Improving google product - funding ways?

1

Hi
I have an idea improving google form responses summary page to have a possibility for deep data exploration.

I have full time job and also working as a freelancer, so I have very little time to work projects like this. I think, this would be very powerful addition to Google form responses summary

I have created Indiegogo Campaign, but having hard time make it spread, so I came here to seek help …

What can I do ?

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I’m not familiar with Google Forms and have only played with it briefly just now by creating a survey and exporting data to Sheets; so please take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Overall I think it’s a nice idea but the utility of it is limited unless it’s something that’s built into Google Forms (I suppose you could try approaching Google with your idea, I’m not sure how though); otherwise it seems rather impractical because:

  1. It requires additional setup cost
  2. It requires an experienced developer to implement and maintain it
  3. It doesn’t seem to be the rate-limiting step if you take the above into account (I may be very wrong here)

Because of how complicated it seems and the additional investment required on the part of the user, which is probably not what most people who use Google Forms would want to do, you may want to consider turning this idea into a SaaS instead, where all a user needs to do is to provide the link to the Google Sheets with the data they want to visualise. You can also have a free-tier for marketing/promotion purpose that, let’s say, has basic functionalities but doesn’t have saving/make private options… etc. I can imagine a lot of opportunities to build and add value on top of this, but the big question is still whether or not Google Forms users would do this and, even if it’s feasible, whether there is enough of a market (it doesn’t look like you have done any market research).

If you don’t have the time to grow it as a business idea and/or you just want to make a quick $5,000 and forget about it (I hope it’s not the latter, seems rather irresponsible), maybe at least make sure it’s clear that you’re going to open source it or that it’s already open sourced.

The whole point of a story/description on sites like Indiegogo is to tell people why what you are making is (hopefully) amazing and why they would want to support you. At the moment it really just reads like “why it’s nice to have” but not “why you really want it” or “it’s going to make your life so much easier if I made this”.

General feedback on your Indiegogo campaign:

  • Some images are blurry
  • Images look like they are casual screen-grabs instead of carefully-prepared images (particularly the one
  • Times (New Roman) looks awful and out of place (in this context)
  • It’s not immediately clear what is selected in the demo—I’m aware that there is an extra border around what is selected
  • It doesn’t look amazing (visually speaking)—and there are no promises in your campaign that there will be any sort of UI improvements and/or customisation
  • There is no timeline
  • Somewhat related to the above, there is nothing in the campaign description that jumps out to me and makes me think “please take my money”
  • It’s “Google”, not “google”. Small, but important things like that makes your campaign look extra unprofessional. There is really no excuse there since variables are case sensitive in JavaScript
  • It’s actually unclear what your product does—does it do both step 3 and 4 in the process you describe at the end? One of the steps? Somewhere in between?
  • Give your product a name and use it everywhere in your description to make it clear to the reader what it does and how it’s going to make their life easier
  • There is no indication of whether or not you will maintain the product and whether or not you will open source it

There is more but I think I’ve spent enough time on it. I hope that helps. :slight_smile:

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4

@honmanyau I have made changes, now it’s much worse, but at least it’s interesting

I wanted to respond some of your items:

  1. I have tried contacting Google (via support) - but they got rid of me :slight_smile: (nicely)
  2. It does not require setup cost
  3. I can implement it (and maintain - strong word )
  4. Does not need rate limiting
  5. SaaS - very nice Idea, that will be default feature of it
  6. I want to work on product, which I will enjoy and still be paid
  7. I am going to open source it
  8. why it’s nice to have - why you really want it [ I prefer the first option here, if the option is more right, I guess I am in the wrong place ]
  9. changed google to Google :slight_smile:

Again thanks for your response, you were really very helpful

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