BackerKit is a crowdfunding platform that works closely with creators to foster community and launch projects that get successfully funded. They also pioneered Collab-funding, which allowed two creators to collaborate and help each other fund their projects with their communities.
My role: Lead Designer & Researcher
Project Summary
Problem: After piloting successful small-scale cross-collaborations with non-technical workarounds, BackerKit wanted to formalize the offering as a feature on the platform that would encourage the funding of projects at a much larger scale.
Goal: Fund over +100 projects simultaneously, while fostering a highly active and fun environment.
Impact: Crowdfunding enthusiasts discovered new creators with as high as 80% of people backing both collaborators in a cross-collab, encouraging 95%+ successful rate for these projects.
Let’s fund +100 project in Pintopia 2024
In 2023, BackerKit launched Pintopia, which successfully funded 20 projects back to back. They also saw a lot of success introducing audiences to new projects and creators when collaborating with other creators.
So in 2024, we had a fast deadline approaching to launch our biggest group-collab yet: Pintopia 2024. We had over 100 creators sign up to launch crowdfunding projects for pin designs, and we wanted to get all of them funded.
Connecting collab creators’s audiences
This was the key ingredient to drive successful projects, especially when connecting new creators with creators that have established audiences. While the experience of cross-collabing with extra rewards wasn’t new, the features that needed to be built were. I workshopped ideas with my PM and development partners to discover compelling designs we wanted to test out.
✨ Highlighting cross-collabs in a project
We noticed in previous successful informal collabs, creators were highlighting each other on their project about pages, so I designed a section in a project page that highlights their partners to encourage discovery and exploration from the get-go, and adjusts based on whether the user has backed the current project or not.
Because we were building live with creators, we received rapid feedback that we could iterate on before Pintopia launched. The mobile design I shipped hid the collaborator before the user backed the project. Creators reported that they felt the collab aspect wasn’t obvious, so I iterated on the design to showcase the collaborator on mobile while not distracting from the main CTA.
✨ Encouraging discovery after pledging
When a person pledges to a project, the confirmation page highlights extra things they could do to get involved in the community and/or learn about the project. I used this space as an opportunity to keep the person on the flow of discovery by highlighting the collab project as an available next step to "win more prizes." It's in a similar spot on desktop from the project page for familiarity.
After Pintopia, we received feedback that collabs weren’t obvious after backing, so I moved the collab above the fold for easier discoverability and gave it a highlighted border that only appears if the person has not backed the partner project. The gradient border provides high visibility as a clear next step to discover the partner collab and plays into the existng gamification element.
Impact
More fans, more funds, and way more fun! This was our mantra when building anything related to cross collab. There were many metrics tracked including 80% overlapping backers between collab projects and boasting +95% success rate.
From small one-on-one cross collaboration between creators to larger big group collabs like Pintopia, this became a foundational offering that BackerKit is now able to offer creators. After Pintopia, several more group and cross-collabs launched successfully, with creators such as Key & Crow Studios and UltraInfinite each achieved their #1 most funded projects in a cross-collab, boasting an 80% overlap of people backing both projects during the collab campaigns.
Lessons Learned
Build quickly and ride on momentum —
Working directly with creators and backers for this project was nothing short of amazing! Prioritizing fixes through the feedback we got from our rapid cycles allowed me to iterate quickly, not only winning creator and backer trust but also vastly improving the new and evolving platform.