世．界．之‧窗－向Facebook、Uber创办人学习 找出产品的关键一句话

How do customers talk about your product? How do they (1)spread the word? An article in Inc. magazine "The Art of Describing a Product in One Sentence " discusses the necessity of (A)crafting the one sentence in early stage.

顾客怎么谈论你的产品？他们怎么让其他人知道这个产品？Inc.杂志有篇文章「一句话描述产品的艺术」讨论研发初期，为产品打造出关键一句话的必要性。

In a typical word-of-mouth scenario, something (B)triggered your customer to bring up your product. He is very likely to ask the others, "Have you heard about ABC (the product)?" He follows up with a simplified description of how it works, which usually is a single sentence. It'd be great if the description (C)resonates. If not, your customer will explain why they think it's relevant and move on.

口碑行销的典型情境中，你的顾客因为某件事而提起产品，他们很可能像这样问其他人：「你们听过ABC（产品名）吗？」接着简单叙述产品的功能，通常只用一句话。叙述如果引起共鸣，就成功了，没有引起共鸣的话，顾客会解释为什么自己提起这个产品，然后继续其他话题。

When researching "how founders of successful startups presented the products before they were well-known", the author found that viral products tend to have a "lead feature" which you can simply describe. In an early interview before Facebook's IPO, Mark Zuckerberg describes Facebook as:"Something where you can type someone's name and find out a bunch of information about them."Simply and practically, Mark Zuckerberg describes the "ability to view profiles of real people," one of Facebook's key features. He didn't talk about 'social networks' or "helping the world to connect to each other."

文章作者研究「成功的新创公司创办人，都怎么描述还没没无闻的产品」，发现获得病毒式传播的产品，都有一个容易描述的「主打特色」。早期在Facebook公开募股前，Mark Zuckerberg在访问中这样描述Facebook：「打出一个人的名字，就可以找到一堆他的个人资讯。」简单又实际地描述了Facebook的关键特色-浏览一般人的个人档案，没有谈到「社群网路」或「帮助世界连结彼此。」

Travis Kalanick, founder of Uber, also described Uber in an 2011 interview as a mobile app where "You push a button and in five minutes a Mercedes picks you up and takes you where you want to go." There is no buzzwords like platform or marketplace. He focuses on just one button and the appealing outcome. Today, it's been simplified to "Tap a button, get a ride."

Uber创办人Travis Kalanick在2011的访问中，也将Uber形容做一个手机app，「按个键，五分钟内就有一台宾士载你到想去的地方。」这段话没有平台或交易市集这样的热门字眼，重点在一个按键带来吸引人的结果。这句话现在更精简成：点一下就搞定一趟车。

"The format of both descriptions is the same: 'You do X and Y happens.' X is the input and Y is the output. This input-output pair matches our intuition about how software works. Simplifying the product as a straightforward input and desirable output creates the sense that it's an ingenious idea," says the author. "Facebook and Uber have thousands of features, yet Mark and Travis elevate a single feature above the others, making the product easy to understand, easy to remember, and, most importantly, easy to talk about."

「上述两句描述他们产品的方法如出一辙：『进行X，Y就会发生。』」X是输入，Y是输出，只因为输入输出的概念符合人对软体运作的直觉。把产品简化成直接的输入，和具吸引力的产出，构想就显得巧妙、独创。」作者这么说。「Facebook和Uber的功能何其多，但创办人只提升了其中一项特色，让产品易于被理解、被记忆、最重要的是易于被谈论。」

The author believes that even the most complicated platform can be simplified with an illustrative lead feature. But if your product is the exception, word of mouth is not the best idea to grow your business. If it's hard for you to describe, it's going to be harder for the customers.（下转D11）

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