Badass: Making Users Awesome

36

The Challenge

Prologue



just a tool

just a tool

Compelling thing

to be badass at

just a tool

just a tool

just a tool

Tools matter. But being a master of the tool is rarely our user’s

ultimate goal. Most tools (products, services) enable and support

the user’s true–and more motivating–goal.

Nobody wants to be a tripod master. We want to use tripods to

make amazing videos.

Most products and services support a bigger,

compelling, motivating context.

37

The Challenge

Prologue



Online recipe site

Cocktails &

Mixology App

Hosting world-class

dinner parties

Cooking appliance

Party games

More Superset Examples

Book on public

speaking

Stock photo site

Making great

presentations

Spreadsheet app

Data-visualization software

38

The Challenge

Prologue



Contexts all the way out

The further we expand the

context, the more possibilities

we have for becoming badass at

something this “tool” supports.

iPhoto

photo editing

photography

art

Photoshop

Adobe Lightroom

iPhoto

People don’t want to be badass at using our tool.

They want be badass at what our tool helps them do.

badass at THIS

NOT this

Compelling Context

tool

39

The Challenge

Prologue



Before they give us money

After they give us money

What’s wrong here?

Photography Camera

Compelling Context

tool

Good marketing focuses on what the potential user really

wants to do. But after they buy? Every experience the

user has with us shifts to just the tool.

Think about this.

If we want sustained, committed, badass users, we must

x this. After they give us money or join our service we

should focus even more on what they really want to do.

The don’t want to be badass at our thing.

They want to be badass at what they do with it.

They want badass results.

40

The Challenge

Prologue



Some people have a passion for

cameras, but most of us don’t

buy a camera to get a camera.

We buy it to take photos.

And the deeper we get into

photography, the more likely we

are to recognize and appreciate

the benets of higher-end

cameras.

In other words, it’s the context–

not the tool–that builds

desirability for more/better tools.

Not cameras... photography

Compelling Context

tool

Photography Skills

Appreciation

for higher-end

versions, add-ons,

upgrades, etc.

I’m a photographer. I do cameras.