In an industry where creators and their communities constantly drive the innovation of best practices for funding a successful campaign, BackerKit noticed that crowdfunding platforms just weren't keeping pace and evolving with them. We joined forces with the BackerKit team to strategize how to build a marketplace that supports current best practices, can grow with creators and backers, and turn BackerKit’s suite of pledge management products into an entirely new crowdfunding platform. 

We joined the BackerKats down in their native San Francisco to facilitate two days of workshops for the strategic planning and content strategy of the new marketplace. We knew the importance of designing a marketplace that felt less transactional and more experiential to help deepen the devotion between backers and creators.

Through interviews and workshops, we learned how vital discovery and cross-pollination are to the success of a campaign and its creator's future. Finding inspiration from how communities converse and grow online, we concepted and implemented features including a feed of recent activity, trending campaigns, curated suggestions of campaigns to support, and creators to follow. 

Timing is everything in crowdfunding, so we understood that the new marketplace had to reflect the energy and urgency that determine success. Pledge trains, polls, timers, and milestone notifications were incorporated with bold colors into the UI to energize and provoke engagement.