by Brad Cohen (@supnah)
Comet Skateboards recently posted an account of how they designed their latest model of skateboard deck, and it’s a fantastic case study on how community engagement can benefit a you in very concrete ways. Full disclosure: I went to graduate school with Bob Rossi, one of the Comet Skateboards employees. (But they didn’t give me any free stuff - no matter how many times I asked.)
Check out this account for a textbook example of how engaging with an active community can earn you loyalty, credibility and dollars at the same time.
You can visit their site for a more detailed account, but the story goes like this. A skateboarder named Nick Grasso came to Comet with an idea for a new board. Comet decided it would be a fun project, but before getting started, they had Nick post a quick note with a hand-drawn spec of his idea for the board on SilverfishLongboarding.com - a community forum for longboard skateboarders. To date there are 1,863 messages on the FSM thread, the last of which are displaying purchased FSM boards that forum members are excited to show off.
The project quickly picked up steam and comments began to stream in. The feedback was taken from the forum and put into the first prototypes of the boards.
They also identified 14 brave souls from the forum community who were interested in test riding the prototypes and providing feedback on them. Not only that, but these riders were willing to pay for the priviledge, so Comet got its prototyping costs covered by the community as well!
Within a month of the initial post the prototypes were shipped to the test pilots.
Seven weeks after the initial post feedback begins to come in to Comet from the test pilots. Meanwhile, the code name for the project had been FSM, which stood for Flying Spaghetti Monster, which is a reference to a meme that has been cycling through the Web for years. It’s also a shrewd, though uncalculated move to leverage the popularity around something that had already gone viral within communities that overlapped with their own community of boarders.
As the feedback is coming in, the community settles on the official name of FSM for this skateboard deck, which will be the first deck in a series named the “Cometogether” series - a name also chosen by the community.
Two months after the initial post about 75 pages of feedback from the test pilots is compiled by the team at Comet and posted online for the community to see. At this point the community is providing feedback regarding the feedback of the test pilots. This is truly a great example of full inclusion of a community into decision-making in product development.
Two and a half months after the intial post the final shape is chosen by the online community.
At the same time as all of this, there is also a conversation ongoing about the graphics that will be put on the board. Going with the name, a graphic was produced that looked like a Flying Spaghetti Monster, and the community overwhelmingly supported that entry. However, Comet was sensitive to a minority of the community that was interested in something different, so they decided to release a second design with a geometric design and no spaghetti monster. Then another minority was identified that was interested in decks without graphics and only the Comet company logo stamped on it. These were given names that also matched up with FSM - the “Full Stoke Machine” and the “Factory Stamp & Marker” (a marker is shipped with the plain version just to get them all to match).
Finally, a mere three months and ten days after the initial post of the idea on a forum, the three FSM boards are officially released for sale to the public on April 20th.
What did Comet have going for them?
- An active community accessible via SilverfishLongboards.com
- An established reputation for listening to their community
- An established reputation for producing quality goods
Why is this so great?
- Shows continuous and iterative listening and engagement with a community
- Shows the power of outsourcing work to the community
This also represents a fundamental shift in how this type of gear is produced. Typically a company makes a board and gets some feedback from test riders. Or, often a professional in the sport designs a product that a company then carries. But this is the first skateboard that was intended for sale to a community, that was designed by the community. And if you’re wondering, sales are up. I’m waiting for some exact figures, but the FSM is by far the best selling board at Comet Skateboards now - a testament to letting the community tell you what it wants.
The final product - a pair of FSMs (of the Flying Spaghetti variety):
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Tags: Community, Engagement, marketing, Social Media
Good info for any company; thanks!
Great site! Thanks for sharing
ggrrr! i want to get this post dled to my touch screen phone that way my mother can see it, but i cannot find a way.. can any one show me how please??