From a passionate us comes passionate patrons

Hi all ... Friday night ... my blog-time ...

Just read this from one of my favorite blogs, Creating Passionate Users ...

It's so tempting to say that anyone who really cares that much about users ought
to get the hell out of the big company. I know, having done my time at Sun. But
I'd forgotten how to see Microsoft as something other than a Big Company. I'd
forgotten (or never recognized) that it's a collection of individual people, and
no matter how entrenched the company's views, policies, practices, values,
bureaucracy, etc. are, there are motivated, smart, caring, creative people who
work there.

The author was talking about a visit to Microsoft, and how surprised she was that they were real people ... Reading this made me think of our own situation ... Sometimes we forget that our staff are real people truly commited to helping each other and patrons.

Relatedly, I posted something to my blog tonight that echoes a similar sentiment ... feel free to read it ...

Sierra (from Creating Passionate Users) outlined what she called a guidebook to ensure passionate users for large companies ... here were her ideas (condensed):

• Language matters. Frame everything in terms of the user's experience.
• Be annoyingly persistent.
• Capture user stories.
• Speak for real users... not fake abstract "profiles".
• Never underestimate the power of paper.
• Get your hands on a video camera, and record some users.
• Put pictures of real users on your walls. Act like they're as important to you as pictures of family members and pets.
• When product features are discussed without taking into account how it helps (or hinders) the user kicking ass, adopt a slightly confused, mildly annoyed look...
• Blog about it.
• Challenge user-unfriendly assumptions every day.
• Gather facts. Build a rational, logical case that maps a user-centric approach to real business issues.
• Look for first-person language from users about their own experience. Challenge others to solicit first-person, user-as-subject language.
• Don't give up.

An remember, although much of this sounds like it applies to online stuff (which it can) it's all completely transferable to the real-life, face-to-face world of library service. That's it for me ...


tim