Product and user operation method system (I)

As an operator, we constantly optimize the interactive relationship between each link in the system to improve the overall work efficiency of the system. Therefore, we are always on the road when it comes to work on the operation system. Below we introduce the methods and systems for product operation and user operation.

What is Internet product operation?

Personally, I believe that the essence of Internet product operation is closed-loop management from product to user and then back to product. Operations not only serve as a bridge between products and users, but also manage both, forming a closed loop from products to users and then back to products.

The essence of operation is management, so we need to manage the users who use our products. In the process of management, we will find that sometimes we need to motivate and intervene in user behavior, and sometimes we need to improve product processes and functions, so that users can use the products better and more actively and ultimately stay.

The three core elements of closed-loop management of products and users are: user segmentation, scenarios, and needs.

These three elements will run through the entire product life cycle and user life cycle.

User stratification

User stratification refers to the hierarchical management of users who use the product. Why do we need to stratify users?

Because the user group of any product cannot be the same group of people. If you use the same set of operating methods or mechanisms, it will not be applicable to all users of the product. However, you cannot finely divide the users who use the product into hundreds of types, because it is impossible to develop hundreds of operating mechanisms for hundreds of users. You do not have the energy to do so. This is the content that is different for each user, as created by the algorithm.

It is generally best to have 3-5 layers of user stratification. If there are more than 5 layers, you will not have the energy to carry out detailed operation strategy maintenance. If there are fewer layers, you only need to operate with one solution.

The core and difficulty of user segmentation lies in the dimensions used to distinguish user groups, which mainly include static attributes of users and behavioral attributes of users. Static attributes of users refer to relatively static attributes that will not change, such as age, gender, identity, region, etc. Behavioral attributes of users refer to the behavioral trajectories of users during the use of the product, such as likes, favorites, add to cart, comments, etc.

User stratification can be done by first looking at the results of user behavior, such as whether there are several types of people with obviously different behavior paths, and then going back and comparing whether users differ in static attributes. For example, for shopping products, do users just browse the recommendations on the homepage, or do they like to search for specific products, or do they explore different content and make purchases through the content? Are there obvious differences in the user static attributes corresponding to these three types of behaviors? If so, users can be stratified based on this, and different product usage path guidance and operation strategies can be designed for users at different levels.

The value of stratification lies in providing refined operating mechanisms for different users, ensuring that the conversion rate of users in each tier is improved. As traffic becomes increasingly expensive, if we still rely on crude strategies such as red envelopes, subsidies and coupons, it will only lead to increasing costs and fail to reflect the value of operations.

Generally speaking, user segmentation is a horizontal segmentation in operations, based on the dimension of user type, while the user life cycle is a vertical segmentation of users, based on the stage of user processing in the product, thus forming a two-dimensional table. We need to design different operational strategies and methods for each interval in the two-dimensional table.

Scenario

Users' needs are reflected in the scenarios. There is no discussion of needs without scenarios. Users don’t care what your product is, or how many functions your product has, or what the specific usage value of each function is. Users only care about what they need in a specific scenario.

Many product operators are accustomed to introducing the product to users in a comprehensive manner, and conveying the product's functional value and functional usage to users. However, doing so actually has little effect. You can see this from the conversion rate, because users have neither the patience nor the obligation to learn and understand. What users need is "simple", "convenient", and "ready to use in the right scenario".

As a user, think about it, do you understand what kind of product Alipay is, how many functions it has, and what is the value of each function? You won't! You will only take out your mobile phone to open the payment code when buying things, open the subway code when taking the subway, and open Huabei to repay money. Everything is based on scenario operations. Imagine if the subway code can pop up automatically when taking the subway, will it make users retain more and use this product because it is more convenient than other products.

In fact, everyone is talking about scenarios on the Internet, but how do we define scenarios?

The original meaning of scene refers to the scene in a movie or drama, which requires specific characters, places, time and things to constitute a specific scene. Characters mean that you need to consider different levels of users. Different users may have different needs in the same scenario. Location and time will determine what kind of operation strategy you can adopt. For example, commuting time is a very fixed time, and you can have many operation strategies. The specific thing is to solve the process of the current scenario needs.

We will elaborate on the understanding and application of scenarios in more specific scenarios in later articles.

need

There is no need to say much about needs. Half of our effort in operating a product is actually to understand what the user needs are and whether they are met within the product. It should be emphasized that user needs must be reflected in the scenario, so we need to consider user needs in the scenario.

Overall framework of operation

User lifecycle management

As for user management, users of any product have a user life cycle, namely the introduction period, growth period, maturity period and churn period; the corresponding AARRR model commonly used in the industry is that we need to acquire users in the introduction period, we need to activate users in the growth period (let users fully experience the core process of the product, I call it activation, which is different from the usual understanding of activity), and in the maturity period we need to keep our users active and retain them as well as achieve commercial conversion and recommendation dissemination.

The significance of user life cycle management lies in that in addition to horizontal user segmentation, we also need to vertically divide users into different stages of using the product. Only when we have finely divided different user management intervals can we find specific solutions and operational strategies for different problems.

User acquisition

Let’s first look at the first stage of the user life cycle, the introduction stage – user acquisition.

The essence of user acquisition lies in how to convert traffic into users of the product, so this stage mainly solves two types of problems: one is where and how to find the traffic; the other is how to convert the traffic into users. We call those who successfully register for our products users, otherwise they can only be counted as external traffic.

Where the traffic is is actually a question of channels. When conducting channel analysis and expansion, we need to select different users based on product positioning and user stratification. It is not the case that channels with large traffic are more beneficial for our user acquisition, because we need to see where our users specifically match active channels, so as to accurately select channels.

In addition to channel selection, the other thing is how to convert the traffic in the channel. We need to find the urgent needs of stratified users in specific scenarios and make breakthrough conversions. For example, WeChat entered the payment field through the urgent need scenario of sending red envelopes during the Spring Festival.

Author: New Media Operations

Source: New Media Operations