The author | bearing the wind Alibaba senior front-end technical experts

** To establish a structured thinking, to the structured model to drive the work, to the structured system to build their own ability, small to write PPT, to provide greater value for the business, are very worthy of our use of the model. Cheng Feng, senior front-end technology expert of Alibaba Digital Supply Chain Division, will share his methodology in the process of establishing and practicing structured thinking with you in this article.

The introduction

In the annual self-evaluation, report and work, I always feel some structural problems:

My boss asked me how I was doing. I explained the difficulties in cooperation, visual style problems, business situation, code quality, and the progress of work. After half an hour, my boss still couldn’t get the information and value of what I was doing.
I have done a lot of things this year, all of which have certain output. However, when I look beyond the details, I find that the value to the business and the team is not great. Is it my bad behavior or bad luck?
Codeless is the latest fad, and I’m going to look at visual scaffolding; The team business involves process arrangement, and I plan to study TMF···· I have made a lot of achievements over the past year, but the boss doesn’t seem to agree with me. Is it because I don’t like the boss or what I do is worthless?

Based on my own working experience, I think most of these problems are caused by inadequate cognition and poor practice of structuring.

The first problem: there are structural problems in cognition and expression of things – structural thinking related problems;
The second problem is the systematic-structured working mode problem.
Third problem: lack of focus on learning and growth – the problem of structured capacity building.

About Structuring

Structured: To set up a center (problem, goal). The core elements of the center are decomposed to form a classification substructure. The sub-structure of classification should be reasonably classified in a certain normal form and flow order, and the non-critical structure should be reduced. Analyze the key sub-structure of classification, find countermeasures and make action plans.

Similarly, in reverse order, a variety of messy content is classified, pruned and summarized into a center. I think it’s also structured.

There are many related books:

5 Breakthrough Thinking Techniques for Successful People, The Pyramid Principle, and Minimalist Thinking: Effective work techniques from the world’s top consulting firms

You can also refer to many structured application methods: structured interview, structured financial product design, structured system development method… From the use of multiple industries and fields can reflect and deepen their own cognition.

Recognize and practice structuring at work

The theory of structuring is simple and clear (the tao level is always concise), but there is much experience in the practical application of structuring and the most effective use of structuring (the art level is always variable). Here are some suggestions based on my personal experience:

1. Establish centers

When we take on a business requirement or a challenge, we should first think about what the core goal of the requirement is.

1) Structured center building

The process of thinking is also structured, and I usually break it down into two sub-structures:

What is the current goal of this business requirement (the dimension of things) : 1. The goal is to quickly complete the online trial business effect: the dimension of the goal is efficient and stable online; 2. 2. The objective is to establish the basic scheme for the follow-up business: the dimension of the objective is the core and function separation scheme under the strong architecture design;
Why do I need to do it (human dimension) : 1. It is because my workload and buffer are all responsible for this part: The target dimension is to complete the work within the functional scope; 2. 2. It is because I am good at this technical aspect: the dimension of target person is to use things to strengthen their own ability and use their ability to do things well.

2) Along the center

For a single business requirement, the center established by the two dimensions of engagement and people is the core, which is the most important part and the basis of establishing a structure tree. But we should not stop there, we should also deduce upward: in the overall business scope, what level, what category is this requirement. That is, what is expected of the business at a higher level or overall business and industry development. (Dimension of value)

When a team takes on a business or requirement, there is always a thinking behind it: we want to use this business to create a platform to improve the performance of the industry as a whole; Or assault this business direction, occupy the local commercial blue ocean
When receiving a demand, we must think about the value of a larger level, so as to better judge the priority and mode of doing things.

For example, we do a procurement system, and the current demand is to provide a list of procurement, the ability to search documents by the total price category. According to the structure of the center, it is: efficient and stable on-line (matter), my functional area of work (people).

If we stop at the center established by a single requirement, our subsequent decomposition should be how to solve quickly and how to be more stable
If we continue to build up the tree, we can deeply communicate with products and users about why we need to do price search: 1. Administrators expect to see high price orders. Then the last central node of this requirement should be: management improvement; 2. What is the reason for management improvement? To prevent corruption and improve work efficiency. So the last central node should be: cost reduction; 3. Work your way up until you reach the overall business goal. For example, we conclude that our business is to build an integrated and efficient group procurement system;
1. Is cost reduction a priority? Does the team have sufficient architectural design and people organization to support it? 2. Next to managing performance, is order search really the best performance tool at the moment, because how do users define high prices? Is it true that he performed this search search effectively and without omission? What can he do if there is a problem with the order? … we will find more problems behind this demand. We can also follow the larger central tree and think about whether building better solutions can solve this problem more fundamentally;
Look back at the current task, whether it is really efficient and stable line (thing), work (people) within my functional area. Or the most urgent part at present (direct demand of users) is efficient and stable online (work), work within my functional scope (people), but more fundamental solutions should be done later.

Building a larger structured cognitive system up from the current center:

It will make our judgment (center) of current affairs clearer and have a better cognitive basis, which is very conducive to communication collision and content innovation with partners;
The process of building a larger structured cognitive system is also a process of deepening business and expanding cognitive power. Be sure to communicate with the boss and business side more, and improve their cognitive ability based on their cognitive differences.

In addition, building a larger cognitive system is also valuable for individual and team development.

Too often we are so busy with business implementation that we don’t take the time to think about business value. Partly because we are busy, partly because we are lazy, partly because we don’t understand, partly because we are here to do something and not to do it with a vision. That’s not really the way to get things done;
As a member of the team, we should not only do the hen model of low efficiency and technology outsourcing, but also actively try to do the factory model of “building machines, building factories and producing products”. This is a positive for business and personal development.

2. Decomposition of the center

After the center is set up, there are several ways to decompose the center. The goal is to disassemble the center into cohesive sub-parts. The overall idea is the MECE (Mad Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) principle, which means that all categories are Mutually independent and Exhaustive without overlap or omission. Enough to grasp the core of the problem effectively, and become an effective solution to the problem.

The following is a brief overview of some decomposition schemes.

1) the SWOT

SWOT analysis is also known as situation analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It was first used to analyze the competitive situation of enterprises, and it is also excellent for individuals to analyze their own competitive situation.

(SWOT analysis example of team data visualization capacity building)

The four quadrants of SWOT analysis can be classified into four independent aspects, among which the SW part – strengths and weaknesses is generally used to analyze internal conditions. The OT section – Opportunistic threats are generally used to analyze external situations. Two separate and fully covered categories are formed. It’s very helpful to see what’s going on.

In addition, the quadrants formed by SWOT can be combined with cross-category combination analysis:

The relevant part of SO is the focus of our work, important and urgent. For example, Node + Visualization = “We can build the base platform;
The relevant parts of WO are what we have to solve, and in many cases, what we need to do for exclusive and breakthrough learning. For example, graphics + basic framework = if we want to do the basic framework this opportunity, then we must complete the graphics related knowledge;
WT is the part that threatens the event or growth and must be valued, avoided, and corrected. For example, graphics + multiple companies to force the basic framework = “if we have no basic framework foundation precipitation, and the lack of graphics related learning objectives or related guidance, then we should give up doing the basic framework;
ST is the part where we face up to the competition. How to give play to our own advantages to face the threat requires relevant grasp. For example, Node + systematic ISV = isVS will definitely drive systematic construction, and we must use Node’s basic capabilities to provide more flexible and efficient solutions.

2) the AHP

AHP analysis method is also called Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). It is a decision-making method that decompositions the elements always related to decision making into objectives, criteria, schemes and other levels, and conducts qualitative and quantitative analysis on this basis. It is a combination of qualitative and quantitative, systematic and hierarchical analysis method.

The first layer is the goal, the second layer is the breakdown criteria, and the third layer is the implementation plan. Build A1… A5 is associated with the weight of the target to form a structural judgment (pairwise comparison) matrix. Perform hierarchical single ordering and consistency test on the matrix, and then calculate B1…. B3 layer total ranking weight and consistency test, according to the weight results to judge the priority of the scheme. For more detailed calculations, see MBALib.

We have two ways to use it in practice:

In the model of hierarchical modeling, the core objective is decomposed effectively, that is, if a kind of decomposition cannot be given weight, it is not an effective decomposition.
According to the hierarchy analysis modeling, we can make decisions on the priority of current things. In practical application, even if we do not calculate the weight accurately, at least according to this structure, we can see the correlation between each work objective and decomposition, which is also a kind of guidance.

3) Sequential logic for decomposition

The decomposition of the center should use process-based thinking. It means to figure out the internal logic of how things happen, so you can use the logical order as a reference when you think about it.

Chronological sequence: steps, processes, etc., performed by the center;
Structural order: space, geographical location, internal and external conditions of the center, etc.
Degree order: the priority, importance, etc of the center;
· · · · · ·

Take XMind for example:

(Time sequence decomposition of planning)

(Structural sequence decomposition according to correlation)

(Structural decomposition is carried out according to the importance, i.e. the distance from the fish head)

According to which order to decompose because of personal interests and different things are not consistent, there is no good or bad points only suitable or not appropriate. Applying and experimenting with different patterns will improve the logic of your thinking and behavior and make it more structured.

3. Clean up

Career is infinite, manpower is always poor, cognitive height is always insufficient. We can’t do all the points we analyze well, and not all the levels we decompose are really valuable. In order to improve efficiency and remove noise, the decomposed products should be processed in the early stage with the logic similar to material preparation in data mining. The commonly used ones are:

Generalization: The layers of excessive fragmentation should be abstracted to a higher level for more effective classification;
Fill in the gaps: For the center, some key decision-making sub-levels are missing and should be completely supplemented;
Pruning: For the center, those parts that are less closely related to the center or that are not operable should be removed to reduce the overall analysis complexity.

1) the generalization

For example, in order to improve the r&d efficiency of the department, we collected some feedbacks in daily work: unstable development environment, daily deployment, jar package conflicts, often people push origin-F, it is very troublesome to determine the field of the front and back end joint adjustment, and it is not easy and fast enough to use the current business WebX

All these problems can be summarized into the branch of “Points to be solved for improving R&D efficiency”, but the fragmented display makes the solution of problems seem to have no focus, and there is no way to effectively distinguish other problems encountered in the follow-up.

The generalization generally looks like this: We have some users ages 10, 14, 35, 42, 55, 72. It can be abstracted into age stratification — youth (10, 14), middle age (35, 42), and old age (55, 72) to reduce data volume and improve cohesion.

In view of the above research and development efficiency problem, we can generalize related problems according to the main aspects of research and development work: the current business webX is not easy to use quickly (research and development architecture); Routine deployment, front-end and back-end integration (R&D environment), JAR package conflict, and forced submission (R&D attitude).

In structuring, the deeper and finer the structure is not the better. In many cases, the more cohesive and abstract the structure is more conducive to carrying out the follow-up practical operation improvement work.

2) bare

For example, we need to improve the front-end r&d efficiency. Through investigation, study and reflection, we believe that structural construction in the following aspects is needed:

Efficient DEVELOPMENT environment: excellent development tools, stable development environment, testable and traceable code performance, testable and traceable code performance
Platform technology-driven R&D: continuous precipitation of core capabilities, rapid customization of non-core capabilities without invasion
Reasonable team structure

A structured sorting can make it more clear which parts are missing in the target. Therefore, in view of the importance and urgency of the missing part, we can arrange the work more reasonably, rather than blindly optimize the strong part, or put a gun in the east and a gun in the west.

Similarly, for personal technical growth, it is also a good means to clarify personal learning direction by sorting out the requirements of personal ability under the current technical environment under the current industrial development and marking structural stratification and missing.

3) pruning

When we decompose the layers of the center, even when we do categorize, we always produce points that are particularly divergent. For these points, we should carry out the reduction of non-critical classification structure, i.e. pruning process.

Parts that usually require pruning:

It’s something that doesn’t have much to do with the rest of the structure
Address current core issues that are not primarily relevant
Taking care of this part of the cost is more effective than the output

For example, if we want to beat a Wolf, the cost of a great gamepad is not equal to the improvement it brings to the core goal. If you want to take into account this substructure, it may cause greater negative impact on your body and mind, so it is a wise choice to give up.

The arrangement of our own learning and growth is similar. Whether we need to sign up for an expensive video course or study TMF source code in depth should be decided by the combination of our current learning goals and cost performance, and whether to stay or go.

In structuring, pruning decisively, maintaining focus and feasibility.

summary

Structuration is a very neat theory:

Establishing centers; The core elements of the center are decomposed to form a classification substructure. The sub-structure of classification should be reasonably classified in a certain normal form and flow order, and the non-critical structure should be reduced. Analyze the key sub-structure of classification, find countermeasures and make action plans.Copy the code

We should use it at any time when we are thinking, doing things and growing up. It is very good for sorting out complex problems and supporting decisions.

Finally, to answer the original question:

My boss asked me how I was doing. I explained the difficulties in cooperation, visual style problems, business situation, code quality, and the progress of work. After half an hour, my boss still couldn’t get the information and value of what I was doing: According to the achievement of the core objectives of the matter, the key issues in each sub-part of the reconciliation of the structure of the story, two minutes clear;
I do a lot of things this year, has a certain output, but look out details and little value to the business, and the team to be discovered: first build team is the core of the current business goals, goal decomposition to achieve the required parts, their efforts on the part to do deep, or completion of the current lack of parts, or forced to team goals up the high layer of bigger targets.
Codeless is the latest fad, and I’m going to look at visual scaffolding; Team business involves process choreography, SO I plan to study TMF… After a year of hard work, my boss does not nominate me for promotion: First determine their own technical ability to improve the goal, decomposition to the need to improve each part, for different parts of the boss to engage in related work, try and deep work in the current job, from a deep part to a cross-section of the ability to improve, promotion will naturally come.

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Ali Senior Technical Expert: How to think, act and grow structurally?