Huang Mingjie: Attacking Old Boy

Whether it is from the first time the word "Maker" was written into the government work report, to Premier Li Keqiang's visit to Shenzhen Chaihuo Maker Space on the first day of work in the new year, or the first official introduction from the Shenzhen Municipal Government to overseas From the business card of Shenzhen "City of Makers", and to the first Shenzhen International Maker Week, which has exploded in popularity recently, the once unfamiliar and lonely "Maker" has begun to receive unprecedented attention. Huang Mingjie is one of them.

Mingjie Huang, founder of Attkon Technology, Master of Environment at the University of Liverpool, UK, once a backpacker who loves rock climbing and canoeing, and now a passionate digital geek, his dream is not to be on the Forbes list , but do what you love.

After graduating from the UK and returning to China in 2006, Huang Mingjie and his friends co-founded Pcase Bicos, which is now the largest smartphone accessories manufacturer in China. In 2010, he set up studios in the UK and Hong Kong to create Pinlo, an Apple-authorized accessories brand. In 2014, he led four friends with an average age of less than 30 years old, and founded Attkon Attack Technology. For Huang Mingjie, who "will die without tossing", leaving is for a better start.

Make warm products

As early as in college, Huang Mingjie tried to start a business, but he was not understood by his parents. After returning to China, he continued to start his own business until Dita appeared.

At first, Huang Mingjie accidentally discovered that air pollution affects the health of his family, which hit the softest place in a Cancer man's heart, and he began to think about how to protect his family in his own way.

At the beginning of the project, they just wanted to make a vehicle air detection device. But as society pays more attention to air quality, especially PM2.5, they are more certain that what they need to do is a product that can "walk" and be perceived. In the end, this "good-looking" smart micro air detector was crowdfunded on JD.com without promotion. It gained 2,477 supporters and raised 316,933 yuan in one month.

Huang Mingjie, who insisted not to advertise, even Dita's press conference was broadcast live through the WeChat group, and only friends were invited, no media. Although Dita once exploded the circle of friends, but based on the publicity and dissemination of friends, the continuity and audience seem to have limitations. Faced with such doubts, the willful Huang Mingjie did not take it seriously. After all, the ice bucket challenge is a good precedent.

Huang Mingjie positions himself as the role of "creative director + product manager", who can not only control the product, but also manage the brand. But he is not a complete "technical controller". He pays great attention to user experience and repeatedly emphasizes "to make products with temperature". Although there are many professional air detectors on the market, in addition to monitoring the humidity, temperature, formaldehyde index and particulate matter (PM2.5) of the air, the material of the log and the retro design make Dita unique in style. "Literary and fresh" temperament. In addition, from the selection of materials, to the design of USB ports and rotary buttons, every detail shows Dita's "high style". Because he was nurtured by his collector's father since he was a child, Huang Mingjie would visit the local flea market every time he went to select various gadgets with unique taste and great design sense, so he was very concerned about the details of the product's material, feel, function, appearance and so on. Picky, "the taste can't come down when you go up."

However, a new problem has come again. What is the use of knowing that the air is not good. People are more concerned about how to improve the air quality. Huang Mingjie does not shy away from this question: "What we are doing is not just environmental monitoring equipment, but an attitude towards life." This is also his definition of Dita, "knowledge and action". When you understand the surrounding environment, you will spontaneously take a certain action, and a habit will be formed subtly.

Take the world out of your pocket

Be careful and you'll find that every corner of Dita has "hidden secrets". Open the back cover, there are a lot of secret codes engraved on Dita's mold, which is full of gratitude to the whole team. In order to make every user feel this uniqueness, Huang Mingjie has also specialized in passwords.

This kind of temperature is not only reflected in the details of the design, but also hides the "little selfishness" of a father. The name of Dita, on the one hand, pays tribute to Dieter Rams, the father of German industrial design, and on the other hand, is derived from his daughter's nickname DiDi. As a typical Cancer man, he loves home very much, but in order to start a business and dream, he has to leave home again and again. Huang Mingjie said that he hoped that all products in the future could use his daughter's name.

When it comes to the word "feelings", Huang Mingjie immediately put away his sensibility, and strongly and resolutely refused to have any relationship with this word, because "this word has been used badly". He is capricious but often compromising. He is proud of the "high-quality" log version design, but in order to consider the needs of more people, he made a "popular" plastic version design during product production. On the one hand, he doesn't want to compare prices with Taobao models, and on the other hand, he is constantly doing subtraction. In order to achieve mass production, he has created household necessities like thermometers that everyone can afford.

He describes himself as "often in a tear," as he dreams. In the past, Huang Mingjie's dream was to put the world in his pocket. The advent of the smartphone fulfilled his dream, but seemed to be eroding it. Because more and more people with smartphones have become bow-headed people, people have become indifferent and distant. "It's sad. But this is an opportunity." For Huang Mingjie, the dream now is to take the world out of his pocket. He believes that there should be a more real relationship between people, or that the interaction between virtual and reality should have a new form. He couldn't help but be excited to be involved in such innovation. Even a trivial force, he firmly believes, can cause a hurricane from the wings of a butterfly.

Just last month, he suddenly announced that he would join the MiChuang 100 accelerator. Huang Mingjie's plan for Michuang 100 is different from ordinary incubators, but a creative community that can quickly scale and realize mass production of ideas.

This may be another departure for him towards the "Original Intention of Creation". In any case, there is still a dream, what if it comes true? Go ahead, old boy!

Maker said:

1. In the era of "mass innovation and entrepreneurship", how do you find your own breakthrough?

Huang Mingjie: The key is the product. Making a product doesn't have to be "money". In many cases, by paying close attention to the details of life and caring for others, you can draw inspiration and create different products. In this era of developed information, as long as we are willing to communicate and obtain, everyone can create a product through their own imagination and actions.

2. How do you balance technical preferences and business?

Huang Mingjie: Willful but often compromised, only doing what he likes.

I think technology is for business, I'm making products, not art. Giving users the right technology is more important than the latest and coolest technology.