Two years ago, I posted programming videos on Douyin. My original intention was to use videos to record the process of teaching my son to program. Therefore, the people I contacted the most at first were parents who had children at home who were learning programming or who wanted to consider learning programming, or practitioners who started children's programming. So I have been thinking about whether I can try to enter the children's programming training industry for a long time. In the end, I gave up this direction. This article is to share my personal views.

Let me emphasize here that a strict statement is: I am not qualified to judge the children's programming training industry, but for me, after thinking about it, it is not suitable at the moment.

Let’s talk about the advantages first:

The products provided are actually not difficult, from scratch to python, from LEGO construction toys for children aged 5-6 to programmable ones that can be played by 18 years old. Robotics, from the time you really start programming until you are in your 20s, it is a very complete system, and the products, course content, and tools are all very complete. These resources can be obtained at very low cost, and a large number of university graduates are capable of providing services with a little training. In terms of demand, there is indeed a large customer group. I am a typical customer. My child does not like sports, so he does not like playing ball and football. He does not like art, so he does not like painting and street dancing. He also had enough time to spare for his studies. Before the third year of elementary school, he had enough time to spare for his studies. However, during this time, his parents were unable to accompany him due to work. So I need something that can give him healthy, relaxing, and growth-oriented content to fill this space and time. It was also because of this that I taught him programming. For a while, he also took Lego programming classes outside of class and experienced several different courses. The proportion of this type of customer group is actually no less than that of people who dance and play ball. Future junior polytechnic male characters are all potential customers in this category. You only need to look at how many children around you like to assemble Lego and take apart toys alone, and you can roughly assess that this is a huge market.

After talking about the advantages, we have reached the “but” point. Why do I still feel that the demand side is not suitable for me? This is where we start to look at the disadvantages:

This industry is a typical industry where customers and users are separated. What does that mean? That is, the customers who pay the bill are the parents, and the ones who directly experience the service are the children. Many industries have this characteristic. Parents buy it for their children, children buy it for the elderly, and bosses buy it for their employees. The characteristics of this kind of service make it particularly difficult to connect service reputation and brand resale communication, that is, people who experience the service cannot directly cycle to repurchase or spread the word. People who pay for certain reasons cannot directly experience the value of spending money. They need to go through another loop or even multiple loops to feedback the effect, which often results in distortion or loss. This is even more serious when the target is a child.

Let’s first clarify the relationship between the two. Who is the real “business object”? Children are still parents. I think it's the parents. Huawei has said similar things a long time ago, and those who give money are direct customers. He is the one who pays the bill. Even if you serve your children well and give them a good experience, the final evaluation of the effects must return to the parents’ feelings. Otherwise, as long as you play games for your children, they will be very happy, and the survey experience scores will definitely be full marks. So how to resolve the parents’ feelings?

In fact, many parents who communicated with me gave this feedback.

One is completely unprofessional.

"This thing is called programming? Just drag it twice like this? Can children learn something? Everyone clicks and drags it out like this to draw several effects. This is what he made Or are the teachers doing it to deal with us? ”

There are also some more professional parents. Unexpectedly, the feedback from professionals is even worse.

"How dare you call it programming just by dragging and dropping with the mouse? How dare you talk about programming without even explaining the principles of computers, systems, and memory? Such superficial things are simply an insult to programming. In our circle It’s impossible to get this thing out of here.”

You’re wrong, there are so many interest trainings, but they are not all done well. Why don't you have this problem?

Let’s take a closer look. The common basketball, football, street dance, calligraphy, painting, writing, guzheng and piano basically mean that the body is healthy, the movements are flexible, the posture, cultivation, and basic qualities have improved. There are many opportunities to show off in daily life.

Small competitions and even playing basketball every afternoon are scenes that parents experience. A pair of children's calligraphy and paintings hanging at home, and neat homework every day make it easy for parents to reap the value of this training. What’s more interesting is that even niche hobbies like golf, cricket, and saxophone are easier to experience in terms of satisfying parents’ sense of achievement. So final customer satisfaction is easily achieved. Not to mention the perfect rating system for various competitions, everyone knows about piano level 10, and all basketball players know about it. Do you know what the computer level 3 of the Institute of Electronics is? If you don’t know, how can you have a sense of value from your grades, and how can you share your sense of value with another best friend’s parent next to you who doesn’t know either.

Well, this is slowly improving now, and the ratings for children's computer programming competitions are improving. Many children's courses also allow children to create an animation effect, make a game to take back for display, make a robot remote control command effect, and even take a video and send it to parents. The basic logic is to let parents experience this value. The promotion of programming also says that it can solve basic qualities such as mathematical thinking and logical thinking. Unfortunately, it wasn't solved very well. Even if parents feel vaguely that it is good, they cannot experience how good it is or how good it is. The mathematical thinking and logical thinking cannot reflect the spread of feelings. If we can't solve this problem, we won't be able to spread it through their mouths. If customers can't spread the product, there will be much less room for imagination.

There is also a big weakness, which is practice. When children practice dancing, music, and basketball, parents are in control. They know how to arrange for their children to play basketball for one hour, dance for one hour, and practice piano for one hour every day. Even if it is not so utilitarian, the children themselves can practice for half an hour and an hour every week. Parents can gain a sense of security, and this time and money can be seen to be valuable in this time and scene. But if your child practices programming for one hour, what will you feel? It's okay in school institutions, it's left to the teachers. The teacher said it’s good that he studied well. He’s at home. Turn on the computer? Are you playing a game? He said that what he learned was to make a game. Moreover, how many children can really concentrate on studying on the computer for an hour without being lazy and playing games or doing other things? I know that many children do play other games secretly. The parents have no ability to supervise and control, and are struggling with their own doubts and worries, while the children are completely struggling with self-control. Such a practice scene is a very bad experience. Imagine that every afternoon, from 4 to 5 o'clock, the children go to practice their hobbies. The mother makes a pot of tea and chats with her best friend on the other end of the phone, saying that my child is practicing piano in the room. This is very relaxing for parents. time. But if it were my child who was learning programming in front of the computer, I didn’t know what he was learning, and I couldn’t explain clearly what he was doing. Anyway, the teacher said it was pretty good... This scene made the experience very poor.

Extending it to me personally, I am just one person, and online-based content is the core method. Let your children watch online classes and study? Is it 100 times more difficult?

Again, programming for children is fine, but for me, it’s not appropriate. In fact, I have thought of some different routes and plans, but for me personally, I don’t have the resources to operate them, at least it’s not suitable for me now.

Therefore, if my capabilities and resources cannot find a way to meet the customer experience for this core demand point, I will not go in this direction. Even if you do it, you won’t do it well and it won’t make a big difference.

The illustration is Shiyan Moshang Flower Park