From the rapid iteration of technology to the accurate grasp of customer needs, to the ultimate optimization of cost performance, poor information has become the key to product success. For product managers and entrepreneurs, this article provides a new perspective to help them better understand market dynamics and enhance product competitiveness.
If I ask you, why does your product sell/not? Why should customers buy your products? What is the core competitiveness of your product?
You may crackle and say all kinds of answers: there is a technical threshold for the use of AI in the product, the creativity of the product meets the needs of customers, the product is cost-effective, the company’s sales staff are strong, and the relationship between sales and customers is good…..
However, if we take all these various answers, “wash” and “sieve”, we will find that the core thing is one word: poor information!
That’s right, it’s poor information!
In other words, the ultimate competitiveness of the product is: I understand, you don’t understand; Or you know, the customer doesn’t know at all!
First of all, let’s talk about the high technical content of the product
One night last year, I had a phone porridge with a former Ali technology master, Mr. S, for more than an hour. What are you talking about?
Because our products use their OCR services, although this thing is a common AI engine, our company cannot support algorithm engineers, so we can only seek outsourcing.
It just so happens that the “generals” in large factories have strong professional anxiety and want to exchange their skills for banknotes after work, so we have this business cooperation.
That phone call was mainly about upgrading the OCR service purchased in the early stage.
What is the upgrade?
How can product managers do a good job in B-end digitalization?
All walks of life have taken advantage of the ride-hail of digital transformation and achieved the rapid development of the industry. Since B-end products are products that provide services for enterprises, how should enterprises ride the digital ride?
View details >
You have to do a “format restore” for the table recognition style. Mr. S and I broke our mouths, just to bargain. As soon as people opened their mouths, they asked for more than 100,000 yuan, and I shouted “be good” in my heart, my budget is only 50,000 yuan.
I adhere to the view that technology is not worth much, especially this technology that has become “outdated”.
In the end, Mr. S compromised and quoted tens of thousands of yuan. For them, it’s all half cost, and if you change it a little, you can earn a few w, which can be regarded as an acceptable deal.
You see, now this AI technology, it’s really like sitting on a rocket, one day at a time.
Various open source large models have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and yesterday it was still a cutting-edge technology thing, and within a few days it was “cabbage price”, and even directly open source for everyone to use for free.
Let’s put aside those large companies that spend a lot of money on underlying technology research, there is really no great threshold for the technology used in our commercial products.
The so-called “threshold” is nothing more than my family discovering this technology first, and your family is still looking around.
In this way, my product can be the first to take the lead and have a competitive advantage. Before the customer figured out what kind of black technology this was, I quickly sold it at a good price and charged some “IQ tax” by the way. After a few years, this technology will start to rot on the street, and the product will be hit to the floor price.
For example, NLP technology, which seemed “tall” in previous years, can also achieve similar document data extraction effects with its practical regular expressions. The technical threshold of regular expressions is much lower than that of NLP, and the corresponding development cycle and labor cost are also much lower.
Why did we choose to use NLP instead of regular expressions for extraction?
To put it bluntly, I didn’t know that regular expressions were possible before.
Having said that, if you can master a certain technology one step faster than others, then you can enjoy the dividends of technology, package the product high, and make a lot of money while others have not come to their senses!
Secondly, the so-called good product creativity means that I understand customers better than you?
Then let’s talk about the so-called good product creativity.
To give a specific example:
Last year, I once asked a customer to communicate with a certain product, and the customer summarized two very good product values for me:
First, AI technology can be used to extract keywords in documents to reduce the workload of business personnel using the system, so that everyone is more willing to use it;
Second, this system can not only do the business evaluation of stage A, but also the necessity review of stage B can handle these business scenarios, realizing the intelligent evaluation of the whole process.
When I heard it, this information was so valuable!
On the one hand, I quickly use this information to improve product functions and make the product more powerful and competitive in the market. On the other hand, refine this information into product selling points and prepare to “inclusive” more customers.
Later, when I went to report to a new customer, I said these two points, guess what?
The new customer’s eyes were straight, and he felt that I was the sales staff of their unit, and felt that our products were simply tailored for them, and he kept exclaiming: “Why do you understand us so well?” ”
In fact, the so-called products are innovative, and the so-called understanding of customers better, in the final analysis, isn’t it that you have more customers?
Get information from them that others don’t know, and then like magic, cleverly add this information to product features and publicity. When they meet another customer, let them pay for their “ignorance” (in fact, they don’t know this information).
Finally, let’s talk about the cost-effectiveness of the product
Cost-effectiveness, to put it bluntly, is like a “martial arts competition”, you have to compare with the competition to see if your price is more down-to-earth, the function is more awesome, and the effect is more explosive.
To say that the most cost-effective thing is that the price of the product is so low that competitors call it “can’t hurt”, even if they rack their brains to imitate your product, as soon as they settle the account, oh my God, it’s not cost-effective, they can only stare.
So the question is, why can your product be set at a low price?
From the perspective of business, either we judge that the market space of this product is as big as the universe, and we can make a lot of money with small profits and quick turnover; Or in the long run, the market size is like blowing up a balloon, getting bigger and bigger, then let’s sacrifice some short-term gains and beat our competitors to the ground with low prices
When we see a product, it survives the fierce “fighting” in the market, and it also makes great progress all the way, sweeping the market by low prices. We will admire this company for its strategy, vision and pattern.
But in reality, it is very likely that people have obtained the “inside information” of the industry in advance, just like opening the eyes of the sky, and easily predicting the development trend of the market.
It’s like saying, we made a project for a customer, and the customer took the results to report to the superior, and the superior leader looked at it, hey, it’s good, national promotion!
If this news lets you know, do you have a bottom in your heart, can you accurately predict the market size, and then wave your hand to set the product price low and block potential competitors from the door.
Behind closed doors, there are a large number of products on the market, in fact, before the starting gun is fired, and the effective information is learned in advance.
Those seemingly clever marketing strategies are actually decisions made based on some “key information”.
Why is it said that people with a sales background are more likely to start a successful business and are more likely to be their own bosses?
Because these people have a stronger ability to obtain information than others and are better at engaging in character relationships, behind the character relationship is the “key information”, which is the core competitiveness of the product.
From the perspective of product managers, how to improve the competitiveness of products?
It is to intentionally improve the way of learning, summarizing, and refining information, and accumulate resources that can obtain key information. The more information you have, the lower the cost of obtaining information, and the faster you get information, naturally, the more valuable the product you make.
If you understand this logic, you will not resist business trips, and even like to travel to meet customers; will intentionally add the customer’s WeChat to maintain long-term contact; will take the initiative to find sales communication and understand market feedback; Only then will we interpret policy information and extract valuable information.
In this way, you can get rid of the labels of “prototype boy” and “tool man” and become a more valuable “information person”.
Final words
In the final analysis, the seemingly complex elements of product competitiveness, creativity, and cost performance are inseparable from the magic word “poor information”.
Just like playing poker, whoever has the best hand is the winner, and the quality of the hand depends on how much information you have.
Therefore, if you want your product to sell, you have to know more than your customers and know better than your competitors. This is the secret of our product managers: to be an “information person” and use poor information to build the core competitiveness of products.
