Huge Learning: How a Password Unlocked More Than I Ever Thought

You know how it is. You join a new site or get a new piece of tech gear and passwords come into play.

Take a router. As you're setting it up, at some point you need the admin password or Network Key. And usually, you've already plugged the router in at some hard-to-get-at place and then you have to turn it upside down and inside out to find the password. You've been there, right?

And then you get the password. It's a complex mix of ##, %%, @@ symbols, UPPER and lower case characters and numbers. It's impossible to remember so you have to write it down somewhere.

That all changed for me last week at home. And when it did, it unlocked a really important thought.

A NetGear router was the cause. Take a look:

Take a look at that Network Key. joyoustomato444

Now by the time I got to it, I'd already been massively impressed by the packing — blue ribbons and all. And the installation guide was great too. Things like, "point your camera at the QR code and press click."

But now 'joyoustomato444'. What a simple, simple way of making the user go "Oh that's GREAT!"

In my case, I called the kids — they got it in a heartbeat too.

And what they got was this: that simple password changed (well, more correctly) enhanced the user experience. I felt great and I felt great about NETGEAR.

And the next day I came into work at https://www.b1g1.com and looked at what we were doing to give new Members their passwords. Sure enough, it was automatically generated each time. And it resulted in passwords like X3@7KloP#.

No longer. Now it's things like 'joyofgiving' or 'goodgiving' or 'gettingstarted'. Automatically generated for sure. But auto-generated with logic that generates an emotive 'Oh, isn't that nice' from the new Member.

I hope you can use the idea too. joyoustomatoes to you!