The reason why innovation seems mysterious, and there is no way to start. If we can master some basic knowledge of innovation, it can still be realized naturally.
Table of contents
- Product Innovation Capability
- The importance of micro-innovation
- law of innovation
- How to innovate efficiently
What are the product innovation techniques
If we want to talk about product innovation, we have to start with the first company when we first practiced.
The company has a clear position of responsibility for the product manager, and I happen to be in charge of the product innovation module. After that, the first official job after graduation (the current company), the first week after joining the company, the boss told me what new products we will make next year. The implication is that we have time to learn more about this area and accumulate more ideas.
It can be seen that most companies that want to go long in the market will continue to invest in the research and development of “new” products. The “new products” mentioned here are not brand new products, but ecological (peripheral) products derived from the company’s core products.
Recently, I have been accumulating knowledge related to new product development. I think that developing new products is not only about understanding the knowledge of the product itself, but also learning product innovation ability and thinking. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to share some product innovation methods and ideas I have learned, and at the same time make a summary of the previous accumulation.
1. Product innovation ability
The Internet is a fast-growing and dynamic industry, with new ideas, new technologies, new models, and new products… emerging continuously.
Therefore, in this industry, if Internet companies want to keep up with the pace of industry development and even lead the development of the entire industry, they must maintain strong competitiveness through continuous innovation. As the core member of the product team and the full-time product manager, the product manager must shoulder the main responsibility of product innovation.
- Create an innovative culture and create an innovative atmosphere.
- When selecting employees, innovation awareness and innovation ability are essential requirements.
- Build a sound innovation system to ensure that you can continuously obtain innovative ideas and put them into practice (Google engineers have 20% of their paid time to test their new ideas, and employees who propose subversive ideas can also get Huge rewards, these policies directly led to the birth of a series of successful products such as Gmail within Google).
2. The importance of micro-innovation
When it comes to product innovation, we naturally think of Apple, and Apple’s products that turn out to make people shine and go crazy for them.
No one can deny that Apple is one of the most innovative companies in the world:
- iPod has changed the rules of the game in the traditional music industry and the way people listen to music;
- The iPhone redefined the mobile phone and opened a new era of smart phones;
- The iPad directly subverts the traditional way of using computers;
- …
Understand and grasp the human needs that others cannot easily perceive, and then create a brand-new product that changes people’s lifestyles. At the same time, create a set of its own game rules, completely subvert the old industrial model, and create a new industrial ecosystem.
This kind of innovation from Apple is subversive, and it will make people feel emotional and excited. It is precisely because this kind of disruptive innovation feels so wonderful to people, so we often fall into a misunderstanding when innovating: blindly pursuing disruptive innovation, always thinking of creating unique and unprecedented killer new products like Apple ; But for the micro-innovation of products, the enthusiasm for investment is obviously insufficient.
At the same time, disruptive innovation also has certain risks. The premise of disruptive innovation must be a deep understanding and grasp of user needs, otherwise it may eventually lead to the demise of the product or company.
The so-called micro-innovation does not meet people’s key needs in a completely new way like subversive innovation, but starts from the details of existing products to provide more novel and flexible functions, so that users can use products more conveniently and more efficiently. Simple.
For example, the “memory last playback location” function of a video website can allow users to automatically locate the playback progress to the last playback location when they re-enter the playback interface of the same video last time, so that users can continue watching the video; including return switching When it comes to menu selection, the video shrinks to a movable pop-up window and so on.
In the design of the background list, due to too many fields, in order to prevent visual dislocation when users browse, the data rows will be filled alternately with gray and white, while the primary key (header) is fixed, and the mouse scrolls the header horizontally (the header is generally a priority comparison High important information) No displacement occurs.
The “smart error correction” function of the input method can match the correct result when the user enters common mistakes, making it easier for the user to obtain the text they want to input.
——These are valuable micro-innovations.
Although the effect of micro-innovation on increasing users’ interest in products is not as obvious as that of disruptive innovation, the significance of micro-innovation to products is no less than those of disruptive innovation.
First of all, micro-innovation can also move users. If we can also focus on the “pain” of users and innovate on the details of products like Apple, then even if these innovations are very small, they may still move users and leave a deep impression on our products .
Secondly, a large number of micro-innovations can also bring obvious differentiated competitive advantages to products. For example, Google and Baidu both do search, and Tencent and NetEase both do games.
In general, product innovation, whether large or small, is valuable to a product.
Disruptive innovations can make products stand out and quickly emerge in the market; micro-innovations, if they can meet the needs of users, can often bring small surprises to users and make users feel good about the product.
Although the effect of each micro-innovation on enhancing product value is not obvious, when these micro-innovations accumulate to a certain order of magnitude, they can also significantly enhance the competitive advantage of the product.
3. The law of innovation
Innovation is the result of long-term professional thinking
Many of us have had the experience of thinking about one thing over and over again, desperately searching for new ideas in our brains, but we can’t find any results. But when we stopped thinking about doing another thing, a flash of light flashed in our minds, and an exciting idea was born out of the blue.
Innovation is more likely to be induced in some suitable situations
One situation is when our body and mind are sufficiently relaxed. For example, before we go to sleep, when we just wake up, while walking, while listening to music, while taking a shower… the inspiration for innovation often flashes inadvertently.
Another situation is when we are in a tense or critical situation. In some critical moments, we force ourselves to calm down and think calmly, and we are often able to miraculously and quickly find solutions to the problems we face. This is what we often call “getting wisdom out of haste”.
The inspiration for innovation is often inspired by other things
If we often think about problems in a certain field, when we come into contact with something related to the problem we are thinking about, these things are likely to inspire our thinking and bring us inspiration.
Many good ideas are not thought of in one step
For example, the birth of GPS was basically the launch of the first artificial satellite, from which the Doppler effect was discovered. Later, someone proposed to measure the position of the receiver on the ground according to the position of the satellite. Finally, the Global Positioning System (GPS) was born based on this theory. ).
4. How to innovate efficiently
Continuing to accumulate experience and knowledge
The experience and knowledge possessed by an innovator are directly related to the achievements he can create. The richer the product manager’s experience and knowledge in the field of Internet products, the greater his chances of obtaining innovative inspiration, which is reflected in two aspects: one is the understanding of user needs; the other is the understanding of product principles.
Think more actively
Innovative ideas don’t come automatically, they are the result of our long-term thinking. If a product manager wants to have more innovative results, he must give full play to his subjective initiative and devote more passion and sweat to thinking.
Find the right context for innovation
Our innovation efficiency in certain situations will be much higher than usual, so it is feasible to improve the efficiency of innovation by allowing ourselves to think in suitable situations. For example, a small room that is not disturbed by the outside world, thinking while taking a walk at night, taking a bus around the city, sitting in the back seat, and then letting your thoughts fly freely.
Not easy to criticize and deny
In the process of innovation, we often easily dismiss some ideas based on experience. The more experienced the person, the more likely this is, because he will be sure that his judgment is correct, and doing so will save time.
But in fact, this habit is very detrimental to innovative work. First, experience often misleads us. Secondly, many good ideas are not thought of completely at once, they are often extracted from some ideas that seem immature or inconspicuous on the surface.
Make full use of external information
If we pay a little attention, we will find that apart from part of our inspiration comes from independent thinking, a large part of it is born in some daily meetings. When a group of people gathers to share their latest information and insights, we are often inspired by others to come up with new ideas.
Learn to “imitate and improve”
We are eager to innovate, but innovation is really difficult. Unless we’re as gifted and hardworking as Edison, we’re going to have very few good ideas. As Jobs said, “Good artists copy; Great artists steal” (a craftsman can imitate his form, a craftsman can steal his soul).
5. What product innovation techniques are there?
Addition and Subtraction
Addition and subtraction are by increasing the attribute value of a certain attribute of an existing thing, making it more, longer, bigger, faster…or reducing the attribute value of a certain attribute of an existing thing, making it less, faster Short, small, slow… an innovative technique that makes a big difference to existing things.
For example, the ipad was born after the birth of the iphone, and the difference between the two may be the difference in screen size. Another example is Path, which only does “private network” social networking, with a limit of 150 friends.
Alternative
The substitution method is an innovative technique that replaces the old elements (functions, methods, principles, components, shapes, materials, etc.) of existing things with new elements, so as to make the original things produce new effects. For example, WeChat’s voice communication replaces text communication, Taobao’s image search product, new human-computer interaction method: voice control interface…
Combination method
Combination method is to skillfully combine two or more existing elements (functions, methods, principles, components, shapes, materials, etc.) to produce new things or to make original things produce new effects. An innovative technique. For example, the combination of a card machine and a SLR gave birth to a mirrorless camera.
Reverse method
The reverse method is an innovative technique to solve problems from the opposite angle to conventional thinking, so as to make the original things produce refreshing effects. For example, under the market trend of mobile phones with more and more functions, in the opposite direction, mobile phones with single functions can be launched to target the elderly market.
The reason why innovation is difficult is because it looks mysterious and mysterious, which makes people feel that there is no way to start.
If we can master some basic knowledge of innovation, innovation can still be realized naturally. The key lies in whether we can correct the attitude of innovation, follow the general laws of innovation, and master certain innovation skills.
