Kickstarter Lesson #20: Flexibility, Filtering, and Responding to Feedback – Stonemaier Games

Kickstarter Lesson #20: Flexibility, Filtering, and Responding to Feedback

Usually when I stumble upon a Kickstarter campaign thanks to the ongoing list of Kickstarted board games on BGG, I first look at the top of the page to see the number of updates and the number of comments. I’ve already talked about project updates–today I’m talking about those comments (general comments and comments on updates).

The way you respond to comments in the public forum on Kickstarter (and/or BGG if you’re running a board game campaign) defines you as a project creator. Are you responsive or not? Are you transparent or secretive? Do you get defensive when someone criticizes you? Do you make it about them or is it all about you?

If you look through Kickstarter projects with a lot of comments, a common thread you’ll notice is that backers tend to offer a lot of feedback about the Kickstarter project and the product itself. This is a good thing. Backer feedback means that they’re invested in and excited about your project. Nurture that sense of involvement by responding to the feedback with gratitude, excitement, and transparency, and stay flexible enough to improve your project–I guarantee that at least one of your backers will think of something really cool that you hadn’t considered.

slate-cheese-boardViticulture was my first campaign, and I must say that quite a few backer ideas were incorporated into the project. The most notable idea was a “cheese expansion” to the game. It started as a joke–after seeing photos of my cat “playing” Viticulture, someone asked when the “kitten expansion” would be released. Another backer fleshed out that idea, bringing mice and cheese into the equation. Soon after that, we added it as a big stretch goal at $75,000. I’ll come back to what happened at the end of this entry.

As a project creator, you walk a very thin line as you respond to feedback. On one hand, you want to be open and receptive to ideas. On the other, if you seem too open and receptive, you might be perceived as being wishy washy or indecisive. Yet you don’t want to say “no” much, because if you keep shutting people down, they’re not going to keep offering feedback.

I think the key is to thank people for their ideas and then share the facts from which they can draw their own conclusions. For example, if a backer suggests that you make the game board box out of wood, the wrong way to respond is, “No, that’s too expensive.” Remember that you have stretch goals as your ally. Rather, you could say, “Interesting idea. I ran the numbers, and it will cost $15/game to make that addition and it will delay production by 4 months. Thus we could make it a stretch goal at $200,000 or we could run a separate campaign for that bonus. Or we could could create a new limited reward level for 10 wood boxes and not impact the budget or the schedule.” Perhaps one of the options you mention will resonate with the backer, or maybe they won’t say anything after they see how the math adds up.

For Viticulture, I used several polls on this blog to gauge backer interest in certain stretch goals and even art direction for the board and box. It was a neat way to engage the backers and get great feedback at the same time.

In the end, the decisions you make based on backer feedback come down to you and what you believe is best for the campaign. This might seem obvious now, but you might feel differently when 500 people are encouraging you to do something else. Go with your gut (and your budget), and explain the decision to your backers in a project update. If you have a good reason that you explain in a timely and transparent manner, they’ll understand.

So what happened with the cheese expansion? Well, the “transparency” part of it, as I made sure to tell backers in a number of different forums, was that the cheese expansion didn’t exist yet. After all, it was a backer’s idea during the Kickstarter campaign. I let everyone know that even though it would be great to raise $75,000 and design an expansion based on backer feedback, it would push the schedule back by months so we could properly test and design the expansion (looking back, even that would have been a very tight timeframe).

We ended up raising $65,980 for Viticulture, so we were still about $10k away from that stretch goal. In the future, I think I would stay away from an idea that would add a significant amount of time to a project. It’s a lot of added pressure at an already busy time, and delaying a project by months even before the campaign ends just doesn’t seem fair to the backers.

For all of you backers out there, has a Kickstarter creator ever used a piece of your feedback to adjust and improve their project? How did it go?

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15 Comments on “Kickstarter Lesson #20: Flexibility, Filtering, and Responding to Feedback

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  1. […] Kickstarter Lesson #20: Flexibility, Filtering, and Responding to Feedback […]

  2. 3 Crowdfunding Videos About Launch Day, Engagement, and Hearing Backer Feedback – Stonemaier Games says:

    […] Today I have a few videos to share from my Dice Tower crowdfunding series. These short videos summarize the key points from my blog about some launch-day strategies, treating your backers as individuals (not numbers), and how to respond to feedback without sacrificing your vision (or the feasibility of the product). […]

  3. […] I jump into the list, I want to reiterate Kickstarter Lesson #20, particularly the parts about flexibility. Although I knew how important flexibility was going into […]

  4. […] Related topic: Flexibility, Filtering, and Responding to Feedback […]

  5. oh, i mean how did you break it up into 31 lessons etc.

    BTW, I think it was difficult to get to lesson 21, 23 and some links are missing the “Kickstarter Lesson #{0}” format

    1. Thanks! We transferred the site to a new site about a month ago, so I’m still finding some of the dead links. I appreciate you telling me.

      That’s a good question…I’m not really sure. I’ve tried to make them chronological and to break down the concepts into bite-size pieces (all of which usually end up longer than I intend). If there’s a lesson I missed, feel free to let me know! :)

  6. Thanks for catching that infinite loop! I’ll change the link.

    How I came up with the different sections…I’m not sure I understand. What do you mean by sections?

  7. I think your up next link is pointing to this same page… i’ll need to go to the table of contents to continue..

    great blog series! i’m taking notes.. i have a u.n.i.r.1 logo/slogan project i’ve been stuck with for years and need all the kickstarter advice and kickstarting advice i can find! it will probably fall under fashion, not games, but most of this info is pretty useful for all projects.

    one thing i wondered is how you came up with the different sections…

  8. […] Launch with a nonfinal product and ask for input. Ask questions in project updates, emails, the comment section and by posting polls. Act swiftly on the answers and let the backers have influence – though not so much influence that the project appears to be without a clear vision (see Lesson #20). […]

  9. […] Up Next: Kickstarter Lesson #20: Flexibility, Filtering, and Responding to Feedback […]

  10. Well, there was this one guy who was trying to make a board game about wine, and he ended up using my suggestion to go with Beth Sobel as his illustrator…

    Seriously, I really enjoy this blog series. Thanks for writing it!

    -Michael Iachini
    Clay Crucible Games

  11. For a comics based project I backed I suggested a mobile wallpaper using the cover art which she loved and went on to offer all backers.

    In a following kickstarter they offered wallpapers from the outset. A wallpaper requires little work when the art is already there and gives a lot (I feel, as someone who loves the art he loves) to backers.

    1. Very cool, and that’s a great idea about the mobile wallpaper. I’ll have to use that on my next project. :)

      1. Cool! If the art is anything like up to the standard of the Viticulture box art they’ll go down a storm! (I do like that box art)

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