jovoto turned 10 just a little over a year ago and our founder, Bastian Unterberg, wrote an open letter to our community and clients. He reflected on jovoto’s journey since its founding and the challenges and changes ahead. We have been working hard on the vision he laid out. We have transitioned from running primarily Open and Pro Projects, to mostly Invite Projects. Skilled creatives fill our talent pools, from which we select the right participants for every Invite Project on our platform. Here, we want to share more details about what this means for you as a creative working with jovoto.
Our Two Project Types
Invite Projects
Invite Projects are for creatives who have verified skills and have been individually selected by experts for a specific task from a pool of eligible talent. Every creative that participates in an Invite Project earns a guaranteed, fixed payment (plus potential additional awards). Every single idea submitted to an Invite Project can be used by the client, either as-is or to build upon. By default, this approach ensures fair and reliable payment for all creatives working in Invite Projects, while providing the client with exceptional ideas. It’s a Win-Win!
A small update on Invite Projects:
In the past, some Invite Projects had what we called “refinement phases”. In these phases, we asked the creatives that delivered the top ideas to make additional changes to their submissions, based on the client’s feedback. This is now part of the standard project setup and can be asked for by the client whenever they want to use an idea as-is but require some minor adjustments before it can actually be published or used. We will get in touch with you directly if one of your ideas is picked for this kind of post-project adjustment. And, of course, you will receive an additional payment for this extra work.
Open Projects
Open Projects – also known as Crowdstorms™ – are for everyone, no matter your skill level or experience. Anyone with a creative mind can sign up to jovoto and submit their ideas, innovate, collaborate, offer feedback, and rate others’ ideas for the chance to earn awards. An Open Project is like a big brainstorming session on a global scale.
A small update on Open Projects:
Open Projects no longer have a predefined amount of ideas that will be licensed by the client. We have had mixed experiences with a pre-defined number of required licenses in the past and have decided to remove this from our process. While the client can still license ideas, instead of guaranteed license fee payments, we will focus on finding the right balance of community and client awards to ensure fairness while also delivering great results to the client.
Talent Pools & Verified Skills
Bastian’s vision for jovoto – to provide creative professionals with alternative career opportunities that allow them to use their skills in a flexible but financially-reliable way – is becoming a reality. Running more Invite Projects means more creatives can take advantage of the opportunities on jovoto. In order to be able to connect the right talent with the right projects and to get an overview of your skill level, we have curated extensive talent pools over the course of the last year. This enables us to make sure that creatives are part of projects that match their skills, while also making sure that new creatives with fresh ideas get their fair chance to prove themselves.
Every member of the jovoto community is welcome to apply to have their skills verified in order to become a part of our talent pools. All you need to do is submit relevant work samples and your application will be reviewed by skill experts. If your skills meet or exceed the required level, you’ll receive verification and are automatically added to the corresponding talent pool. Once you’re in the talent pool, you will be considered for new projects that require your verified skills.
These changes have translated to some new and exciting features on the jovoto platform. Read on to learn more!
Important Feature Updates
Verified Skills replace Pro Skills – Verified Skills are symbolized by a checkmark in the upper right corner of the skill listed on your profile. Once your skill has been verified you are part of that talent pool and can be invited to projects that require your verified skills. If you applied and were accepted to one of our Talent Pools in the last year, you will automatically receive the respective verified skills on the platform. You can, of course, upload additional work samples in order to get verified in even more skills.
The portfolio upload page now serves as the place to share work samples with us that you want to apply for skill verification with. You are also still able to upload portfolio work on your jovoto profile to showcase it to other creatives.
Pro tags are a thing of the past now and have been removed from your profile since they no longer serve a function. If you have received a pro tag in the past for one of the skills now on our predefined list but have not applied to a talent pool yet, you will temporarily receive the respective verified skill. This means that you will have three months to upload work samples to your portfolio and apply for skill verification. After three months, the temporary verifications will be removed.
These changes will allow us to better track and review everyone’s project performance. Also, as you develop and improve your skills this will be acknowledged and reflected over time. This means you will be able to improve your skills by delivering great work.
Lastly…
You can expect to hear more about what is happening at jovoto, news about our community, as well as an open dialogue between creatives and the team at jovoto committed to keeping our community happy! If you have any questions, feedback, comments or concerns about these changes or jovoto in general, get in touch with us via our Community Forum.