Content source: This article is the essence of "Extreme Product", a practical guide for creating explosive products from 0 to 1, for Zhou Hongyi, a national product maker and founder and CEO of 360 Group. As a partner, Note Man is authorized to publish.
Note Jun invites you to think first:
How does a hotel in Las Vegas, Las Vegas, create a large number of repeat customers through small details?
Why do you say it's good to think about a business model, but don't think about it if you can't?
How to lay a solid foundation for the underlying business model and achieve profitability?
1. All business models are tried out
All business models are trial and error, and the focus is whether the cost of trial and error is within the range that you can accept.
I admire the spirit of fearless exploration, but this kind of fearlessness has a premise, that is, micro-innovation must be carried out first, and all net worth must not be bet on "big bets". This is not fearlessness, but death.
The ancients said, "A slip of a step becomes an eternal hatred, and if you look back, it will be a hundred years old." This is the truth.
The so-called exploration means exploring and exploring step by step. From a product perspective, it means starting from micro-innovation step by step. Even if you take a wrong step, there is still room for recovery.
Innovate in the easiest way, innovate in the lowest cost way. - Eric Rice, "The Lean Startup"
American author Eric Rice once shared his views in the book "Lean Startup": innovate with the simplest method, and innovate with the lowest cost method.
This view is the same as my view on micro-innovation. I have always believed that the exploration of business models should be done in a relatively simple way, with a little experimentation first, and if it doesn't work, change it quickly, and gradually increase the stakes if it is practical.
1. Las Vegas hotels: Tiny details create a lot of repeat customers
In a hotel in Las Vegas, the doorman handed customers two bottles of frozen mineral water when they left after checking out.
For the hotel, the cost of these two bottles of water is a drop in the bucket, but it can bring users an excellent experience - it takes about 40 minutes to drive from this hotel to the nearest airport, and there are almost no gas stations and rest areas in the middle. , which means that supplies cannot be obtained along the way.
You must know that Las Vegas is close to the desert, and the high temperature of more than 35 degrees Celsius often occurs in summer. Customers will undoubtedly need to replenish water during the drive to the airport. At this time, these two bottles of water come in handy.
Note one detail:
The time when the hotel sends out the two bottles of water is after the customer has checked out. Strictly speaking, the two bottles of water are gifts from the hotel. Imagine, if customers come back to the "Casino City" next time, which hotel will they choose to stay?
In view of the particularity of the industry, it is difficult for a hotel to stand out among its peers in terms of services or products, and the competition in the same industry is extremely fierce.
This hotel in Las Vegas is only a three-star hotel, and it does not have obvious competitive advantages in the "Casino City" where there are many hotels. However, the hotel starts with the details of "water delivery" to create a warm feeling for customers. , and thoughtful feelings, thus attracting a large number of repeat customers.
I think this is a kind of micro-innovation.
Many people are accustomed to viewing "micro-innovation" and "disruptive innovation" as opposites, thinking that the former is a small game, while the latter is about beating gongs and drums.
In my opinion, the two are actually the same thing.
In fact, almost all disruptive innovations start out as micro-innovations, starting from a tiny point.
2. The breakout of Canon desktop copiers
The first copier in the world was invented by Xerox Corporation in the United States. The copiers of this period were typical enterprise-oriented products. They were huge in size and were set up in special rooms and maintained by special personnel.
Later, Canon reduced the size of the copier and developed the world's first desktop copier.
Compared with large copiers, Canon's desktop copiers have numerous shortcomings, such as unclear copying, waste of paper, etc., but they have achieved one thing - simplifying copying, from a product for enterprises to a market for ordinary users. This is the value of micro-innovation.
Micro-innovation is often difficult for large b2b data companies to perceive the threat, which also gives Canon a chance to improve its products, and desktop copiers have begun to eat away at the large-scale copier market step by step.
Now, Xerox's large copiers have evolved into rapid-printing centers, and small-batch copying has become the exclusive arena for desktop copiers.
We encourage innovation and exploration, but Rome wasn't built in a day. Especially for many startups and product managers, they have huge ideals, but do not have the resources to disrupt the world overnight.
Therefore, from the perspective of user experience, we may continue to make small improvements. You may not see obvious results in a short period of time, but through the accumulation of bits and pieces, it is possible to change the world in the end.
It should be emphasized that micro-innovation is not a "copycat" or "plagiarism". In fact, many products that are considered to be extremely innovative have only become what everyone sees through continuous micro-innovation.
3. The great thing about Steve Jobs: the ultimate user experience
I have always made no secret of my admiration and admiration for Steve Jobs. He has completely changed the overall pattern of the mobile phone market and left an immortal monument in the industry.
But whether it was the early iPod (Apple's portable multi-function digital multimedia player), or the later iPhone, these products were not new inventions of Apple, but the result of repeated micro-innovations.
The iPod is the product of Apple's micro-innovation on the basis of the old MP3. Jobs creatively provided the MP3 with a memory that can hold 1000 songs, making the iPod more comfortable to use and better sound quality than other MP3 products. This is the user Experience innovation.
The same is true for the iPhone. Apple is not the first company to install an app on a smartphone, but the Apple mobile phone has the smoothest system and the best-looking appearance. These are the results of micro-innovation again and again.