Creating Passionate Users
http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/
Tuesday February 20th, 2007
1.0
What tail is wagging the "user happiness" dog?
From Creating Passionate Users, 1 year ago,
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March, 2002: I was in a Quality Review Board meeting at Sun, shortly after our division went Six Sigma. I started listing solution ideas for some big customer problems in my area. The woman running the meeting said, "Oh, we...
Thursday February 15th, 2007
5.3
The real secret to a successful blog/book/business...
From Creating Passionate Users, 1 year ago,
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For the last three years, Bert and I have tried to explain the "secret" to the success of the Head First books. We've tried to explain the "secret" to how a little non-news, non-scandal blog could land in the Technorati...
Wednesday February 14th, 2007
1.0
How much control should our users have?
From Creating Passionate Users, 1 year ago,
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We all know Featuritis is bad, but what about User Control? Is more always better? The notion that a user-centric focus means putting users in control of everything--their software (and other tools), their learning, their conferences, the companies they support...
Monday February 12th, 2007
2.7
Marketing should be education, education should be marketing
From Creating Passionate Users, 1 year ago,
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Do you want passionate users? Educate them. Do you want passionate learners? Sell them. If ever there were two groups who ought to trade places--and especially research -- it's teachers and marketers. Our mantra here is, "Where there is passion,...
Friday February 9th, 2007
1.0
Can you help? I need web/personal stories
From Creating Passionate Users, 1 year ago,
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While I try to have at least 90% of this blog's content be something useful for you, sometimes I need your help. Like now. I'm looking for stories, photos, statistics, and--if possible--video clips, along with the permission to use them...
Wednesday February 7th, 2007
6.1
Don't ask employees to be passionate about the company!
From Creating Passionate Users, 1 year ago,
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People ask me, "How can I get our employees to be passionate about the company?" Wrong question. Passion for our employer, manager, current job? Irrelevant. Passion for our profession and the kind of work we do? Crucial. If I own...
Tuesday February 6th, 2007
2.1
Inspiring your user-evangelists
From Creating Passionate Users, 1 year ago,
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In the past 30 days, did you enthusiastically recommended something--anything--to someone else? Maybe it was a new restaurant, web app, game, sport, note pad, band, indie film, car, micro-brew, lotion, operating system, environmental cause, dog food, or pillow. Chances are,...
Monday February 5th, 2007
1.0
Sunday Random Bits & more creativity on speed
From Creating Passionate Users, 1 year ago,
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It's not too late to get in on: record an album in 28 days, the RPM'07 Challenge. You've got until the end of the month to do 10 songs or 35 minutes of original material. It shares the philosophy of...
Saturday February 3rd, 2007
1.8
Difference between Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates?
From Creating Passionate Users, 1 year ago,
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I've given presentations on "creating passionate users" at both Amazon and Microsoft. 2 big companies, 2 CEOs. Guess which CEO has been to the talk? And he didn't just sit there, he participated. His hand shot up when I asked...
Thursday February 1st, 2007
7.2
Getting/Staying Organized: my Moleskine PDA
From Creating Passionate Users, 1 year ago,
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Organization comes unnaturally to me. I've experimented with almost everything, both electronic (Palm Pilot, various software apps), and plain old paper. So far, the one that's helped me the most is my low-tech, high-use Moleskine PDA. Supplies include a pen,...
Tuesday January 30th, 2007
Add a little more random to your product
From Creating Passionate Users, 1 year ago,
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You know the feeling: You follow a near-random trail of blog links and land on the post that solves your big business problem. You randomly flip through a physics book and find next week's sermon. You're shopping for discount dog...
Let them do the thing everyone else tells them not to
From Creating Passionate Users, 1 year ago,
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This sign at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Syndey, Australia took me by surprise. So many signs tell us what we can't do, and it's delightful to see the opposite. We need more of this. And I love the, "Entry...
Monday January 29th, 2007
Sensemaking 4: Summary of your comments
From Creating Passionate Users, 1 year ago,
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Wow! That was my first thought about reading everyone’s comments on the sensemaking posts. So many thoughtful comments that it’ll be hard to address everyone. But the collection made for some very interesting reading. So first, a big thank you...
Thursday January 25th, 2007
Sensemaking 3:The search for a representation
From Creating Passionate Users, 1 year ago,
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I promised a story about a sensemaking episode from my work, and here’s one. It’s a bit long, but I think you’ll find it amusing. It’s really a voyage of discovery as I try to figure out how to make...
Wednesday January 24th, 2007
Sensemaking 2: What I do to make sense
From Creating Passionate Users, 1 year ago,
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I’m a professional research scientist. Research is what I do day in, day out. So what I do for sensemaking might not be what you do at all, or it might be really relevant. I don’t know. But I do...