How Kickstarter Users Evolved the Rock Pillows

The Rock Pillows looked like a squishy gray pumpkin with two openings at the top. It was designed to slip comfortably over the wearer's head, offering a cozy "micro environment" for power naps. Thanks to a sophisticated Kickstarter campaign, a whimsical design and plenty of media coverage, the Rock Pillows was a hit, raising nearly $200,000 in pledges. One year later, Ali Ganjavian and Key Portilla-Kawamura, the minds behind the Ostrich Pillow, launched a second Kickstarter campaign for the Rock Pillows Light. The more portable, slightly less outlandish creation can be worn around the neck and pulled over the eyes for a discrete nap while in transit. Like its predecessor, the Ostrich Pillow Light is soft and pleasantly malleable, designed to give time-starved workaholics a portable tool for catnapping. The project reached its funding goal of £25,000 (roughly $40,500) within 72 hours, and managed to raise £94,000 ($152,000) by the project's end on Nov. 12. On Kickstarter, "you can automatically gauge whether people find [a project] interesting, and whether people share the need," Ali Ganjavian tells Mashable. But beyond simply acting as a barometer for public interest, the platform also allows creators to innovate and develop new products based on consumer feedback. "It's 4,000 people giving an opinion," Ganjavian says. "You start mapping opinions and you can say, 'Wow, 45% of them agree on one thing, which we had never thought about.'" Most importantly, those opinions are coming from the product's target audience, rather than an executive focused on increasing profit. Based on a survey sent to their Kickstarter backers, Ganjavian and Portilla-Kawamura were able to identify consumer needs not being met by the original Rock Pillows. For starters, customers found the Rock Pillows too cumbersome to pack in a carry-on bag or to bring on public transit. The Rock Pillows Light is smaller and more lightweight, and can rest comfortably around the wearer's neck for portability. Unsurprisingly, some backers also found the original Rock Pillows far too unconventional to wear in public. "This is more moderate," Ganjavian says. "My mother would wear it." Other successful Kickstarter creators have made use of customer feedback to improve their product, too. Flint and Tinder founder Jake Bronstein expanded his men's apparel line, which first launched as a Kickstarter campaign, based on comments from his backers. (Bronstein's current Kickstarter venture, The Bluelace Project, has already doubled its funding goal.) "Customers see a group of humans behind [the brand] that they know they can influence," Bronstein says. "It's painful because you hear critical feedback more often, but the flip side is that they're more engaged, more willing to check in and see what we're doing." Backers invest not only in an idea, but in a narrative that follows the concept through to completion. As the crowdfunding platform continues to grow — to date, the site has funneled more than $880 million to 52,000 creative projects, according to Kickstarter's stats page — the Rock Pillows Light stands as a compelling example of the benefits of crowdfunding for building a more direct relationship with consumers. "What’s amazing about [Kickstarter] is that it really supports the design approach," Ganjavian says. "Designers think about what people need and come up with solutions for those needs. You’re going to the end consumer at the click of a button."