Did Fiverr Listen? Levi Newman’s Fiverr Meeting

Today (Wednesday 21 February) at 9:00AM EST, Levi Newman, a prominent voice in the Fiverr community, sat down for a 1-hour meeting with members of Fiverr’s leadership to discuss the grievances of the selling community.

Newman went into the meeting with low expectations, anticipating the usual corporate platitudes. However, what transpired marked a potential turning point for the community, leaving Newman – and others in the wider community – with renewed hope.

Click here to skip the post and read Newman’s meeting notes first. They’re very long, so this post is a little back-to-front in that respect.

If you haven’t been keeping up-to-date with the Product Release or simply need a refresher before jumping into the story of Newman’s meeting with Fiverr, here’s all the latest:

It has been a dramatic week with a turnaround that nobody in the selling community really expected. Reading between the lines – and the actual lines! – of Newman’s update, there are some very encouraging signs for the future development of seller relations from the freelance platform. It’s been a rocky week for everyone, but Fiverr might have just swung things around. The question is whether the freelance platform will honor its commitments.

TL;DR: The Showdown Meeting of the Year Was A Success

Newman emphasized that his meeting with Fiverr staff was notably different from his previous meetings. He praised their active and attentive listening, the strong engagement with his points, and what he perceived as a a genuine willingness to understand the frustrations of sellers.

Present were two key members of Fiverr leadership. While the CEO was not present, it was made clear that he was very much a part of the ongoing meetings and discussions about the changes (side-note: his absence may be partially explained by Fiverr’s Q4 2024 results, scheduled to come out tomorrow).

It’s a happy change of pace from the recent narrative of frustration and betrayal that has marked much of the past week – and there’s a genuine hope that Fiverr is listening and will make meaningful improvements moving forward. For all Newman’s ire when he went in, it’s clear that his meeting with Fiverr went a long way to restoring his confidence in the platform.

So, what were the talking points?

While none of the following points are set in stone and Newman wasn’t able to share full details of his meeting, here are some of the potential changes that may be coming to the platform’s freelancers in the near future. It may have been largely forgotten in all the drama, but Fiverr promised not one, but two product releases in 2024!

The Fiverr Revision Button May Finally Be Grayed Out

Sellers have long complained about Fiverr’s revisions button. It’s a small thing, but one that has caused endless aggravation over the years. While sellers can limit their revisions, buyers can click the revisions button an unlimited amount of times to keep an order open – and sellers on a long and mean hook.

While Fiverr didn’t confirm that they would be graying out the revision button, Newman stated that they seemed “genuinely ready to put this on the proverbial discussion board”. Sellers can only live in hope that one day, the review button will finally work the way it always should have done.

More Lenient Evaluations for TRS and Pro Sellers

Fiverr confirmed that under the new system, TRS and Pro sellers are evaluated by more lenient criteria than lower level sellers. Although Newman didn’t share what he described as “intricacies” of the rating standards, Fiverr sent out the following email to Pro and TRS sellers later on in the day, shedding some light on the company’s approach:

It was also confirmed that demotion from TRS and Pro would be done through a manual process (see email, above).

Other sellers on the post commented that this would be a relief to many of the platform’s top sellers, many of whom have high priced, but low volume sales. Their fears about being held to the same algorithm as low-price, high-volume sales were considerably eased. However, this relief is unlikely to extend to the wider community, particularly those who felt that they were on-course for TRS, only to find themselves thrown back to Level 0 in the new system with no real answers.

Potential for Seller Representation at Fiverr

The most intriguing information from Newman hinted at Fiverr’s plans to introduce some form of seller representation within Fiverr. He was unable to reveal more than this, but it’s likely that some form of a seller representative or seller representation council is on the cards. It may even be a form of seller unionization, although this may be a dream too far at this stage of the gig economy’s development.

Whatever the plans are, this is certainly a promising development in terms of seller communication. Personally, I hope that Fiverr will commit to this and become a more collaborative and equitable platform. Fiverr’s sellers are certainly key stakeholders in the company’s growth and development, and, as Bostonians famously told the British back in the day: “no taxation without representation!”

But Is Fiverr Really Listening?

Fiverr seems to have pulled out all the stops here. It has been a rough and rocky week not just for Fiverr’s long-suffering freelancers, but also for Fiverr. Faced with a wall of criticism and questions that representatives – including Success Managers, Customer Support, and Forum moderators – were unable to give clear, non-contradictory answers to, their withdrawal into the safety of webinars was wise, even if it did little to quiet the howls of outrage. After all, it’s a lot easier to stay on-message in a webinar.

Newman’s meeting has done what many sellers might have thought impossible just a few short days ago. He has calmed the storm – at least among the sellers who were able to view his messages. Fiverr’s silence, for many, was simply another example of a company that wasn’t listening.

Transparency has been one of the biggest bugbears of the community throughout the launch. Newman’s meeting might not have revealed that much in terms of juicy details, but it gave sellers what they needed: direct information from the top of the Fiverr food chain.

Fiverr’s leadership knows that it needs to be more transparent, and the mistakes of the past week have made that painfully clear. Hopefully, this meeting and its aftermath will demonstrate to them that transparency is more than words. It’s also doing. Whether the company can achieve transparent execution in the future remains to be seen.

In Doers We Trust

So Fiverr’s not very good at listening, or at least showing that it’s listening. But then again, who knows what happens behind the computer screens of other people? During his meeting, Newman observed that staff were constantly scribbling notes, and one of the staff present told him that it had ten different ways of collecting information from sellers of every level.

They even referenced points made by various sellers on the forum. We all knew they were watching and observing, but it’s good to hear that they actually heard.

Well, Fiverr. The ball is in your court now. As one of your old ad campaigns goes: In Doers We Trust.

I think this meeting was a fruitful one. Not just for Fiverr sellers seeking clarity after a week of confusion, but also for the company who, until yesterday, seemed completely and embarrassingly incapable of providing them. If Fiverr’s hints of seller representation in the future come to pass, then Fiverr may be turning an important corner in its evolution.

For my money, Newman’s is one seller who should be at – or near – to the top of the pile for consideration if that initiative ever comes to pass. He certainly has the blessings of other members of the community to do so!

Is Levi Newman Still Quitting Fiverr?

Amidst all the good news, you might think that Fiverr has managed to swing Newman – who has paid Fiverr six figures in commission to the platform over the years – back onside.

Well, not quite.

Newman is still sticking to his tentative quitting date of June 1, 2024, laying down a firm deadline for Fiverr. It’s not quite the angry gauntlet throwdown it was a couple of days ago, but it’s still a direct challenge to the freelance platform to do better and show its discontented sellers that it’s serious about its commitment to change.

Defiant Phoenix has also secured an interview with the Levi Newman which will be published sometime in the near future. We’ll also be covering the ongoing Product Release with analysis of one of the webinars, as well as today’s Fiverr Q4 2023 results from a seller’s perspective.

Levi Newman’s Full Meeting Notes

This image is very long, which is why I have placed it at the end. If you skipped to the end just to read this, you should also go back after to read Newman’s follow-up responses to questions. This is a condensed transcript of Newman’s script that he used to talk to Fiverr during the meeting and does not include the follow-up answers to questions from the community.