, creatives fall into two broad camps, artists and illustrators. Artists create for themselves and hope that others will like their creation enough to spend money on the idea, while illustrators use the seeds of ideas that others have previously said they are willing to pay for to create great works. Neither is better, neither is more creative and I’m lucky enough to know both very talented creators and illustrators. Several of the artists wouldn’t go near Kickstarter, despite it being an ideal way for them to live, because they know they’d be harangued by backers demanding that the artists follow their vision and not her own. And several of the illustrators I know wouldn’t go near it again, because they couldn’t please all of the people all of the time. This worries me personally because it moves Kickstarter away from the thing I think it is, and towards the thing I don’t want it to be. 

So be supportive of the honest kickstarter creator, whether they fail or succeed. 

No comments:

Post a Comment