We had a look at Quirky.com, the crowd sourced product development business, last year. But since then they’ve undergone something of a makeover – and, more importantly, have started rolling out their first interesting products.
If you didn’t catch it first time around, Quirky is based on the group decision making platform Kluster. Quirky users submit ideas for new products, which are then voted on and improved by the community.
The best products then get developed by the Quirky team – at a rate of about one a week – and sold via the site.
As you’d expect, the originators of the idea stand to make a few bucks in the process but perhaps more interestingly, Quirky takes 30% of product sales revenue and gives it back to the community at large. Community members rack up ‘influence’ based on their input, which in turn, translates into a cut of that 30%.
Roughly 40 products have hit the virtual shelves so far. My faves include Petaldrops, a simple funnel for catching rain water in a standard water bottle, a mousepad you can make notes on and Mugstir, a spoon that hangs on the side of your cup.
Quirky’s building a virtuous cycle of good ideas, real feedback, rapid development and a ready-made, engaged marketplace – and everyone’s got a piece of the pie.
How could you apply this to your industry?
Site: www.quirky.com
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