I kicked off the Emerging Technology Conference by attending a workshop with Kathy Sierra called Creating Passionate Users. Aside from my fighting a nasty head cold/fever/flu thing, and trying not to offend folks that were near me, the workshop was fantastic.
I don’t think there is some finite set of “Here’s a surefire way of succeeding” ingredients from Kathy’s talk, but rather a set of concepts and methodologies that all deserve to be chewed on and possibly applied.
Between nose wipes and coughing fits, here are some of the more interesting notes I came away with.
Focus on the passion: where there is passion, there is always a user kicking ass. People are passionate about what they are good at.
Example: It’s not about the tool: it’s not the digital camera, it’s photography. It’s about what your users do with your tools.
The KICK-ASS curve
When focusing your product, choose something that has an endless growth curve - something where you’ll never reach perfection (like martial arts or playing the bass). That said, the product should have an quick growth curve so that people can get past the SUCK threshold quickly, and into the PASSION threshold.
People want to kick ass
There should be a clear picture in your product of how much fun it’ll be when you don’t suck anymore (meaningful benefit). And there has to be a clear path to getting better. She used an example of a ski resort map to show where you can ride when you’re good.
Why? Who cares? So what?
Ask these three questions repeatedly to get to the core of your message.
Conversational writing kicks Formal writing’s ass
Quite simply, the brain engages in conversation. It goes into stasis when being lectured.
Note: Kathy really talked about this in terms of technical documentation and writing - not so much in user interface design. I’m a proponent of conversational tone in UI, and feel like we’re just starting to see more products adopt this point of view.
There’s a lot to learn from game designers, film makers, and novelists
The cycles of building interest, challenging activities, and payoff.
Another example: The Modified Hero’s Journey:
Life is normal –> Something happens to change that –> Things really suck –> Hero overcomes bad things –> Return to a NEW normal
You know your product has ‘arrived’ when people start criticizing your USERS
Think about how people hate Apple users. 
Don’t appease the critics
Dignity is deadly. When you appease the critics, or design by consensus your product will be driven to mediocrity. When people are criticizing your product, and particularly your users, you’re doing something right!
Note: Truth is not determined by a majority vote