"How to Define the Value Your Product Creates for Users"

This article is Lu Canwei's 23rd original piece.

This article was written on a plane. After more than three months, the project has finally come to an end. I realized that I haven't had a proper rest for a long time, so a few days ago, I bought a ticket to work in a different place.

Since I stopped working in an office, I found myself busier and my income decreasing, yet my life feels more fulfilling. To most people, this seems incomprehensible. I used to feel very anxious and also found it hard to understand; there was a time when I felt I was failing at everything and thought I was depressed. After sharing this with a friend, he asked if I wanted some medication he had.

I suddenly realized that life is difficult for most people. Those carefree individuals who seem very happy might be struggling just to live. We really need to care for our friends and family; a small word from you might be their hope.

We always focus on the present and the past to judge the future based on what we have. Many people or books will tell you that you will become the person you want to be, but they don't tell you how to become that person. After the motivational talk, you are left with a mess.

If you want to have a certain future, you should work backward from that future to figure out how to reach it. Use a fountain pen to set your big goals and a pencil to write your small goals. A pencil can be erased; if you make a mistake, just try a different approach.

Looking back at many of the failed products I created (I might write a separate piece to vent about them), the essence was that I didn't clearly consider what value they would bring to people. I was fortunate to read Liu Run's thoughts on time, which helped me step outside my existing cognitive framework to think about the essence of products.

In the past, my understanding of products was mostly limited to the products themselves, which is a common mistake among technical personnel. I needed to create a platform to solve problems A, B, C, and D. For example, ten years ago, I created a product called Yicanwang, which allowed users to find nearby takeout restaurants online. Unfortunately, it didn't succeed. After reviewing it, I realized it was due to insufficient promotion and inadequate store information, and I only saw the product's flaws.

Later, I created Shuyuanwang, which allowed people to make friends online through books. The only offline transactions were with new friends they already knew. My review also focused on the product itself, questioning whether it could transition to second-hand book trading and whether making friends through books was a good social direction, among other things.

There are too many similar cases. We often analyze the problems of the product itself while neglecting the real reasons behind them. This is what many entrepreneurs refer to as finding the user's pain points. This is essentially a medicinal treatment approach: I find the user's pain point, prescribe a remedy, they take it and feel better, then pay me.

So where is my value? Because it is the medicine that cures the user's pain point, not me. Therefore, if you can observe the user's pain points, there are some medicines on the market that can't be sold. If you then create a similar medicine, you certainly won't sell it either.

At this point, you have no value to the user.

Everyone knows that when you're sick, you go to see a doctor, undergo some treatment, or get some medicine, and then you feel better. At this moment, you might think that the doctor is valuable, while Class A and Class B medicines are not.

At this point, I am confused; it seems like nothing is wrong. So what does this have to do with the essence of the product?

This is what we often refer to as creating value for users.

In the previous examples, if your medicine can save users time, then you have value. This is also why modern people love antibiotics so much. The doctor makes a judgment, saving you time and reducing the risk of taking the wrong medicine.

When it comes to the product itself, if you can help users sell their time at a higher price, then you have value.

For example, when I used to edit videos with professional software like Final Cut Pro X, it would take me several hours to edit and optimize, adding transitions, subtitles, filters, etc. Later, when I used Jianying, I could edit a video in just half an hour, producing something I thought was decent. In a way, something that originally took several hours to produce now only takes half an hour, which increases the value of my time.

If your product cannot increase unit time, then it should improve user efficiency. Take live-streaming sales as an example: originally, a salesperson in a mall could only interact with a limited number of customers each day. However, through your platform, they can reach 100 times, 1,000 times, or even 10,000 times more people. For the user, if they could sell to 10 customers in an hour, now they might sell to 100,000 customers in the same time, then your product has value.

So, in summary, regardless of the service you provide, whether in terms of unit time value or increasing the volume of time, essentially, you are making the user's time more valuable.

III

Finally, I want to briefly mention Liu Run's concept of time merchants. Everyone only has 24 hours, and how to make good use of your time is the core issue. Here are four ways to make your time more valuable.

Retail Time

Most people are retailing their time, such as working 8 hours a day. But why do some people earn high salaries while others earn low? Because your value is measured by the value you create in a unit of time, not by the time you spend. Nowadays, there is a lot of middle-aged anxiety being sold, promoting side jobs. For example, if you use your spare time to take on freelance work, your income may increase in the short term. However, in the long run, your colleague next door might get promoted and earn more than you, even if you work 12 hours a day.

So if you sell your time this way, you need to invest more time in personal growth to enhance your expertise and sell yourself at a higher value. For example, look at NBA stars or the "working emperor" Tang Jun.

Wholesale Time

Sell your time to more people. For instance, some video creators or bloggers might spend 1-2 weeks writing articles and producing videos, then sell the final product to a million people to earn income. Or like those who write web novels on platforms like Qidian, they spend time writing a book for thousands of readers to enjoy. For example, an online tutorial or a 2-hour lecture, etc.

Buying and Selling Time

All products are essentially created from the time spent by participants. The software, desks, houses, etc., that you buy are all the result of time spent by others. If you earn 10,000 yuan a month, then your hourly rate is 62.5 yuan. If you want a coffee and find a courier for 5 yuan, but it takes you half an hour to go buy it yourself, which option will you choose?

If you are a technician and need a UI, will you learn it yourself or outsource it? I think many technicians would choose to learn it themselves, but it’s very likely that the design you spend a year creating is not as good as what someone else can do in an hour. When you outsource the parts you are not good at, your product becomes more professional, and you can sell it at a higher value.

If your team is not performing well, it essentially means you are not performing well. If you are doing this alone, you cannot create value; even if you find 100 people, they also cannot create value. If what you are doing is valuable, then find the right people to amplify it.

Time Tax

You don’t need to sell your time; you can create a platform that allows others to trade time and just collect a small tax on each transaction. For example, Taobao, Alipay, App Store, etc. But platforms are always the result, not the cause.

So the large platforms you see now all started from a small point, like Tencent starting with communication or Amazon initially selling only books.

So why would people choose you? Your platform needs to empower them, such as making their unit time more valuable or allowing them to sell their time in bulk.