How to Create Passionate Users (SXSW)

Also standing room only, this session led by Kathy Sierra of Wickedly Smart (check out her wickedly smart blog) was the best of the conference so far.  Sidestepping all of the in depth theoretical discussions about identity or the technical grok about AJAX or Microformats, Kathy taught an hour long session about how to create really good products.  Some of the key takeaways:

- No one is passionate about something they suck at, so make sure you give people the ability to do something cool with what you are offering and enable them to kick ass.

- How do you enable ass kicking?  1) Create examples of what expertise looks like, 2) Create obvious steps/levels for people to achieve to work their way to expertise

- How do you keep people’s interest?  1) Enable ability to kick ass, 2) Create a payoff once you reach each level

Ok, so I guess this seems like a "guess you need to have been there" description, but the presentation was really good.  So, in summary, check out Kathy’s blog on the topic.

Technorati tags: SXSW, SXSWi, SXSWi06, SXSW06, product, , marketing

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