Reducing guilt is the killer app

Formula for success:
1) Take something people are typically made to feel guilty about.
2) Let them off the hook.

Can't balance your checkbook? You're irresponsible.

Trying to rent an apartment when you have pets? You'd have better luck as an ex-con with no dogs.

Can't stay organized? Your online and real-world inboxes aren't empty at the end of each day? [puts fingers in the shape of an "L" on forehead]

Can't learn [HTML/Design Patterns/Java/Servlets/Ajax]? What's wrong with you?

Forget key birthdays? And you call yourself a friend?

Can't program your new [stereo/digital recorder/clock radio]. Geez. Even my mom could do it.

Skipped your last dental checkup? [Shakes head slowly side to side]

Skipped church for the last six months? [Shakes head slowly, gets that "your soul is so busted" look.]

You don't carry your cell phone with you? WTF? I tried calling you, like, ten times yesterday!

Behind on your email? Well...Jim always answers his within 24 hours. And he has a much more important job than you, and he's an A-lister. With three kids and a lovely wife.

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One of the things that made me happiest about this week's ETech conference was the number of people I talked to who were creating companies (yes, some decidedly web two-dot-oh-ish) around products or services that would reduce guilt. Not as their main feature, but as a side effect. A natural consequence of what the software or service or system does for you.

I spent a half-day (during my tutorial) talking about ways to help people kick you-know-what, and how to get them there more quickly. But perhaps one strategy for creating passionate users is to look for the places of maximum pain--especially where the pain is often associated with guilt.

Help users revolt. Help them realize that perhaps their problem wasn't their fault. Struggling to learn these tough technical topics? Maybe it isn't you. Maybe it's the way these topics are taught (or rather, the way they are not being taught). Part of our mission with the Head First books is to let learners off the hook! To say, "It is not your fault. Traditional learning experiences (including many text books) are usually not designed for the best interest of your brain..."

Can't program your VCR? Don Norman almost single-handedly let us all off the hook with his book The Design of Everyday Things where it becomes obvious just who is really to blame. (Yes, engineers and designers, that would be YOU.)

Different people have different strengths. If you can take what others perceive as an area of improvement and find a way to minimize its impact for someone with that "weakness", you have gold. I'm not at liberty to mention the details of the start-ups I spoke with who were during this very thing, but I can say that there were several things I saw that I will be signing up for the nanosecond they're in beta. Let the guilt reduction begin!

[Hopefully obvious disclaimer: no, I'm not talking about things for which we may believe people should feel guilty about. I'm talking about letting people off the hook for the things which a particular sub-culture perceives as representing character "goodness", but which, frankly, is just a culturally-specific standard that might as well be arbitrary. However beneficial that standard may be, it will always favor the strengths of some and not others.]

Anytime you can find someone's "areas of improvement" and render those "weaknesses" irrelevant, you are doing way more for that person than simply offering a needed product or service. You are freeing them.

Now, could somebody please hurry up and make the thing that'll get me to run at least five times a week? And about my dreadful lack of cooking skills...