Kurzgesagt
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Big Update, the state of Kurzgesagt
🕑 Added 2017-09-05 13:03:17 +0000 UTC Hey everybody.So in June I did a post saying that I was pretty unhappy with how things were going and that we needed to work on our process and improve ourselves. Time for an update.
We improved our productivity something between 50% and 100% (depending on metric, department etc). In less than three months. Without working more hours. If anything working got less stressful than before. I’m honestly kind of in shock how well this went down and insanely proud of my team.
This is why we declared to publish two videos a month. Because we can do it now without killing ourselves in the process. I don’t want to promise that this will stay like that forever but at least right now it seems that we will be able to keep this going for the rest of the year.
So how did we do it? We updated our processes. Kurzgesagt did start out as a one man team and stayed like that for one year. In the second year we were two people. By the end of year three we were seven. Now, by the end of year four we were sixteen and we are planning to hire three more.
It was mostly a failure on my part that we didn’t update our processes that much while growing to this size. For the longest time I was violently opposed to change because, you know, Kurzgesagt is very personal to me. My baby and all. Changing things felt like losing the magic of the early days. But this only held us back and made day to day work frustrating.
So we changed how we communicate with each other, we set weekly goals but most importantly, we gave ourselves strict limitations.
Before that we had worked ourselves into a corner. Without limitations we were never finished. As we got better and better this got more and more extreme. The pressure rose while you never felt like you really got something done. In the end we worked absurd hours on details that did not improve the final product.
Self set limitations are giving us an objective way to measure if we achieved something. So for example I set myself a 6300 character limit for new scripts. I have finished more scripts since June than in the whole rest of the year. This does not mean that all of our scripts are the same length now (they are not) but if I go beyond 6300 characters I now need a very good reason for it.
Kurzgesagt was never as much fun it is right now. Things feel dynamic and creative and free. You guys are extremely important in enabling all of this, without Patreon we more or less would need to shrink the team by 40% immediately.
With our new system so many new possibilities are opening up and I’m really super excited of how things will develop next year. I hope we can keep this up and expand Kurzgesagt slowly and in a healthy way, into something that will last for a while and produce a lot of stuff for many to enjoy. -Philipp
TLDR: We changed things. It worked. Much more content in the foreseeable future.
PS: Basic Income Script is almost done. Late fall/early winter release (yes, for real this time)
PPS: We are working on a behind the scenes video. No schedule yet. Late this year or early next year.
Comments
Daniel
Basic Income Script?
mathew
oo i am excited for the behind the scenes video. i work in aftereffects for work and though i don't know a lot about illustrator i can make simple things. i would love to see your work flow and all that.
Bravo.
JAYTEE
Well done. Change is hard, I'm so glad it worked out for the best
I just can't wait to see the Basic Income video! It's really cooking right now and I'm very excited. =)
Scott Santens
Congrats on the efficiency increase! And cheers on the basic income script. ;)
Very excited to see the basic income video, if you need more information on UBI please do check out <a href="http://UBI.EARTH" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://UBI.EARTH</a> and the resource for advocates : <a href="http://list.ly/ubiadvocates/lists" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://list.ly/ubiadvocates/lists</a> - specifically, the top misconceptions : <a href="https://list.ly/list/1S4y-common-ubi-misconceptions" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://list.ly/list/1S4y-common-ubi-misconceptions</a> - and links directly to study PDF's : <a href="https://list.ly/list/1RdG-ubi-research-links-universal-basic-income-evidence" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://list.ly/list/1RdG-ubi-research-links-universal-basic-income-evidence</a> (also see UBImovement.com)
Great news. Everybody wins!
Gareth Ross - Buildmedia
A 2 video per month goal is impressive. Keep up the incredible work.
Mauricio Andrian
Awesome news!!! I hope all your dreams as a company and as individuals, come true. Your content is the best a curious mind can find. Keep up the good work and be happy living this unique life you all were given.
The sky is the limit for you guys! Can you do an episode on 'crypto's' and/or 'the blockchain' and how it's going to change the world? Speaking of, I donated about 300 AMPs to you guys on wildspark.me because I love you so much ;)
Abhijit Chanda
Bravo! Keep.rocking on!
Gaëtan Perrault
You should do a video about how you became more productive ;)
Steven Brunwasser
I challenge you to write a script using only the longest words possible! lol 😊 I'm really glad you found a process that works for you. Don't sweat it if you aren't able to keep your twice-a-month goal. As long as you're happy and doing what you love for love's sake, I'll be there supporting you, consuming all the content you create 🙂
Make a video about this :)
AMAAAAAZING!!! I watch these vids at bedtime with my six year old Amélie and she loves them so much she's started to call me the V-I-D Man. She's going to be so chuffed about this. Thanks Kurgestadtgk...
Good jobby
Youlia Hadzhidimova
Well, the perfect is the enemy of the good (where "good" means it gets done within a puny human lifetime, so that makes it pretty great actually). I am happy for you guys, it's great that your work is less frustrating and more fun for you. I just wanted to also tell you that all your effort and time spent on details was noticed and appreciated. It's better to be more efficient but also know that your time was not wasted on those details but spent on them.
Razvan Caliman
Glad things are working out for you and the team! Thanks for keeping up the great story and video quality and for respecting yourselves in the process. We need you healthy and happy! :)
Sally Ferguson
Wonderful news,, for you and for us!
Great news! and well done! it takes guts to take a good, hard, constructive look at your own work and question everything you do! Thanks for everything and keep up the great work!!
No! I need my existential crisis after watching a kurzgesagt video it means that they are breaking knowledge walls in me 😝
Looking forward to seeing the new videos. Pretty interested in the behind the scenes video 🙂
Kaine
Keep up the great work! The informative colorful animations FILLED with existential DREAD are a highlight to my days 😊 Yours are one of the few shows I make a point to actively watch, andnot to background listen to, bc you put so much into each scene 😍 Keep up the great work!!
Vritant Bhardwaj
That sounds great. If the team has a good state of mind, maybe fewer videos will lead to an existential crisis :P Absolutely cannot wait for the basic income video.
