3 key words to teach you how to create a hit product!

It is difficult to create a hit product, but we have a way.

Without further ado, let’s get straight to the point.

The following content comes from the thoughts of Dr. Hong Hua, founder of the Granary New National Products Research Institute, which specifically includes 9 dimensions for making explosive products, 6 pitfall avoidance guides, and 3 keywords.

The article is very long, so you can save it and then find a quiet time to read it in detail.

9 dimensions to create explosive products:

• Create different categories
• Different user scenarios and pain points
• Different value points
• Different designs
• Different supply chains
• Different technical routes
• Different traffic occupation
• Different ecosystems join
• Different team building

6 tips to avoid pitfalls:

• Select the category of hot spot
• Find the right pain points
• Consolidate strong value points
• Understand the new traffic strategy
• Appearance is productivity
• Supply chain and quality keep up

3 keywords:

• Precision (precise users, precise scenarios, precise pain points)
• Unique (having perceptible, differentiated, strong value points)
• Efficient (user involvement, data-driven)

The following are specific:

9 dimensions to create a hit product

1. Create different categories

Creating different categories means exploring more pain point demands on the original track and entering into new categories.

Taking the women's underwear market as an example, traditional underwear brands such as Victoria's Secret, Cosmo Beauty, Maniform, and Aimer have long occupied people's vision with their main themes such as "sexy" and "gathering".

However, with the development of the economy and the awakening of women's independent consciousness, "comfort" and "freedom" have become synonymous with women's clothing, and underwear is developing towards "wireless".

The most obvious sign is that the fast fashion brand Uniqlo defeated Wacoal's star "gathering" product with its "wireless" underwear, and the underwear revolution officially began.

"No underwire" and "no size" are becoming new labels for underwear, and new brands such as Bananain, Neiwai, Ubras, and Sujira have been born.

Underwear is a traditional large category, and the market is highly competitive, so there are not many opportunities left.

"No underwire" and "no size" are new product categories. Underwear is still "underwear", but it is a new product category that is more in line with women's needs and consumption trends.

2. Different user scenarios and pain points

Different user scenarios and pain points refer to the needs and pain points of the same user in different scenarios, from which different products can be derived.

Shaving is a common scene in men's life. This scene mostly happens at home. Men's requirements for razors are that they shave cleanly and are easy to operate, etc., and they don't pay attention to other things.

However, many men travel frequently on business trips, and the razors they often use at home are often large and bulky, with short battery life, etc., which cannot meet their needs when on a business trip.

Xumei Technology has launched a portable electric shaver that targets the differentiated "travel" scenario.

First of all, this shaver is small in size and will not take up extra luggage space. It can even be put in a pocket. Secondly, it is light in weight. At 130 grams, it is not even heavier than a small-screen mobile phone. The MicroUSB interface on the body can be charged with a power bank, laptop, etc. to ensure battery life.

We have always known that different user groups have different needs, but we must know that even the same user will have different needs for a product in different scenarios. This is what we need to pay attention to.

3. Different value points

Different value points are different selling points of products. Even the same product can create different values.

Taking sweeping in common life scenarios as an example, Xiaomi's first generation of sweeping robots focuses on extreme sweeping scenarios. Its body is convenient and flexible, cleans thoroughly, and is quite popular.

The second generation is the sweeping and mopping robot launched by Roborock Technology, which is equipped with a water tank and a mop, and can perform deep cleaning after sweeping the floor.

The water tank has been specially designed to automatically control the water output, allowing continuous wet mopping for more than 40 minutes. Moreover, the machine will only release water when it is moving, and water will not overflow if the mop is not moving.

This year, a new product has appeared on the market, the Tineco smart steam floor cleaner, the Fuwan Steam, a steam floor cleaner that integrates "vacuum cleaner + floor scrubber + steam mop" into one.

There are many methods for dealing with dry garbage and wet garbage. Dry garbage is mainly cleaned at one time through "suction + wet mopping", and wet garbage is cleaned up with solid garbage first, and then the water marks are wiped off with a mop.

In addition to using high temperature for disinfection, the steam floor washing mode can also use high-temperature steam to dissolve pollutants such as grease on the floor, making it a good cleaning helper for the kitchen.

From sweeping and mopping to steam floor washing, these are three different value points, corresponding to three types of people in the market.

4. Different designs

Different designs mean winning with design and standing out among similar products.

It is not easy to stand out in a relatively fixed category. For example, for radios and electric cars, users have already accepted that their only functions are listening to programs and short-distance transportation, and these functions are highly homogenized.

But some products that were relatively well made, such as Elvis’ radio and Niu’s electric car, broke through the siege.

An important reason for the popularity of Elvis Radio is that it captures the "retro culture". Firstly, the machine parts use vacuum tubes and original devices from the 1950s, ensuring the retro sound. Secondly, the aesthetic and minimalist design captures the hearts of today's young people.

Niu also uses "appearance" as its attraction, with a fully enclosed body and minimalist color scheme. The headlights are large circles or rectangles, which users call angel eyes or fluorescent lights. The design language is rich and is known as the "Apple style" among electric vehicles.

Radios and electric cars are relatively far away from today's young people. The former seems to be eliminated, and the latter is on the verge of elimination.

However, the two companies can still fight back by relying on design and "appearance". It has to be said that design is very important in products. Only the aesthetics that "capture young people" can capture young people.

5. Different supply chains

A different supply chain refers to cooperating with higher-quality supply chain companies to improve the overall quality of products.

Xiaobei Technology is an example worth learning. When Xiaobei Technology decided to make toothbrushes, it has been looking for a definition of what kind of toothbrush is a good toothbrush.

The final answer is that a good toothbrush must first have good bristles, and secondly, a good structure, and be suitable for scientific brushing methods such as Bass brushing.

When it comes to solving the most important problem of brushing wire, domestic OEM companies seem to be relatively rudimentary and have not done much research in this area.

Finally, the company found the source of the raw materials for the brush wires, the best brush wire company - Toray. Here is a little knowledge: the traditional brush wire material is nylon, which is of equal thickness at the top and bottom and rounded at the top. With the development of people's understanding of oral care, Japan's Toray invented the PBT sharpened wire technology.

PBT pointed wire is currently the mainstream material for toothbrush filaments. As the inventor, Toray's filaments are of the best quality and are also the most expensive.

Xiaobei Technology has reached cooperation with Toray in various ways and produced toothbrushes of quasi-medical standards, which is rare in China.

Therefore, when we make products, we reflect on whether there is better quality in our supply chain and whether we have the possibility to surpass our competitors in this regard.

6. Different technical routes

A different technical route is to adopt a completely new technical method that is different from others, so as to achieve better product performance.

Taking Xiaomi's air purifier as an example, the plate structure commonly used in the industry adopts a composite filtration system. This system can only purify large particle pollutants such as dust in the air, and cannot effectively remove invisible harmful substances such as bacteria and viruses because the filtration level is not perfect.

Xiaomi air purifier adopts a "tower structure" and uses graded independent filters. The air enters from the bottom and exits from the top. The polluted air has to pass through a multi-stage filtration duct of about 1 meter, which effectively solves the "roughness" problem of the plate structure.

Xiaomi's product started with new technology, improved the defects of the original product, and became a hit product.

When we are making products, we need to consider whether there are bugs in existing products and whether we can use technology to make breakthroughs.

7. Different traffic occupation

Different traffic occupation refers to occupying new traffic outlets and taking the route of "surrounding the cities from the countryside".

New traffic platforms refer to Xiaohongshu, Douyin, Bilibili, Kuaishou, Zhihu, etc. The characteristics of these platforms are that the user groups are young, active, interactive, and quick to accept new things.

Big brands have an advantage in traditional media channels such as television and subways. New brands are naturally at a disadvantage in terms of financial resources and strategies, but new traffic platforms can help establish the earliest brand awareness.

Through KOC, KOL, user evaluation and other methods, and through pictures, texts and videos, we "plant grass" to other users and establish a brand base. Such brands include Perfect Diary, Yuanqi Forest, Santonban, Ramen Says, etc.

This type of new traffic platform, whether in terms of user groups or communication trends, represents the direction of the future.

When we are making products, if we cannot compete with the large traffic platforms, we might as well enter from the new traffic platforms and occupy the new traffic platforms.

8. Different ecosystems join

Joining different ecosystems means joining different ecosystems and obtaining the synergistic empowerment of the ecosystem.

Internet companies have basically established their own ecosystems, including Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance. The entire ecosystem grows in a cycle, and its members grow along with the ecosystem.

The manufacturing industry has the Xiaomi ecological chain. Xiaomi has established many "brother enterprises" through investment without controlling shares. The companies that have joined the Xiaomi ecological chain have achieved a leap in production and sales with the help of Xiaomi's channels and quality control. Xiaomi relies on its "brother enterprises" to gain a foothold in more fields.

For manufacturing companies, the production, supply chain, brand, operation and other links are long, and there are many links that can be optimized compared to other industries. Joining different ecosystems and obtaining empowerment support from the ecosystem is a good way.

When we run a business and develop products, we need to consider whether to join the ecosystem of a large platform, obtain resources and support, and find brand endorsement faster than our competitors.

9. Different team building

Different team shaping refers to team genes and team division of labor. Teams with different genes doing the same thing may also achieve dimensionality reduction.

Using "AI data + artificial intelligence" to make insoles seems incredible, but it does happen, and there are already several such teams on the market.

Through gait analysis, we produce insoles with biomechanical correction function to help consumers relieve knee pain, scoliosis and other symptoms caused by foot problems such as splayed gait, long and short legs, flat feet, and hallux valgus.

The team is composed of personnel with expertise in algorithms, data, medicine, sports mechanics, sensors, etc. Such a team making insoles is a dimensionality reduction attack on traditional insoles.

There are many examples in history of high-dimensional teams defeating low-dimensional teams. Members of Xiaomi's mobile power bank team came from the mobile phone battery field, the founding team of Yuanqi Forest came from the gaming field, and Luckin's team came from Shenzhou Rent-A-Car.

High-dimensional teams have a natural advantage in defeating low-dimensional teams. When we build products and run businesses, we need to see if there are opportunities to defeat low-dimensional teams. At the same time, we must be vigilant about whether we will be defeated by high-dimensional teams that we do not understand.

The essence of an enterprise is innovation, and the essence of an entrepreneur is to create a "new combination" of economic elements. Due to the limitations of economic development and human cognition, innovation and continuous innovation are very difficult things.

Gu Cang believes that based on a systematic analysis of the enterprise’s development stage, if an enterprise can achieve innovation in one or two aspects corresponding to the above nine dimensions, it will be a revolutionary change.

In daily operations, we must always compare, be prepared for danger in times of peace, and maintain a mindset of "innovation" and "doing things differently". After all, only innovation can bring excess profits.

When making a hit product, don’t fall into these 6 misunderstandings

1. Wrong product category

When entrepreneurial teams choose product categories, they are particularly prone to falling into the small and beautiful trap. Some categories seem to be unable to grow. The product may sell for millions, but the company will not be able to survive. For example, a team made a folding clothes dryer for people on business trips. There is indeed a small number of people who need to dry their underwear quickly, but from the perspective of market capacity, it is a very niche market and belongs to a category that will not grow.

One of my main jobs in the barn is to help students entering the acceleration camp to check the direction and ensure that everyone does not go astray.

Hard work is important, but choice is more important. In terms of category selection, we give you a reference standard:

. Total market capacity 5 billion to 20 billion

(It is not recommended to do this for products worth 100 billion yuan)

. The three-year compound growth rate exceeds 30%

. The market share of the industry's leading brand does not exceed 10%

(The barn calls it the Ant Market)

. Net profit margin is not less than 8%

It would be best if all four conditions are met; if three out of the four conditions are met, you can do it; if only two out of the four conditions are met, you have to weigh the pros and cons of whether to do it or not.

2. False demand

If the demand is misjudged, all subsequent R&D, design and production investments will be in vain. Demand judgment errors can be divided into the following situations:

The demand does not exist. A classmate plans to make a product and put it in the bedroom, integrating the ceiling lamp and the projector together. It can be used as a lamp at ordinary times and can be used to watch movies while lying down. It sounds romantic, but it's not true. The reality is that most couples now lie in bed, each holding their phones and watching TikTok. We cannot fabricate demands. Such false demands can be eliminated as long as you conduct user research carefully.

There is demand but no willingness to pay. One time I saw a product called Huaping in a shopping mall. You can think of it as a large electronic photo frame. The display effect is very good, and it contains famous paintings from museums. At first glance, you may think it is good and hang it on the wall at home to let your children be exposed to art. When you see that the smallest size costs 1,500 yuan, you will be discouraged and find all kinds of reasons not to buy it, such as it is bad for children's eyes to look at the screen too much.

Unmet needs. For example, many people suffer from insomnia, which is indeed a big pain point. However, since the causes of insomnia vary from person to person, it is difficult to solve everyone's insomnia problem with a unified solution, and existing technology cannot solve it for the time being.

3. Lack of strong value points

It is not necessary to cover everything when defining a product; the key is to have strong value points. If the products we make are no different from those of our competitors, they will easily be lost in the ocean of products. Only new products with strong value points can stand out.

There are three requirements for strong value points:

First of all, it has value. In other words, the product can really solve the user's problem. We must first stick to the basics and then be innovative. The purpose of a rice cooker is to cook rice thoroughly, make it fragrant, and bring out the flavor of my mother’s rice; the purpose of an air purifier is to purify the air in your home quickly and efficiently. This is plain language, but some startup teams will go around these orthodox functions and try to achieve a surprise victory, which often turns into gimmicks that users will not buy at all. Think clearly about the tasks that the product is supposed to accomplish.

The second is perceptible. If a product has value but users cannot perceive it, there will be problems. Take Nike's air cushion shoes as an example. They were developed in the 1970s, but due to the limitations of the technology at the time, the air cushion was buried in the sole and users could not see it at all. They were not popular until the late 1980s when a small window was opened on the side of the sole so that users could see the air cushion at a glance. Then they became popular. Since users cannot perceive the value of many cosmetics and daily chemical products, we have to spend a lot of money on advertising to "educate" users. The cost of user education is expensive, and sometimes users do not accept your so-called education.

Finally, the difference is huge. When users buy things, they compare prices from three different stores, and only the one with differences can win. Take the gel pens in the stationery field as an example. It is a red ocean. Xiaomi launched a gel pen called "Junengxie", and millions of them were sold out in stock. What's different about this pen? It turns the outer shell directly into an ink container, the ink capacity is several times larger, and one stick can replace four sticks.

(Xiaomi Giant Writing Multi-Color Gel Pen)

4. Not knowing how to sell products, especially not knowing how to sell e-commerce and traffic

If you have products but lack sales capabilities, you will end up with nothing but inventory in your hands and be suffocated to death.

This is often a big problem in startup teams composed mainly of engineers and designers. Another thing is that many traditional brand companies only know how to distribute products offline and do not understand the new strategies of e-commerce and traffic. Wherever users spend their time, there is traffic. You need to keep up with the changes in traffic. You should enter new traffic platforms such as live streaming, short videos, Xiaohongshu, and Bilibili as early as possible.

5. The appearance is too low and the user experience is not up to standard

This generation of new users believes that appearance is justice. If your appearance is not up to standard, users won’t even look at you. So the reason behind appearance is attention. If you are good-looking, users will look at you more. If you are extremely good-looking, users will click on your details page to see it.

User experience is also very important. The younger generation of users may not have used an iPhone, but they have at least used Xiaomi or Huawei phones. The user experience level of the entire mobile phone industry is very high. Mobile phones have raised the user experience standards for the new generation of users, and they will use the same standards when purchasing other products. If your product has a bad user experience and slow feedback, users will never buy your product.

Many companies have good design teams, but their product appearance and user experience are not up to standard, which is a very paradoxical problem. Later, I discovered that the final design plan was decided by the company's boss, who was of a certain age, born in an era of material scarcity, and had not received corresponding aesthetic education. He had no judgment on the quality of the design, and as a result, he often chose the worst plan.

The boss is the biggest bottleneck in the appearance of the company's products. Bosses who have no aesthetic ability and do not understand design should take this as a warning. Professional matters should be left to professionals to make decisions.

6. Supply chain and quality cannot keep up

To make consumer upgrading products, it is impossible without good core materials and core components. At this time, the level of the supply chain becomes the decisive factor. If you settle, you won’t be able to make a good product.

The Barn has incubated many consumer upgrade products. The most painful part is that many domestic factories cannot meet our requirements, so we can only look abroad. For example, Xiaobei Technology, the first company incubated by the Barn, makes toothbrush products, and the bristles used are from Japan's Toray; the blade heads and blade nets of the eyebrow razor team are developed in cooperation with Hitachi.

Problems with the supply chain and quality are partly due to the factory itself, but the other part that is more easily overlooked is DFMA (Design for Manufacturing and Assembly). This means that when you are making a plan, you have to consider manufacturing and assembly so that quality can be guaranteed and costs can be controlled.

Three key words to create a hit product

1. Accuracy

Precise users, precise scenarios, precise pain points

In the past, the vast majority of Chinese companies were product-oriented. For example, when we described a company, we would say it was a mobile phone company, a computer company, or a real estate company.

In this era, we must be user-centric, which means you must shift your starting point from product to user. Don’t just say that your product is great or your technology is great. If it doesn’t meet user needs and has no application scenarios, no matter how great it is, it will be useless.

Companies cannot be too scattershot when making products. They always think that their products can be used by everyone from 8 to 80 years old, or they say that their products are aimed at white-collar workers and high-end people, which is very general.

This era emphasizes precise users, precise scenarios and precise pain points.

Let’s take the example of Xumei Technology, a company that our barn helped to incubate. It makes portable electric shavers. The electric shaver market is actually a red ocean. Xumei's shavers are specifically aimed at the needs of business people who use shavers when traveling, such as small size and long standby time.

So we made a razor like this, which is very small, only the size of a bank card, uses a Type-C interface, and can share a charger with a mobile phone, so it becomes the best choice for business people on business trips.

This example shows that product making requires precision. Only with precision can you make a breakthrough, because in our era most categories are red oceans. If you want to find a blue ocean in the red ocean, the best way is to identify precise users, precise scenarios, and precise pain points.

2. Unique

Have strong value points that are perceptible and differentiated

Unique means that your product must have unique value points.

This value point must not only be different from competitors' products, but also be intuitively perceived by users. The Barn has incubated a printer project. The printer category is of course a red ocean. So how can we make a big difference in printers and how can we make their value points perceptible?

The teacher will send the students' homework to the parents, and the parents can print it out with just a click on WeChat, which allows users to clearly feel its convenience.

For example, normally the ink in the printer will dry up easily and the printer cannot print, and the ink tank is also relatively small. We made the ink tank of the printer larger and it can be used for two years without any problems. This creates a strong differentiation from competitors, and its value points can also be directly perceived by users.

Another example is the connection of printers. Many printers on the market claim to be smart printers, but they often cannot be connected during use. We have also solved this problem and they can be connected with just one click.

Strong value points that are perceptible and differentiated are extremely important.

If your product has value but users cannot perceive it, you can often only rely on bragging and spending marketing money. We can see that the value of many daily chemical products is that users have no idea whether they are effective after using them, and they can only rely on advertising. Once the advertising stops, sales will be gone.

Perceptibly, it can be summarized in three sentences:

Seeing is believing before sale, seeing the benefits and results during use, making the communication vivid.

For example, there is a brand that makes brown sugar ginger tea. Before selling, it will show it to consumers through live broadcasts and short videos. It will first tell consumers that pure brown sugar is yellow and impure brown sugar is red.

He can make two cups of brown sugar and show them to consumers. One cup of brown sugar is very pure, yellow, without impurities, and very clear and transparent. The other cup is red, a little turbid, and has sediment. This gives consumers a see-is-belt effect before purchase.

Seeing benefits and effects during use means that a product allows users to really feel the benefits and effects when using it. For example, Xiaomi's Mijia automatic hand sanitizer machine will produce foam as soon as you stretch out your hand, without any contact, and the bubbles are particularly fine, which users can see and touch.

Communication that is vivid means that users can express their feelings in words and tell others.

3. Efficiency

User participation, data driven

Efficiency refers to efficiency in marketing.

How to be efficient?

Directional errors are the biggest killer of efficiency. An important reason for ineffective marketing is that our products do not meet user needs. It is dangerous to work in isolation. If you focus on developing a product and then launch it a year later, but it is not recognized by users, then your efforts are in vain.

The key word here is "sense of participation".

When you define the product, you should let some angel users participate in your definition and solicit their opinions. Then, during the step-by-step development of the product, you should allow users to participate. In this way, your product will be more accurate and your efficiency will be higher.

You must be open in your R&D and not work behind closed doors. You must allow users to participate in your polishing and R&D process. Especially some angel users, they can provide constructive suggestions. This approach can help you avoid detours. Xiaomi’s early success was inseparable from this method.

Once users are involved, they will take the initiative to help you spread your product.

There is another important word, data-driven.

A lot of marketing nowadays is just thought up on the spur of the moment. How to place the ads and how much money the channels will cost were all figured out on the spur of the moment. You can’t make accurate decisions based on your own guesswork. You must be data-driven and pay attention to the ROI of your investment, which is the so-called return on investment.

For example, if you want to invest money in a channel, you should first use a small amount of money to conduct a test. If the test is successful, then expand it. If you think the conversion rate is not good, then make optimization adjustments.

Let’s take Yuanqi Forest as an example. The boss of Yuanqi Forest is not from the beverage industry, but from the gaming industry. How can he be in the beverage industry? Why can we make good drinks? It is data-driven, selling beverages in the same way as selling games, looking at the data and the ROI. This is something traditional companies need to learn seriously.

Many times your intuition is wrong, you must look at the data.

Making a hit product is a systematic project, and it is crucial to do well in every dimension.