It’s a wrap! August 2017

Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn. August’s definitely been a month that pushed me out of my comfort zone multiple times. Having lived in five (you could even say six) countries, I’d say I’m highly aware of the needs and concerns of people with foreign nationalities. Thus, it’s rather surprising my latest project challenged me on multiple levels and did so due to cultural differences.

There are differences in how people from different countries communicate and how much they communicate. There are also differences in how other cultures approach work in general. The project I took on over the summer was with a team from Reykjavik. I now know what we consider the Wiener Gemütlichkeit (Viennese unhurriedness) might feel rather dramatic to Icelanders. One Icelandic sentence I learned but also heard way too often this past month was: “Þetta reddast!” It stands for, “It will work out okay.”

After working on Kickstarter’s side for two years, it was rather interesting to join a team as a direct consultant for a change. It’s not something I had intended to do after leaving Kickstarter, but the request came from within my personal network and I didn’t have anything else to do, so I thought why not.

Of course, once you’ve consulted hundreds of projects, you have a pretty good idea of what works, what doesn’t, what the common hurdles are, and why so many projects don’t meet the finish line. To spare you the details, we had all the red flags I could’ve thought of before going live, and also during the campaign. Retrospectively, it’s of little surprise I plucked several white hairs this past month.

Without going into much detail, but to give you one insight that was crucial to how this whole project felt to me, we didn’t have a working prototype until three days before the launch. A not-so small detail that I wasn’t made aware of when signing a collaboration contract.

It’s highly unlikely you can build a brand, a fan base, a loyal following, and eventually convert them into paying customers without a functioning product. To sum things up, there’s a difference between “everyone loving a concept,” an idea you share and having people hold your product, to them then immediately fetching their credit cards from their wallets because they’re actually willing to pay for it. I’d recommend everyone to check that and make sure you have chatted with enough people before trying to convince them to pay you.  

I’ve most certainly learned what sort of scenarios one should include in a contract. It’s crucial to include all potentials that could go wrong. As a freelancer, it’s much harder to put away financial and emotional hurdles. One doesn’t have anyone on the team to balance out instabilities, so one should make sure to minimize all potential risks. It’s also important to have a system in place to cheer oneself up. Luckily, I had a ticket to reasons.to, an incredible conference in Brighton, that helped me recharge my batteries and write these line with a cool head. Out of a Viennese Café feeling all the Gemütlichkeit vibes.

To end on a positive note: I’m very proud SOS Kinderdorf and I made progress with the initiatives we’re working on, and that Matt Trinetti mentioned me in his newsletter (subscribe! It’s one of my favorites).

I’m still free for projects if you need help with something.

Now, onwards and upwards!