Innovative Progressive

More than 10 years in the Internet, the first time in the mainstream of programmers magazine published articles. In these more than 10 years, only two companies: Jinshan and Tencent. Although the curriculum vitae is not abundant, but fortunately two companies are China software and the Chinese Internet two domain flagship, China's innovation and foreign, I worked long enough to see a lot.
Before I talk about innovation, I want to start with the rhythm of the two companies I've observed.

Ten years ago, traditional it enterprises such as Jinshan or Kingdee, software development is often in years. Year Product Manager write a big demand, the parties evaluated the project started. Design, development each do a few months after the test, and then slowly iterative beta. Although it is a long time to listen to a year, but every time to the final project deadline, everyone still shout time is not enough. Final project Manager Card dead Time, version, press, all the residual in the pressure plate of the moment vanished. A year of what we call software, mixed with unfinished feature, pending bugs, the need to adjust the UI pressed into the disk, mass production, packaged to send to consumers.

The production of Internet enterprises is a completely different scene. When I entered Tencent in 2003, I was shocked by the agility of the company--a one-month version! I only have two weeks to do interface design, and most of the progress is coincident with the development. Product Manager (if any) according to user feedback and competitor's situation to do requirements, interface design and development synchronization, testing time is not. In this way, what we call an Internet software after one months of development is mixed with more unfinished feature, bugs to be solved, the UI to be adjusted, the package on the server, the link on the Web, and the user to download.

The development process of two companies is in fact a mixed panic. But the biggest difference is the rhythm. In contrast, one version a year, a little more time to think, the release version of the flaw is slightly less, but slow, weak market sensitivity; a version of one months, can not think too long, the defect challenge is larger, but at the same time, but also more grasp the changing user needs, there is a greater opportunity to continue to fire in the aim, There are also more opportunities to try incremental innovation.

In recent years, the internet has been talking about "micro-innovation", although the word "form" of innovation, but not the "potential". I prefer to use "incremental innovation" to describe the step-by-step innovation in our products.

To make an analogy: God made Adam in his own way, and if you would like to speak of his cottage, this is also possible, but in particular, he made women according to Adam's needs. From men to women, there are some "progressive" meanings. If you are an atheist, we convert a channel to Darwin here: in the vast African savannah, spring is here, and the animals are in the mating season ... When an ape was busy, he suddenly stood up and walked, compared with other apes, he may not appear to have epoch-making brilliant, but he took a small step, and this small step can be said to be the beginning of a landmark change. Please be aware that this ape did not suddenly escalate from Ape 1.0 to Ape 2.0, but escalated to ape 1.01, because he had only gradually made changes-standing up, not having the brains to think about cloud computing and the nimble hands that could operate the keyboard.

There is another case: the IPhone. In the present time to talk about innovation, always around the apple. How did the iphone come about? Looking at the evolution of the ipod, you'll find that every version of the ipod evolves: The screen is big, the fuselage is thinner, the performance and capacity are changed, and the voice is activated .... These incremental optimizations took place one day at a time, when the engineers who secretly developed the ipad were ready for multi-touch technology, jobs slapped his thigh and said: "Why not make a phone?" (For information on the ipad being developed earlier than the iphone in Apple, see the interview with Steve Jobs)

In view of this, I would like to put forward a point of view: In fact, there is no so-called step epoch-making innovation, any innovation is based on existing things on the basis of gradual occurrence.

Below, I will use Tencent's case to illustrate my views on incremental innovation.
From the first version of QQ to now, Tencent has released hundreds of versions of QQ, of course, there are major restructuring and functional innovation, but more in the small version of incremental innovation.

The idea of incremental innovation may be tiny, but in a critical way, the impact will be huge.

If you happen to be a paid user of QQ, for example, if you buy a green diamond, the tip of your head will display a green diamond icon as an imprint of the service you have purchased. In the original version, we only made the logo of the purchased service, until a version of the requirements workshop, the business unit proposed: How to increase the volume of business?
There are many ways to improve the volume of business, such as advertising. But the design can do far more than to help the product to make a banner so simple. Design proposed the idea is: some value-added services to our users do not even know, while playing ads can increase business exposure, but from the user to see ads to open the business, the path is too long, the chain is too easy to break off. And tip itself is a good point of contact, so the flash, we put the open business icon, in the form of gray not open the same show on tip, and the user mouse over the gray icon, show the description of the business, click will enter the business detailed introduction and opening page.
This small improvement on QQ value-added services to the opening pull is very huge, so far we still can not estimate this small improvement brought about the direct economic value.

(Illustration: Head tip)

Innovation comes from subtle observations of user-use scenarios

In instant messaging software, people and people initially communicate only in words. Although the text teaser is more artistic conception, but the multimedia, omni-directional internet communication era has already mighty arrival. Video, audio is already standard for instant messaging software, how can communication be innovated? Screenshot function may be a wonderful flower in this historical process.
Two of people in the reality of communication, often to see the kind of assistance, and in the network communication, often seen in the screen to assist, but first to be able to intercept and to the other side. In the UI designers and programmers in the process of cooperation, such a use of the scene is too common, QQ already has the ability to transfer pictures, why not do a screenshot function, as a source of pictures directly sent to friends?
The first version of the screenshot, just a simple screenshot. In the later version, we gradually added to the screenshot function, such as tags, text descriptions and other functions. Now, screenshot features this seemingly and instant communication software is very unrelated to the function, has become one of the important features of QQ, and even some users insist on the only QQ power.

(Illustration: screenshot function)

Big innovation, can be dismantled into small innovation point to gradually realize

The person who makes the product must be very familiar with a word: resources are never enough. In particular, the rapid iteration of the Internet industry, the pace of product development for any one of the functional characteristics of the resources are very limited. With such limited resources, it is almost impossible to convince everyone to put aside other things and be at ease with your innovative big plans. After so many years of struggle experience accumulated, Tencent has a sentence called "Small step Run", this phrase used to describe functional iterations, but in fact the same applies to innovation.
If you have a big creative experience plan, you need to mobilize huge resources to achieve, you may want to first take it apart, step-by-step, gradually sent. After the hair to see the user response, if the reaction is not good, God bless fortunately the resources are not too much, then it is still time to go back, but if the response is positive, the people who provide you with the resources will have confidence, then you can continue to push forward, gradually put the final appearance of the innovation point.

Keep the sense of innovation and do local innovation

The Chinese Internet is now in a period of excess products. Any product form, the market has 10 free products for you to choose from. Although each domain competition product share each has the size, but everybody often is very tacit to follow this form some basic standard. For example: Instant messaging, email, microblogging, news portal, basically have formed product form, users are also accustomed to these product forms. In this case, comprehensive, subversive innovation is a laborious and inconsistent with user expectations.
QQ "main panel" + "Chat window" design mode, after more than 10 years of precipitation and development, in fact, has become the Internet instant messaging software standards. Later entrants into the market, rarely in this chat basic experience to do subversion, but the manufacturers combine their own business and resources to make innovations in the product is common.
Our basic experience of QQ has also done subversive innovation attempts, such as the main interface to abandon the narrow panel form, the adoption of a larger, can accommodate more content of the large interface, but through user research found that the market acceptance is very pessimistic.

(Illustration: The concept map of the Big interface QQ)

But when we no longer struggle with how to design a disruptive innovation and focus on the local, we find that even the most basic "information input" experience, there are many points to do incremental innovation. We focus on the "information input" This small part, combined with user input difficulties in the design and development of handwriting input, voice input and other functions, very popular with users.

(Illustration: Multi-function auxiliary input)

Continuous incremental innovation, setting the threshold for the successor

Product experience is the threshold of imitation is relatively low, especially when the provision of free, high-performance service is standard, we are not bad money, not bad technology, a good experience innovation point, is always quickly imitated by competitors. But it is easy to imitate a point, it is more difficult to imitate a thought. Clear the direction of their products, in accordance with the established idea of constant rhythm of innovation, always leading the opponent a single-day, is the most effective for the successor set the threshold.
"Find a Friend" is the micro-letter this product, one of the core function, each version of the new "Find Friends", "Add Friends" way, so that micro-letter in the race with competitors always lead.

(Illustration: Micro-letter Search Buddy Way)

The above based on the experience of the simple elaboration of some of the principles of progressive innovation. In Tencent, the case of incremental innovation is numerous, and it is one of the important factors of continuous success for Tencent to maintain the incremental innovation of rapid iteration.

There is nothing new in the sun, and human progress is rising in constant spiral repetition. At some point in time, when gradual innovation is carried out to a certain stage, there will be integration and re-creation, quantitative change will lead to qualitative change, and a new business can be heartbeat. But it must not have come out of nowhere, and if you find such a thing, it is likely that you do not know the history of it.

If you're a product developer, look at your product from now on, acknowledge its imperfections, and find a way to innovate incrementally. With a down-to-earth step-by-step innovation and improvement, your product will have its own place in the evolution of the Internet.

This article was transferred from the 2012 02 issue of Programmer Magazine

Attached: the author introduces