Narrow demand: The cornerstone of new product projects

For narrow demand, may be a lot of people do not have a clear understanding of the following for you to give an example, there is a time I was fascinated Foursquare, it was after the wall, gradually and cold. Then play open, because with me to play with a few people, gradually and cold. In the last two years, several industry insiders (including my eyes of the industry elite) puzzled asked me: Sign up for a fart mean ah? For a long time, they were still hard to solving. From the data point of view, the pure sign in the domestic is indeed a narrow application, but does not affect its reputation in the industry.

A few months ago, I was impressed by a little thing. A colleague to consult me, asked me to a flagship "illustrated" food to share the views of the product. I looked to say that users take photos of such poor quality, a look will not appetite acridine, this product prospects worrying. The colleague immediately retorted, "No, I this cargo a look at the picture on the index finger big move, but is the general public comments that plain text user evaluation uninteresting."

I was ashamed of his opinion as a user rather than an insider. The old paper is subjective again. The same food photos, I saw the big turnoff, he saw saliva flow, individual difference is extremely distinct. Since wavelength, what qualifications do I have to open the mouth to spray it?

Another small example of "telling jokes" this application, the main "voice jokes UGC." I initially very pessimistic, feel the demand is weak, product personality is not strong enough, especially not intuitive to identify content quality, greatly reducing the efficiency of information screening, fear not long. The result after two or three months a look, hey, it is not only alive, but also emerged out a large number of joke-telling specialist, on average, more than 10 jokes per person, the quality is not low. Although far from the great, at least others stubbornly growing, with a certain amount of high-quality content precipitation.

At this time I went to try to analyze its user mentality, many people do not have the ability to original jokes, but the sound effect is good, vivid to speak out, equivalent to two times, quite a sense of achievement. This batch of the backbone users outside of my expectation, has supported "tells the joke" the blood.

There are a lot of similar scenarios. I used to say that the project of the old paper is not necessarily successful, not optimistic about it must fail. Now dare not open this yellow cavity again. Can only say, I do not optimistic about the project is difficult to grow into the day to visit millions's big products, but to capture the target audience, survival and development may not be a problem. So when others come to consult a new product, I will point out some obvious mishap, but no longer the success or failure, because he is facing the user base, it is likely that I am completely unfamiliar, without understanding.

The internet market is very large, there are a billion of of the population, which is obvious, the common strong user needs have been basically filled. Then go to the pursuit of millions of access-level products, difficult, really difficult, advised you not to be foolish Han. What other common strong demand is you can see, other people can not see, you are satisfied, other people can't?

After 15 years of vigorous development of the Internet, the new product's main character must be personality, including the individuality of the product, the individuality of the demand, the individuality of the user group. Find and flatter your users in areas that are constantly broken down. And 400 million of the population's domestic market, can accommodate thousands of strange personality, whimsical mentality, the diversity of human play incisively and vividly. No one human dare to say that they can understand the market 1/10 of the user needs, precisely this staggered polymorphic, gave the new product survival and development opportunities.

Recently, I increasingly agree with the European and American investment in the field of a popular view, those laoganjuhua investors and entrepreneurs said: "Think clearly to do, do not ask East asked." "Imagine if Crowley had" an open-minded opinion "to determine whether Foursquare was founded, and where there are today's check-in markets. Even after signing up for nearly 3 years, the user group is also less than 10% of the market, which means that you now go to 10 people to talk about geographical registration, 9 people will mercilessly laugh at you, taunt you, hit you. However, Foursquare registered users in June this year has exceeded the 10 million mark.

This case, that is, "ask less, do more" the meaning of the entrepreneurial motto. In the large market of hundreds of millions of users, even very narrow applications have a millions user base. When the entrepreneur makes the preliminary research, unless you ensure that the interview must be the target user, you wavelength, the answer is all misleading. Even if the interview target users, if there is no real application scenarios to inspire, all by brain repair, his answer is also difficult to reliable. It's better to quickly take out prototypes and get them to the market and let the data tell you the answer.

As a result, subjectivity and agility have become the begotten of new product launches. But this golden rule is completely unsuitable for large and medium-sized companies, it is easy to abuse, on a large pile of rotten to unspeakable stink--anyway, he received wages. Only self-responsibility, personal honor and disgrace completely with the project bound entrepreneurial team, only qualified to speak "subjective", speak "agile."

As for the beginning of the personalized application from the narrow audience, whether there is a chance to slowly grow into a tree, it is difficult to say. We cannot pursue "bigger" as a naked product-like the same personalized apps that started out as both Twitter's towering trees and delicious's former stars. Not necessarily two product founder who is better than who, but Twitter just has a stronger appeal and epidemic. But if the founder can not follow their own product inspiration, must care about the height of the ceiling, is likely to accomplish nothing, wasted.

Plainly, this is life. Your lifestyle and knowledge structure determine your inspiration, and the themes and personalities that derive from your inspiration determine the market outlook for your product. The best way to start a business is not to sniff the wind in the market, but to listen to your heart. When hundreds of project teams have strong research and development capabilities that are good for success or failure, it's not your idea, it's strong, it's rich, and it's not that you run fast, you work overtime, you clumsy, you know more about a "narrow market" than anyone else (huo you're not going to find it), that's the key competitive factor.

"The grasp of narrow demand, product inspiration, research and development capabilities," the three chemical reactions that determine the trend of new products. Many people in the industry only attach importance to the latter two, but I think that the first is the cornerstone of new product projects. It depends more on "What kind of person you are"--only from your hobbies, life experiences, and habits, can you really grasp the needs. The so-called people of the beholder, the prostitutes see adultery.

Sigh, this is life.