It’s not the Blockchain That Matters, but What are the Benefits to the Freelance Ecosystem (iteration# 1)
One of the most difficult things in the process of building a market-fit product is knowing exactly ‘what product to make’. A market-fit product is a condition when the product is already on the market and chooses the right customer group according to the product offered. Many technology-related products fail because they don’t solve the real problems that customers are experiencing. To achieve a market-fit product, interactions and interviews can be carried out which are part of the idea validation & customer validation process.
This is what underlies me to make such interactions with users, as a part of the idea validation and user validation process for Collabolancer. Then, after doing several interactions with several people, related to their impressions and feedback about Collabolancer, I decided to share the results through this article!
So, I do a short form, and also an in-depth interview with several people. Here are the results:
Part 1. Short Form
“…It is important here that we offer solutions, not technology…”
“…trust is really the key to the freelancing industry…”
“…On the other hand, of course, workers want to get more revenue…”
This short form, made in Google Form format, and presented in Indonesian, can be checked via this link: https://link.collabolancer.com/feedback-id. Here is a brief overview:
- Most of the respondents used to do Freelancing activities, offline (53.3%). Then followed by the Freelancer.com platform (40%), Fiverr.com (30%), and Upwork.com (20%). The rest are using other platforms (26%)
- Most of them are a worker, or job seeker (93.3%), compared to an employer (13.3%), or a foreman (10%).
- Most of them are not very familiar with Blockchain technology (43.3%), as for those who just know, is (23.3%), blockchain/cryptocurrency application users, is (23.3%), an expert, is (3.3%), and a blockchain developer, is (6.7%) ).
- Of the many problems that exist on centralized freelancing platforms or the way they are currently freelancing, the three problems they mentioned as the most urgent problem are the absence of guarantee/certainty (53.3%), absence of reporting/dispute resolution mechanisms (36.6%), and excessive fee deductions (33.3%).
- As many as 93.3% of respondents are interested in blockchain applications for freelancing. Only 6.7% of the respondents were not interested. The reason they are not interested, is that they are not familiar with blockchain technology, so they are overwhelmed.
- Finally, the interested respondents, choose the top three values from Collabolancer that they think are most helpful, are Guaranteed Process with a trustless Smart Contract (67.9%), then ownership of the portfolio (60.7%), and the existence of bonuses or incentives (46.4%) ).
From the data above, I can take several opinions:
- In blockchain application development, the user’s experience is very important to keep away from the complexity of Blockchain technology, they must feel as much as possible running a normal application, but with a blockchain backend. It can be seen from the number of respondents who do not understand blockchain at all, as well as the reason for respondents who are not interested in Collabolancer, is feeling overwhelmed by the technology. It is important here that we offer solutions, not technology.
- From this data, it can be ascertained that trust is really the key to the freelancing industry, and is often a barrier/pain point from doing freelancing online, in this case, the portfolio and dispute system can be very helpful. On the other hand, of course, workers want to get more revenue, as evident from their interest in Collabolancer’s incentive system.
Part 2. In-depth Interview
I conducted an in-depth interview, by doing a walk-through of the Collabolancer demo application while asking about the values of the Collabolancer, and whether it was useful for the respondent. From this in-depth interview, I can take the important points from the respondents, which I grouped as follows:
User-Friendliness:
“Maybe in terms of experience, make them as comfortable and familiar as possible. In Collabolancer I saw that the account was represented using a complicated number, it’s better to just use a nickname. “
“And in the future, maybe to make it even more familiar, user onboarding is very important, and simplify complex explanations. But don’t ask too many questions at onboarding, in one of the platforms he asks a lot about income and others. It’s very annoying. “
“The terminology of leader and worker, is a bit confusing, hehe”
Trustiness:
“When I saw it in the current freelancing platform, it turned out that the one who won the bid did not always finish the work, so it was not necessarily a winning bid is always performed, I don’t know how the payment was paid in that scenario”
“For industry, for example from my field in architecture, for designers, architecture, and others, the trust is not so needed, and maybe the centralized platform is enough. But for masons, field workers, people who stop by, it’s very hard to guarantee their trust.”
“Also the most thing that always makes freelancers websites beaten is the scenario when these freelancers get clients, they will no longer transact or use the platform anymore”
“Please consider whether there is a need for a guarantee of settlement from both sides; Employers and workers”
Community As An Important Element In Blockchain Application:
“So in my opinion, both trustless and centralized, in my experience using the product is just the same, but maybe here the difference is that if it’s centralized, I have to bet my trust in the platform, but if it’s trustless I bet it to the community from the blockchain. “
“So on the blockchain platform, in my opinion, what is more important is the community, compared to the brand. So there is a shift in the belief. “
Very Dependent On Industry:
“So freelancing is very platform-dependent and very industry-dependent. So maybe it needs specialization. So there are freelance industries that really need more trust, but there are also those even without high trust, they can run. “
Solver According to Qualifications:
“From the employer side, we need workers who can be trusted, the track record is clear, if only for example the submitted files are empty, then it’s clear who is at fault. Solver can also definitely decide because it is very clear. However, if for example to a more complex use case, for example a design problem, which is my field in architectural design, sometimes the client says that the design is actually good, but because it does not match his taste, in the end it can’t be accepted. It’s a bit biased for the solver to solve.”
“So in my opinion, for the solver, it is a very important position, maybe it can be ascertained that the solver really understands the problem that you want to dispute, so it is in accordance with the field, and is trustless.”
Portfolio & Track Record:
“The track record here is more trusted, than reviews, especially if the review doesn’t show the results of the work, so the track record is more reliable. Moreover, this is immutable “
Entry Barrier:
“Usually if there is an Indian freelancer, the price is destroyed, and we won’t able to compete in terms of bid price”
Collaboration Mechanics:
“Collaborating is a really new thing on the freelancing platform, we just need to adjust it to the industry.”
“Research also how the current standards and collaborate with them”
“The client is given a time limit in checking the results of the project, sometimes 1 project can take months to complete because the client / employer does not immediately check the results of the work and does not immediately provide feedback”
“Why is the composition team determined by the leader? Not by employers? “
Use Case Outside Freelancing
“If this is the basis of the community, maybe it can be started from discord. For the use case, discord itself likes to hold activities that are similar to the gig economy but anonymous. For example, banner voting, rich in gamification, and engage, but with monetization, and is more suited for collaboration.”
Solver for Verification
“Mechanically, a discord-like pattern to verify before submitting submissions is also interesting.”
“Preventive verification is quite beneficial for employers, and it can be applied, so after a worker submit, whether it is accepted or not, is from verification. It can take advantage of the existing solver, further, it also needs to be filtered as well as fit and proper and suitability of expertise in the field. There I as an employer become more confident. “
Dispute System:
“In my opinion, what is collabolancer can provide more at this point compared to existing platforms, that is most visible in my experience without seeing the blockchainization, is the dispute mechanism. It’s on other platforms there’s nothing like it. “
“However, Dispute should not be the main feature, right? Because if the dispute is famous, that means this service actually has a lot of problems, right?”
Employer-First vs Worker-first:
“Here I can see the dynamization, the trade-off. On the one hand, if I become an employer, and I see that workers don’t have any power, I feel it is safer for me. Meanwhile, on freelance platforms like this, the income stream comes from employers, right? Because he has the money, right? It’s not fair, yes, but that’s actually a special attraction for employers to use the platform. But, again, it also depends on the industry. “
“The Current incentive is for workers, right? I think that employers may also be given incentives. What makes freelancing transactions live is from the employer’s side. “
“Yes, I agree, I see Collabolancer features are really defending the workers”
The anomaly of Trust in Centralization for Employers:
“I’m still not sure, trustless will be the core value that is incited, both by employers and workers. Because, actually even on the old platform, I can be sure that payment can be guaranteed, because I trust the platform, and I trust the brand. “
“As long as I have not experienced any rigging in the centralized platform, I think it’s safe, and I believe in the platform and the brand. So I don’t know the big value yet. Yes, if there are flaws, sometimes it really depends on the type of work, not because of the platform.”
Part 3. Feature Request
By paying attention to this feedback, I tried to listen, and compile a list of requests that want to be implemented in future Collabolancer. I have updated the list on the page: https://collabolancer.featureupvote.com/ .
Have any input? You can also add your suggestion on the request feature page!
Closing
Through this short interaction, we can understand that no matter how advanced the technology is, in the end the technology must be user-friendly, and can provide real benefits to their activities, in this case, Freelancers. So, blockchain is only a tool to achieve the most important goal, that is, the solution to the problem of centralized freelancers.
I thank all those who have given their feedback and input! This will be the start of developing Collabolancer as a much better solution to provide more benefits for freelancers!
Collabolancer is a blockchain-based freelancer marketplace that more profitable, trustworthy and collaborative
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