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Why We Abandoned Crowdsourcing

flightfox.com

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Re: Why We Abandoned Crowdsourcing

#51

Post by todsul »

fibbery wrote: post #47

I tried flightfox when I was planning a vacation last year. I had thought it was more like taskrabbit where people would compete for the lowest price and was confused/disappointed when it told me I had to pick someone. Unfortunately none of the results seemed particularly promising. In the end, either I should be working for flightfox or the service isn't as good as it should be, because the "expert" results were wor…

hi fibbery, we made this change exactly for this reason: so customers would get great results more of the time. With the new format, not only do you get one of the best experts, but that expert can spend more time just on you. That last part is key.

This idea that "one person digging deeper" is better than "more people competing" first came to us at an in-office hackathon (flight hacking, not software hacking). We noticed with more "iterations", experts could hack even the most mundane trips. In this particular example, they got NYCBerlin (round-trip) for about $400 with rigid dates. The rigid dates part is key because it simulates the real world (we've seen Once we worked closer with some of our experts, we realized the top ones are miles more analytical. They either write their own software or compile huge spreadsheets of their findings.

So this change of format was to put you in touch with one of them, not with someone who does this on the side. We wish we could have created a new income stream for the average person, but to ensure customer value, we had to go this way.

Re: Why We Abandoned Crowdsourcing

#52

Post by todsul »

prawn wrote: post #48
todsul wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi brett, we're working madly on this now. We built the new version from scratch (very little in common), so we're a few-week-old startup all over again. We can imagine these products being their own page with details, testimonials, examples, etc. Something like http://elto.com , whereas our current page is more like the 99-designs one. Just wanted to mention, "clarifying" our products/pricing is priority #1.

Should that be something you work on before announcing the change? Seems quite critical to me.

Hi prawn, rightly or wrongly, we live by the "launch fast" maxim. Sure we had some test data, but a change this big was always going to be a huge leap of faith. So we needed to get it out to confirm previous findings before worrying too much about conversions.

On that note, the risk wasn't just a different format but everything that goes with real-time communications. Not just web sockets or whatever tech, but a real-time human marketplace. The previous format afforded us a lot of luxuries with regard to resource planning and "load balancing". Now with real-time, it's quite tricky. I suspect this is a challenge for Uber too.

Re: Why We Abandoned Crowdsourcing

#53

Post by Tarrosion »

todsul wrote: post #22
bretthopper wrote: post #13

Your pricing/trips page ( https://flightfox.com/trips ) is really lacking some direction and information. I can easily see new Flightfox users being really confused. I was slightly confused and I've used Flightfox twice before. I would suggest carrying over the 3 steps graphic/info from the main page to the top of the /trips page. But more importantly, you really need a better breakdown of exactly what those prices a…

Hi brett, we're working madly on this now. We built the new version from scratch (very little in common), so we're a few-week-old startup all over again. We can imagine these products being their own page with details, testimonials, examples, etc. Something like http://elto.com , whereas our current page is more like the 99-designs one. Just wanted to mention, "clarifying" our products/pricing is priority #1.

I am glad to hear that. If I understand your product I'm a prime target: once or twice a year I plan travel where my flexibility in terms of airport, days, etc. is far too complicated for even the ITA matrix (the best flight search I know of). And I'm also about to plan international travel for an anniversary, and would love to get some help and a deal on that.

But I'm terribly confused what category I fit into. For the first case, am I multicity or within North America? For the second, am I a group, ultimate Euro trip, super cheap business, ...?

Re: Why We Abandoned Crowdsourcing

#54

Post by bduerst »

aridiculous wrote: post #2

Good to see that crowdsourcing, one of the darlings of web commerce, is getting exposed for what it is: Cheap and crappy. The web capitalists loved the idea of labor competing against itself, maximizing value for the customer and minimizing labor costs. I.e. free work by 90% of the labor. Good luck with the new system! Although you're doing it for practical reasons, I still applaud you moving away from this practice.

The problem lay in that some see it as a way to exploit the labor of others.

The real value is in setting it up so that crowdsourcing benefits both parties involved - i.e. CAPTCHAs for human verification and textual image analysis.

Re: Why We Abandoned Crowdsourcing

#55

Post by mgkimsal »

Wish I'd known about this change a few weeks ago - would have tried the new format - wife just booked a flight. I used flightfox once before, and while the idea was novel, the execution was... a bit weird.

Something that wasn't addressed in this article write up was how customers felt. I felt bad for having 4 or 5 people doing work on my behalf, giving them feedback ("change these days, find it cheaper", etc) then only 'awarding' one of them. I did not enjoy that experience - it made me feel like I was abusing their time.

Additionally, I never quite got the price my FF person found me - perhaps I waited too long, or something else happened. I think he'd sent me a screenshot showing that he was being shown that price as available, but when I went to the airline (delta, iirc) I wasn't getting that price. I was still getting a better price than I'd been aware of before, but not quite as good as what the guide claimed to have found.

Again, the contest format was not just bad for the reasons listed - users (well, at least this one) felt uncomfortable using it.

Good luck with the new format!

Re: Why We Abandoned Crowdsourcing

#56

Post by coldcode »

jusben1369 wrote: post #21
coldcode wrote: post #7

How does FlightFox makes money? Given that both the expert and FF needs a cut, how does this scale?

how many airline tickets are sold a day?

Airlines pay us at most $10 per ticket no matter the price. Clearly this isn't what make FF money because it's not enough to scale if the profit is shared.
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