iPod之父法德尔亲口讲述Nest诞生记

Tony Fadell, a former Apple AAPL -1.03% executive who went on to co-found Nest (which recently sold to Google GOOG 0.26% for $3.2 billion), has been likened to Steve Jobs and Larry Page for his innovative thinking and disruptive technology.托尼·法德尔曾多次是苹果公司（Apple）高管，辞职后与人联合创立了Nest【这家公司最近被谷歌（Google）耗资32亿美元并购】。他因为创造性的思维和颠覆性的技术被人们比作史蒂夫o乔布斯以及拉里·佩奇。Following our recent feature story about him in the June 30, 2014 issue of Fortune magazine—as wellhis recent appearance at the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference in Laguna Nigel, Calif.—here are some of his thoughts that didn’t make the magazine story.2014年6月30日出版发行的《财富》杂志将刊出一篇关于法德尔的特写。此外，他最近还参加了在加州拉古纳尼古尔开会的《财富》绿色头脑风暴大会（Brainstorm Green Conference）。

下面是杂志当期报导中没能收录于的一些法德尔的点子。Fortune: Tell me your ‘Aha! moment’ in starting Nest, with its first product being a thermostat.《财富》：你创立了Nest，研发了公司的第一款产品——恒温器。说道说道你当时灵光一现的证悟时刻吧。Fadell: Well, first, I asked, was there a good product idea? And I thought, “Yeah, there’s a good product idea. Okay, there’s none out there. I can research everything on the web. There’s just nothing there.” So then I said, “Okay. Is it a good business? I know I can make this thing. Is it a good business?” And then I asked, “How many are being sold a year? What’s the total available market?”法德尔：首先，我回答自己，这个产品构想好不好？我的问是：“这个产品构想很好，市场上还没类似于产品。

我在网上什么都能坎。但市场上就是没类似于产品。然后我回答：“那这项业务否不具备商业价值？我告诉我能研发出有产品，但这是桩好生意吗？我接着问：“这款产品每年的销量有多大？整个市场有多大？”And when I started doing the research, I was like, “Wait a second. There’s a quarter of a million thermostats in the U.S. alone? Well, if there’s that, what’s the replacement rate?” And I looked and it was over 10 million a year for just residential and light commercial thermostats. I was like, “Wait a second. 10 million? That’s more than game machines! That’s more than washers, dryers, stoves, and ovens. That’s a big market.” We’re dying to find big markets, right? So what else is out there? Bicycles are about the same. Now, people might not perceive it as such. It was just like when we were doing the iPod, people were like, “There’s no money in CD players. It’s commoditized. There’s nothing there. Move on!” The number of units is stagnant, and the price drops every year. That’s the kind of market that’s usually ripe for innovation.我研究找到，“哇，光美国就有25万个恒温器？那它的改版亲率如何？”我找到，光住宅和轻型商用恒温器每年就要替换1000多万只。

我当时想道：“天呐，1000万个？这比游戏机要多！比洗衣机、干衣机、炉灶和烤箱都要多。这是个大市场。”我们渴求寻找大市场，对吧？那么还有哪些是大市场？自行车市场的规模与之非常。

只不过人们有可能不实在这是个大市场。就只不过我们当年做到iPod时，很多人都说道：“CD播放器市场借钱赚到。早已构建商品化了。没戏了。

去腊别的吧！”产品销量衰退，产品价格频仍上升。这种市场往往到了该创意的时候。So you had an idea you liked. Then what?于是你有了一个自己讨厌的点子。然后呢？Then I looked at the competition, and I said, “Let’s look who can do what it takes to make this next-generation thermostat.” I went down all the current incumbents, and tried to look for startups that were doing it. And every time I looked, I was like, “Wait a second. If there was true innovation here, I would be seeing it.” It didn’t seem like there was any activity. And then I looked further and I learned that about 70% of thermostats were sold through wholesale. So they weren’t being designed for people to use. They were being designed for installers to install and sell as many as they possibly could. It had nothing to do about the consumer. And then I said, “Wait a second. There’s a market with an old way of thinking in terms of how the consumer learns about the product. The competition is old and hasn’t moved. And third, there’s no innovation whatsoever.”然后我调查了一下竞争对手，我说道：“我们来想到谁有实力研发出有下一代恒温器。

”我研究了所有主要的恒温器厂商，尝试找寻正在研发新型恒温器的初创企业。我想要：“假如这个领域知道有创意，我认同能看见。”但或许没任何动静。

经过更加了解的研究，我找到，约70％的恒温器都是通过杂货销售。因此，它们并不是在面向使用者展开设计。过去恒温器的设计只是为了协助安装者加装和销售尽量多的产品。

换言之，这一切跟消费者几乎没关系。于是我告诉他自己：“这个市场思维脱节，消费者无法确实理解产品。竞争对手固步自封，不欲星舰。

而且，这个领域没任何创意。”It reminded me of when we were looking at the smartphone business. Sure, there was lots of competition, but they were being designed for the carriers to sell to the users, not what the users wanted. Then on top of that I said, “Is there a services business here?” So first, is the thermostat a good business? Then, can you supply services to the thermostat? And that’s when we get into the energy services. And I was like, “Okay. This totally reminds me of the MP3 player revolution and the smartphone revolution, where it first started with revolutionary hardware and software on the device. Then it quickly branched out to services and applications.”这使我回想了我们当时实地考察智能手机业务时的情形。

手机市场当时显然有很多竞争产品，但它们的设计宗旨都是协助运营商向用户销售手机，而没考虑到用户想什么。另外，我对自己说道：“是不是发售服务业务的潜力？”首先，恒温器是否是一项好业务？其次，你能否为恒温器获取服务？我们就这样转入了能源服务领域。

我当时想要：“这让我回想了MP3播放器革命和智能手机革命，两者最初都是始自设备上革命性的硬件和软件。随后很快扩展到服务和应用程序。”At Apple, you weren’t responsible for marketing, but as CEO of Nest you knew that needed to be in your toolkit, right?你在苹果的时候并不负责管理市场推广，但作为Nest公司的首席执行官，你告诉自己必需不具备市场推广的能力，对吧？Let’s be clear. There’s product marketing, and then there’s marketing and communications. Product marketing, yeah, I was involved in all of that. Marketing and communications is a different thing, which is taking these clear tenets and the differentiation and all these other pieces and then turning them into marketing and messaging and pushing them out through the various print, digital outlets.我想要具体一点。产品营销同市场营销与交流是两码事。

产品营销我全部参予了。但市场营销与交流则有所不同，它在于将具体的原则、差异等等转化成营销和消息，同时将它们通过众多纸媒和数字媒体公布过来。

I would work very closely with product marketing, but again, product marketing didn’t know what could be created. So what I would try to do is be the linchpin between what the consumer wanted and what engineering could build, and always trying to stitch that together, trying to understand what the marketing differentiation would be, understanding what the ease-of-use would be or the consumer delight would be, as well as what could actually get done and done at a certain price point. Typically product marketing specs something and throws it over the wall to engineering. Engineering says, “I can’t.” And they redact it or take things out of it, put it back to product marketing, and product marketing says, “That’s all we could get.” I tried to take the fine line between the two to push marketing, saying, “No, we can do a little bit more here on the marketing side. Let’s get bold.” And to engineering, I’d say, “Let’s get bold. But let’s not get too bold that we’ve added so much risk to the project that it may never ship.”我会同产品营销部门密切合作，但产品营销并不知道能研发出有什么。因此，我尝试当消费者想的产品和工程师需要研发的产品这两者之间的桥梁，仍然在尝试把这两者融合一起，尝试理解在市场营销过程中把什么差异作为卖点，理解怎样的产品不会让消费者实在非常简单易懂，或者说能给他们带给感觉体的验，以及在一定的价位上，能大规模生产出有什么样的产品。一般来说，产品营销部门明确提出方案，然后就扔给工程设计人员。

工程设计人员说道：“这不现实。”于是对方案展开改动或删改，然后返给产品营销部门。产品营销部门不得已说道：“我们不能作出这个来。

”我企图在两者之间寻找中间路线。我想要让营销部门说道：“不，我们营销这边可以多做到一点。我们胆子可以再行大一点。”而对工程设计人员，我想要说道：“我们胆子还可以缩放一点。

但别太过火，别给项目减少过于多风险，结果显然做不成。

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