? Let me start with a recent incident.
? I have the habit of keeping healthy. I have been here for almost three years. There are four or five kinds of formal fitness cards, and there may be more than a dozen short-term cards such as weekly cards. These gyms, big or small, high or high-end, all have a feature, that is, they have physical cards and need to swipe their cards when entering the door. Some gyms need to ask the front desk to change your locker card, which is very troublesome when there are many people.
? Sometimes I forget to bring my business card. I won't let you in when I meet an unfamiliar front desk. Even if I let you in at last, it will spoil my fun. Do I have to have that card to prove that I am me?
? Recently moved again, and the gym changed again. After paying the money and measuring the body fat, the coach asked me to practice directly. I wonder why you didn't give me a card. The coach said that there is no need for a fitness card here. You can go in by scanning your finger vein without swiping your card. I was very excited to hear that. The concept of fitness industry has finally improved for so many years. I happened to be punching in recently, which made me start to think, is it really necessary to punch in?
? At present, there are two kinds of punching behavior, one is similar to punching in to prove personal identity, and the other is similar to continuous login, which improves user activity through punching behavior. The second is a means of product operation. The first case will not be discussed in this article.
? Let's think about it. What is the purpose of swiping a fitness card? It is nothing more than proving whether the cardholder has the right to enter the gym to exercise. The problem is, I paid the money, I'm here, and it's unreasonable not to let me in just because I don't have my card. If you think it's a little far-fetched, let me give you another example. What is the purpose of punching in at work? It's just proof that you're here for work. If you go to work on time, you may have to work overtime for three or four hours. Just because you didn't punch in, you may be deducted from your salary. You're right.
Actually, punching in at work is essentially the same as punching in the gym. The meaning of this action itself is to prevent users from having this kind of behavior. After all, no one will ask DAU to punch holes for products and credit card machines. The significance of these products is nothing more than proving that you are you and that you are here.
? If there is a better scheme that can prove that you are here faster and at a lower cost, then the existing scheme should be eliminated.
? Our company used to use the attendance machine to check attendance, and we could punch in every day before going to work. However, with the increase of employees in the company, the attendance machine is not enough. There are many people queuing for work every morning, and people who step on the spot are basically late. So we developed a WeChat attendance product, which can be punched by connecting the mobile phone to the company network and Bluetooth devices, and it is very convenient for everyone to punch in. If you forget to punch in, you can also make up the cards you haven't punched by applying for a replacement card. Is this perfect?
? Convenience is convenience, but our ambitions are more than that. We find that many people forget to punch in every month. The next thing we need to do is to reduce the chance of forgetting to punch in, so we constantly improve our products and optimize the user experience. Students who haven't clocked in after work will be automatically reminded and even encouraged to express their condolences on holidays.
? However, we found that even if we do a lot, the rate of forgetting to punch in will not drop again after it drops to a certain extent. In other words, in any case, a person will always forget to punch in so many times a month, even if the product does not contribute.
? Forgetting is objective. Even a person with a clear mind and a good memory may forget to bring his key when he goes out in the morning, but you can't say that this person has a bad brain. After all, he may forget that once or twice a year. If there is a security door without a key in the market, he will make up his mind to change the door the next time he forgets to bring his key outside the door and wait for the company to unlock it. The same is true for products, because he didn't forget to bring his key.
? Making products is no match for users' forgetfulness. To abide by this rule, as the product manager of punch-in products, I can't punch in every day and occasionally make up a card, not to mention that many users don't care about the products at all. If we had a better way to prove that employees came to work, we wouldn't need to use such a clumsy way of punching cards.
? In the gym mentioned above, they found a better way, eliminating the link of punching in, acknowledging the forgetfulness of users, making users' costs lower, and of course the experience will be better.
? Users will only use your product when they need it. Just as we want to contact others, we will naturally open WeChat, and we will naturally open Baidu if we want to find something. Good products will conform to human nature, and forgetfulness is also human nature. The premise of the product is that the user will definitely forget, rather than setting the premise that the user will not forget, and the product design will be different from the later iteration.
? In fact, many office products are designed from this angle. For example, there is an automatic punching function when nailing. As long as you arrive at the office, you will automatically punch in, and you will have a record when you leave the company after work. Although this aspect is still immature and some scenes can't be used, it is indeed a good attempt and gives some good reference for product design.
? If there is an opportunity, I actually want to try to design a product for our company that can record the commuting time without punching in, and I also want to subvert the employee habits a little.
? All the above are personal opinions. If there are similarities, please communicate with me in the comments section. Thank you.