Too late to change the title?

Maybe Quality: How to Benefit your Users ?
:/

Nope, way too late. But I will tell you that it was a long and agonizing decision to call it "Badass". I didn't come up with the subtitle "Making Users Awesome". I think my original was "Creating Badass Users" and some of my talks have been called "Building the Minimum Badass User."

There are people who won't get or recommend the book because of the word "badass", and I knew that going in. But it was literally the only word I could think of that would not lend itself to misinterpretation. I spent many years discussing this as "passionate", not "badass", but I always MEANT the kind of passion people develop for something they truly become involved with and get better at, like a strong hobby. But marketers and product creators are often so obsessed today with getting people to love THEM or love the PRODUCT, that the discussion always turned back into something like, "How can we get people passionate about OUR PRODUCT". I was constantly having to correct that and explain "no not THAT kind of passion..." And I also wanted to make it very clear that the emphasis was entirely on *the user* and not on the product.

So in a way, I have limited the people who'll be willing to read and/or suggest it, but for the integrity of the message I care about, I was prepared to take that hit. Of course it won't stop people from saying something like, "That company made me FEEL badass..." which may or may not mean the company helped you *become* more badass, which is the entire point of the book -- the difference between helping someone *feel* something vs. actually helping them do and become something.

But yeah, it's not a title I am in love with, but it's better than our certification book title which I can't even remember. ;)

Kathy Sierra wrote:... book title which I can't even remember. ;)

If I was a publisher I would want a Badass: series of how-to books. Badass: BMX. Badass: Catch More Trout. Badass: Cooking with Herbs.