Product Operations: How to build a product model diagram?

Products are the bond that maintains the relationship between enterprises and consumers, whether they are real or virtual. Products have a life cycle, and the key point that directly affects their life cycle is user demand. Products are born out of market demand and decline because they cannot meet the demand or are replaced by other demands. Products begin with demand and end with demand.

Of course, looking at the success or failure of a product from the perspective of demand alone may be biased, but if you look into the principles in detail, there is some truth to it. Since there are commonalities between each product, by organizing and improving the product's development history, we can build a product model for marketers to promote and operate. Products start from demand, and certain functional manifestations will be derived according to the demand, so that products are developed and launched into the market through reasonable product operation strategies. After market verification, product verification data is collected for analysis to obtain new demands and improve the products again. Through the process of user needs - functional embodiment - product construction - product operation - data analysis - user needs , a closed-loop chain of product development is formed, allowing the product to improve and repair itself, thus creating a product development ecosystem.

1. User needs:

User needs are often not listed in black and white in front of us, and many times even the users themselves cannot specifically express their needs. During the demand exploration stage, company founders or product managers should simulate and test user needs through scientific and effective methods. Solving user needs is the most essential function of a product. Understanding user needs is the first step in product creation.

How should we accurately grasp user needs?

Generally, the acquisition of user needs is mainly achieved through the following directions:

1. Big data analysis: Through market data analysis, we can find out various index preferences of users, organize the data, and thus derive specific market demands. When conducting big data analysis on the market, companies need to clearly determine which specific dimensions of data need to be analyzed.

2. Analysis of target competitors: Competitors are the best teachers. Understanding competitors in the same industry and analyzing their specific business, profit, and operation methods can help companies enter the market quickly. As the saying goes, if you know yourself and your enemy, you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat.

3. Market insight: Through the accumulation of market experience of company founders or product managers, they can develop keen market insight and quickly grasp the direction of demand. The success of many entrepreneurs is due to their keen insight into the market. When everything says it’s impossible, they persist and achieve great success. When Jack Ma started his business, everyone was skeptical about the e-commerce model, but he overcame all obstacles amidst all the doubts and became the business giant he is today.

Again, many times, users themselves do not know what their needs are, so grasping the needs requires special people who can turn these needs into specific products through professional methods. After users experience the product, they will sincerely say in their hearts, "This is exactly what I want."

2. Functional manifestation:

Determine product functions based on demand. Today's Internet products can be divided into two categories according to their functions: services and content. The service category starts from the product function, and all the core revolves around the word "function". Content products are often presented in the form of platforms, and the core is to create platform content.

1. Service products: The function of the product itself is to serve users. For example, the office software WPS, the video production software VideoStudio and iClip, the calculation function of the computer, and the recording function of the recording software. When users need to use these products, their needs are very clear, and they are targeting the functions of the product. The core function of the product is to meet the specific needs of users and serve users. Precisely because this type of demand is relatively clear and all the content of the product is built around a certain "core function", the market competition for this product will be extremely fierce.

2. Content products: Content products refer to the type of content that users can obtain by using the product. The main criteria for evaluating content products are user output and professional output. For example, in the TikTok short video APP, most of the content is actively produced by users, and the company's platform maintenance personnel only need to check the content of the video. For user-generated platforms, first of all, in terms of content volume, users continuously produce content;

Secondly, its content is often diversified, which is also very helpful to the development of the platform. The advantage of professional content production is that the quality of content production can be guaranteed, but it will be relatively weak in terms of accumulation of quantity. On the other hand, due to the differences in the base of content production groups, the efficiency of producing high-quality content seems to be somewhat lacking.

As the industry develops, the boundaries between service products and content products are no longer so clear. For example, WPS, which focuses on office software, we will find during the use process that they have added information sections in it. Information sections belong to content products. This is due to market development. After all, product diversification is still the current development trend.

3. Product construction:

After confirming the core functions of the product, you finally need to produce a product that carries the core functions. When it comes to product development, almost all of the content is technical work. However, are these technical activities necessary for business leaders or product operators?

For business leaders, after understanding the functions of the product and the target groups it serves, it is enough to understand some core professional terms of the product. For many CEOs of companies, their success is mainly reflected in their "soft power" rather than professional core technology. After the product is developed, it needs to be considered from all aspects, from the interactive window to the functional performance.

The interactive window is mainly the UI design section of the product page, and it is designed to have a style that conforms to the aesthetic tastes of the target group. This is one of them. Making user operation more convenient is the second priority. The core concept of product operation is: if users can solve something with one finger, there is no need to use two fingers. If you can get users to not think, try not to think.

The product is directly facing the user and is the basis for the success of the project. For a product, the first thing is to see whether the product is still as competitive as originally planned, and the second is to verify whether the product can meet consumer needs and grasp user pain points.

4. Product Operation:

Product operation strategies are different at different stages of product development. The product development stage is mainly divided into five stages: R&D stage, start-up stage, growth stage, maturity stage, and decline stage. The product operation strategies at each stage vary due to different operation objectives. Here we mainly analyze four stages: start-up stage, growth stage, maturity stage and decline stage.

1. Start-up phase: The first thing is to check whether the product is still as competitive as originally planned. The second thing is to verify whether the product can meet consumer demand and grasp the buyer's pain points. First, we need to verify whether the product is competitive in the market. Therefore, the product strategy at this stage is to reposition the market and re-evaluate the market competitiveness of the product through market research. Secondly, through market research, we can find out the user pain points, conduct demand analysis based on user needs, and then package the product and launch it online, quickly acquire the first batch of seed users, collect user feedback, do a good job of product "improvement", and finally obtain the recognition of seed users.

2. Growth stage: When a product reaches the growth stage, it means that the product has been recognized by the first batch of seed users, which directly confirms that the product is competitive in the market and can meet consumer demand. What the product lacks at this stage is exposure and traffic, so the product strategy is to increase exposure and obtain traffic.

3. Mature stage: At this stage, product development has become stable, and the main purpose of product strategy is to extend the time of this stage. Maintenance is the core word of this stage. The core of product planning is to maintain products, activate old customers, introduce new customers, and maintain stable profits and revenue.

4. Decline stage: In the decline stage, the product is in a downward phase, market competitiveness is gradually lost, product profits are gradually declining, and it cannot meet market demand. When competitors emerge, better products, better services, and better satisfaction of demands will gradually cause old customers to leave. At this stage, what companies can do is to attract old customers and innovate products. In the recession phase, attracting old customers and developing new products are the main product strategies.

5. Data Analysis

The data analysis process can be summarized into six steps: confirming the purpose of analysis - data collection - data processing - data analysis - data presentation - summary report.

1. Confirm the purpose of analysis: From the "product model" framework above, it is not difficult to find that at this stage, the purpose of data analysis is to confirm user needs. We strive to discover more user needs based on the original products, transform the needs into functions, and add them to the products.

2. Data collection: Data collection can be classified into two categories based on the source: on-site and off-site. Off-site data mainly refers to industry data and competitor data; on-site data mainly refers to various data feedback from product users. Off-site data is data shared by all companies and can be obtained in some way. In-production data is unique to an enterprise and is the basis for surpassing its peers.

3. Data processing: Process the collected data accordingly. Classify data according to functionality and filter out data that can predict or display user needs. Organize this type of data and then focus on analyzing it.

4. Data analysis: Data analysis is the core of the entire data analysis process. The process of taking the processed data and guiding it to conclusions through analysis by planners. At this stage, the data analysis is almost complete.

5. Data presentation: The analyzed data should be presented in an easy-to-view way, usually in the form of graphs and tables.

6. Summary report: This is the final stage of data analysis and is a summary of the entire data analysis results. The report should list the following: purpose of analysis, data analysis process, analysis results and complete development presentation. Allow business leaders to quickly obtain the information they need.

VI. User Needs (II)

From the Kano demand model, through analysis of the two dimensions of user satisfaction and the degree of product function perfection, demands can be divided into four categories: exciting demands, expected demands, necessary demands, and undifferentiated demands. As the name suggests, the naming of each requirement is based on user feedback.

1. Necessary demand: The basis for the existence of the product. Without this function, the product will not be usable. This type of function is a basic user need. For example, the communication function of a mobile phone and the time checking function of a watch. Companies do not need to invest too much in this type of demand, because no matter how good these functions are, they cannot improve user satisfaction.

2. Expected demand: refers to the product function being reflected and meeting the user's expectations. At this time, the user's product experience is very good and satisfaction can be greatly improved. However, the degree of improvement in satisfaction is limited. If a product can meet the user's expected needs, the product can be considered a success.

3. Exciting demand: refers to the product function that brings surprises to users and satisfies users' unidentified needs. If a company has the strength to meet this type of demand, it can increase its investment costs, which will be very helpful in accumulating user loyalty.

4. Non-differentiated demand: It makes no difference to users whether a product has a certain function or not. Enterprises should avoid this energy development and turn their attention to the three types of demands mentioned above.

Through user feedback, we can judge the types of needs that the product meets, analyze which functions can bring users expected or exciting needs, and avoid indiscriminate demands. This is an iterative process that involves identifying gaps and filling them, clarifying user needs, designing functions, updating products, redefining operational plans, conducting ongoing data analysis, and grasping the latest needs. Through this product model, the product improves and repairs itself, striving to extend the product life cycle.

Build a product model of "user needs - functional embodiment - product construction - product operation - data analysis - user needs", grasp the product operation logic, open up the closed-loop chain of product development, and let the product occupy a place in the fierce market competition.

Author: Xiao 5

Source: PR Home