Ask HN: Any event organizers here? (Ticketing questions) | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Any event organizers here? (Ticketing questions)

1 pointdutchbrit3 comments

We are a young startup building a ticketing service. At the moment, we are researching the organizing/ticket selling side. Anyone here with experience that has time to answer a few of our questions?

- How does a your typical work week look like?

- Which apps and websites do you use the most?

- What is your role/job title within the company?

- Do you ever buy tickets for an event? And what is your general experience when doing so?

- What do you find important when purchasing and receiving tickets?

- What is your experience when it comes to choosing a ticket service?

- How does this process work?

- How long does this process usually take?

- When was the last time that you chose a ticketing service?

- What parts did you experience as pleasant in this process?

- What parts did you experience as unpleasant in this process?

- What requirements do you have when it comes to choosing a ticket service?

- Why is it important for you to find a ticket service?

- What is the hardest part when it comes to finding a ticket service?

- Do you do anything to make it easier when it comes to finding a ticketing service?

- Which ticket services have you used?

- Did you pay for these services?

- Which payment agreements are there (per ticket, fee, subscription form)? What is your preference?

- What makes you ultimately make your choice when it comes to ticketing services?

- How did you hear about the services that you used?

- What do you dislike about these services?

- Are you looking for an alternative service?

I run an event every year. I wrote my own booking system having found that every system I'd ever used was, to put it bluntly, confusing, obnoxious, vile, and made me want to take a shower. I'm being somewhat unfair, I know, but I just hate using existing ticketing systems. If you're building one that I'd be happy using then I hope you take over the world.

But I can't tell you specifically what I hate so much about other systems, because it's all very nebulous. And I am most definitely not a usual customer for using a ticketing site. There are several roles in this space that you will need to identify, isolate, characterise, and then decide how much you want to please them. Would you mind if your system becomes the system of choice for event organisers, but that event goers curse you at every stage of the process?

So you're welcome to email me, but I strongly advise the following:

* Don't ask too many questions all at once;

* Make your questions short, sharp, simple, and easy to snap off an answer to;

* Think hard about what two questions really matter to you;

* Don't think of my as a typical anything -- evaluate what I say. I won't lie, but I might not be creating a truthful view of your market.

Thanks for your feedback, and I agree I might have been a bit too overwhelming with the questions! Regarding your email / username instruction in your profile, do you mean replacing HN with your username appended with a 1?

Re: "Would you mind if your system becomes the system of choice for event organisers, but that event goers curse you at every stage of the process?" - ideally, we would have both! :)

> Thanks for your feedback, and I agree I might have been a bit too overwhelming with the questions!

Getting feedback is hard - but as with writing software, putting yourself in the position of the other person is crucial. If you can't do it yourself you need to find someone who can critically and honestly play that role.

If you saw a list of questions like that, would you keep reading after the first two?

> Regarding your email / username instruction in your profile, do you mean replacing HN with your username appended with a 1?

Make a choice and go with it.

>> Would you mind if your system becomes the system of choice for event organisers, but that event goers curse you at every stage of the process?

> Ideally, we would have both! :)

You usually don't have the luxury of getting everything, and hence need to make hard choices. What are your criteria and guidelines for doing so?

I remember in the middle of a company buyout having long discussions about the relative merits and drawbacks of two options. After a while my glance fell on the poster on the wall that proudly proclaimed our company's mission statement, a remnant of the out-going management, and something we'd agreed we obviously true and utterly vacuous. But in truth, it made one of the options impossible - the choice was made for us.

What are your policies? What do you use to guide your decision-making process?

These are rhetorical questions to make you think, they don't need answers here.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com