Case analysis: The confusion of an O2O product manager!

The theory is boring. After reading it, I just felt it was meaningless. I will try to discuss cases with you in the future.

A few days ago, I received an invitation from Kay to have dinner with me and talk about his O2O project. I found that the problem he encountered was very representative, and many of my friends might also be troubled by it.

After obtaining his consent, I will share the situation with you.

1. Product situation

BangBang is a product incubated internally by 58. It is positioned as a personal service transaction platform and provides services such as maintenance, pets, photography, and career consulting.

58 is the Taobao of local services, connecting people and merchants. The difference of BangBang is that both the service provider and the demander are individuals. By connecting people, we create a closed loop of services and ensure better service quality.

I recently finished reading the book "Sharing Economy". Sharing economy is the reorganization of resources and knowledge to improve utilization efficiency, which has huge economic and social value. The three elements of the sharing economy are: overcapacity, sharing platform, and everyone’s participation.

I feel that "BangBang" is a typical product form of the sharing economy, regardless of the fact that there are many similar products.

According to the theory of "sharing economy", BangBang utilizes the "excess capacity" of knowledge and skills to build an open, fair and transparent "sharing platform" to call for and motivate more "individual participation".

The knowledge and skill resources can be reorganized to benefit the service providers; at the same time, the service demanders can benefit by providing localized and personalized services.

So, the initial feeling is:

The product model is in line with industry trends, and bilateral needs have long been confirmed, so there is no problem.

The team's genes are composed of employees drawn from 58's commercial products, and also have O2O team genes.

In theory, traffic sources can be diverted from 58, as the needs and usage habits of the user group are very well matched.

We can also see from Kay the energy, execution and desire to win of the young product team, so I think this product is worth a try.

2. Problems encountered

After discussing the product in detail, I found several questions, as follows:

1. Category selection deviates from product positioning

As a new product, users have no preconceived impression of it, so the first impression when seeing the product is very important. It basically determines the user's perception of the product and will not give you more time to explain.

The first feeling is confusion because the user is not sure if or when he or she needs the product. After closing it, you may never open it again because you have forgotten what the app is used for.

The root cause is that the understanding of the product is vague.

If you look through the apps on your phone, you will find that each one has a corresponding demand point. Didi is used for going out, Weibo is used to kill time, WeChat is used for chatting, and Meituan is used before eating. So when is BangBang used?

It’s not because there are too many categories. Although 58 has so many categories, users still have a clear understanding that they only look for 58 for things like second-hand moving and renting houses.

The main reason is that the setting and selection of categories not only fail to reflect the positioning, but also confuse users:

Maintenance, it feels similar to 58, so why use Bangbang? I'm confused

Interesting and fun, what does it mean? I clicked in and it was just a bunch of people. Are they asking me to make an appointment? I'm confused.

Appearance, there are photos, film hairdressing, LOL companionship, postpartum yoga, what does it mean, confused

Life services, strange, shouldn't all of these belong to life services? Confused

…

Confused, I decided to close the app. . . Just delete it.

Dominant genetic determinism also applies to O2O products.

For user products, the content displayed in important positions reflects the positioning of the product; the same is true for O2O products. The service types displayed in important positions also reflect the positioning of the product and convey the core value and usage scenarios of the product to users.

Bangbang should carefully select the first batch of categories. Although the categories are different, there should be relevance between them, targeting the needs of similar groups of people in similar scenarios. Then determine 2-3 key categories and invest more manpower and promotion resources to create successful cases as the entry point for new products.

2. Unclear operating model

I think the selling point of BangBang should be C2C, which is what I mentioned above, using the concept of sharing economy to reorganize the resources of people with skills and knowledge, and redistribute them on the product platform to improve efficiency.

This is a bilateral operation model. If Bangbang wants to play its own value as a platform, it must establish clear, transparent and open rules, first attract or introduce service providers to settle in, then release traffic in and convert it into service demanders. This bilateral movement is like two feet moving forward steadily and regularly, alternating back and forth many times, forming a virtuous cycle and making the snowball bigger.

However, in BangBang's current categories, service providers include both individual users, such as photography, and career consulting, as well as businesses, such as repairs and moving.

C2C is the core value of Bangbang; B2C has no need to exist because it overlaps with the parent product 58. Moreover, the operations of 2C and 2B are completely different, with different requirements for product functions, platform order and operational talents, so they cannot be "two-pronged".

For operations, it is necessary to respect the professional fields involved in each category, because the specific groups of people, industry attributes, and user needs will be different. The best case scenario is to find operators in the industry based on the category. A typical case is Zhihu. The operators in each field are all insiders who are always in the circle and are familiar with the market and have accumulated some connections.

If you can’t find operators in the industry, it doesn’t matter. Just focus on learning, meet with users more often, communicate more, and gain more experience, so that you can train yourself to be an insider in the industry.

3. The details are not fully experienced

Product details are not important most of the time, but some details are related to the user's core experience, which can make users fall in love with you or leave you.

The qualifications of BangBang’s career consulting experts are not bad, and each photo is of high quality when viewed individually, but when put together on the same page they appear very low quality.

This is the product detail that affects the user's perception of BangBang's authority, causing them to think that the entire product is inferior to Zaixing. This loss is huge.

In order to provide this experience better, "ZaiXing" regularly invites a group of experts to provide free photography services. We would rather invest some costs to ensure user experience.

PS: Kay repeatedly told me to pay attention to the new iOS version that will be released in two days, and the page will not be like this.

3. Bringing enlightenment

1. From positioning to execution, knowing is easier said than done

Everyone knows that when making a product, positioning is the first and most important issue to be clarified. However, after determining the positioning, every step of the subsequent decision-making process must be closely focused on and implemented.

Think about the projects you are working on. Are you clear about the positioning? Is everything you do centered around and serving that positioning? Develop the habit of thinking frequently so that you won’t get lost.

2. Feel from the user’s perspective

It's a cliché, but necessary. When I was interviewing Kay, I opened the phone with my phone, held it in front of him for 5 seconds, and then took it away. Let him experience the process, because this is how users treat a new product. There needs to be highlights to attract me, or give me a clear reason to stay.

Practitioners are thinking about how to implement specific functions and conduct activities every day, but they have forgotten to feel from the user's perspective. As I said, it is enough to make yourself a user and then make products that you like.

3. Communicate more with users and peers

Kay worked very hard and spent a lot of time thinking and trial and error, but he still encountered bottlenecks. At this time, it is necessary to choose practitioners who have different knowledge structure and thinking mode from him to exchange experiences and views, which may help to broaden his thinking and generate sparks.

You can also meet with users crazily and immerse yourself in the other side of the computer. I believe that users will give you inspiration with vivid cases.

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