The focus of this article

Since 1983Adobe IncThe development of the first batch of software products for designers has set off a wave of desktop typesetting.

Adobe Inc went deep into the consumer sector through a series of far-sighted acquisitions to broaden the market.

In 2013, Adobe Inc released Creative Cloud subscription service, a complete transformation from a licensed software company to a cloud-based SaaS company, which can be called a transformation textbook.

35 years after its establishment, in 2017, Adobe Inc earned more than $7 billion a year and had a market capitalization of more than $95 billion.

The original text is from Product Habits

When it comes to software as a service (Software as a Service, hereinafter referred to as SaaS), the names of several companies will pop out: customer relationship management (CRM) software giantSalesforce.com Inc, e-commerce software developersShopify Inc, software companyWorkday, customer service / support management software vendorZendeskProfessional social networking sitesLinkedIn. Adobe Inc is often left behind.

In spite of this, Adobe Inc has been in an invincible position for a long time with the success of a series of business decisions.Adobe Inc is famous around the world for his graphics and text printing software PostScript and image editing software Photoshop, which lay the foundation for modern visual design, while the acquisition of website analytics company Omniture and software company Macromedia solidifies its market position.

One of Adobe Inc's most impressive decisions was to transform from a licensed software company to a cloud computing company.This process is costly and laborious, and it is almost impossible for a company to complete it successfully, but Adobe Inc has achieved it and has a firm foothold in the rapidly changing industry. However, this is just another example of Adobe Inc's forward-looking decision.

In the past 35 years, andMicrosoft、SAPSimilarly, Adobe Inc successfully reorganized the company's business and retained loyal customers despite his difficult decisions. In 2017, Adobe Inc's annual income exceeded 7 billion US dollars and his market capitalization exceeded 95 billion US dollars.

Adobe Inc, with outstanding performance, has many wise product, market and financial decisions. Let's take a look at this:

1. The first batch of software products developed for designers set off a wave of desktop typesetting

two。 Far-sighted acquisitions broaden the market and go deep into the field of consumption

3. Completely transformed from a licensed software company to a cloud-based SaaS company.

Next, let's review in detail the history of Adobe Inc's family getting rich.

1982-1993: desktop typesetting Revolution

Many people have heard of Adobe Inc because of its photo editing software Photoshop. Photoshop is so famous that it becomes a verb, likeGoogleAnd Xerox (Xerox, an American office equipment manufacturerXeroxAs a verb means "print".

"you don't like this picture? PS! "

But Adobe Inc is no longer just focused on design tools, in the past 35 years, it has changed from a visual design software company to a diversified large enterprise software supplier.

Adobe Inc's founders are John Warnock (John Warnock) and Chuck Gershk (Chuck Geschke). When they first met, they also worked as engineers at the Xerox Research Center in Palo Alto, USA, responsible for personal computers and laser printing.

They found that businesses and professionals need easier typesetting and printing software.There are two elements to turning a whim into a software company:Strategic partners and quality products, or accurate market judgment.

They think,In the early stages of development, the focus of the enterprise is to promote its ideas to the market.Warnock and Gerschke already know that companies need desktop printing software, and it will take a long time for Xerox to enter the desktop printing market. As a result, the two middle-aged men in their forties made a major and risky decision to resign and start a business in the middle of their careers.

Their first product was the printing programming language Postscript, which was also an attempt at desktop printing software. The Postscript program allows users to connect the computer to an external printer to print. Adobe Inc has come to the forefront of large-scale digital image production.

PostScript responded enthusiastically, especially by tech giants, such as Steve Jobs (Steve Jobs). When Jobs heard about PostScript, he went to Knox and Gershk and suggested that Adobe Inc Software andAppleThe combination of hardware.

"We (Apple) soon realized that our hardware is better than theirs (Adobe Inc), but their software is beyond our reach.That's what Steve Jobs said.

Cooperation with Apple is the basis of Adobe Inc's take-off.This incident has aroused widespread concern and has been a great success. This prompted Aldus, another software company, to propose a trilateral partnership. Aldus has a product called PageMaker that can handle text and graphics.This is an ideal partnership because it shows users how agile Apple's Macintosh interface is and the power of PostScript printers.

The early success of the product iron triangle made the founder of Adobe Inc realizeThere is a broader market for desktop applications for professionals, and desktop applications should allow more intuitive operations, rather than just using code.Based on this idea, Adobe Inc developed the next product, which makes it as easy for users to edit pictures on a computer as on paper.

Adobe Inc developed PostScript, Photoshop and Acrobat software (all cutting-edge products in the field of digital imaging), using new file formats such as .PSD and .PDF, to set industry standards.Adobe Inc's early success lies not only in designing software, but also in setting standards for how users use digital design.

Let's learn more about Adobe Inc's early development history:

1983年：Adobe Inc launched PostScript, which can control output devices such as laser printers through PC clients. Before the emergence of PostScript, typesetting and printing had to buy special printers and supporting systems, and the system was not compatible with other devices. In addition, personal computers can only connect to dot matrix printers with low-quality characters. However, with PostScript, users can print clear, beautiful, high-quality characters on any device. Only one year after PostScript went public, it brought Adobe Inc US $83000 in revenue.

Figure Note: early PostScript programming examples, the programming language is very flexible.

1985年：Adobe Inc, Apple and Aldus jointly launched a three-in-one model of hardware and software, providing users with a complete set of printing tools, thus setting off a desktop typesetting revolution.The combination is highly sought after by users because it provides an "end-to-end" experience for office users: users enter text and images, see them on the screen, and then print them on paper.

Picture note: PageMaker program of Macintosh interface. Users can print content created by PostScript.

1987年：Inspired by the state of her work, Warnock, whose wife is a graphic designer, decided to develop a drawing tool. He thinks this kind of software may come in handy in design work.In 1987, Adobe Inc launched the graphic design and production software Illustrator, whose powerful stylus function allows users to draw curves.The software was priced at $495, thousands of dollars cheaper than the drawing software on the market at the time.

Photo Note: Adobe Inc Illustrator launched in 1987.

1988年：Illustrator brought Adobe Inc an income of about $19 million. Although it looks good, it's not the best part of the story. In order to promote Illustrator,Adobe, a picture editing tool, Photoshop, has been launched as a plug-in for Illustrator.

Photoshop is an unprecedented attempt by Adobe Inc because it allows users to edit and process photos on external devices such as scanners without having to redraw them.Adobe Inc did this because it wanted to expand the potential use cases of Illustrator.At that time, Adobe Inc expected that the plug-in Photoshop would not have a huge impact on the company's revenue. At the time, PostScript's income was $82 million. The money is used to cover the cost of developing new software.

Note: the earliest version of Photoshop has only basic image editing functions.

1991年：Adobe Inc's leadership team believes that the market for graphics software is huge. Co-founder John Warnock was deeply impressed by the rapid changes and upgrading of the industry market.Therefore, it is also believed that Adobe Inc should not rely on only one product.

As a result, Adobe Inc began to think about expanding the product line. They want to develop functions such as font creation, graphic creation, image editing, page layout and video editing.This prompted Adobe Inc to release a video editing software:Premiere .Previously, Apple launched a multimedia file player, QuickTime player, which bodes well for the video industry. Later, the development of Premiere was also inspired by QuickTime player. Premiere was a huge success in the market because it was one of the earliest desktop video editing applications.

Photo Note: Adobe Inc Premiere launched in 1991.

1993年：Users can use Adobe Inc products to create and edit different types of graphic documents. Warnock realized that Adobe Inc needed to find a way to transfer files between different computers and operating systems. This year,Adobe Inc released Acrobat, an application that creates and views documents in a whole new way.Adobe Inc invented a new word for this: portable document format (PDF).

Photo Note: the interface of the Acrobat reader that was launched in 1993.

In the early 1990s, the application industry exploded, mainly due to the popularity of Photoshop. Aimed at professional designers, Adobe Inc vigorously promoted Photoshop through roadshows and tutorials, positioning Photoshop as a top image design and editing tool.

The dazzling publicity strategy of the marketing team has contributed to the spread of Photoshop by word of mouth.They also solicited feedback from designers and relayed them to Adobe Inc's design team.

Thanks to the development of Photoshop, by 1993, the profit of Adobe Inc's application exceeded that of PostScript. Just four years ago, in 1989, 65 per cent of Adobe Inc's total income of $121 million came from PostScript. Now Warnock's prediction about the app business has come true. With the popularity of application products, Adobe Inc's engineers and designers work closely together to update and maintain Photoshop and add new functions, which further consolidate the advantages of Photoshop.

Adobe Inc decided to attract a large number of design-minded users who use a wide variety of software.The decision was not made on a whim. PostScript was booming at first, and other apps looked much dimmer. But Adobe Inc has a long-term vision. "although the applications business has been losing money, we will work hard because we know that there will always be a weak day for PostScript," said Bruce Nakao, a former chief financial officer. "

These apps are well established in the core creative market, with Adobe Inc generating $313 million in revenue in 1993. These revenues provide capital for the company's major acquisitions and help Adobe Inc grow in the future business development.

1994-2006: buying spree and digital typesetting revolution

At the beginning of its establishment, Adobe Inc completely changed the desktop typesetting system, and enterprises can print computer documents in a low-cost and simple way.But Adobe Inc continues to grow, the whole team is also facing more challenges. Some of the challenges stem from the ever-changing market itself, such as the shift from paper distribution to digital distribution, and increased competition from other software companies developing similar design tools.

In order to enhance the core competitiveness and expand the market, Adobe Inc completed a series of acquisitions to adapt to the above two changes.

What attracts the most attention is that Adobe Inc acquired Aldus, the founder of PageMaker.Although Adobe Inc and Aldus supported each other and achieved each other at the beginning, their business and market positioning gradually tended to overlap. Prior to the acquisition, Aldus had been developing and acquiring tools that competed directly with Adobe Inc, drawing software FreeHand and photo editing program PhotoStyler.

Note: Aldus FreeHand's Windows system interface

After this acquisition, Adobe Inc obtained PageMaker and dynamic editing software After Effects from Aldus, which made up for the gaps in his product line.

At the same time, with the rapid development of the Internet, people create and share more and more images. Adobe Inc did not stand idly by.They acquired another strong competitor, Macromedia.It absorbs Dreamweaver (a competitor to Photoshop) and Flash, which is the basis of web animation.Therefore, this acquisition has established Adobe Inc's important position in the new era of the Internet.

The acquisition adds Adobe Inc's products and is conducive to the development of new digital typesetting products.In addition, Adobe Inc eliminated the threat posed by competitors by absorbing talent expansion from Aldus and Macromedia.

The acquisition also opened up a new consumer market for Adobe Inc. Prior to this, Adobe Inc devoted himself to developing business-level tools for professionals. But that changed after the acquisition of Aldus; before the acquisition, Aldus was developing revenue-generating gadgets to meet the needs of consumers who wanted to enter the design world. Bruce Chizen, head of Aldus's consumer department, later became head of Adobe Inc's new consumer products department.

Adobe Inc expanded his business from the professional creative industry market to the consumer market, built a line of defense for himself in the fierce competition, and further promoted the popularity of digital typesetting.

Let's take a look at Adobe Inc's specific approach:

1994年：Adobe Inc announced a "merger" with Aldus, but actually acquired Aldus. Despite the similar market positioning of the two companies, Adobe Inc's profit is 10 times that of Aldus. Adobe Inc's profit is as high as $49.3 million, while Aldus's profit is only $5.1 million. After the completion of the acquisition, Adobe Inc's company doubled in size, increasing its employees from 1000 to 2000, making it the fifth largest software company in the world.

1995年：Although Photoshop is a successful web applicationAdobe Inc believes that the Internet is only one stage in the whole process of development.They don't focus on web applications. This is not only a huge turning point for Adobe Inc, but also an obvious misjudgment.Even though he missed such a great opportunity, Adobe Inc survived and continued to flourish. This shows that the company has created products that meet the needs of the market, and also proves Adobe Inc's ability to innovate in existing and new products over the past few decades.

1996年：Under the leadership of Qiz, Adobe Inc launched PhotoDeluxe, a simple version of Photoshop. Within two years, it has become the most popular photo editing tool for consumers. It also proves that products for a wide range of consumers can be very popular. The rapid popularity of PhotoDeluxe is due to the good combination of Adobe Inc and other image editing software, which makes PhotoDeluxe more attractive to consumers.

Photo Note: Adobe Inc PhotoDeluxe.

This year, Adobe Inc also released Acrobat 3.0. in cooperation with the communications company Netscape, PDF has become the preferred format for web graphic design. Acrobat became a web application that helped Adobe Inc develop more use cases outside the core design tool market.

1997年：Adobe Inc earns $917 million a year, 80 per cent of which comes from apps. The success of these softwareThis is mainly due to Adobe Inc's development of the first batch of image editing applications that can be accessed on the desktop.Although Adobe Inc is not the first to put on the market, but provide its mainstream software package download, occupy a dominant position in the market.

1999年：Adobe Inc launched Acrobat 4.0, which carried out a series of important updates on the basis of the previous version, and added practical new features, including password protection, digital signature, collaborative comments and review, which attracted a large number of enterprise users. Adobe Inc's sales soared again.

Acrobat 4.0can convert web pages to PDF, which is a revolutionary innovation in the software industry.Adobe Inc stood out among the competitors. As these performance optimizations made Acrobat4.0 more attractive to enterprise users, Adobe Inc's revenue from this product line doubled from the previous year (from $58 million to $129 million).

2000：Bruce Chiz has made great achievements as the head of Adobe Inc's consumer products department, and other managers have come to trust him. In 1998, he was promoted to executive vice president, working closely with co-founders to lead the company.

After Jesk retired in 2000, Chiz was appointed president. When CEO Warnock decided to spend more time with his family in 2000, Chiz was appointed CEO. Qiz focuses on building products for new markets, helping Adobe Inc transform from a design tool supplier to a diversified software company.

2001—2002：Adobe Inc released a page layout application called InDesign, and as a direct response to its competitor Quark, InDesign wants to compete with QuarkXPress. InDesign is more advanced than PageMaker. PageMaker has not been updated for nearly a decade, and InDesign can also show the strength of Adobe Inc's other products. InDesign helps Adobe Inc compete with Quark, and Adobe Inc regains the favor of professional users.

2003：Adobe Inc packaged all the products into Adobe Inc Creative Suite to unify its brand and provide packaged downloads.

2005：Adobe Inc acquired rival Macromedia and all its flagship products, notably the easier-to-use Dreamweaver and animated video player platform Flash. As these products already have a group of loyal users, the acquisition makes Adobe Inc's share of the consumer market even bigger.

Macromedia attracts designers who are particularly interested in web images. Considering that the web side is gradually becoming mainstream, it is very right for Adobe Inc to acquire Macromedia, although it is still not fully committed to web applications. For many years, Adobe Inc always mistakenly despised the Internet, thinking that it was just a flash in the pan.

As all Adobe Inc's products become more mainstream and easy to use, they are also popular in non-professional consumer markets. Consumers even began to make pirated software. Although piracy does not generate income for Adobe Inc, curious consumers are becoming more familiar with Adobe Inc's products.

Adobe Inc at the same time in the consumer market and web market to get a larger market share, greatly expand the market. This gave it room to experiment with a business model, and Adobe Inc began to think about a business model that was more meaningful than authorization. This prompted Adobe Inc to make a difficult decision:Move from traditional software to the cloud.

2007 Mel 2017: transforming into a cloud SaaS company

"We always have the right motivation. How can we innovate at a faster pace? How to actively acquire new customers and how to build a more stable recurring revenue stream? " Shantanu Narayen, CEO of Adobe Inc, explained why Adobe Inc wanted to develop into a cloud-based enterprise.

For more than 20 years, Adobe Inc, as a company based on licensed software, has always maintained strong competitiveness, established a strong brand image, provided design tools for professionals and consumers, and people thought it was good value for money.

However, after a company has been deeply cultivated in an industry for decades, the industry will also undergo many changes, and so will the software industry.The days of selling software through licensing and CD are over, and many companies are starting to sell software in the cloud through subscriptions.Revenue from global SaaS enterprise applications was about $5.1 billion in 2007, and revenue growth from this sales model is expected to exceed 100 per cent in the next few years.

In order to survive, Adobe Inc must also develop a subscription model. As CD-ROM becomes obsolete, the sales model of prepaid software licenses is no longer reliable.Subscription revenue is more stable and will increase over time, so financial security can be better guaranteed.

Adobe Inc's migration to the cloud can protect himself from competitive products. With the emergence of more design tool software (such as Invision and UXPin) and point solutions available for cloud subscription (such as Sketch), there is little risk for users to try Adobe Inc's competitive products. Compared to Adobe Inc's 18-to 24-month product release cycle, these solutions can be updated and improved whenever needed. All these factors weaken Adobe Inc's stickiness to users.

Moving to the cloud also has a strategic advantage. Mark Garrett, chief financial officer of Adobe Inc, said Adobe Inc's users had more demand for creativity, but the creative business did not grow and unit product sales did not improve. Adobe Inc increases his income mainly by raising prices, but this is not sustainable in the long run.

Although the shift to subscribing to cloud services seems to be conducive to Adobe Inc's future development, this business model is not the most suitable for Adobe Inc's products or users.Many users rely on Adobe Inc products to work, while the subscription model is not as reliable as fully owning the software, because users think their use and access may be suddenly interrupted. Providing software on cloud servers raises concerns about whether people can handle work on the road, and whether downloads or incorrect updates will hinder their work.

In terms of business, moving to the cloud is also Adobe Inc's long-term decision to look forward to the future, at the expense of short-term returns. The transition from licensed software to cloud SaaS is a difficult, expensive, and time-consuming process.

Although it was a wise decision in retrospect, it was difficult to tilt a lot of manpower and material resources to the cloud at that time. Many executives of Adobe Inc are worried about the risk of falling revenue, earnings and share prices during the transition period. They are also very worried that customers and shareholders do not understand why Adobe Inc changed. Once customers and shareholders lose confidence, the company's financial situation will collapse.

After a lot of planning and modeling, Adobe Inc team realized that the advantages absolutely outweigh the disadvantages. Finally, the 2008-09 recession strengthened their resolve, but at that time Adobe Inc realized that it was financially difficult and had to take action to protect the company and customers. Adobe Inc put his heart and soul into the transformation to address his concerns and became a cloud SaaS company.

Let's take a closer look at how Adobe Inc did it:

2007：Shatanunaran took over as CEO of Adobe Inc, and the company ushered in a new turning point.With the vision of breaking the status quo of Adobe Inc, Naran has established more digital media and marketing services, and actively expanded product use cases.Bruce Chiz's contribution is to help Adobe Inc transform into a diversified, multi-product software company, while Naran's contribution is to successfully transform Adobe Inc into a comprehensive enterprise cloud service provider.

2008：Adobe Inc released a web version of Photoshop called Photoshop Express. This is an unprofessional product that is very easy to learn and use, allowing users to edit photos, create albums, and share them with others.This shows that Adobe Inc began to create consumer-oriented web products by using the social functions of the Internet, and Adobe Inc took a big step towards embracing the Internet.

2009：Adobe Inc acquired Omniture, a top enterprise analysis company. It enables Adobe Inc to provide web page analysis, measurement and optimization technology directly to product users in the workflow. Adobe Inc opened up a new product category-analysis, and then introduced new customers-marketers.The analysis and marketing business is close to Adobe Inc's existing creative design market.New users who evaluate design performance on a web page can easily access analysis tools. This helps Adobe Inc measure the effectiveness of his other products. When Adobe Inc bought Omniture, Adobe Inc said, "We will become a big data company aimed at marketers."

2010：Adobe Inc released eSignatures, a cloud-based signature tool, indicating that Adobe Inc is preparing for cloud migration. When it was released, Adobe Inc saidIts mission is to "build products that are easy to use, fast, and easy to access without being dragged down by complex features."”

2011：Apple Inc and his mobile device said they would no longer support Flash, after Adobe Inc announced that he would give up Flash software. As an alternativeAdobe Inc plans to focus more on HTML5This is also the practice of other companies in the technology industry to get more opportunities on the web and mobile browsers. This is a breakthrough because in a complex technology ecosystem, software companies need to adapt around hardware companies.This also prompted Adobe Inc to give priority to web compatibility.

2013：This is the biggest turning point in Adobe Inc's history. Adobe Inc released Creative Cloud (CC) to replace Creative Suite. All future versions of Creative Suite applications will be purchased only through subscription services and can only be used in the cloud. Its service has gone from an one-time payment of $1800 to $50 a month for an entire CC (or $19 a month for a single application).Since then, Adobe Inc's transition to cloud computing has been hailed as a "textbook" for corporate transformation.

Adobe Inc's ultimate success benefits from the following aspects:

1. The company provides valuable use cases for different types of users and projects (such as designers, photographers, videographers) and adds new functionality to cloud tools.

2.Adobe has changed its business focus to cater to the digital work environment.

3.Adobe expands its target market, no longer limited to creative people, and adopts a packaged sales model.

Adobe Inc's financial situation reflects the success of the transformation. The valuation of the SaaS business is higher than that of the software licensing business, and Adobe Inc's share price and valuation have risen in the past few years.

Now, Adobe Inc's revenue and profits are still growing, thanks to cloud subscription services. Recurring revenue from subscriptions accounted for 86 per cent of the company's total revenue of $7.3 billion in 2017. The 35-year-old company's annual revenue growth rate is 25%. The company's share price rose 20 per cent because of its bullish performance in fiscal year 2018.

Even if it is one of the largest software companies in the world, Adobe Inc is growing at a rate that stands out from the crowd. Five years ago, the share prices of Adobe Inc and Salesforce.com Inc were both $40 a share. Now Salesforce.com Inc is about $107 a share and Adobe Inc is about $183 a share. Adobe Inc's future is promising.

The Future Development of Adobe Inc

Adobe Inc needs to maintain the momentum to continue to expand the customer base and develop the company's business, which is also the proper meaning to get rid of the old thinking.

Adobe Inc can continue to grow by acquiring other excellent design and optimization analysis tools and integrating them into existing product suites:

Acquire more user experience / design tools:To maintain its edge, Adobe Inc needs to acquire other user experience tools, such as Invision. Compared with Adobe Inc's traditional product suite, such tools are more suitable for web pages and mobile applications.

Invision Studio, which is regarded as the "serious trouble" of Photoshop, specializes in serving the "modern design workflow". It has advanced animation and response design, is very easy to use, and has many potential use cases, such as presentations, collaborative workflow design, and project management. Invision also plans to expand further with an app store.If Adobe Inc buys Invision, it will not only eliminate the potential threat, but also attract the attention of more potential consumers.

Provide more point solution tools:Single-point solutions, such as the digital design toolkit Sketch, are extremely lightweight use cases.Sketch is described as "a simplified version of Photoshop that is suitable for drawing things on screen". Such a point solution can be organically combined with subscription services, and Adobe Inc is building a subscription service that can attract more customers to try lightweight products.

Adobe Inc can acquire a single point solution tool like Sketch, or continue to build a single point cloud solution like eSignature. Users will have more ways to try out some of Adobe Inc's suite. With the subscription plan, users do not have to promise to continue to pay, Adobe Inc can attract more new users, who are simply deterred by high prices and complex options.

Acquisition of next-generation analytics companies:The field of analysis is similar to web design, and Adobe Inc has entered this field through the acquisition of OmnitureBut if Adobe Inc buys other forward-looking analysis companies, he can expand on a larger scale with the help of a richer range of products.

For example, data analysis companies such as Amplitude provide tools for analyzing user behavior, rapid iterations, and measurement results. This is a perfect supplement to Adobe Inc's web design tools. It will help designers who are already using Adobe Inc's products and attract analysts and product marketers who work with designers.

Adobe Inc's development has gone through many different stages, but it is consistent to provide high-quality products to the core customers, and then expand the business to neighboring markets.Future success will depend on how to continue product iterations and deliver these products to the emerging SaaS market.

Reflection caused by Adobe Inc

Not many technology companies can continue to innovate and grow as an "old horse in the stables" like Adobe Inc. Adobe Inc's development path is unique and largely depends on the choices made in the face of great changes in the industry.

However, SaaS startups can still learn a lot from Adobe Inc's development. Here are three main lessons we have summed up:

1．Expand business to naturally adjacent markets

Adobe Inc has created quality products for designers. But with the development of the company, Adobe Inc keenly made the transition to the new market. One of the keys is to expand the markets naturally adjacent to the designer market, such as marketing and, more recently, the analytical market.

Companies that want to expand new markets must also consider the relationship between new markets and current markets.By intervening in neighboring markets, it is possible to acquire new users while providing new value to existing users.It also helps the company grow while adhering to its core vision.

Every time you want to add a product and target a new market, you first need to test your idea in the new market. I have a three-step process to verify:

(1) make assumptions based on your ideas.

(2) create an attractive system.

(3) find a pattern that can find pain points.

The advantage of targeting neighboring markets is to validate new ideas through potential users, through surveys and open forums, or through user testing tools such as User Testing. Whatever you do, make sure that a new product or service is really a natural extension of an existing product.

2.Pay attention to the funds and consider the long-term financial situation

In the past 35 years, most of Adobe Inc's financial decisions have been very wise.It uses money from product growth and IPO to make key acquisitions, adding more sources of revenue.Adobe Inc provides funding for research and development to build new products and broaden user access. This process of using increased revenue to develop more products, thereby generating more revenue, creates a virtuous circle.

Adobe Inc's winning strategy was planned from the very beginning and persevered. When Adobe Inc's first product, PostScript, was a great success, Adobe Inc didn't need to add more revenue streams. But the leadership knows that keeping the company's products single is not a wise financial decision in the long run. That's why Adobe Inc began to target new users and enhance PostScript apps, even if the results were not immediate.

Early decisions on financial and business models will have opportunities to develop their talents in the future.To ensure that your early decisions do not become an obstacle to later development, you must consider some important issues as soon as possible:

Are we planning to build a single product, or are we planning to build more products? If our first product doesn't work, what's our contingency plan?

How do we sell to our customers and how much do we want to charge? Will the price encourage some users to buy and deter others? Will the users we attract help us grow?

Of course, every company must solve unexpected situations and make financial decisions accordingly. But don't deny yourself prematurely. Prepare early for your long-term success.

3.Make acquisitions according to product gap, talent gap and competitive environment

There are many reasons why one company buys another. Adobe Inc has successfully explainedThe key is to fill the needs of the company and provide motivation to move forward at a specific time.

Some of Adobe Inc's acquisitions, such as Omniture, have enabled Adobe Inc to add a whole new set of tools to his products. Other acquisitions, such as the acquisition of Aldus, doubled the size of the team and brought in talent like Bruce Chiz, who made a huge contribution to Adobe Inc. At the same time, the acquisition of Macromedia helped Adobe Inc reduce one competitor and put an end to the impending collision between the two companies.

If the company can make up for its shortcomings and meet the needs of the market and industry through acquisition, it is a wise acquisition. At a higher level, the company's leadership must consider the following three issues: product gap, talent gap and competitive pressure.

At the tactical level, being aware of product gaps and competitive pressures means keeping in touch with customers and their workflows, and conducting market research to see what other product options they have.Being aware of the talent gap means conducting internal investigations to fully understand how the team works and where team members need more support.

Only if you know what the problem is, you can fill the gap. Make sure you build this sense of company under your leadership.

35 years old, with a long way to go.

Adobe Inc's story is a journey of transformation. It has seen different times of software development and is trying its best to succeed in this new era. So far, it has done very well. Only through difficult long-term decisions and serious consideration of how to expand the business and bring new value to customers will it be possible to continue to grow and flourish like it.

Adobe Inc still has great potential-I'm looking forward to seeing Adobe Inc's future.