Quirky: Turning your ideas into real products

Crowdsourcing has changed the way people source ideas online, but now, it is also transforming the most complex processes associated with product research, design, development and manufacturing.

Here’s how – Imagine having a product idea, but due to the lack of resources, your idea only remains but an idea and is unable to materialize into anything.

Well, that’s now history because, Quirky  (not to be confused with Quirk) has found a way to harness the power of the crowd to help turn your product ideas into actual real products. Unlike other crowdsourcing services, this company provides monetary incentives to members of “the crowd” for every product they help bring to the market.

The entire process is actually quite simple. First, users submit their ideas to the website, then under the supervision and participation of the “crowd”, ideas undergo the process of voting, validation and refinement. The best ideas then move to the next round where they undergo multiple design iterations as well as feasibility assessments to determine if they are ready for the market. Thereafter, they proceeding to the final process of production.

In its short three year history, Quirky with its crowd-oriented business model, has thus produced an impressive 210 individual products (and counting), with 188 retail partners and a staggering 235 thousand community inventors. That’s remarkable (if you ask me).

Generally, companies that achieve this level of success in such a short period of time usually have a very strong vision and an exceptional work ethic; Likewise, Quirky’s business model seems to suggest that it does. Taking in consideration Seth Godin’s hypothesis of where the essence of idea diffusion is going, it’s not that difficult to understand why this company is flourishing so quickly. Indeed; Ideas that spread win.

Now, could this trend redefine the future of manufacturing? Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure, the paradigms are certainly shifting.