26
The Challenge
Prologue
Reverse-engineering Successful Users
At the core, though, there’s one key attribute of successful users
that’s driving all of the others. What is it?
Evangelize
(telling/convincing others)
Seek out/form commu-
nities of other users
Get accessories, add-
ons, T-shirts, pride items
Appreciate the value/need
for higher-end, advanced
versions
Show off
their results
Tolerate problems
Remain loyal
Resist the competition
?
what goes here?
If we look at successful users across a wide range of products,
services, hobbies, etc. we nd common attributes. The rst step
in creating successful users is to observe successful users.
How do they behave? What do they do? What do they say?
Where you nd successful users,
you nd users that are...
27
The Challenge
Prologue
Not badass products, badass users.
Not amazing apps, amazing users.
Where you nd sustained success driven by recommendations,
you nd badass users. Smarter, more skillful, more powerful
users. Users who know more and can do more in a way that’s
personally meaningful.
Users don’t evangelize to their friends because they like the
product, they evangelize to their friends because they like
their friends.
Successful users means badass users
(inspired by a quote from Mike Arauz)
Evangelize
(telling/convincing others)
Seek out/form commu-
nities of other users
Get accessories, add-
ons, T-shirts, pride items
Appreciate the value/need
for higher-end, advanced
versions
Show off
their results
Tolerate problems
Remain loyal
Resist the competition
Badass
Users
28
The Challenge
Prologue
The bar is lower for competing on user
awesomeness vs. product awesomeness
Product/Service
Awesome
User
Awesome
Crowded and painful
(almost everyone tries
to compete HERE, on
being The Best)
Not much clear
blue sky
MUCH more
breathing room
Not so much
competition
But our formula still has a huge hole: HOW?
How do you “make users awesome”?
How do you get them to even want to be badass?
Most companies compete on the quality of the product, not
the quality of the user’s results with the product. Competing on
user awesome means fewer direct competitors, even within the
same product/service category.
(Note: this graph was inspired in part by W. Chan
Kim and Renée Mauborgne’s “Blue Ocean Strategy.”)
29
The Challenge
Prologue
What do these have in common?
I built this in less
than two hours.
They said I got the deal
because of those charts in
my spreadsheet.
Colors on my latest video
came out perfect.
30
The Challenge
Prologue
User Badass = User Results
Badass users are better users.
Much better.
Results
It’s about what they can do or be
as a result of what our product,
service, experience enables.
Sustained bestsellers help their
users get badass results.
Yeah, just one small thing...
badass at
WHAT
? What about simple utilities?
What if there’s nothing to be badass
at
?
Before we can create badass
users, we must answer the
question, “Badass at what?”
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