It’s talks like these that make us so very proud of Business of Software.
If you have any involvement in product development or interest in acquiring and keeping customers (and which of us doesn’t?) then Kathy Sierra’s talk is well worth an hour of your life.
A full transcript of the talk is available on the BoS website, along with more videos of Kathy and the other brilliant contributers to BoS (think Geoffrey Moore, Clayton Christensen, Dan Pink, Eric Ries and Seth Godin, among others) from previous years.
If you haven’t got an hour right now, keen BoS’er Paul Pedrazzi has also posted an excellent summary of Kathy’s ideas on his blog, Crafted Resonance. Here he gets to the core of it:
“It’s not your product quality or your marketing that elevates your actual customers. All that matters is what your users are now able to do. What are you enabling them to be badass at doing?
“People don’t use your app because they like the app or they like you, they are using it because they like themselves, and they tell their friends because they like their friends!” – Kathy Sierra
This is a critical point to reflect on. Again, consider your product and what superpower it grants to your user. Clarity on this is a powerful point of leverage. Your perspective, the way you come at a problem, is a massive part of finding the solution. The converse is also true!”