Creator Crowdfunding Product Discovery (YouTube)
Role: Product Research Lead (Strategic Partner Manager, CEE)
Focus: Creator Monetization · Product Discovery · Playbooks & Tooling
In 2016, I led a hypothesis-driven discovery on creator crowdfunding at YouTube, combining SQL data mining with market and qualitative research. The work revealed fast-growing but fragmented adoption across regions and funding models: creators valued crowdfunding but lacked guidance and struggled to integrate YouTube into campaigns. I built an adoption dashboard, authored internal playbooks (22 languages), and co-designed a Creator Academy course (20 languages). The findings informed YouTube's approach to localized fan funding and later features such as Channel Memberships.
Problem / Opportunity
In 2016, YouTube monetization was ad-centric and largely outside creator control. Crowdfunding was emerging as a promising revenue stream for creators seeking to diversify beyond ads, but YouTube's limited pilots—Tip Jar and Gaming Sponsorships—were narrow in scope and geography.
Some creators began organically linking off-platform crowdfunding campaigns to YouTube using info cards and in-video CTAs, revealing both interest and friction. Meanwhile, market research signaled rapid growth:
Predicted CAGR 2016-2020 (Global Crowdfunding Market)
Increase in funds raised by Indiegogo over 2 years (Indiegogo)
The gap: YouTube lacked visibility into third-party crowdfunding adoption, model fit, and creator pain points—limiting its ability to offer guidance or build native solutions.
Product Discovery
I structured this as a hypothesis-driven discovery, combining quantitative and qualitative research to understand creator behavior, identify best practices, and outline product directions.
Hypotheses
- H1: Crowdfunding is not yet widely used by YouTube creators, except for Patreon
- H2: Platform-specific designs make it difficult for YouTube to offer neutral guidance
- H3: Limited adoption stems from lack of knowledge and disjointed workflows
Data Collection
Internal Data Analysis (SQL)
Since YouTube lacked direct tracking for external crowdfunding, I built a proxy dataset by querying internal tables to identify channels linking to ~50 approved platforms. I segmented by country, vertical, and tier, and ran QoQ/YoY trend analyses to quantify adoption velocity.
Market Landscape Analysis
I analyzed all ~50 approved crowdfunding platforms, mapping regional focus, language support, funding models, and creator fit. I also benchmarked metrics like funds raised, success rates, and monthly visits.
Best Practices & Friction Points
I analyzed campaign best practices and mapped creator friction points through existing research and interviews with creators and partner managers.
Key Findings
H1: Partially Rejected
While Patreon was popular among English-speaking creators, adoption was highly fragmented and localized. Tipeee dominated in France, Makuake in Japan, Catarse in Brazil. Crowdfunding grew rapidly (2-4× YoY) across tiers and markets, except where local options were scarce (Russia, MENA).
H2: Rejected
Regardless of platform, successful campaigns centered on community, clarity of purpose, and meaningful rewards. Common patterns: promo videos, tiered rewards, clear promotional strategies on and off YouTube.
H3: Supported
Creators valued crowdfunding and wanted to diversify beyond ads. However, many didn't know where to start or struggled with campaign setup, promotion, and fulfillment (especially physical rewards).
Impact
Adoption Dashboard
I built an internal tool for partnerships and research teams to track crowdfunding adoption by country, vertical, tier, and platform. The dashboard became essential for prioritizing creator outreach and conducting follow-up research.
Multilingual Education & Playbooks
I transformed insights into scalable resources:
- Creator-facing: Co-designed a Crowdfunding course for YouTube Creator Academy (20 languages)
- Team-facing: Authored internal playbooks and global partnerships toolkits (22 languages) for product and partnerships teams
Product Strategy Impact
The research repositioned crowdfunding as a legitimate, creator-controlled revenue stream within YouTube's monetization strategy. I recommended that future native solutions should:
- Support multiple crowdfunding types (recurring, one-off, charity)
- Include lifecycle support from pre-campaign to fulfillment
- Integrate tiers, rewards, ticketing, and merch
These insights contributed to the product thinking behind later features, notably the evolution of Sponsorships into Channel Memberships.
Constraints
- Limited analytical support: In the absence of dedicated analytical support and any direct off-platform tracking, I learned SQL and built proxy datasets using creator links to third-party platforms
- Platform neutrality: YouTube couldn't officially endorse specific platforms, requiring all materials to remain vendor-agnostic while still offering actionable guidance
- Emerging space: Crowdfunding was relatively new to many stakeholders, requiring extensive education and narrative-building to gain buy-in