Since Duo Coffee Steeper’s Kickstarter campaign back in 2014, we’ve tried to keep our backers and fans involved as much as possible in our design process. From Duo to Stagg System, we often send out surveys and invitations to participate in user testing on new products. For our second round on Kickstarter with Stagg EKG our mentality has been no different.
Why we think crowdsourcing is important:
- New perspectives – from coffee nerds and beginners alike
- Avoid groupthink – making stuff our fans want and need rather than just making stuff we want
- Keeps us grounded – the further we dive into specialty coffee, the more we need perspectives from folks outside of that world
The first week of our Kickstarter campaign we started to receive feedback that our stretch goal for $250,000 of a custom Fellow outlet plug just wasn’t that appealing. We also got a couple great ideas from backers and folks on social. So, we decided to crowdsource what to do next. We sent surveys to fans and backers asking what they’d find the most useful and valuable for their new kettle.
It’s always amazing to see crowdsourced results for our products because no matter how much thought we put into it, we can never guess the outcome. An overwhelming majority were interested in an automatic timer, followed by a copper version of Stagg EKG.
“In an effort to delivery additional features with the highest value to you, we’d love you to take a quick 30 second poll to better understand what Stretch Goals are the most valuable to our backers.”
Stagg EKG’s New Stretch Goals:
After collecting your feedback, we decided to go with the two most popular options for stretch goals…
$400K Stretch Goal: Auto timer for optimal bloom and pour times
No more timing your brew with an egg timer! Shortly after you remove Stagg EKG/EKG+ from its base, Stagg will start timing your pour.
$600K Stretch Goal: Copper Stagg EKG
As far as we know, this will be the only copper electric kettle on the market. We’re excited to tackle this challenge and deliver a sleek, modern kettle with a traditional copper twist.