The difference between product thinking and technology thinking
"The same is for a demand service, what is the thinking of the product **" **
01 Preface
Designing a brand-new product from scratch. In fact, the preliminary work basically does not need to worry about programmers. The work begins by the product manager and the customer for preliminary communication and design. The product manager mentioned here is actually a name, not a real manager position. Generally speaking, Party A puts forward the preliminary requirements, and then the product manager preliminarily designs the product drawings. If it is rigorous, it will generally conduct further communication with the customer to determine the first version.
In fact, no matter what step is taken, communication is a key skill point. Through effective communication, both parties can design the product within an acceptable range, which is the real way to make the product successfully land. The product manager is actually a position with a large number of design business parties. It is not just what we imagine is only dealing with programmers and party A. In addition to efficient communication, your skills are also very necessary.
02 Product Thinking
We may often see the fight between products and R & D. In fact, this can be effectively solved, but it may be that for some reason, invalid communication has occurred. Next, let me talk about why this is so.
First of all, the starting point of the product manager is to realize the demand plan of Party A, and it will keep tracking the customer's needs throughout the life cycle of the project. In fact, we can be understood as the product monitoring party. In fact, at first glance, this is very similar to the starting point of the programmer, so it is not a fight. Although the same, the starting point of the product is based on product thinking, so what is product thinking? In general, it can start from the following three points:
- User value
- scenes to be used
- commercial value
The first is user value. In layman's terms, this product is developed and useful to users. That is, the product can effectively solve the user's pain point. If the user's pain point can be solved, then your product is naturally used by someone, of course, through the later operation and promotion level. Take our great product WeChat as an example. First of all, WeChat solves many user pain points, such as free real-time chat, WeChat transfer, and entertainment (circle of friends). These are great ideas. If you do n’t have the chat function, everyone may communicate by texting / calling, which is inconvenient and inefficient. So when we solve the user's pain points, someone will naturally use your product, and your user value will be realized.
Use scenarios refer to the scenarios under which this product is suitable for use, such as mini-program games, which allow people to spend their leisure time or boredom to meet people's daily needs. For example, the Sui Kang small program launched during the epidemic can satisfy people to make appointments for masks and report health information, and can be used in specific scenarios. Therefore, the birth of a product needs to be combined with the aspect of the use scenario and directed research and development.
Commercial value, many people may think that the user value mentioned above is the same as commercial value, but it is not. First of all, user value is a value that users are looking for to meet their needs, including the user's expected demand, quality demand, price demand and other related factors. If there is a factor that does not meet the expectations of users, then the user value of this product may be reduced, resulting in a reduction in commercial value.
For example, in the early days, we would all use Baidu search engine, but because most of its search engine content is not what we want, it is mostly advertising. So the first issue highlighted here is the lack of user value, focusing only on commercial value greater than user value. So we may be looking for another alternative, such as Bing and Google. According to common sense, when the number of general users reaches a certain level, the product will consider to realize its commercial value, such as advertising and other commercial interests. First of all, Baidu is a very typical example, and now WeChat Moments has also started advertising, which is also a way to achieve commercial value. But now that the public may not find a better alternative than WeChat, there is basically no impact.
03 Technical thinking
Unlike product thinking, which focuses on perceptual thinking, technical thinking is more important to focus on the realization of the product itself. To put it simply, the product's emphasis is on perceptual thinking, business value, and user experience. Technical thinking starts from the bottom of the technology and focuses on product development, which is driven by a rational thinking.
So from a programmer's perspective, the main concerns are the following:
- Technical framework and principles
- Feasibility Analysis
- research period
The choice of technical framework is generally selected by a software architect. After weighing various considerations, the tool used is also to see whether there are defects or whether the community feedback is reasonable and other factors. For example, most of the technologies we use to develop a software use open source frameworks / component libraries to reduce the writing of our business. The selection criteria generally look at whether this framework can meet our needs and whether we can have technical support if we encounter problems. (Is the ecology / community perfect) etc. Generally speaking, once you choose a model, don't change it. Model selection is the basis. Just like you build a building, it is difficult to change the foundation, so the selection is carefully decided after discussion.
The product will have a demand analysis design book, which includes the expected functions that need to be implemented, and the interactive functions of the product. We can achieve it when we need to evaluate it. For example, the need to change the theme according to the color of the user's phone case cannot be realized. The programmer conducts a comprehensive evaluation of each item's requirements, determines the feasibility, and then feeds it back to the product.
The last one is the R & D cycle. It takes a month to join the R & D evaluation of the product. How can you get me to deliver the goods within a week? Unless the money is in place.
to sum up:
After the above analysis, we know that although the starting point of the two is the same, the way of thinking is indeed different, which leads to our communication may be a bit difficult. Product managers have more perceptual assessments, while programmers are rationally analyzing each problem and demand with a rigorous attitude.
04 Summary
Above we introduced the difference between product thinking and technical thinking. From a macro perspective, product development has a preliminary stage, mainly product managers and customers communicate and design, and then write a report; the mid-term mainly by technical staff Operation, the realization of the product through coding; and the later stage is the stage of operation and promotion, as well as the maintenance of the product.
After understanding everyone's division of labor, we have a clear understanding of the entire process. If there is a problem, we can quickly locate which link is the problem. In general, product thinking and technical thinking complement each other, and can create a product with high quality.
