Kaizen Bits

Interesting case study analysis and startup review of Craiglist, a startup where “Social aspects of site are key to driving the commercial aspects”. Following the review,  Craigslist has created a culture of trust around the site in many ways:

• Craig and the Craigslist staff actively respond to user e-mails.
• Craigslist does not make any major changes to the site without first announcing and testing response from users.
• Craigslist actively incorporates user feedback into the product. Craig told me that there has not been any popular suggestion that they have not incorporated into the site.
• No banner advertising on the site contributes to the perception that Craigslist is “not in it for the money”
• Users are the primary mechanism for filtering inappropriate/miscategorized content. Craigslist has some mechanisms for preventing the posting of inappropriate content, but for the most part, it is up to the users to flag content.
• Lastly, the .org domain name contributes to a non-profit perception (Note: Craig did not feel that many users care or think about this)

IMHO, very 2.0 and also being used actively. Last winter, one of my students mentioned it had been impossible to find an appartment in Madrid but he finaly succeed using Loquo, its Spanish equivalent.  Thanks to Craiglist you can do this all over the world. Who said classified ads in mainstream media? Forget it.

(This is just because I am compiling a number of case studies I will use for my lectures during Winter time. They are all just out of the oven, so feel free to comment and improve them. I decided to blog about them because it is the perfect way of not forgetting the ideas cropping).