Kicking Ass and Creating Passionate Users
by Patrick HavensKathy Sierra took the stage and sent Matt running and then grabbed peoples attention.
The Best Reviews are when they say “I kick ass because of you.”
What did (do) you want to be really, really good at?
A person who can do something better than anyone else, can see things different.
Being Better is Better.
We tend to not be passionate about things we are not good at.
The reason people don’t like to “upgrade” because its the sense of loss… it was so hard to get there. They are losing something they “wasted” resources on.
… it’s NOT about being a “tool” expert.
Documentation Quality. Before they bought a fancy camera, everything was fancy. Once you got the camera everything was in black & white and plain.
It’d not about natural talent! There is a lot of science about how most of it is not about natural talent but rather practice. It’s not about most anything, it just comes down to putting in the time to practice.
Typical Biz Q: What problem do you solve? is weak.
The actual answermore then likely something different.
What do you help your users kick ass at?
Focus on what the user does, not on what you do.
Exercise: Don’t build a better [x], buld a better [user of x].
We are patern matching creatures: The Serendipity Curve
Add Randomness
The Dog Ears of Design Principles.
Test your stuff for “aliveness.”
Find the spark.
Easter Eggs and and “treats”.
Plenty of joke book covers
Tools for Evangalism
“My passion is awesome, yours is totally lame…”
People are predators. So the advice for “Stage Fright.” Instead visualize others are prey.
If you are asking your users to upgrade, then you need to find ways to manage the fight/flight response.
Reduce their stress
Electric Rain: User must do something cool within 30 minutes.
Make your users smarter.
Physical Exersise actually is shown to make people smarter.
Learn to do knowledge acquisition and representation.
Make your producs (or docs) reflect their feelings.
Let them off the hook - Make people feel like they suck, which make them hate you too.
Experts are the people who keep pushing and stay on the edge of their comfort zone.
“Its not secrecy- Its Theatre”
Show don’t tell. Personalize the message.
Remember this - Its about giveing users a Hi-Rez Experience.
