Hacking Product Management with Crowdsourcing & Outsourcing

@russjhammond

What?

Anything you possibly can that is not one of your core strengths.

What?

Examples...this week alone:

● find registration costs for 20 conferences● transcribe 6 podcasts● find 50 random firms to survey● interview those 50 random firms● consolidate data for weekly status report● create custom images for sales demo● build demo app to test our SDK ● fill out expense reimbursement forms

Who?

● virtual assistants● freelancers● Mturkers● Gigwalkers● Fiverrs● Craigslisters

When?

● Same day● Overnight● Next week● Next month

Where?

Tennessee to Timbuktu

Why?

Comparative advantage:

Ability to produce outputs at a lower opportunity cost than another.

How?

Tips & tricks

Virtual assistant

● Hire a VA with a firm○ can often find others within firm to do random tasks○ backup for when they go on vacation

● Don’t tell others your secret

Tips & tricks

Odesk

● Hire 3 to do the first step, keep 1 to finish

● Fixed bid contracts over hourly

● Don’t be afraid to spend money○ only hiring for a few hours not a full time job

BONUS!!!

Send the bill to sales.

Tips & tricks

Gigwalk

● Ask for candid feedback at the end of each task

● Monitor chatter on Easy Shift

● Small test run before larger rollout

demo

Tips & tricks

Crowdflower

● keep task under 10 seconds

● run each task 3 times for quality checks

● watch their tutorials when getting started

demo

But how much does it cost?

VA - $500/month

Odesk - $25-$50/hr

Gigwalk - $10/ gig

Crowdflower - $.03-.05/per task

What services do you use?

Questions

@russjhammond