Early in the morning, in Beijing, before meeting Changjing, we specially found a Polar Stone 01 and tested it on the street in the early morning at minus 10 degrees.
More than a dozen streets run down, and it gives us the feeling that it is the first car of a new brand, whether it is voice commands, driving texture, or the overall sense of heaviness, design concept and small ideas of communicationEye-catchingand the completeness is astonishing.
It's just that before we met Chang Jing, we also knew very clearly, who is Chang Jing? What is Polar Stone? Strange to the vast majority of people.
Park the car and walk into a café in Beijing's airport area, where we sat opposite Chang Jing and Chang Jing for more than four hours, and let us come up with the idea of writing a long article, talking about the prequel, chase, concept, and possibility of this crazy stone-made car.
If we had to abbreviate, we would sayChang Jing is a representative of the post-80s entrepreneurs, the best wave-chaser in China's Internet for the past 20 years, and the chased.
It is not a whim for him to build a car, and the source can be extended all the way to the world, to Roborock, to LiDAR, and to AI.
He chases the waves, and he is also chased by the times.
In 2020, Tesla's stock price soared by 700% in a year, and the capital and resources outside of Wei Xiaoli needed someone to stand up again. So, there was Chang Jing and his Polar Stone Automobile.
If you're still curious, then, let's get started and get into our full record.
Who is Chang Kyung?
By searching in a browser, you can quickly find Chang Jing's profile, and in the public narrative, he can even be included in economics and success stories. From a more microscopic perspective in reverse order, you'd even think,He was born at the right time.
When meeting and talking with Chang Jing, he looked very gentle, dressed in black, with a pair of black-framed glasses, and spoke calmly, and when he talked about his head, he would have slightly intense body movements.
When we ask about Chang King's life experiences over the past 20 years, we find many things in common. Although when he talked about his experience in the past ten years, he said that every choice has an element of confusionBut he has indeed stepped on every node of China's information technology development again and again.
Chang Jing's beginning is that an ordinary child has no choice in the face of reality.
In 2005, Chang Jing graduated from the Department of Computer Science of South China University of Technology, and as a fresh graduate student, he went to Beijing for love and began to find a job and earn a living.
At that time, South China University of Technology was not well-known in Beijing, and Changjing's job search was not smooth. His first job was in a browser start-up in a 40-square-meter office in Yizhuang, Beijing, the windowless kind.
He was the company's No. 3 employee and reported to a No. 2 employee who had graduated from junior high school. When reminiscing about the past, Chang Jing slapped his thigh with a smile and said That buddy's ** is a mess, and I have to report to him. 」
But sometimes fate really favors you!
The start-up that Chang Jing joined is Beijing Aoyou. This 40-square-meter basement, after more than a year of rapid development, gave birth to a browser giant that once occupied 20% of China's Internet entrance, that is, the browser of the year.
The passive choice at the beginning brought a precious opportunity to Changjing and became a stepping stone. In the past year or so, Maxthon has become the most important bargaining chip for him to enter Microsoft Research Asia.
Maxthon's aura, Microsoft's expansion node, and personal ability and will make up the right time, place and people for Changjing to enter Microsoft. At Microsoft, he was responsible for Bing's digital chassis, a job that allowed him to meet a group of Internet entrepreneurs and technology tycoons who were at the forefront of China at the time, and Microsoft Research Asia was the highest temple in the hearts of all programmers in China at that time.
At that time, Chang Jing never thought about starting a business, and when he joined Microsoft, I thought that I would be at Microsoft for the rest of my life, and I signed a lifetime contract at that time. 」
However, people's plans will always encounter the impact of time, and there will be new dreams on the stepping stones of dreams. After less than three years at Microsoft, Chang Jing went to Tencent and left a year later to start his first venture.
Because, the mobile Internet is coming, which is an important reason why Changjing decided to run away. Finalizing the direction is no less difficult than deciding to start a business, and determination and confusion coexist. Firmness is the idea that you must make a direction unique to the phone, and confusion is concrete.
When we were doing business directions, we listed more than 100 directions, and my partner and I made a list in the hotel and chose the directions one by one. 」Chang Jing and his buddies thought about GPS, thought about voice, and finally chose image recognition.
In less than a year, Motu was acquired, and being acquired was not a completely active choice, and the sudden change in the capital environment was an important reason, the first half of 2011 was particularly hot, and suddenly it was very cold in July and August, and it was difficult to find financing at that time. 」
At the right time, the prototype of the ** ecosystem began to emerge, and the concept of the "era of reading pictures" was proposed, and the magic map elf was acquired. Chang Jing joined before he was established, first in Tieba, and then went to Map as a product owner, and this period of resume lasted for nearly three years.
In less than three years, in 2014, Changjing started a real entrepreneurship with the accumulation of interpersonal relationships, abilities, resources and honors in the past ten years. In fact, I don't think making a magic map can be called a real entrepreneurship, because it has just gone from 0 to possible. 2。」
When recalling the past, Chang Jing laughed, To be honest, at that time, I felt that it might have been slightly inflated, and I suddenly felt that the aura was too big. However, this time the venture encountered the cold of capital, which calmed down Changjing, who was a little inflated at that time.
Why does it swell? Because Chang Jing has just passed the age of 30, he has already reached the high point that many professionals can only go to in their lifetime. After the launch of the iOS version, the iOS version gained explosive growth in the number of users, occupying the first place in the overall list of free apps in the App Store and the first place in the photography and video list, which once became one of the landmark events in the history of China's mobile Internet.
Speaking of this, Chang Jing's tone could not hide his excitement, he saidIt was really a little bit of the pinnacle of my life. It's not an exaggeration to say that the pinnacle is the pinnacle – have you ever seen a press conference dedicated to one employee? Only Chang Jing did it.
The reason why it is cold is because Changjing's choice is to jump out of the circle and use a longer-term vision to capture the development node of China's technology industry in the next five years or even ten years.
And this circle is the reason why countless VC (venture capital) chased Changjing back then, and their logic is, as long as Changjing makes an APP, I will definitely blindly vote. But Chang Jing's choice was unexpectedHe chose a direction that combined software and hardware, and wanted to be a sweeping robot.
Such a naked jump has led to the retreat of investors,Sweeping robots are a new category in China,It's difficult to find a benchmark,Chang Jing said with a wry smile, It's hard to find investment,He said I voted for you to see you as a person,But I ask you to change directions。 」
However, Chang Jing still did not turn back to the familiar software track, he believes that if you still make software, life is still repeated, and life is very precious, not a repeat of the past. Changjing's nickname is Stone, and the person is as hard as a stoneThis adventure is named after the stone.
After entering the Xiaomi ecological chain, the situation of Roborock, a new company, changed from "nine deaths and one death" to "nine lives and one death", and after five and a half years of establishment, the A-share listing was listed, and it was a profitable listing, becoming the "sweeper" of the science and technology innovation board.
Roborock is Changjing's first attempt on the route of combining software and hardware, if we look at the combination of industrial intelligence and hardware manufacturing, the combination of information industry and manufacturing, we can find commonalities, and we will also findChang Jing has plenty of reasons to build a car.
The condensed version of the story of more than ten years is still a bit long, and the past confirms that Chang Jing is probably the highest ceiling that an ordinary programmer can reach through his own efforts and choices.
In his own words, he understood things at the age of thirty. The connotation of things, in our opinion, is not only how to do things, but also the personal potential energy that he has condensed.
Logic
If the ability to combine software and hardware made Chang Jing familiar with lidar, and the communication with Yan Feng, Yu Kai and others made him understand the automobile industry, then what is the final judgment of a car maker? It should be his worldview and direction.
This is the key to supporting entrepreneurs to complete the organizational structure, and it is also the key to testing the efficiency of the organization.
We asked Chang Jing, are you really the easiest entrepreneur? Chang Jing was noncommittal, and replied in a different wayI'm actually solving problems every day, I'm a problem solver. 」
The so-called solution comes from the definition of the enterprise, the definition of the product, and the definition of the person after the accumulation of software and hardware.
Even Chang Jing looks at people with a combination of soft and hard, and he has been studying brain science for a long timeIn his view, brain structure is hardware, people's past experience is software, and real psychology must be a combination of software and hardware. Changjing's understanding of people is internalized in business management.
In Changjing's view, the entire corporate culture is the externalization of the boss's personality, and a company can only have one culture, which can allow 10% grayscale to exist, but not more, and more will be diluted.
How do you select people who share common values so that they can coalesce into a culture? Changjing's method is to make human algorithms, model people, and rely on data and models to determine how people use them.
After studying brain science, I created my own model, and it worked very well on everyone at Roborock. Chang Jing talks about this model with confidence in his tone.
Every employee at Roborock has a model, which is refreshed once every six months and scored by superiors and HR. Different from KPIs and OKRs, which are a talent screening mechanism, Changjing's employment logic is, I only need to know (two key points), the first is that most of the company's people are in line with the model, and second, I select some excellent people. 」
Similar to the popular Hexagon Warrior hot stalk,This evaluation model has six dimensions, which are logical thinking, empathy, initiative, resilience, meticulous or sensitive, and multidimensional thinking.
When it comes to this hexagon, Chang Jing is confident and details its meaning with us:
Logical thinking is to assess people's efficiency, people with strong empathy have a sense of responsibility, good cooperation, empathy, empathy, become a leader, subordinates will be cared for, will feel warm;
Enterprising spirit is related to crisis awareness, and people with strong enterprising spirit are more sensitive to risks and have stronger self-motivation; Resilient people have a sense of delayed gratification, practice long-termism, and have self-control; Meticulous or sensitive people will pay attention to details and be more rigorous in their work;
There are two sides to multidimensional thinking, the positive is seeking truth from facts, such people need to combine themselves and the environment, short-term and long-term to find the optimal solution; The opposite is called idealism and empiricism. Chang Jing believes that multidimensional thinking ability is a high-level ability, and it is also the core watershed for identifying senior and intermediate talents.
Relying on such employment logic, Changjing plays a role in the companyThe ultimate gatekeeperThe role of the judge, the role of the test judgment, as for who will make the judgment? Chang Jing said frankly, just find someone who can solve problems like you to replace you. Choosing someone who has the talent to solve problems and satisfying this person's sense of security and recognition is the trick for Chang Jing to stop being tired after the age of 30.
Talent management is a secular philosophy, about recognizing, employing and leading people, different companies may have different charters, reflecting different system efficiency, and ultimately reflecting different product characteristics. To our surprise, Chang Jing is very familiar with the model of man.
Whether it is Roborock or Luoke Intelligence, the huge organizational structure needs a clear vein, and then there will be corporate vision, brand concept, product definition and so on.
As the founder, Chang Jing'sKnow itIt is commendable, even if the new car corps that has now made a scale, not necessarily every family has such a No. 1 position that knows what it is and why it is so.
And this whole set of prescriptions ** finally answered Chang Jing's sentence - I understood people at the age of forty. 」
Chase
Thirty years old sensible and forty years old understand people, corresponding to the stage when Changjing founded Roborock and Luoke Intelligence, respectively, and then we are curious, why does Changjing build a car?
At the beginning of 2020, Roborock went public, and once became a "sweeping grass" and a "crazy stone" in the eyes of the capital market.
Chang Jing's answer is that reason is overtaken by feelings.
He said it with restraint and subtlety, and our understanding is that no entrepreneur is willing to be lonely. The scenery of Roborock ushered in a high point, and Chang Jing, who achieved financial freedom at that time, said that his life suddenly had no purpose. 」
No goal It sounds like a bit Versailles, but in Chang Jing's view, it is a real problem, or a trouble, Before (Roborock) went public, there was always a dream hanging, constantly driving you forward, but I suddenly had no dreams, and there would be no dopamine without dreams. Without dopamine, it's equivalent to an empty brain. 」
Investors tease, emotional bonuses, dopamine secretion needs, car hobbies, ......These are all reasons for Chang Jing to build a car, and when he met Yan Feng in October 2020, Chang Jing actually had a clear idea of building a car.
Soon, Chang Jing and Yan Feng co-founded the Polar Stone Automobile brand, which was empowered by Luoke Intelligence. Changjing's aura has attracted a group of senior executives in the automotive industry to join, including senior executives from the Intelligent Drive Research Institute, the Intelligent System Research Institute, the Vehicle Research Institute, the Manufacturing Center and the Marketing20 to 30 years of management experience in the automotive industry. Luoke Intelligence has become the third independent enterprise founded by Changjing after Motu and Roborock.
The mad stones rolled bigger and bigger, chasing them in the wilderness. But what should the chase be?
The chase is Changjing's pursuit of the peak of life, just like crossing the mountains and mountains, there are always higher mountains.
Of course, the chase is also Changjing's pursuit of car-making qualifications. In 2022, the qualification of car manufacturing will be tightened, capital will usher in another period of prudence, and as soon as the wind of the times turns, it will become a hurricane when it falls on the car makerChang Jing said that he was desperate at the time.
At that stage, the Polar Stone was still in its early stages, but there was more than one ready-made story, such as the self-traveling family NV folding and sinking in the sand, which caused a sigh, such as the Jidu in 2022 becoming the Jiyue in 2023.
Before the launch of the new car, Polar Stone had a long quiet period in the ** circle, except for the declaration information, there was basically not much preheating and foreshadowing, the brand conference and the first car conference were not held, and the listing of Polar Stone 01 was like an airborne, and at that listing conference, the founder did not take the stage to speak.
The market is often wary and sensitive to sudden attacks on new things, and the two versions of Polar Stone 01 34The starting price of 990,000 yuan also has a certain degree of sensitivity, as a newborn calf, facing the intensification of the involution of the new car army, it is unrealistic to say that it is not difficult.
In the Autumn of Survival , Wei Qiao joined. In April 2023, Weiqiao Venture Group took a controlling stake in Beijing Automobile Manufacturing Plant and obtained the qualification of vehicle manufacturing, and in September of the same year, Weiqiao Venture Group made a strategic investment in Luoke Intelligence. Polar Stone has become a brand jointly created by Weiqiao, Luoke and BAIC Manufacturing, and the problem of the first car license has been solved, and the channel laying has also been implemented.
During the epidemic, according to the schedule, we had to give the factory, and it would be too late if it was uncertain. But we were quarantined in Shanghai and had no way to go to the site. Fortunately, we were very lucky, and we went almost two-way with the Beijing Automobile Factory, and the mutual trust was very high, and we talked about this matter remotely. 」
People say that the times create heroes, and the heroes of each era have their own efforts and the favor of the destiny of the times.
Chang Jing used the word "lucky" to bring the ups and downs during the entrepreneurial period, and diluted the specifications of daily Olympiad problems into problem solving, perhaps it was his calm performance.
Before Yuru is completed, there are always difficult and difficult stages, what we see is the beginning of the polar stone, it is too early to judge whether it will become or not, but how can the stone go crazy? This is what we are curious about.
The opening of the polar stone
After the story of another village was told, the first car of Polar Stone was launched. However, the growth has slowed down, the competition has intensified unprecedentedly, and the towering ancient trees are inevitably shaky.
The opening comes from the product definition of Polar Stone, the anti-funnel spread, and also from the logic of overseas exports.
According to the official website of Polar Stone Automobile, the promotional slogan of Polar Stone 01 is "Polar Stone Departure to the Mountains and Seas", and Polar Stone has exclusively titled an outdoor travel documentary variety show "Departure to the Mountains and Seas", continuing the outdoor and off-road positioning.
We asked about the uniqueness of this car in **, and he saidIt is positioned to do in-depth self-driving tours, and it is also a long-distance crossing car, which not only has a certain degree of traversing, but also meets the needs of urban comfort. 」
This car also contains Chang Jing's social imagination of cars, earlier he wanted to buy a car to meet the needs of family travel, looked at the V260, Touro, etc., but did not find a perfect fit for the needs.
The product definition of Polar Stone's first car stems from this dissatisfaction, and everything starts with a seat. What is the most comfortable seat I think? Aviation seats, so there must be an aviation seat, the second car must be the appearance of an SUV, in order to make the aviation seat comfortable, the vehicle must be spacious, at least very high, it must be this kind of square box car, off-road vehicle, but not only one empty shelf, it must have a strong all-terrain ability ......」
In the process of Chang Jing's imagination and needs again and again, the car was defined step by step from the seat to the aisle, from the shape to the material.
The first creation is often the benchmark for the brand's tone, and Chang Jing highlighted the uniqueness of the Polar Stone 01. When we come to make cars now, we must be unique and differentiatedHow can you live without differentiation?
The unique difference of Polar Stone 01 is that it can be used at home and played.
In the face of intensified competition in the market, Chang Jing is still behaving in his chest, I think it is not the time to spend a lot of money on communication, because there is a problem of communication efficiency. 」
There are many brands, traffic prices rise, and communication efficiency is low, all of which are the death of communication. In Chang Jing's view, the communication path from knowing a brand, to cognition, to recognition, and then to recognition is the traditional positive funnel communication method, but it is no longer applicable at the moment, and he believes in the anti-funnel play.
Positive funnel propagation and anti-funnel propagation are the differences between flood irrigation and precision drip irrigation, and the change is precisely the change of the opening.
The anti-funnel of Polar Stone refers to user operation, allowing users to pass from person to person, which actually has something in common with ripple communication, focusing on interaction, co-creation, and decentralization, and the mechanism is word-of-mouth effect.
Chang Jing made an analogy to demonstrate such an efficiency gapJust like I told you about this car, even if you are bitter, in fact, you will be suspicious; If a real user tells you about it, you believe it right away. 」
The car is an inherent, communicative product, and when it runs on the street every day, it will become a billboard. In the product design stage, Polar Stone 01 considers the attributes of self-propagation, such as the appearance of the square box, such as the small kitchen of the tailgate, which are the official documents that Polar Stone provides to users to sell cars.
However, the reality is not as light as the theory, and the self-propagation involves customer loyalty, net promoter score, peer competition, marketing costs, etc., which extremely tests the strength of products and systems.
In the Polar Stone Mini Program, after the user updates the post, the interaction at the bottom is relatively positive. Chang Jing said that he will read the content posted by users in the community, and he will also dive in the user group to capture real voices.
There is still a significant gap between the effectiveness of Luoke Intelligence in the car rim and the influence of Roborock in the home economy.
Of course, it is correct to pay attention to the basic law of automobiles, but the car market is treacherous, and it is not uncommon to applaud whether it is popular or not.
Going to sea is another openingFlowering inside the wall and incense outside the wall is also a way to break the game, MG is a precedent, and Chery and Nezha are also proof. Chang Jing revealed that Polar Stone 01 is quite popular overseas and has begun to be exported.
At home and abroad, there is actually a hidden thought of time and space, and there is also a credible plan to find another way. Chang Jing explainedAt home we are late, but from the point of view of going to sea, we are not late to start. Overseas has left us time and space to build user trust at home. In essence, Chinese cars are unfamiliar to overseas, and the brand is actually not so differentiated, so it is a product. 」
We asked Chang Kyung if he was anxious about entering in 2023? After all, 2023 is a very sensitive point in time, and many new energy car companies are in trouble, and the sound of pills and bankruptcies has not stopped - whether it is for car companies that are already standing on the edge of the cliff, or brands that are temporarily stuck in the mud.
Chang Jing's answer is that he is not so worried, one has the strategic cooperation of the world's top 500 Weiqiao Group as a strong backing, two has overseas orders, and three has a good reputation, these are the foundation of sufficient confidence within Jishi, and Chang Jing saidDidn't feel particularly anxiousof dependence.
As is customary, we asked him what he expects from the automotive industry, new cars or Polar Stone in 2024, such as challenges or opportunities. His answer was, not expected. 」
There is no expectation, such a statement, in the bayonet red new energy market is simply a bit deviant. Chang Jing is not a leader of the first pre-production, nor is he a push entrepreneur, looking through the clouds, it seems that the Buddha does not look like the founder of a new car brand.
But behind the lack of expectations, it is not Changjing's passivity and slackness, nor the weakening of Jishi's fighting spirit, but the underlying logic is still focused and straightened out. He saidNow it doesn't make sense to ask about the size of the opening, the first car should be cut from a small opening, I don't need to think about what happens after 0-1, I do 0-1 first. 」
Chang Jing, who claims to be solving problems every day, is still stable in his mentality when facing the "old and difficult" comprehensive problem of building a car. To put it bluntly, what is the optimal solution for solving problems like ours? Make a good car ......And this car remains unique for some time. 」
Sensible, understanding people, seeing the opening and the flow of water, the completion of Polar Stone 01 is not left behind, perhaps because Changjing maintains a cautious and optimistic attitude.
Crazy stones
With the current red ocean and 2025 being seen as a knockout stage, the market is still debating whether the window will close.
Entering the game in 2023, whoever announces the start of building cars will undoubtedly encounter countless winds and waves and reefs.
As for the pole stone, the car is being sold, and the store is being built. So the core of our meeting and interview is still all about the founder.
We asked Chang Jing, if you introduced yourself to a stranger, what would you say?
In the second half of the interview, Chang Jing did not mention Roborock, nor did he mention his experience with reputation and superstar, he did not mention the peak, but said firmlyI'm a car enthusiast and I'm also a product manager. 」
We wouldn't dare to say that he is a top-notch, n-best product manager, but adding the word "excellent" is no problem.
As a product manager, as the backbone of a new car, if Li Bin and He Xiaopeng are both 70-born, Chang Jing, who is an 80-year-old, is actually a little different, and there are new expressions for the worldview and Fang**.
This new lies in the fact that Chang Jing is one of the representatives of entrepreneurs who grew up in the past 20 years from 1997 to 2017 and were washed out by the great waves of the timesIt's a crazy rockHe has accumulated knowledge about software, hardware, and AI, and has completely experienced the slapping and grinding of the Internet wave.
The most important thing is that Chang King is very young, the youngest newcomer among the new cars, and the new cars are still young at the moment, especially for the broader global market, such a young will bring a unique advantage to Chang King.
A young serial entrepreneur who has stepped on the node of the times many timesChang Jing needs to respond with a pole stone, can he step on the new energy node this time?
He also needs to use companies, people, and cars to respond to everything about the future, and the space is limited, and there are always details. Finally, Polar Stone 01, have you ever driven it? If so, what do you think of this car?
ENDS).