I'm working on a long pending project - re-designing Spark.

And I'm in a deep rabbit hole. What started off as a one-off project about improving Spark's UI, is now evolving into something more meaningful.

The product currently feels like it was designed by an engineer (yours truly, guilty as charged 😃).

As soon as you open it, you're greeted with a checklist of features - each built in its own silo.

Instead you should feel like the product understands you. You should feel that the product is eager to take you where you want to go.

For example, a quiz isn't just a quiz; it's a step in your journey from live tutor to course creator who can assess students at scale. When we see it that way, we stop building checkboxes and start building a journey.

What good design really means

Let's first define good design:

• It's about value (Utility, Usefulness).

• It's about ease of use (Usability).

• It's about evoking positive feelings (Desire).

• It's about helping the user upgrade to a new role (Change in identity).

As you can see, it's a progression: Usefulness → Usability → Desirability → Identity change

But do we start from the left (Usefulness) and work towards the right?

Or should we start from the right (Identity change) instead and work backwards from there?

Start from the right. Before we build a single feature, we ask: who does the user want to become? Once we know that, we design backwards - so every feature serves that transformation instead of existing in its own silo.

The drill bit lesson

Before we get there, let's first understand what identity change looks like for a Spark user.

Identity change is about giving the user superpowers that makes them feel like a new upgraded version of themselves.

Here's an excerpt from Seth Godin's "This is Marketing" that explains this well:

Harvard marketing professor Levitt famously said, "People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill bit. They want a quarter-inch hole."

The lesson is that the drill bit is merely a feature, a means to an end, but what people truly want is the hole it makes.

But that doesn't go nearly far enough. No one wants a hole.

What people want is the shelf that will go on the wall once they drill the hole.

Actually, what they want is how they'll feel once they see how uncluttered everything is, when they put their stuff on the shelf that went on the wall, now that there's a quarter-inch hole.

But wait...

They also want the satisfaction of knowing they did it themselves.

Or perhaps the increase in status they'll get when their spouse admires the work.

Or the peace of mind that comes from knowing that the bedroom isn't a mess, and that it feels safe and clean.

"People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill bit. They want to feel safe and respected."

Bingo.

The takeaway: Features are a means. Identity is the end - how the user wants to feel and who they want to become.

Back to Spark

The user in our case is a subject matter expert (SME) who loves to teach and share their knowledge with others.

What does identity change look like for an SME?

We're still figuring this out. But here are some possibilities we're exploring:

• Converting Zoom recordings into courses (utility)

• Helping students deepen understanding through micro-learning (impact)

• Reaching more people with their teachings (scale)

• Productizing live content to earn more (monetization)

• Immortalizing their expertise (legacy)

• Feeling more respected for what they know (recognition)

Each SME will have a different answer. Our job is to design for the identity they want to become - not just the features they'll use.

A decade-long bet

This is a tall order.

Making the current user interface better will take a couple of more weeks of work.

But holding the user's hand while walking with them on their journey from where they are now to where they want to be?

That's a much more significant undertaking. And a better definition of good design.

As I'd mentioned in an earlier post, this is a decade long project. We're just getting started.

Onward.

PS: If you're a teacher turning Zoom recordings into courses, we'd love to hear what "identity change" means for you. Reply and tell us - and if you want early access to the redesigned Spark, I'll set you up.