When doing user operations, it is important to learn some psychology!

I am often asked what major is most suitable or what knowledge I need to learn if I want to work in operations. In fact, there has never been an operations major in college, nor any course directly related to operations. Since college doesn’t teach it, I will dare to tell you what professional knowledge you need to acquire in order to do operations well. Today I will start with psychology.

In the process of my work in operations, the design of many mechanisms and processes are closely related to psychology, and sometimes we even have to be able to manipulate people's hearts.

By consulting many psychological laws and theories. I found that many of them are frequently used in operational work, and some people in the industry have written about them, but most of them are rather one-sided. It’s not that people don’t write seriously, but if they really want to write, they can write a book. Today I will pick out some key points to talk about with you.

When you see dry eyes, you will understand two things:

1. In operational work, those viral marketing, screen-sweeping H5, Ant Forest and other gameplays that we are familiar with are all supported by a certain psychological law.

2. Psychology is really not just about Maslow's five-level theory. What I am going to talk about below can not only be used to show off, but is also useful in work and life.

Let me give you a heads up first. All theoretical knowledge may not always be feasible in practice. Everything is relative. Whether it is applicable and where to use it is a matter of opinion.

Primacy Effect

The primacy effect was first proposed by American psychologist Latane. It reflects the impact of the order in which external information is input into the brain on the process of impression. Especially in interpersonal communication, the first impression left on others is crucial and has a great influence on the formation of that impression. To put it simply: the first impression is very important. The "first impression" has the strongest effect and lasts the longest, and it has the greatest impact on the overall impression of the food than information obtained later.

So you will find that almost all products involving consumption always give special preferential treatment to first-time users. Not only are there instant discounts and free orders for new users, various welfare gift packages, but even when you play any mobile game, there are first-time charge gifts. You can always get various skins and equipment for very little money or for free. This is all about improving your first impression of your product, which of course usually only happens once.

The preconceived first impression is difficult to change for quite a long time. This is a double-edged sword. If your new user experience is bad, the cost of reversing the impression will be very high, and it may even lead to direct loss. Therefore, no matter what happens in the future, the user's first experience of the product must be good, and the services and benefits must be in place.

Occam's razor

Occam's razor was proposed by the 14th century logician William of Occam. This theory is called "no entity unless necessary", which means "the simplest is the most effective." In other words, there is no need to invest energy in unnecessary areas.

When making posters for fission activities, due to limited media resources, you should use the simplest and most direct sentence to tell the most exciting part, win the hearts of users, and let users understand what they can get in the shortest time. Even if the product has hundreds of excellent highlights or various interesting activities, too much information will inevitably distract users, and their attention will often not be focused, thus affecting the conversion rate.

Rosenthal Effect

This effect was verified and proposed by famous American psychologists Rosenthal and Jacobson in primary school teaching. refers to

Praise, trust and expectation have a positive energy that can change people's behavior in the expected direction.

Especially in the operation of KOLs, we often give them affirmation and praise, as well as material rewards when they complete a certain stage of the task. After being motivated, KOLs enhance their self-worth, become more confident and self-respecting, gain a positive motivation, and try their best to meet our expectations to avoid disappointing us, so they will work hard and be active.

There is a saying in user operation : Only users and love should not be let down. Sometimes we are like in love with users, and we cannot be stingy with our compliments to users. As the saying goes, it is difficult to find a soulmate, so we must act as the users' soulmates and let them know our recognition, appreciation, and expectations of them. We must know how to stimulate users' potential. Many times, when the feelings are there, these KOLs will even attract their own fans and connections to help you complete your KPI. If you are willing to give him sunshine, he will shine for you.

James Empty Birdcage Effect

Harvard University psychologist William James found that if you have a birdcage at home, friends who come to your home will always ask you, where is the bird? Did it fly? Gradually you will find it strange that since you already have a birdcage, why not buy a bird?

For example: Almost everyone uses food delivery apps to order food every day. You will find that the APP will send you various coupons every day. When you hold the coupons, you will sometimes think: Why not just use them? Or like many apps have a points mall, telling you that "100 points + 10 yuan" can buy VR glasses worth 299 yuan, and other users don't have the points, so I just add 10 yuan and use it, feeling like I've made a profit.

Coupons are like bird cages. Users don’t have to pay anything when they get them, but if they don’t use them, there will be a psychological suggestion: I’ve already got it, it would be a loss if I don’t use it, so the motivation to consume arises.

Yerkes-Dodson Law

This law describes the relationship between anxiety level and problem-solving efficiency, that is, the relationship between the two is an "inverted U-shaped curve". The efficiency is very low when the anxiety level is too high or too low, but the efficiency is very high when the anxiety level is moderate. Therefore, moderate anxiety is helpful to improve memory and learning efficiency.

In the specific practice of this law, we must control the degree of anxiety brought to users. Only when the anxiety is moderate can there be positive promotion. Generally, when users are required to become proficient in using certain functions of the product, a time-limited task is set. A reward for completing the task is designed that is attractive enough to users, stimulating users to quickly become familiar with the function with moderate time-limited anxiety. Users will often have a deep impression of the function they experience and will use it again later.

Scarcity Effect

In consumer psychology, people call the phenomenon of increased purchasing behavior caused by “scarcity makes things more valuable” the “scarcity effect.”

In fact, most Internet products are very virtual. Unlike physical goods, we may produce 100 of them, and that is the value of 100 of them. Therefore, in the operation of the Internet, how to successfully create scarce resources is a very important thing. The most typical example is the limited edition skins in the game. Although they are just fictional, because there are only 10 of them in the game, players who can get them will feel a great sense of superiority, so the price is also very high.

In addition to games, the social software's VIP identity authentication limited to 100 people, limited homepage ornaments, etc., can all stimulate users to spend money, work harder to complete tasks, or work hard to invite new users. In short, users are willing to pay a corresponding price for such scarce goods.

Endowment Effect

The endowment effect was proposed by American sociologist Richard Taylor in 1980. It means that once an individual owns an item, his evaluation of its value will greatly increase compared to before he owned it.

This phenomenon can also be explained by the "loss aversion" theory in behavioral finance, which holds that a certain amount of loss will reduce people's utility more than the same amount of gain will increase their utility. That is to say, if you lose 200 yuan, you may be sad for a week, but if you find 200 yuan, you will only be happy for about half a day.

When applied to operations, users can obtain free VIP privileges before making any financial investment. After fully experiencing the top-level VIP enjoyment, once the privileges expire, users will feel a certain sense of loss. At this time, users will be willing to make financial investments to maintain the previous top-level experience.

For example: when you use Thunder to download, the download speed limit for ordinary users is very serious. You can tolerate it. But suddenly one week, you will be prompted to experience VIP extreme speed every day when downloading movies. You must try it, so the download speed suddenly increases from a tractor to a Ferrari. After a week, you fully experience the comfort of Thunder VIP extreme speed downloading and can no longer tolerate various speed limits, so you grit your teeth and become a member.

There are many such examples, just like when you are used to eating delicacies from land and sea, you can no longer eat simple meals.

Goal Setting Theory

American psychologist James K. first proposed the "goal setting theory" in 1967. He believed that goals themselves have a motivating effect. Goals can transform people's needs into motivations, make people's behaviors move in a certain direction, and compare their own behavioral results with established goals, make timely adjustments and corrections, so as to achieve the goals.

I believe everyone is familiar with the user growth system, especially Alipay, which everyone uses every day. I don’t know if you are a gold member now or have been upgraded to platinum. If you are a diamond member, please send me a private message. I want to be your best friend!

In Alipay's membership growth system, there are four levels from general members to diamond members. For users, each level corresponds to different privilege rewards, sense of honor, and sense of achievement. The ever-growing level goals have given us tremendous motivation. Many people even use Alipay to pay for food, clothing, housing, transportation, water and electricity bills in order to reach the platinum level, which has greatly increased user stickiness and frequency of use.

On the basis of the big goal, Alipay has also set two small goal nodes for us on the growth path of each level, "retention" and "upgrade". If you fail to reach the relegation points, you will be downgraded. In this way, "big goal + small goal + goal completion" constantly stimulates users to generate a continuous motivation for payment.

1. Physiological needs

slightly!

2. Security needs

Security issues involve many aspects. Of course, Didi should be the one with the most serious security issues recently. After the incident, Didi also launched a series of product functions to meet users' needs for security and enhance users' trust in Didi.

3. Emotional belonging

Operations can do a lot in the area of ​​emotions. A typical example is that community products can create a relaxed and happy discussion atmosphere for users, or users can use MoTan or MoMo to find their other half.

4. Be respected

This standard operation is actually more about exclusive identity, exclusive privileges, etc.

5. Self-actualization

Like the creator training programs of many content platforms, or the influence index in Maimai.

Finally I have finished writing this article. This article made me search through Baidu Encyclopedia and university psychology textbooks. It is now 4:51 in the morning and I cannot hold on any longer. I need to go to sleep. Good night everyone and have a good dream before dawn.

Finally, I have to say: These American psychologists after World War II are so amazing. How can you call them friends when they have studied humans so thoroughly? They are all great gods!

Source: Wu Jiahao (theivanmind)