Editor's introduction: When we are in product design, or product function planning, how to ensure that the applicability of the product is wide enough and the ease of use of the product is strong enough? At the same time, how can products ensure that functionality can be adapted to specific environments across domains? Perhaps, you can learn about "knowledge transfer". In this article, the author has made an interpretation of the concept of "knowledge transfer", which may be enlightening to you.
Based on my relatively superficial understanding and extended thinking about middle office, low-code platforms, Saas/Paas/Iaas, I found a more interesting conclusion:
"A single knowledge ability, placed in a different but appropriate time and space, can have very different effects."
There is a sentence in "Decisive B-End" that benefited me a lot:
"A unique challenge in designing B-end products is how to abstract complex real-world scenarios into structural systems and modules based on a thorough understanding of business, and extract real-world abstract operating mechanisms into laws."
I have an idea, based on the words of teacher Yang Kun, and then add a layer later, when we abstract the business needs of complex scenes into system modules, and abstract the operation mechanism into process laws, in fact, we can return it to the complex scenes of reality without restriction, and apply it to all walks of life, as long as there is a certain degree of similarity.
The difficulty lies in whether the abstract product is abstract enough, enough sinking, enough inclusive, and enough "base".
If the above description is more obscure, you can imagine that high school math teachers often say to learn to learn from each other, especially big problems, but also to know how to think flexibly and understand; the metaphors, metaphors, and analogies learned in chinese writing class; the concept of the first principle of first nature proposed by Musk from the principles of physics to the universal use of the circle of out of the circle; the street dance dancer draws inspiration from movies, animals, and literature, and uses dance to show the connotation of things across fields; the need to de-emphasize the debate and the needs analysis of the product manager. Endoplasmic linkage of product design...
Next, I will combine practical cases to explain the knowledge transfer from the perspective of cross-time and cross-space.
First, across time
The American novelist William Gibson said: "The future has come, but the distribution is not even." In the 30 lectures, Mr. Liang Ning told the story of an obstetrician and gynecologist who drew inspiration from the chick incubator of history and applied it to the current infant incubator to greatly reduce the early infant mortality rate, which is a certain perspective of interpretation of this sentence.
In the context of the times at that time, the chick incubator was already a relatively mature, commonplace universal technology, and when the infant survival rate was threatened by temperature factors, the obstetrician and gynecologist Thani used knowledge transfer, applied the same insulation technology, migrated from the past chicken incubator to the current baby thermostat, found a feasible technical solution, and effectively solved the problem.
This is an application example of knowledge transfer across time. At the same time, if we apply the methodology of the four-quadrant of competitor analysis, I understand that these two technical products are actually cross-time competitors with different problems.
Second, cross-space
Spatial capacity substitution also has the potential to unleash the creativity of knowledge transfer.
1. Cross-region
Due to the geographical span and everyone's spit and joke that "the essence of man is a repeating machine", some content will always flow from advanced civilization to backward civilization, and make a fortune with "information difference", including asymmetry in resources, asymmetry in information, and asymmetry in understanding ability.
For example, the rise of the early Internet to today's mobile Internet leadership, such as some practical, business model ctrl C + ctrl v.
2. Cross-scene
1) Metaphor
When learning About Nielsen's Top Ten Principles of Interaction, one of the principles of environmental relevance was particularly impressive. There are three rules for the environment: ensuring that the user's language is used, conforming to real-world usage habits, and using real-world metaphors.
I happened to use this theory when I was practicing to design smart homes, on the one hand, I wanted to inherit the user's actual operating habits, on the other hand, I involuntarily thought of the cartoon image in SpongeBob SquarePants and Toy Story, and I had the following results:
2) Personality and commonality
Recently, I have been deeply involved in the contradictory thinking of individuality and commonality, and found an underlying logic: abstract commonality, scale reuse.
(1) Small similar cases
Since the development of code development work, everyone has become more and more inclined to develop code modules with high cohesion and low coupling, establish code specifications, and let the modules run independently of each other and in an orderly manner, so as to achieve high reusability.
When we push from small to large, we find that from encapsulating code modules → microservice architecture→ data, technology, business middle office→ Iaas, Paas, Saas, → companies' business standardization, scale, reduce marginal costs, and produce a flywheel effect, which is actually the same thing.
(2) Similar cases
When I associated the above scenarios from the field of software development to the field of automobiles, I was shocked to find that the automotive industry has long been developed and executed, from bicycle manufacturing → assembly line manufacturing → platform modularization.
From custom development, the cost of bicycle manufacturing is extremely high; to the production line that can be streamlined, replacing repetitive labor with machine processes; to platform modularization, so that a platform can produce a variety of general parts, a machine can produce multiple types of components, and a car can be assembled from different parts.
(*Two photos of car manufacturing are from the Internet)
3. Cross-cutting
Good thinking patterns can stimulate our cross-cutting thinking.
For example, I've always been passionate about weirdness, and by chance I was exposed to a mindset that needed to be dismantled, and then I discovered its strong relevance to my work.
Excerpt a paragraph of explanation: need: refers to the demand, that is, the problem to be solved; root: refers to the root attribute, that is, where the fundamental problem behind the demand; solution: refers to the solution; loss: refers to the profit and loss ratio, that is, the solution corresponding to the positive impact can be harvested and the negative impact of the situation.
After understanding the meaning, I was surprised to find that this is not SWOT, PEST, business research, requirements analysis, product design...
For example, some time ago, this is street dance, MT pop's performance impressed me, he drew inspiration from the slow motion and horror of the film, redefined Theimation, and formed a unique performance style.
4. Divergence of keywords
Connection, Association, Empowerment, Migration, Cross-Domain, Commonality, Fusion, Multiplexing, Similarity, Underlying Logic, Ctrl+c, Ctrl+v, Metaphor, Information Difference, Personality, Clues, Buried Points, Abstraction, Scale, Penetration, Essence, Extension, Individual, Group, Dot Line Face, Knowledge Migration, Same Frequency...
Author: if; public number: product studioy (chanpinstudy)
This article is originally published by @if everyone is a product manager, and reproduction without permission is prohibited.
The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol.