Passion starts with two simple words
We had a meeting today where we debated some of the key goals for an upcoming community initiative, including the usual suspects:
Building loyalty
Reducing support costs
Boosting net satisfaction
Acquiring new users
etc.
Ken Levy was there – he cut through that and locked on to the real manna: “We’re trying to build passion.” Wistful thoughts of Kathy Sierra immediately passed around my head…
But that got me thinking – what does “passion” boil down to? Where do you begin? Kathy and Dan have many more eloquent and well constructed thoughts on this on this, so I figured I would bring it down a notch on the maturity level, away from any hint of intellectual discourse towards a raw, gut feeling:
“F**king cool!”
That’s where passion begins. Those are the words I want every user of my product to utter. Ideally followed up by something like:
“Dude, you have to check this out. It’s so f**king cool!”
I don’t want their reaction to be a measured, rational, dispassionate analysis of why the product is better than the alternatives, how the cost is more reasonable, feature set more complete, UI more AJAXified. I don’t want them to pause to analyze the boring feature comparison chart on the back of the box.
I want “f**king cool!” Period.
I want that pure sense of wonder, that kid-at-airshow-seeing-an-F16–on-afterburners-rip-by-so-close-it-makes-your-soul-shake reaction, that caress-the-new-Blackberry-until-your-friends-start-to-question-your-sanity experience. I want an irrational level of sheer, unfiltered, borderline delusional joy.
That is where passion for a product starts. Yes, it only gets you so far, and then actual product quality, support, stickiness, strong community, etc come into play. But true passion begins with the two most wonderful words a marketer can hear a customer say:
“F**king cool”
21 Comments
Passion…
[Kevin Briody] I don’t want their reaction to be a measured, rational, dispassionate analysis of why the product is better than the alternatives, how the cost is more reasonable, feature set more complete, UI more AJAXified. I don’t want them…
[...] Personally, I loved Tim’s reaction and even the exact words he used. And yes, I think they are entirely appropriate. I wrote up a whole post on those two words, and how they embody everything a company should strive for with every new product - ”Passion starts with two simple words“: We had a meeting today where we debated some of the key goals for an upcoming community initiative, including the usual suspects: [...]
[...] Two simple words of passion…Kathy quotes Kevin Brody on the essence of user passion. Kathy elaborates. [...]
[...] Two simple words of passion…Kathy quotes Kevin Brody on the essence of user passion. Kathy elaborates. [...]
Love it. Want it to be said about stuff I’m making.
Oh, and since everything has to be a duck reference: f*cking duck!
[...] Kevin Briody doesn’t want people to think that his products are good: I don’t want their reaction to be a measured, rational, dispassionate analysis of why the product is better than the alternatives, how the cost is more reasonable, feature set more complete, … [...]
Kevin,
Came here through Kathy’s website link.
If I may ask, care to share what you have worked on in the last year that fit the passion description?
Thanks
Amit
[...] With two simple words Por Diego Mariño | 7 de Noviembre, 2006 Passion starts with two simple words: F**king Cool! Kevin Briody | CategorÃa: Citas [...]
[...] Is it “F**king cool!”? (hat tip to Kathy) But that got me thinking – what does “passion†boil down to? Where do you begin? Kathy and Dan have many more eloquent and well constructed thoughts on this on this, so I figured I would bring it down a notch on the maturity level, away from any hint of intellectual discourse towards a raw, gut feeling: [...]
[...] Is it “F**king cool!”? (hat tip to Kathy) But that got me thinking – what does “passion†boil down to? Where do you begin? Kathy and Dan have many more eloquent and well constructed thoughts on this on this, so I figured I would bring it down a notch on the maturity level, away from any hint of intellectual discourse towards a raw, gut feeling: [...]
[...] Is it “Fucking cool!”? But that got me thinking – what does “passion†boil down to? Where do you begin? Kathy and Dan have many more eloquent and well constructed thoughts on this on this, so I figured I would bring it down a notch on the maturity level, away from any hint of intellectual discourse towards a raw, gut feeling: [...]
[...]Kevin Broidy de la Seattleduck a prins esenta pasiunii manifestate de clienti cand a spus “Passion starts with two simple words: F***ing Cool!”[...]
[...] Just read about Kevin Broidy’s post on Creating Passionate Users – I totally agree with Kathy Sierra – Kevin nailed it and captured the essence of user passion stating that, “Passion starts with two simple words: F***ing Cool!” In Kevin’s words: [...]
[...] When it comes to how you’d measure how satisfied a user is with your product/service, an article summed it up quite succinctly and simply: the words that you need to look for coming out of the user’s mouth is: “F**cking COOL!”. That’s where passion begins. Those are the words I want every user of my product to utter. Ideally followed up by something like: [...]
Wow, lots of comments and trackbacks on this one. Nice!
To John #5 – always good to have a duck reference. It’s how I live my live. :)
To Amit #7 – what product have I worked on that inspired this reaction, in the past year? None that I’ve personally owned, but several I’ve seen at work including Photosynth (just came out), a search tool that hasn’t, and a few things here and there.
[...] But this one is my favorite – “Passion starts with two simple words” from May of this year. [...]
I like it and the background and colors make it easy to readt
[...] case of salesforce.com – one of the most fu**ing cool products in enterprise domain. Kevin Briody nails this right “What does “passion” boil down to? Where do you begin?.. F**king [...]
[...] rather go down in flames than risk death by mediocrity. Kevin Briody said it best: I don’t want their reaction to be a measured, rational, dispassionate analysis of why the [...]
[...] post, read the details on Mike’s blog. It reminded me again of the ‘passion starts with two simple words‘ post Kevin wrote long time ago. Technorati Tags: engagement, passion, relevance, delight, [...]
[...] to capture something similar in one of my favorite posts (and popular, 5 whole comments!) – “Passion starts with two simple words” – with a focus on creating a powerful, positive reaction among customers as your overriding [...]