Work In Progress, Part 10 🚧

This is the latest in a series of posts explaining the decisions we make that affect our users, as well as the results of those decisions (positive or negative).

In March, we announced that Dribbble was pivoting from an advertising-supported community to a revenue-sharing marketplace. This business model transformation began last September, when we introduced basic transactional features, allowing clients to request work and make payments, and designers to deliver work and receive payouts.

Over the past fifteen years, designers have generated millions of leads – billions of dollars of opportunity – through Dribbble. However, until recently, we didn’t share in the revenue produced by these leads, which inevitably diverted our resources away from increasing lead flow and toward other monetization activities.

By aligning our incentives with those of our designers, we can concentrate our resources on helping designers generate and convert more leads. The more designers earn, the more resources we have to improve the user experience, generate high-intent website traffic, and further increase their revenue – and ours.

Read more about this decision and the reasons for our new Terms of Service, which require clients and designers who meet on Dribbble to keep payments on Dribbble.

In just six weeks, there’s been a step-function increase in transaction activity on Dribbble.

Orders (paid transactions for services) increased by 115% from February to April.

Clients (distinct users who purchased services) increased by 102% from February to April.

Designers (distinct users whose services were purchased) increased by 108% from February to April.

GMV (the total value of transactions processed through the platform) increased by 80% from February to April.

 

Since we introduced the new Terms of Service in Week 12, every stage of the conversion funnel has improved markedly:

• Average response time by a designer to a Project Request has decreased by 55%, meaning clients now hear back from designers more than twice as fast as before.
• Average time between a designer receiving a Project Request and sending a Project Proposal has decreased by 66%, meaning clients now receive designers’ proposals three times as fast as before.
• Average number of Project Proposals sent each week has increased by 102%.
• Average time between a designer receiving a Project Request and having their Project Proposal accepted has decreased by 69%, meaning designers are now converting their leads three times as fast as before.
• Conversion rate has increased by 145%.

 

During that period, more designers have also taken the necessary steps to begin earning on Dribbble:

• The number of designers who have set up a payout method – a prerequisite to offering a Service or sending a Project Proposal to a client – has increased by 47%.
• The number of designers who have sent their first Project Proposal has increased by 37%.
• The number of designers who have published a Service has increased by 57%.

 

Finally, the waitlist for our designer advertising products (such as Promoted Designers and Promoted Services) has increased by more than 10x.

That said, our announcement of the new Terms of Service (and specifically, the non-disintermediation policy) did provoke loud objections on social media, with many comments to the effect of “I’m deleting my account,” “I’m cancelling my Pro subscription,” and the evergreen “Dribbble is dead.”

Fortunately, the actual business impact of these negative reactions was microscopic – if not nonexistent:

• We retained 99.99% of registered users we had the morning of the announcement, including 99.94% of approved designers, 99.50% of our top 500-ranked designers, and 100% of our top 300-ranked designers.
• We added 76 new users for every one user that deleted their account.
• New User growth accelerated to 26% Y/Y since Week 12, compared to 15% Y/Y from Weeks 1 through 11.
• Pro subscriber churn decreased by 7% since Week 12, compared to Weeks 1 through 11.

To reconcile this data (as well as the increased transaction activity) with the negativity on social media, it’s important to recall that Dribbble delivers millions of dollars in opportunity to designers every week. For most designers – even the most averse to change – shutting down that lead source wouldn’t be constructive.

That doesn’t mean, however, that every user has adapted their workflow to our new Terms of Service. Since Week 12, despite our non-disintermediation policy (and its penalties), 10% of clients who sent a Project Request and 13% of designers who received one have subsequently attempted to move the transaction off-platform – typically using Telegram, WhatsApp, or email. This has resulted in suspensions – many of them permanent – which is unfortunate but necessary, because in the long run, disintermediation reduces revenue for both Dribbble and designers.

Despite our conviction in the strategy, it hasn’t gone unnoticed that designers we know and care about remain skeptical of the very changes that ensure we can continue, in perpetuity, fulfilling our mission to help professional designers earn a living doing work they take pride in.

Below I share some of the specific objections designers have raised to our non-disintermediation policy, and my thoughts.

“Dribbble was meant to be a community, not a marketplace.”

I agree that we’re taking a very transactional approach to this platform – one that departs from the vision for Dribbble when it was founded as an invite-only community in 2009. However, I believe that for at least the better part of the past decade, the reason most designers share their work on Dribbble is to land client work. We needed to adopt a business model that reflects that and allows us to concentrate all our resources on increasing lead flow to designers.

For those designers who come to find inspiration, get feedback, and talk shop with peers: it remains completely free to upload design work, browse others’ work, and send messages, and we’ll continue to support every social networking feature we’ve previously offered. Designers aren’t required to set their account to “available for work” (which is how they appear in Designer Search) or to offer a Service. Moreover, much of the product work we have planned will improve the search experience for inspiration-seekers just as much as for clients seeking design services.

“I do want clients but I don’t want to participate in an online marketplace” or “I do want clients but transacting through Dribbble is incompatible with my existing workflow.”

In either case, for designers who rely on Dribbble for lead flow but don’t want to transact in our marketplace (or any marketplace), we offer Designer Advertising solutions that enable them to generate more leads on Dribbble and communicate and transact on or off the platform. Unlike pure-play marketplaces (for example, Upwork), designers on Dribbble do have the option of transacting off-platform – but they pay upfront for their lead flow. In other words, designers can receive leads for free and transact on Dribbble, or advertise and transact on or off Dribbble as they please. The only scenario we don’t accommodate is generating leads for free on Dribbble and then transacting off-platform.

“I do want clients from Dribbble, but Dribbble is missing the functionality I need to transact on the platform.”

We’re releasing new features at a rapid pace (and I share more below about the latest functionality), but the reality is we’re not going to replicate the functionality Upwork or other incumbents offer overnight – and I don’t believe that’s a necessary standard to meet before prohibiting disintermediation. Which is, again, the reason we developed advertising solutions that enable designers to have their cake and eat it too: generate leads on Dribbble while maintaining their existing workflow.

That said, while we do have a long backlog of work to get through, the foundational pieces are in place, and clients and designers have multiple ways to communicate through the platform, make payments, and receive payouts. We’re always working to reduce friction and improve the experience – but transactions of all types and sizes already happen every day on Dribbble.

“I’m not on Dribbble for client work, so I shouldn’t be subject to the non-disintermediation policy.”

I’ve heard from several designers who aren’t on Dribbble to find client work but use their Dribbble content to send traffic to other websites where they sell products (for example, their Threadless shop). Since they’re not taking on freelance design work – and therefore not circumventing transaction fees – these users have suggested they shouldn’t be subject to the non-disintermediation policy. However, uploading content to Dribbble to generate referral traffic to products or services sold elsewhere is, functionally, advertising (no different from what global brands like Adobe and Envato do on Dribbble), and we offer robust advertising solutions. As I mentioned earlier, if a user wants to monetize Dribbble traffic, we either share in that revenue or charge for advertising.

“I already pay for a Pro subscription, so I shouldn’t be subject to the non-disintermediation policy.”

The benefits of Dribbble Pro are the same as they were before we updated our Terms of Service: subscribers rank higher in search to generate more leads, have advanced features to convert those leads, and don’t pay fees on any transactions made through the platform. We believe this is a compelling value proposition – even more so at $8/month – but if a designer wants these benefits and the ability to communicate and transact off-platform, they should explore our Designer Advertising solutions.

We’ve spent the six weeks since the announcement much like the six months preceding it - incrementally improving the user experience to maximize the number of users searching, interacting, and transacting through the platform. Recent releases include the following:

 

1) A designer’s rating as a service provider is now displayed in Designer Search results, helping clients identify those most likely to deliver great work and customer service.

In addition to a designer’s star rating (provided by the clients they’ve worked with), we also display their number of completed projects. A designer’s reputation on Dribbble is already factored into their search rankings, helping generate more leads, and now also helps convert those leads: prospective clients are more likely to work with a designer who has an established reputation. Designers can also import ratings from external sources to be incorporated into their Dribbble reputation (all submissions are manually reviewed to confirm authenticity). Learn more here.

 

2) Clients and designers can now schedule video calls to clarify requirements, set expectations, and share feedback (before or after a project has been funded).

Scheduling was a much-requested follow-up to the videoconferencing feature we introduced in February. Since releasing the scheduling feature, the number of users initiating video calls each week has increased by 350%, with 82% of calls now scheduled in advance. Learn more here.

 

3) Users now receive helpful inline notifications in their message threads that share best practices for working on Dribbble.

Many users aren’t yet familiar with all the transactional features Dribbble offers, which hinders conversion and contributes to disintermediation. To help clients and designers transact through the platform, we’ve introduced inline notifications that highlight key features and share relevant information. Additionally, users can now live chat with Customer Support to resolve any issues that arise before, during, or after a transaction.

 

4) Designers can now add a Kickoff Payment to their Project Proposal in order to receive partial payment in advance.

This is a follow-up to the (very popular) Milestones feature we released in February, which enabled designers to configure their Project Proposals and Services to deliver work in phases, and receive payouts incrementally as each phase of their project is completed. While the first iteration of Milestones did allow designers to receive a payment before beginning work, it involved additional communication and coordination with the client. The Kickoff Payment feature makes this much simpler for both client and designer. Learn more here.

 

5) Clients can now pay for design services using their bank account, minimizing their payment processing costs.

In addition to credit cards, Google Pay, and crypto, US-based clients can now pay via ACH - ideal for large or recurring transactions (ACH payments incur only a 0.8% processing fee, capped at $6.50). Learn more here.

 

6) Search relevance has improved across Designer Search, Service Search, and Shot Search.

We continue to rigorously A/B test each ranking algorithm, steadily increasing user engagement with search results. In April, we also released dynamic re-ranking, which uses machine learning to reorder top search results for specific queries based on real-time user interactions, such as clicks or conversions. Finally, we introduced Autocomplete to help users construct more effective search queries.  

April’s releases bring us a few steps closer to delivering a best-in-class user experience.

May is going to be another busy month with work already underway to optimize each stage of the conversion funnel. We’re also improving the user experience for clients seeking designers for ongoing engagements, and introducing new lead generation opportunities for designers. More to come soon!