When I was working for Feedster, I drank all their Koolaid. I played with every feature and got excited about all the new ways that other people dreamed up to use it. Reading what Robert Scoble and Dave Winer have to say about product “evangelism,” I’m wondering if I should try to change my style.
Robert Scoble speaks out for low-key, rational evangelism:
[Guy Kawasaki] looks at the products hes evangelizing as a cause. I dont look at the world that way….But, go even further. I really dont want religious customers. I want skeptical, educated, pragmatic customers.
Scoble’s method works better. I’m tired of hearing about your religion. I’m not that way. I think computers are tools, not causes. My use of the computer, that’s a cause.
Now I’m working for Ookles.com. Love the people, love the product, excited about the company. Well, I wouldn’t be working for them if it wasn’t so. But Ookles is not a cause, not a religion, not something that my friends all “have to” believe in. It’s an unexplored tech opportunity that I’m looking forward to becoming an expert on playing with.
But if, once the whole thing starts playing out in public forums–if you see me guykawasaki-ing in a way that make you uncomfortable, please let me know. And let’s still be friends. I mean, Feedster was far from perfect but every complaint we got helped us make the product better.
p.s. One day later, one more reason to admire Scoble’s Microsoft evangelism, his contribution to the “Is Google Evil?” meme:
“Hey, Larry and Sergey, can you please return our evil where it belongs?”