Hi Mal, thanks for the feedback. We have worked over the years on improving the entire process, including better expectations and estimates when a project is launched. And how we deal with updates.
In the past I wrote all the updates in more details than any of the videos, but it also cost me a huge chunk of time.
When we launched the 60HE we decided to go over to primarily video format and summarized text. This went really well. We were able to execute on monthly updates, clear communications, and get a smoother delivery.
When it comes to the UwU, it indirectly suffered from our fast paced growth.
I still play a central role in product development and customer communication for projects. This has caused a bottleneck for UwU, because I also handle everything business related. This meant that my time was highly occupied with the growth and I tried to consolidate updates as much as I could linked to critical information, so it would free up more time to actually spend on the product development.
This also caused me at one point realize too late that we spent too much time on a particular problem, delaying everything. I am responsible to have that insight and shift priorities or expedite a decision by eliminating bottlenecks.
I’m of course not doing any of it all by myself. I work closely with Rouhan (industrial designer), Vanessa (Product project manager), and Kevin (head industrial designer) whom all execute the majority and progress projects daily.
To give you an idea. Between UwU launch and now, I now have somewhere in the 15-18 more colleagues.
None of them in fulfillment because we work with 3rd party (3PL) fulfillment centers. We do this to make it easier to scale, accommodate our remote work/life, and deliver globally.
Therefore, there is no such thing of any of us packing anything (anymore).
Our 3PL in the Netherlands ships worldwide except for US. We have another 3PL there.
The NL 3PL is having a hard time to catch up with our volume. The time UwU arrived, we were also midst shipping thousands of keyboards.
We coordinated with them when they could expect large volumes, but regardless something ain’t going right. I am in the process of reviewing what’s going wrong on their side and how we can modify the process for the future.
They aren’t a small mom pop shop, so it’s not that this is going over their heads. They have multiple locations, developed their own warehouse management system (WMS) and including their own automated robot pickers at their main location.
Our US 3PL is a much larger cooperation and far more capable shipping our volume in a short time frame. I.e. our volume is less significant relative to their scale.
We’re still learning from this process to see how we can make it smoother and more insightful to end user in the future. This is where the Wooting Hub originated from.
To hook it back to these things relying too much on me, that’s something we are still figuring out.
It starts with the update style. Whereas before we’d centralize the update and consolidate information. We are going to decentralize updates and create more variety with the faces responsible or involved for said update.
This will fit better with the larger team, us already all working remote, and me moving back to Taiwan (while central recordings happened in NL).
Lastly, we are providing sub-optimal customer service at the time. The majority of new hires are in customer service, but with the recent thousands of shipments it has shown that it’s not enough to deal with further growth. We are still hiring in this department but it also adds fuel to the fire.
TL;DR
Can’t say you’re wrong, it’s how you experienced it. I recognize where the pain points are and we are capable to do better. Not a lack of willingness, rather a shortage of capacity to execute and prioritize it all appropriately.
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since its such a niche product. I for one have never had to be this patient after buying something but I also very rarely pre-order anything.