On IRC a few weeks ago this question was posed by an unassuming visitor:
What makes Habari different from any other blog application like WordPress?
I blew a mental gasket sitting at my desk, but managed to scrawl out a few words that managed to be quoted here and there by folks in the community. It may have sounded profound to others, but it was really offered up in haste and without much consideration.
Since then I’ve been thinking: If I had to give a serious elevator pitch about Habari, what would I say?
More recently, I’ve been reading the book, Made to Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath. This is a kind of follow-up to the book The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell. The latter book describes the criteria for the phenomenon of something catching on, specifically, what it takes to push something over the “tipping point” from obscurity into ubiquity. The former book describes a process for making an idea “sticky”, where it stays with you long after you’ve heard the original idea – one criteria for getting an idea to “tip”.
These books have me considering my personal goals for Habari, and the ideals we’re always talking about that Habari stands for. One of my personal goals for Habari is to find everyone who fits into the Habari mindset and bring them into the program. I would like to convey a simple core message of what Habari is and what Habari stands for.
I’ve not completed Made to Stick yet. I’m only one half of the way through, but some immediate ideas spring forth from guidelines of the book that I’d somehow like to ply to the Habari core message.
Currently, we say “Spread the News” a lot. I think this is a clever little slogan; a play on the translation of the Swahili word “Habari”, but it doesn’t really convey the ideals and goals of Habari.
One interesting concept of many that have stayed with me during this read so far is the idea of a “Command Intent”. One example provided of this in the book deals with the way management at Southwest airlines can make decisions without consulting with higher-ups by merely looking at Southwest’s core message: “THE low-fare airline.”
For example, an employee might determine that passengers would appreciate a selection between a walnut salad and the standard peanuts. Before even presenting the idea to higher-ups, it can be omitted due to the fact that it conflicts with the company’s core message of being “THE low-fare airline”.
I would like for Habari to have a similar core idea. I know that somewhere within what we’re doing lies a beating heart, and I’d like to quantify that for anyone who asks.
Ironically, to answer the question originally posed to me in IRC, I think that Habari’s core message lies somewhere within why it is different from WordPress. Not so much in how, but that there is a reason it’s not just some other blog software.
We talk a lot about meritocracy. I think “meritocracy” is a big-ish word that people hear but don’t really understand. If there was a way to provide an analogy to something that people are much more familiar with, that might be a way to convey our core message. But I don’t think that, “We’re a meritocracy,” no matter how much more appealing we make it, helps answer that question.
I don’t want to answer the question with a list of things that we do differently any more. I want to be able to impart upon people Habari’s Command Intent. I want to be able to say that we’re focused so much on users that we let them write our software. Maybe that’s it right there, “Focused so much on users, that we let them write our software.” Does that help direct Habari’s agenda day-to-day? Can we evaluate new ideas based on this core message? I don’t know. Maybe that’s not the whole idea, but I think I’m getting closer.
In any case, as I finish the book, I hope it provides more creative ways to refine this message. I’d like to have something I can use to evangelize Habari at some upcoming events. Ideally, I’d like to convey enough with a statement of the core message that people would have to ask, “How are you doing that, and can I see it?” And if it’s the correct statement, we would use it to drive Habari development in the future.
