Kathy Sierra’s session, as you can expect was great. She’s a talented speaker, and has good stuff to say. She did, however, assume that most people in the audience had heard lots of her presentations in the past – so she went really fast, and at some of the points below simply said “you’ve heard me cover this one before” … so she didn’t cover it!
[note to speakers: you probably hang out with all the other cool speakers. Just because you and they "know everything" doesn't mean your audience does - go ahead and share the basics and stuff that feels like you're repetitive].
And now, here are some incomplete notes from her session:
Difference between fabulous and average:
- not about natural ability
- about the ability to practice/put in the time
20 ways…:
1. use telepathy. There are two flavors of neurons: mirror and motor. They feel the movements and read emotions.
Visualization – you have to see the thing you want to do in your head – that’s sort of like practicing
2. serendipity: psychic shuffle – it’s that “I was thinking about this song, then it played” moment. So add randomness.
3. The Dog Ears principle. Ears come after the head. Think about real life physics when you design.
4. Joy
5. Inspire 1st person language – really shouldn’t be about you.
6. T-Shirt-First development
7. Easter Eggs and other treats. Leave “treats” in your design, things that are there for no other reason than to make people smile. “A smile in the mind” – title of an interesting-sounding book.
8. Tools for evangelism
9. You are a… : You are a predator – predator’s eyes are in front of their heads. So right now, there’s 400 predator eyes looking at the speaker! Learn how to manage your fight/flight response. There are tools for this – ie., Stress Eraser, a breathing game – also calms you down.
10. excersize the brain – BrainAge as an example
11. Give them spuerpowers, quickly.
12. ???
13. Speed their knowledge
14. Make product (or Do’s) share your feelings
15. Help with reinvestment of mental resources… focus – have to devote all your attention on it. Attention offsets vs partial attention
16. Create a culture of support – no dumb questions, no dumb answers
17. Do not insist on inclusivity. Jargon is ok – passionate users “talk different”
18. practice seductive pacity – mystery, anticipation, curiosity
19. Atoms are NOT old skool – if you make digital stuff only, give out t-shirts – something people can hold
19.5. Do what this guy does – Gary ??? – does a radically different, passionate wine show. Gary is making his viewers entertaining – he is taking the focus off of himself
