User Operations: 5 Case Studies to Teach You How to Insight into User Needs

The most difficult thing is to write an introduction to the topic of "insight". "Insight" without reliable results is just a concept and a means of bragging. However, "insight" itself is a very good question - why do we need insights?

Why do it?

The purpose of insight is to avoid subjective thinking and superficial cognition and to discover the real problem behind it.

Everyone must have heard of the "drilling machine" case: the consumer wants a hole, so he buys a drill, but the purpose of buying it is for the hole, not the drill. If there was another more convenient and cheaper way to get the hole, he might not buy a drill.

Therefore, there is an essential difference between "want" and "need".

For some entrepreneurs and marketers, everyone needs to use insight to discover the real needs of users from objective facts. Entrepreneurs need to confirm the real needs of users to build their own market; marketers need to confirm the real needs of users to create and enrich more marketing methods.

How to do it?

Regardless of how you gather information to understand user needs, you can always use this framework to sort out and check where you are:

1. Describe clearly what you observed and discovered.
2. Summarize the problems or trends you discovered.
3. Ask yourself, is this a real problem? What changes have taken place in people’s thoughts, goals, and behaviors?
4. Follow the logic of "thoughts, goals, and behaviors" to re-describe your findings and ultimately derive real needs.
5. Check whether the entire derivation process of the "Step 4" results is sufficiently objective and reasonable, reliable and comprehensive?

Another principle standard needs to be mentioned here : What does it take to complete an insight? That requires a clear description of "observed people's thoughts, people's goals, people's behaviors and people's real needs". These four are indispensable.

Next, we will look at several cases in detail: How can this tool help us gain insight into the real needs of users?

Case 1

Phenomenon:

IDC pointed out in its "2018Q4 China Wearable Device Market Quarterly Tracking Report" that in the fourth quarter of 2018, China's wearable device market shipments were 22.69 million units, a year-on-year increase of 30.4%. Moreover, among the main product forms in China's wearable device market in 2018, the market for headphones and watches developed the fastest. In terms of application scenarios, health monitoring will become an important development opportunity in the future. In addition to supplementing mobile phones in terms of phone calls, mobile data will become an important foundation for more comprehensive human data collection and the establishment of a related service ecosystem.

Surface problem: People are increasingly interested in controlling their lives in a data-driven way. But that's not really the problem.

Real question: Analyzing from people’s thoughts, purposes and methods, what is the real problem?

User Need: Measuring data is similar to keeping time, and no matter how simple it is, it is both a practical and an emotional need of every culture. Nowadays, people have more and more things to pay attention to, and they want to control their progress and coordinate various activities.

Case 2

Phenomenon:

In its "Short Video Better Life Content Ecosystem Report", Toutiao pointed out that in the past year, the daily active users of short video products have grown rapidly, and user usage habits have taken shape quickly. Moreover, research by the Department of Psychology at Wuhan University shows that watching and shooting short videos are positively correlated with happiness ("happiness"). Watching short videos on Douyin can promote an individual's sense of happiness ("happiness").

Surface problem: People are becoming more and more accustomed to and adapting to the good life in the Internet age (digital age). But that's not really the problem.

Real question: Analyzing from people’s thoughts, purposes and methods, what is the real problem?

User demand: People’s living costs and life pressures are becoming increasingly greater. These survival pressures have greatly reduced people’s social lives. People are looking forward to the return of the happy days of the past, so they will not reject any measures that may improve their social lives. The continued growth of short videos proves to a certain extent that people are convinced that short videos will be an effective way, but when people find other options, they will not refuse them.

Case 3

Phenomenon:

McKinsey pointed out in its "2017 China Consumer Survey Report" that Chinese consumer confidence has reached a 10-year high. Not only in first-tier cities, but also young people in second- and third-tier cities and rural areas are optimistic about their future spending power. And one of the positive results of the economic boom is that rising wages have given people more disposable income to spend on health and fitness.

In addition, China’s post-90s generation is becoming a new engine of consumption. The post-90s consumer group accounts for 16% of China's total population. From now until 2030, they will contribute more than 20% of China's total consumption growth, higher than any other population category. This is a group with distinct diversity. McKinsey has broken it down into five categories: those who pursue happiness (39%), those who pursue success (27%), contented young people (16%), willful spendthrifts (10%) and the second generation of pampered children (8%).

Surface problem: More and more young people dare to consume and are more and more confident in consumption. But that's not really the problem.

Real question: Analyzing from people’s thoughts, purposes and methods, what is the real problem?

User requirements:

In traditional rural life in the past, agricultural production was the absolute core, controlling people's consumption and lives. At the same time, the single agricultural production structure is easily threatened by natural disasters. Therefore, contentment and frugality in life have obvious practical value.

But now, more and more cities outside the second and third tier cities are also experiencing changes and developments in production methods, consumption methods and circulation methods. At the same time, the younger generation wants to break away from the family economic system that was originally controlled by their parents and seek independent economic independence. Therefore, people need financial independence and also need ways to demonstrate their financial independence.

Case 4

Phenomenon: McKinsey pointed out in its "2019 China Luxury Report" that between 2012 and 2018, China contributed more than half of the growth in global luxury consumption, and this proportion is expected to reach 65% by 2025.

Surface problem: Chinese people's consumption capacity for luxury goods is rising rapidly. But that's not really the problem.

Real question: Analyzing from people’s thoughts, purposes and methods, what is the real problem?

User requirements:

Unequal distribution of wealth and social classes are objective facts.

In the past, commodity markets were underdeveloped, and even if people wanted to splurge, there were not many attractive options. Especially in that era, showing off wealth in daily life would not necessarily bring a good reputation to people, but could easily lead to unsafe risks such as kidnapping.

But now, when people have the conditions to make themselves noticeably different in their daily lives, they have a need to express themselves. The economic foundation needs to be able to reflect wealth inequality, for example, only a few people can own special valuable clothes; the superstructure needs to be able to reflect social class, for example, the sense of identity will be reflected in the power possessed and the sense of value of the identity.

Case 5

Phenomenon:

In its 2019 State of Science Index (SOSI) Annual Survey Report, 3M pointed out that even though 87% of people believe that we need to use science to solve global problems, the proportion of people who are skeptical of science has risen by 3 percentage points worldwide. Among them, only 22% of Chinese respondents would choose to support science when discussing the benefits of science with others, which is only equivalent to 20% of the global level. At the same time, compared with the rest of the world, fewer Chinese respondents believe that science is very important to their daily lives (31% in China vs. 46% globally).

Surface issues: Challenges and opportunities remain in increasing acceptance of science. But that's not really the problem.

Real question: Analyzing from people’s thoughts, purposes and methods, what is the real problem?

User requirements:

In our lives, there have always been folk customs such as worshiping the Kitchen God, worshiping the Rain God, fortune-telling, and divination. Many people now believe that these are feudal traditions, superstitions, and witchcraft, and that we should believe in the power of science.

However, the more realistic fact is that although scientific power is constantly improving, there will still be problems that science cannot solve. As long as there is no complete scientific control method at present, it will be difficult to completely eliminate witchcraft in human culture.

Because, recognizing that "human power is limited" is a profound understanding that people have learned through survival experience. In order to find more ways to solve problems, people turned to various witchcraft cultures. Although witchcraft cannot replace science, it is just a means, just like science, for people to deal with natural disasters and life problems that science cannot completely solve. If there are other ways to choose from, it is not ruled out that people will be happy to try them.

summary

Finally, I need to add that when it comes to insights into user needs, we not only need to be clear about why we need to do it? How to do it? We also need to continue to optimize and improve so that we can do better.

Here is also an idea for improvement, for example:

1. Every time, you can clearly define the goal of the demand insight task and what problems you want to find? What problem do you want to solve?
2. It can form an efficient and professional insight team that can work together to repeatedly check whether the deduction logic is valid and whether the insight into real needs is comprehensive and reliable.
3. It can form a variety of channels and methods for information collection to obtain reliable changes in user ideas, goals and behaviors.
4. You can always clearly know the progress and position in the user insight task, and clearly know the next work direction and content.
5. It can form a result evaluation and review mechanism to identify problems while evaluating the results and make continuous improvements.
6. Be able to form clear logic and judgment standards, improve your work efficiency, and quickly determine whether the descriptions made by yourself or others are superficial problems or real needs, etc.

Author: Brands have their own way

Source: Brands have their own way