There's a lot to be said for the premise of this book: if brands design their products (and their marketing, documentation, etc.) with the goal of helping their users, a lot of their marketing will take care of itself. To use one of the examples regularly mentioned in the book, if you make cameras, you should design your product and documentation specifically to help your users be better photographers, and the word of mouth marketing they'll generate will make a better showing in your sales figures than a major media buy. The thesis is mostly pretty sound, and reasonably well-documented with reference to other business or pop psychology books.
However, if you're looking for a deep dive into business psychology, this is not the book for you. In fact, though its premise is solid, its presentation leaves a lot to be desired. Instead of a full-length book, the reader is treated to little snippets of text interspersed with stock photography images. While this makes for a fast and easy read, it doesn't offer a lot of (or any) resources for the reader looking for a well-documented survey of the psychological literature, or even the business literature. Though it's priced as a book, this is essentially a PowerPoint presentation set down in print.
Indeed, some of the pop psychology referenced throughout the book is actually fairly questionable. A brief section on "power posing" provides the quintessential example. Yes, there was some research that certain postures can have positive psychological effects. Later research has called it into question. This book cites the former (or rather, cites the TED Talk describing the former) without any reference at all to the latter. Does this mean the book is wrong? Certainly not. But it does mean that its conclusions should at least be treated with some skepticism since it's not always clear where the book's ideas came from.
However, while particular psychological aspects of the book may be suspect, and the treatment of the entire topic has to be considered superficial at best, the fundamental premise still strikes me as a solid one, and one not enough people are thinking about in the terms suggested by the author. I would recommend it for that reason alone, except its cover price of $34.99 (for what fundamentally amounts to a printed slideshow whose length would probably be a couple of hours) raises some issues of value for money. Buy it when it's on sale and knowing what you're getting, and you probably won't be disappointed.
ISBN-13:
978-1491919019
ISBN-10:
1491919019
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From the Publisher
Badass: Making Users Awesome
Do the enduring successful products and services share common attributes? Can we learn by studying them? Can we reverse-engineer “sustainable success”? Not exactly.
The answers to what makes a sustainable bestseller aren’t in the successful product. The answers are in the successful product’s users. It’s not the product success that matters most, it’s the successful results of those who use it. Repeatedly. Consistently. Sustainably.
The answer to a sustainable bestseller is to shift the focus from making an awesome product to making an awesome user of that product. The answer lies is helping users become badass not just at using the product, but at whatever it is the product can help them do and be. And some of those answers are surprising, counterintuitive, but can be implemented by anyone at any stage in a product’s development. Even if you can’t improve your product, you can still improve your user’s experience by designing for what happens after they use it.
Badass: Making Users Awesome is a course in how to create a context in which users can become more skillful, and, most importantly, to stay motivated to keep moving forward. Everything our users experience is part of that context, and even the smallest improvements can have a dramatic impact.
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Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2019
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Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2019
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Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2019
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Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2015
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Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2017
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Top reviews from other countries
Graham Perry
Surprisingly Thought Provoking
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 20, 2018Verified Purchase
Stephen Kellett
If you're only going to buy one book this year, make it this book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 22, 2015Verified Purchase
regina fila
Buy it now if customer success is important to you
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 14, 2017Verified Purchase
peps
Great perspective.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 28, 2015Verified Purchase
Eduardo X
sobre redução de complexidades
Reviewed in Brazil on September 23, 2020Verified Purchase
