If you follow me, you know I'm running a Kickstarter for the Effective Public Speaking book. Once they fund, many Kickstarters offer stretch rewards.
I wasn't worried about offering a stretch reward. Instead, I worried that the Kickstarter audience would not back a nonfiction book. This entire endeavor is an experiment in product development, product marketing, and rolling wave planning.
I am thrilled to say that my Kickstarter has met its first stretch goal! This first stretch goal is a Zoom call with me for any backer. Yes, even if you “only” back the campaign because you believe in it, you can be on the call and ask questions. (I am not taking any backer for granted. That's why I put “only” in quotation marks. I appreciate each and every backer.)
What will I offer next? The Kickstarter has to get to the next stretch goal to find out!
Going a Little Meta About Kickstarters and Stretch Goals
You know how your organization always wants guarantees about when teams will hit dates and how the product will do in the market? And how prediction is just impossible?
Yes, teams and managers can make reasonable guesses. But a guarantee of anything? No.
I set my funding goal low so that the Kickstarter would fund. That's when Kickstarter starts to add their considerable marketing power to mine. I chose that strategy purposefully. You can't always do that with your products. (Freemium products might be in this category.)
But that's why almost everyone in product development needs to reconsider how extensive and how far in the future they plan. (See How to Predict A Little About the Future Work Without Long Intricate Plans for more about how to plan inside your headlights.)
This Kickstarter is an example of continual planning, because I cannot control how people will react to the campaign. In that sense, this is exactly like every organization's product development. Yes, I wrote the best possible book I could. And I incorporated technical review to make it even better.
But no one knows how customers react until we put that product out into the world.
That's why I'm living what I preach. Since the Kickstarter is just three weeks long, I have a chance to learn at least every day. That the experimental loop at the top of this post. Then, I can replan. Do I have ideas for more stretch goals? Of course. If you back the Kickstarter now, you can get both the Zoom and what I will choose next.
Back the Kickstarter Now
Want to read some of the ideas in the book? Look for these tags:
- Effective Public Speaking
- Public Speaking Myth (I have more of these queued up for publication.)
Back the Kickstarter now. And if you have requests for stretch goals, message me on Kickstarter.