“Hmm… let me analyze this using Director Lin’s method.”

“This concerns Outu Technology’s future development direction. The mobile phone industry changes rapidly—one wrong step leads to a series of mistakes. We absolutely cannot be careless.”

If this had been Chang You when he first arrived, he likely wouldn’t have overthought it, simply delegating the task to his subordinates, just ensuring they completed the requirements satisfactorily.

But after half a year of refinement, Chang You felt he had learned many things from Mr. Pei.

Among them, vision and direction were particularly important!

A famous entrepreneur once proposed the “pig on the wind” theory, meaning that for top entrepreneurs to achieve success, the most important thing is to find the right trend.

The mobile phone industry was undoubtedly the trend of the mobile internet era, but not everyone had the ability to be that pig riding the wind.

One slip, being pushed off position, and you would shatter into pieces!

In other words, hard work determines your lower limit, while vision determines your upper limit.

Chang You originally thought his vision was good, among the best in the industry.

But after meeting Mr. Pei, he discovered he was merely a frog in a well, too arrogant!

He could only see opportunities visible to everyone, and although these were opportunities, the competition was extremely fierce. Fall behind one step, and everything would be lost.

But what Mr. Pei saw were opportunities that others couldn’t see. These opportunities were extremely precious. As long as you firmly grasped them, there was no need to rush, because no one could compete with you.

So, after the success of the OTTO E1 phone, Chang You had determined one thing: since Mr. Pei had such forward-thinking and unique insight, it was right to completely abandon his views of the industry and fully accept Mr. Pei’s perspective.

Why exhaust yourself competing with other manufacturers when you could win by lying down?

However, the only problem was that geniuses often had quirks.

Mr. Pei’s quirk was that he liked to play guessing games with employees, seemingly to train their independent thinking and analytical abilities.

So, not everyone could decipher Mr. Pei’s puzzles, stand out among the many employees, and leave a deep impression on Mr. Pei.

Fortunately, he had Director Lin’s analytical method.

Chang You frowned, deep in thought.

“Director Lin once said that the entry point for analyzing problems lies in ‘the most illogical place.'”

“And the most illogical thing about this matter is why Mr. Pei would use a butcher’s knife to kill a chicken. It would be more appropriate to have Slackin’ Food Delivery develop the fitness app, so why must it be assigned to us?”

Chang You opened the document provided by Guo Licheng on his computer. The entire document was very rudimentary, with only a few sentences.

By product manager standards for requirements, giving it a score of 3 would be generous.

And that’s on a 100-point scale.

This wasn’t Guo Licheng’s fault; he was just a fitness coach. How would he understand the work standards of a product manager?

Chang You read through these few requirements carefully: “This Guo Licheng is the person in charge of the managed fitness center, but his requirements are very simple.”

“This makes sense, after all, he’s a newcomer and doesn’t understand Mr. Pei’s thinking well enough yet. He still needs more training.”

“If Mr. Pei only wanted to fulfill these requirements, finding Slackin’ Food Delivery would have been sufficient.”

“Moreover, these requirements are too general. They would need to be comprehensively revised and refined, the entire functionality redesigned, before being handed over to programmers for development.”

“Design…”

“Could it be that Mr. Pei values our design capabilities?”

“Yes, that’s possible. Our product managers’ design capabilities are much stronger than those at Slackin’ Food Delivery.”

“In other words, Mr. Pei has more hidden requirements for this software, knowing that Slackin’ Food Delivery would struggle to complete them, so he assigned it to us?”

“Yes, that makes much more sense!”

“So, what could these potential requirements be…”

Chang You felt he might be onto something and stood up to pace.

“These requirements are already sufficient for a fitness center utility app.”

“If Mr. Pei wants more, it means…”

“The fitness center is just the beginning, and Mr. Pei’s true goal is to break the limitations and boundaries of the fitness center?”

“So, that’s why he assigned it to us, for us to fill in the gaps that the fitness center project manager hadn’t thought of? To use mobile internet thinking to comprehensively plan this software?”

“Yes, it must be that!”

“But… if Mr. Pei hopes for the phone to integrate with the fitness center app, why doesn’t he allow us to install this app as bundled software on the phone?”

Chang You thought for a moment and quickly broke through this final barrier, showing a look of sudden realization.

“I understand now.”

“Mr. Pei thinks this app contains a lot of content and has high design difficulty, so he’s concerned about its quality.”

“Bundling it with the phone for promotion only looks good on paper, but this way we can’t determine the app’s true situation, leading to misjudgments that would be detrimental to subsequent optimization work.”

“At the same time, if the app’s quality isn’t up to par, it would also damage the OTTO phone’s brand.”

“So, why not install our software on OTTO phones?”

“Mr. Pei didn’t say ‘don’t install,’ but rather ‘don’t bundle.’ He wants this app to be fully tested by the market, so that every OTTO phone user will voluntarily and proactively install it!”

Problem solved.

After reorganizing his entire thought process, Chang You found that everything was so natural and appropriate. All the previously unreasonable aspects suddenly had a perfect explanation.

No wonder everyone enjoyed playing guessing games with Mr. Pei.

Because solving Mr. Pei’s puzzles provided a tremendous sense of achievement and satisfaction!

Chang You immediately left his office to find the person responsible for the managed fitness app.

“There’s a change in plans.”

“The previous requirements are just the most basic functions. We need to expand on this foundation!”

“Besides meeting the daily usage needs of the fitness center, we also need to provide more functions for this app.”

“For example, we can create an algorithm that, based on the user’s height, weight, and body fat data detected in the fitness center, develops reasonable training plans for users, providing references for fitness coaches.”

“Besides appointments, the software can also set reminders, whether for training, additional meals, or rest. Coaches can’t be with clients 24 hours a day, so these reminders can be intelligently handled by the phone.”

“We can also create a dedicated section to upload knowledge or tips about training and diet, so customers can better understand the significance of the managed fitness model.”

“Many people don’t understand why they need to schedule regular training or why fitness meals are bundled, which is why they don’t accept the managed fitness center model.”

“If we can continuously popularize this knowledge, people’s acceptance of this managed fitness model will increase!”

“Additionally, we can leave an interface for future uploads of standard fitness movement videos, helping users correct their form or even practice at home…”

The app manager quickly took notes.

After noting everything down, the manager was somewhat confused: “Mr. Chang, this far exceeds the previous requirements. The previous requirements were just to make an appointment software for the fitness center, right?”

“Is this… appropriate? Won’t the requester be unhappy when they receive the software?”

Chang You smiled: “What? He asks for a very simple function, and not only do we perfectly fulfill it, but we also provide many useful additional functions. How could he be angry?”

“He should be thanking us!”

The app manager scratched his head, muttering softly: “But it doesn’t seem necessary…”

Chang You smiled slightly: “It is necessary, very necessary!”

“When you reach my position, work with Mr. Pei for a few days, and see the view from higher up, you’ll understand why…”

“You still have much to learn!”

…

…

May 4th, Wednesday.

After 10 PM, having sent off the last batch of customers, Lin Canrong watched as the waiters and cleaning staff tidied up Mingyan Private Kitchen before preparing to leave.

By all accounts, Mingyan Private Kitchen’s work processes were already very stable. As the manager, Lin Canrong could occasionally slack off without any issues.

But he still diligently showed up for work every day, never neglecting his duties.

After all, he had once been just a somewhat famous chef in Jingzhou. Since gaining Mr. Pei’s appreciation, he had been the manager of Slackin’ Internet Café, the person in charge of Slackin’ Food Delivery, and now, due to his position as the manager of Mingyan Private Kitchen, he could socialize with various celebrities in Jingzhou. His career was progressing smoothly.

Lin Canrong cherished this opportunity immensely, constantly thinking about how to make Mingyan Private Kitchen even better, not only to repay Mr. Pei’s trust but also to further advance his career.

Recently, he learned that Rui Yuchen’s Slackin’ Food Delivery was expanding aggressively, which made him somewhat anxious.

He wanted to open branch stores but was rejected by Mr. Pei.

Lin Canrong couldn’t understand why Mr. Pei resolutely refused to open branch stores.

After several days of contemplation, he gradually began to understand.

The success of Mingyan Private Kitchen was partly because the chefs and ingredients were top-tier in China, truly excellent in taste, and partly because the unique dining environment, the no-photography rule, the waiting queues, and the pursuit by high-end clientele all supported customers’ consumption psychology.

In other words, it was precious because it was rare.

Just as certain brands would never openly sell their limited-edition items, because if they sold them openly, they would lose their value.

Mingyan Private Kitchen’s chefs were recruited from all over the country, each with their unique specialties. If they opened another branch, how could they ensure the same taste?

If the taste were even slightly inferior and customers’ consumption psychology changed, wouldn’t that damage the golden signboard of Mingyan Private Kitchen?

Even if opening branches could earn more money, did Mr. Pei care about that small amount?

The brand was more important.

Having clarified this point, Lin Canrong completely abandoned the idea of opening branches and, as per Mr. Pei’s requirements, began to focus on how to use the earned money to enhance Mingyan Private Kitchen in other ways.

Currently, he had a few vague ideas, but they hadn’t been fully finalized yet.

Lin Canrong was thinking while going to get his car.

Driving out from the northwest gate, he noticed a ground-floor shop not far away that was still brightly lit, with people busy inside.

A moving truck was parked on the road outside, and people were loading various fitness equipment onto it.

After Mingyan Private Kitchen became popular, the land prices throughout Mingyan Mansion had risen, with talks of “Jingzhou’s New Commercial District” spreading. Many people came to invest in the area, and shops were increasing.

But not all shops could make money.

This brightly lit place was, in Lin Canrong’s impression, a high-end fitness center, originally targeting Mingyan Mansion’s high-end population.

They had expected booming business and daily full capacity, but instead, the situation deteriorated, with daily flyer distribution yielding no improvement.

From the looks of it, they were finally giving up?

Lin Canrong parked his car by the roadside, intending to take a look.

After all, they were neighbors and knew each other. It would be good to go over and offer some comfort.

He saw the original manager of the fitness center smoking a cigarette while directing workers to move fitness equipment, but his face showed none of the sadness that would accompany a fitness center’s closure.

The original manager of the fitness center, seeing Lin Canrong approach, waved in greeting: “Hey, Manager Lin, just got off work?”

Lin Canrong nodded: “Yes, just finished. What’s this… are you quitting?”

The original fitness center manager laughed heartily: “Quitting! Someone’s taking over! This mess is finally off my hands!”