The Truth of Good Products

Original

Some time ago, I attended a lecture where the lecturer posed a question: "What kind of product do you think is a good product?" The audience had various opinions. Someone answered, "A product that can make money is a good product." Some people would say, "A product that can solve users' practical problems is a good product." Today, I'm going to share my understanding of good products.

I. Demand Insight: Don't Be a Self-Indulgent Player

Some companies always have this mysterious self-confidence, thinking "Users need this." Once, a company launched a "smart refrigerator" that claimed it could automatically identify the shelf life of food through a built-in camera and sensors and remind users via Wi-Fi. It sounded cool, but the actual usage scenario was rather awkward: users needed to connect to the internet frequently to update data, and the camera in the refrigerator might also raise privacy concerns.

Good products should find inspiration in daily life. Demands are like onions that need to be peeled layer by layer:

• The first layer is functionality: A mobile phone should be able to make calls.
• The second layer is emotion: People feel happy when their selfies make them look slimmer.
• The third layer is values: Using a mobile phone makes me feel like I'm supporting domestic products and contributing to national brands.

When the Airbnb team was just starting out, they found that despite the platform's launch, user growth was extremely slow. Through research, the team realized that the root of the problem was that many landlords uploaded poor-quality photos, making listings less attractive. So, they decided to visit several popular cities and take high-quality photos for landlords free of charge. This measure not only enhanced the attractiveness of the listings but also made users feel the Airbnb team's emphasis on user experience. Subsequently, the number of Airbnb users began to grow rapidly, quickly breaking through the one-million mark from the initial few thousand users.

Many products are addicted to "function addition," but they forget that users really need the "philosophy of subtraction." When Apple launched the iPhone, it gave up the traditional keyboard design and adopted a full-touch screen operation instead. This design was questioned by many people at the time, but Apple firmly believed that users needed a simple, easy-to-use, and powerful mobile phone. As it turned out, the perfect combination of the iPhone's simple design and powerful functions completely changed the smartphone market and made Apple one of the most valuable brands in the world.

Wang Chunsheng, the founder of the ZenTao project management software, once pointed out that many enterprises have their own management specifications, processes, and some terms specific to their industries. From the perspective of enterprise managers, they definitely hope that a software can perfectly match their current situation, but this is unrealistic and wrong. What a product should do is to have a certain degree of flexibility in product design, be able to deal with various management scenarios, and meet the personalized needs of enterprises as much as possible.

For example, there are many relationships between products and projects in ZenTao. Some products are divided into multiple projects for development, and some projects are associated with multiple products. These scenarios need to be considered when designing functions. In addition, ZenTao also provides many functions for personalized definition. For example, some concepts can be changed by modifying language items. Furthermore, it also provides a workflow function, which can help customers make some personalized configurations. After 16 years of perseverance, it has gradually won the praise of millions of customers.

The success of Airbnb, Apple, and ZenTao all prove one point: The most effective verification method is often the most primitive, directly letting users say "I want it" instead of letting engineers say "I can do it." Whether it is a hardware product, an internet platform, or a software tool, only by truly thinking from the user's perspective can we avoid being "self-indulgent" and win market recognition.

II. Experience Design: From Usable, Easy-to-Use to Wanting to Use More

The experience of a good product is like falling in love, gradually deepening from the initial acquaintance to the final companionship. Take Xiaomi as an example. Xiaomi's smart ecosystem exemplifies this kind of experience design. Through carefully designed products and services, it enables users to go from "usable" to "indispensable," ultimately forming extremely high user loyalty.

Stage 1: Usable Is Enough

When most people first encounter Xiaomi products, they usually think "usable is enough." For example, the core function of the Xiaomi Mi Band is health monitoring, including recording heart rate, sleep, and exercise data. As an entry-level smart wearable device, the Xiaomi Mi Band, with its accurate sensors and stable connection performance, allows users to keep track of their health status at any time. The Xiaomi smart speaker is characterized by its simplicity and reliability. It can play music clearly, support multiple audio formats, and easily connect to devices via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, making users feel its practicality. The reliability of these basic functions helps users build initial trust in Xiaomi products.

Stage 2: Using It Well

When users are satisfied with the basic functions of a product, they begin to pursue a better user experience. Xiaomi excels at this stage. Xiaomi's smart home appliances enhance the user experience through intelligent design. For example, Xiaomi's smart robot vacuum cleaner can be remotely controlled via a mobile phone app. Users can start or pause the cleaning task anytime and anywhere, and it can automatically plan the cleaning path to avoid repeated cleaning or missed areas. This intelligent experience makes using Xiaomi products both convenient and pleasurable. Xiaomi's smart audio glasses are not only smaller and more comfortable to wear but also improve audio performance through an optimized acoustic structure and intelligent call noise reduction. Additionally, their privacy mode and long battery life further meet users' needs.

Stage 3: Can't Live Without You

As users grow accustomed to the good experience of Xiaomi products, they gradually become dependent on Xiaomi's ecosystem, which spans multiple fields, including smartphones, smart home appliances, and smart wearable devices. Xiaomi's smart ecosystem also achieves seamless device interconnection through the "Mi Home" app. Users can turn on the air conditioner at home via the "Mi Home" app on their way home from work and adjust the indoor temperature in advance, or turn off all smart devices through voice commands before going to bed. This seamless device collaboration and intelligent control make users feel the ultimate "can't live without you" experience. This is how Xiaomi's products gradually "win over" users. Initially, users just want the products to be usable; later, they find them particularly easy to use; and finally, they realize they can't live without them. Xiaomi's success lies in not only meeting users' basic needs but also creating pleasure and dependence through continuous optimization and innovation.

III. Value Creation: Making Money Is Not the Only Answer

For Generation Z, sometimes the values of a product are more important than its price. Good products must learn to "make money with values." Generation Z grew up in an era of information overload. The widespread use of the internet allows them to quickly access a wide range of ideas and concepts. This makes them more attentive to macro issues such as social issues, environmental protection, fairness, and justice, and they desire to express their support for these values through their consumption behavior. When a product resonates with users' values, it builds a solid emotional bridge between the brand and users. This connection is not short-term or based on material interests, but deep and lasting.

In the field of project management, ZenTao project management software has won users' recognition with its product values of "not flattering superiors, not pandering to the vulgar, but only seeking truth," as well as its functional design. Since its inception in 2009, ZenTao has always pursued an independent R&D path, insisted on thinking from scratch, maintained a keen insight and independent judgment of the product, and never blindly imitated established management software models. It solves users' pain points through real and effective functional design, transforming complex project management logic into simple and efficient tools. At the same time, it provides in-depth solutions based on users' actual scenarios, rather than simply catering to demands, and has earned the praise of over one million teams. A good product combines the depth of demand insight, the warmth of experience design, the strength of value resonance, and the height of the user perspective.