Tencent product manager tells you: WeChat's Bigger

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When I first came to WeChat, I heard a new word that touched me: "WeChat's style". I wrote down some stories one after another, trying to understand WeChat's style.

Where does the word "bigger" come from? What does it mean? The first time I heard of "bigger" was when Apple's "bigger than bigger" was interpreted as "bigger than bigger". This word is associated with words such as "high-class", "upper class" and "style". "Bigger" should be a relatively high style, a style that is different from the norm and higher than the norm.

The first time I heard of "WeChat's style" was when it was describing the short video segment at the end of the Shake Spring Festival Gala project. Most people think that the Spring Festival should be lively and lively, but the boss proposed that people should shake out the short videos that their friends had posted in the past year in the early morning after the Spring Festival Gala, and add Xu Wei's song "We" to create a lonely space where leaves fall silently after the hustle and bustle. Some people questioned whether it would not fit the atmosphere of the New Year? The boss insisted that we should have that feeling. Later, the product was made, and when we were testing it internally, we found that it really felt good. As soon as the song came out, the lyrics of "The vague past of those who passed by\Some smiles always come to my mind\Always on every lonely day\I play the piano alone until late at night" were accompanied by short shots that passed like a movie, which brought people back from the impetuousness to a year ago, watching people's joys, sorrows, laughter, anger and scolding in this year, and sighing about other people's lives and their own lives. Thinking about the past life on the first day of the year with the most sense of ritual, naturally thinking about the next path. And all this happened after the reunion dinner and the Spring Festival Gala. The lively scene further highlighted the quietness of the moment. The more lively it is, the lonelier it is. The loneliness at this moment is endlessly released.

This is a good example of the “WeChat style”. Rebellion and loneliness are the interpretations of this style.

The second and third time I heard the term “WeChat’s style” was when we were designing the 404 page for the Spring Festival Gala’s shake interaction. We estimated that the Spring Festival Gala’s shake would have a very large volume, so it was very likely that 404 would appear, so we decided to make the 404 page fun. The 404 page for general products is dry and has no sense of design at all, but WeChat made the 404 page fun, which is a kind of “rebellious and unconventional” thinking. We discussed making the 404 page into a small game so that people can play fun games when they encounter network obstacles. So we designed a game of the Nian beast eating red envelopes. The designer said that it was a tribute to the classic Pac-Man game, using the Nian beast eating red envelopes to match the Spring Festival scene, and adding a bit of WeChat style. When he talked about WeChat style, I knew that the term WeChat style was instilled in the designer’s concept. As long as the term was mentioned, everyone would understand and know what to do. Later, everyone felt that the 404 page was too complicated to use a small game, so it was better to make it a native simple page.

So another product manager started to think of a plan. The first version of the plan was to find some cool facts about the Spring Festival. I thought it would be fun to shake the phone and get some cool facts about the Spring Festival. The product manager mentioned that we should highlight the coolness and make users feel as if they have suddenly realized something, which would have the style of WeChat. I heard the word WeChat style again, this time it means "cold", which means unpopular, and actually echoes the "rebellion" mentioned above. Later, this plan was rejected by the boss, who proposed a simpler plan: "firecrackers blowing up the server means that there is a problem with the server." Everyone laughed when they heard it, and thought it was fun, so they did it.

In addition, the Spring Festival Gala program team once mentioned to us that if a user fails to get a red envelope after shaking for many times, they will be told to take a break and stop shaking. We think this is in line with the concept of WeChat's "less WeChat chat, more chatting with people", so we made a 404 page with the message "Take a break, chat with family, etc."

At this point, I think the style of WeChat is literature and rebellion, and it is a simple and fun rebellion. Rebellion against the unbearable reality, rebellion against the impetuous social phenomena, and rebellion against the side of people that they are unwilling to admit. Behind these rebellions is another firm belief, and then this belief is expressed in a very fun way.

The fourth time I heard about "WeChat Bage" was from colleagues outside WeChat. Several product managers of the Spring Festival Gala project were invited to the company's lecture hall to tell stories about product design. I think one of the product managers spoke very well. She analyzed the pitfalls encountered in the New Year's red envelopes and many rejected solutions, from which I could see the concept of this product design. So I recommended this speech to a development friend of mine, but in the end, the feedback from this development friend was not because of the New Year's red envelope segment, but because the product manager of the New Year's red envelopes finally introduced several Spring Festival Gala Easter egg stories and recommended the book "The Book of Desire". This development friend said: "I feel that what she meant was that our WeChat is sentimental and has Bage." Haha, it seems that the word Bage of WeChat has spread to the hearts of users.

In the minds of users, the quality of WeChat is abstracted into feelings.

The fifth time I heard the term “WeChat’s style” was when I asked a senior designer, “What is WeChat’s style?” He said that WeChat’s style is what a person with correct values ​​and rich spirituality would do. It’s very vague, but you get the idea.

After that, I heard a lot of stories, or discussed a lot of issues. Although no one mentioned the word "big style", I vaguely knew that this was WeChat's big style. For example, some bugs were deliberately not fixed, and they were praised as the most artistic bugs (I don't know if you have noticed that if the amount of money in the Spring Festival Gala red envelope is more than three digits, the number will overflow the red envelope). For example, some needs are not met, because meeting that need is inconsistent with the values ​​that WeChat wants to advocate. For example, some very popular things are not done, because if you think deeply, they are not in line with the product style and long-term needs of users.

The quality of a product lies in the common values ​​of the entire team, which are based on each unique individual. Only when everyone has their own firm belief and convinces others who have their own firm belief, the final concept will be universal and touching.

In the end, all these pretensions must be broken, otherwise it will become a paradox with rebellion itself, and it all depends on whether it is yourself or others who break them.