I once came into contact with a sentence that impressed me deeply, that is, to make a product, it must be based on the six words of just need, pain point and high frequency, which can be regarded as a good product.
I am a IOT of startup “more functional product manager”, starting from the company two months, I will enter the company, and with the company more than two years, witnessed the birth of the “smart products”, followed him to see a lot of questions, stepped on a lot of pit, so when I come into contact with the “six words”, that, I wish to write down some empirical insights.
For many companies, as long as it is involved in the Internet, the future is a kind of attitude, often because the Internet is synonymous with nothing more than cloud computing, big data, social interaction, mobile terminals, such as the concept, when the company add these concepts with the company’s products hold together of the time, you will think this is a good product, a user into a frenzy and the products of like, However, it is often in these halo supported by the product, but can not be called a qualified product.
In fact, whether it is a big concept, a small idea, or a product supported by the latest technology, the only test is whether users are willing to use and buy it, whether the product solves the problems faced by users and whether it can bring value to users. This is a prerequisite to check whether the product is qualified.
How to understand this sentence? The product has to be the user’s
What is demand? What the user wants can be called demand. When the demand is very strong, or even impossible, it can be called rigid demand.
What are pain points? When it comes to solving needs, there are often obstacles, such as time, money, and difficulty. That block is the pain point. The greater the obstacle to resolution, the greater the pain point.
Figure 1- Product value
I 15 years I enter the company, is a startups do intelligent household, at the start of the first year I entered, has successively output multiple intelligent hardware, until the final product small batch, and actively to the part of the dealers, customers and investors, such as the trial, but the response is not too warm, is basically a communication sent after the trial, Very little reaction or feedback).
At that stage, I was wondering, why is this happening?
In this year’s intelligent hardware design and development, to the use function of intelligent products, material selection, production process, the APP design, small to product packaging, manual color and so on, will have a boss to command and decide on the side, as expected, the boss in person to give directions and care products, not how good, at least should not have behaved so dull, But it turned out to be a real lesson.
We spend a lot of time, energy, manpower, material resources to get the product, heart service? With your heart! Is the product exquisite? Fine! Use thoughtfulness? Considerate! But why the lukewarm response? That’s because we’re ignoring one premise: the user! Our customers don’t want to buy it because there’s no demand.
We see a lot of product failures in the market, including our own product failures. Why? Why? Are we really finding what our users want? That’s a real question to ponder! The worst thing a company can do, especially a startup, is to throw money, energy, and time into a market that doesn’t exist. That’s the most dangerous thing you can do. The end result of doing this also suggests that perhaps the requirement the company sees is a bogus requirement.
We can look back and think about whether we tend to jump into our own trap and skip user needs without thinking too much when making products
More questions should be asked, why do users use our products? What drives users to choose our products?
From the standpoint of the company, the strategic plan is actually to make a product to solve the rigid needs and pain points of users (see Figure 1- Product value), which is the core of a company’s product value. As for how well or how well you solve user needs and pain points, that’s user experience and other external factors.
In fact, as an enterprise or product manager, why can not focus on user needs, what is the problem? That is, the problem of uncertainty is not solved before development.
Uncertainty exists because of a lack of effective information, a lack of effective information because we know very little about the markets we serve, and all of these uncertainties add up to a series of risks, which ultimately translate into visible costs, and ultimately lead to the failure or failure of the entire product. Therefore, as a product manager, before any product development, as much as possible to carry out rigorous assumptions and research, find the need and pain points.
In fact, high frequency is the most easily ignored or omitted word in the six-word mantra of good products, which is also a point I have the deepest experience as a product manager.
There are many people, when making products, often imagine a scene, but this scene rarely happens in real life, which will lead to product users feel the product is “useless”, “chicken ribs”.
For example: door-to-door lock repair, is it just needed? Sure is. Is it painful? Absolute pain. But it happens so infrequently that it’s hard for your product to engage users.
In 15 years do is setting up a set of intelligent household security suite, main basic security suit, similar to the millet contains a gateway, contains the door sensors, infrared dynamic detector, emergency button and so on six pieces of equipment, the main is prevent alarm, by induction sensor equipment, through the gateway device, notify supporting the use of smart home APP, Play the role of a security alarm.
When I learned about and participated in the whole design and development of this equipment, I kept asking myself why I chose these devices. Why do I as a user need this device, and why do I feel that I don’t need this smart device so badly? Every time I see the excitement surrounding this smart device, I wonder if I’m thinking wrong.
Later, when the product came out, I made a corresponding return visit and asked the users who used this equipment or my colleagues who also used this equipment as users. The most direct answer I got was:
I’ve been thinking about this for a long time and have often asked myself: Why aren’t users motivated to buy?
Security is one of the most basic human needs, and home security is also a natural demand, our product in view of the scene is: if there is a thief, a thief into the family, triggered the door sensor, infrared security equipment such as dynamic monitoring, timely notify the family members at this time, to help users find alarm in time, reduce the accidental loss of users.
Is home security just needed? Just need to be. Affecting family security, such as thieves, is not a pain point? Is the pain points. So why hasn’t the product generated buzz or added value to the company? That’s what we’ve been missing from the beginning
What are the chances of being burgled in our lives? Average family, appear such odds big? A simple set of intelligent equipment can only be used as security, is it not necessary for users?
In fact, the probability of using this smart device is so low that the user’s most direct feeling is “I don’t need it”, not because of the rigid need or pain point, but because of the frequency. The average user would not want to invest in such a “useless” thing.
Many people only see the surface of things and learn the surface.
Come to your door and deliver you a chicken, use the big rush and find some hot girls to deliver it to you, they will think it is an experience, it is a surprise.
In fact, at this time, the most important premise is to ask yourself more, users need to eat chicken every day? Is this the user’s pain point and need, as well as high frequency?
All the decisions or strategies we make should come down to the user’s point of view, to discover, to find a demand, to solve the pain points encountered by this demand, to find a medium frequency, to meet the three points of the service may be insignificant, but it must be the most valuable for users.
We can not do at the beginning of the user unable to extricate themselves, to let the user unable to extricate themselves, first of all, let the user feel the value of the product, let the user feel useful to him. Today, it is difficult to imagine using products will get attention and a great crowd basic resources, but we as an entrepreneur, or a small factory, basically do not have this kind of opportunities and resources, this time left us only to the user in a few words of opportunity (allows users to feel useful, and need to), after that, is more products details and interaction experience ascension, Make the product excellent, delicate, charming, this time to talk about the surprise to the user, let the user crazy, become your fans.
In fact, in the industry, as long as it’s not technology differs too many cases, we should always keep in mind that seize the product, the basis of user requirements, if out of the most basic requirements, product again how beautiful, how beautifully wrapped in, a good amount of experience are not synchronous, and user achieve resonance, more can’t do a good product.