Bookclub: BADASS - The Challenge

BADASS_The_Challenge.md

BADASS - Making Users Awesome - Kathy Sierra

The Challenge

Prologue

• User want to be awesome
• Awesome product has to make the user awesome

They don't say they like the product because they like the product, they say because they like themselves.

• This product is amazing. You should see what it does...
• I am amazing. You should see what I can do with it...

WoM (Word of Mouth)

Word of mouth (WoM) as a key to our formula.

Users don't evangelize to their friends beacause they like the product, they evangelize to their friends because they like their friends.

What's your bigger compelling context? -> What are you a subset of?

People want to be badass at that "Compelling Context". Nobody wants to be a tripod master, they want to make amazing videos.

Badass is about more than just results

• Badass means higher resolution
• Badass means deeper, richer experiences

The better you get at [x], the more detail you perceive in [x].

Greater detail is one of the most overlooked benefits of being better. To the human (and animal) brain, the ability to "pick-up" more from the environment is deeply rewarding.

Don't just upgrade your product, upgrade your users.

WOFO (Word OF Obvious)

Badass users talk. They can't help it. But sometimes they don't need to talk about their amazing capabilities and results.

Soemtimes it's obvious.

Word OF Obvious (WOFO)
is even better than
Word Of Mouth (WoM)

More badass means more business

We want word of mouth and word of obvious. We want our users to become better and better at the bigger context, and help encourage others to do the same

Camera's lenses, for example

Takeaways

Don't make a better [x], make a better [user of x].

e.g., Don't make a better camera, make a better photographer

---

Think Badass

Point of view is worth 80 IQ points

-- Alan Kay

POV(Point of view): To create sustained success, create high-resolution, badass users

Design for the Post-UX UX

• UX: While using a camera
• Post-UX: Seeing likes or comments on your photo/video

Designing for the post-UX UX

Not just for your users but for their users, such as their family, friends

How can we help our user ?

e.g.,

When you think: How can we get more social media followers?

Then think: How can we help our user get more social media followers?

Thought Experiment

"Our users are better at this than their users"

How your users compare to the competition's users

Takeaways

How can we craete an influencer from a person who is active in our target audience?

---

The User Journey

The User Curve

Ideal Curve: up and to the right

e.g., fictional entry-level camera maker

Two Curves

There are two curves:

1. Camera skills (super easy to use. AUTO mode) (Tool)
2. Photography skills (no support for helping users improve their photography) (Compelling Context)

Both curves are plotted on a graph (Ability x Time)

It's easy to gain ability of camera skills in a short term. However, it's not easy to gain ability of photography skills.

Key Thresholds

There are two thresholds:

1. Suck Threshold

• between I hate this and I can do the basics

2. Badass Threshold

• between I'm advanced and I kick ass

• In the suck zone, we tend to lose users. What makes user feel they're in the zone?

• Upgrading might make users going back to the such zone.

• The stuck zone is between Suck and Badass Thresholds. When moving forward in time but not up in ability. e.g., Keep taking photos in AUTO

Thought Experiment

What's the equivalent of AUTO mode for your users?

Think about the context subset you can enable by making entry-level tools. It makes users getting past the suck zone.

What's the entry-level tools? And what are the others?