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I am working on a fund-raiser campaign for my website (2 years old). The goal is to promote the premium accounts for the site, and to reach several thousand premium accounts in order to fund highly requested improvements and features to the site.

I am struggling with whether or not I should hire a UX professional to help with the fund-raiser--money is quite tight. I would be very willing to pay IF hiring a UX professional can give me significant knowledge and insight that I wouldn't be able to get from thorough UX research on my own.

Would bringing on someone at this point be too late? This is mostly a solo project, so I currently have the most knowledge about my users (but I'm definitely not a UX specialist).

I have most of the design completed (a few extra pages on the website by designer), and will be hiring video professionals to help create a promo video. I would want a UX professional to look over the promotion ideas and content, to make sure it's presented in the most clear and compatible way for my users.

Is it worth hiring a UX professional to help with my fundraiser campaign at this point?

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    I'd say you want a digital marketing specialist with experience of freemium though sometimes honest and heartfelt appeals are effective. Take a look at the articles on what makes appeals successful on Indigogo and Kickstarter as those campaigns are similar in some ways. You could even use one of those platforms if you don't have the e-commerce bit set up on your site.
    – Andy Boura
    Commented Aug 5, 2014 at 18:39
  • Thanks Andy. I have all the infrastructure setup on the site for the premium accounts, so I wouldn't need to use a 3rd party crowdfunding service. Also not sure if it's possible to link someone's Kickstarter contribution to a user account on my end, unless you're allowed to enter extra information on Kickstarter when you contribute.
    – mrl
    Commented Aug 5, 2014 at 19:36
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    Don't forget to test the site: if you have been involved in building it, how it works will always be 'obvious' to you. But sometimes rather less to the users.
    – PhillipW
    Commented Aug 6, 2014 at 17:45
  • @PhillipW, I've definitely noticed that it's very hard to be critical of something that I've worked on for a while. I'll be sure to test it before making the fund-raiser live.
    – mrl
    Commented Aug 6, 2014 at 20:27

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You're a little late in the process to be including a UX specialist.

  • The pages already exist
  • You aren't making extensive changes to user flow
  • The user goals have already been defined
  • The user journeys to meet those goals have already been created

There's little left to do that a UX specialist's knowledge would help you with. It sounds like you want a digital marketer.

A ux specialist improves your success by on making a site so easy to use that nobody who wants to use it gets put off and leaves mid-way through. This translates into extra money for you but only if you get their input before you've build the site.

A digital marketer improves your success by helping you get your message out in front of as many interested people as possible. They do their work after the page has been created, but before you've started your promotion.

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    markstadt, now since I've a deeper understanding of what you want to achieve I go with @racheet. Take a marketing specialist since you are the guy, how knows the users best so far. Let him and the video crew do the details (and don't forget how to judge the final cut). The only thing a UX pro could give you right now is to have a look from the outside and feedback to you if your view of the user is actually aligned or biased. You may feel that you know your users, but they may be completely different from what you believe them to be.
    – Alexej Froehlich
    Commented Aug 6, 2014 at 11:40
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Coming to a Q&A site UX.SE the obvious answer is yes! It's always worth while to hire guys and dolls like us! ;-)

On a more serious note, if you want something done professionally backed up by science, professional UX is the way to go. If you "or anyone else above you" think that hiring a professional is expensive, try hire an amateur, and see what it cost you to get nothing or worse in return.

If you're serious about your fund raising issues, and your providers are too, then getting things fixed fast could be the thing. Remember it only takes one beneficier to cover a moths work by a UX professional. And a good experience from one, could lead to more from others by sharing of wealth through social media.

But if you're not serious - don't bother!

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    Thanks for the chuckle, Benny! This is an entirely bootstrapped project, so I need to be very careful where I spend money so I don't starve... Guess the answers here would be biased towards "yes", but I also wanted to know if my specific need would be best suited for a UX professional.
    – mrl
    Commented Aug 5, 2014 at 20:09
  • @markstadt I'll ask you this: "What good is a new video, if your users can't find it?". A little plump maybe, but to the point. Adding new content to possibly bad UX won't do you any good.
    – Benny Skogberg
    Commented Aug 5, 2014 at 20:29
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    Very true, I just wish the situation was so black and white! Is there a particular title I should search for, for my needs, or simply a "UX designer"?
    – mrl
    Commented Aug 5, 2014 at 22:38
  • @markstadt If a consultant have UX listed as competence, have him/her over for an interview to get a feeling of the knowledge.
    – Benny Skogberg
    Commented Aug 6, 2014 at 3:48

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