3 levels of thinking in user operations!

Yesterday, I accidentally saw a very professional " user operation interview question" on WeChat Moments, which aroused widespread discussion among everyone and also ignited my great interest in answering this question.

The interview questions are as follows:

In order for you to gain as much as possible after reading this article, I sincerely suggest that you spend 5 to 10 minutes thinking about this question before continuing reading.

Okay, time's up.

Objectively speaking, this interview question is very professional and penetrating. Through this question, you can clearly and intuitively understand whether the applicant has the basic qualities and experience in user operations, as well as the depth of his or her thinking at the user operation level.

To this end, I will now give a complete answer to this question based on my rich experience in user operations over the past few years.

Before I answer, I want to say something special:

First of all, this interview question is actually very difficult. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t answer this question well. It’s normal.

I think even an experienced operator with many years of experience may not be able to give a comprehensive and perfect answer to this question in an interview, which is a tense, quick-witted, and reaction-required scenario.

Another most important point is:

There is actually no standard answer to this question.

This question focuses on testing the applicant's abilities and qualities, such as on-the-spot reaction ability, ability to summarize and generalize, whether they can quickly see through the essence of user operations, how high their thinking level is, etc.

Putting aside the answers, the professional qualities and level of thinking demonstrated by the applicant are what the interviewer really wants to examine.

So I think the solution to this problem can be:

Standards + points, lines, and surfaces

This strategy is summarized. In this article, I will explain to you how I think and reason about this issue according to this logic.

01. First, let’s talk about “norms and standards”.

The biggest trap in this question actually lies in the understanding of the four words "user level".

If you cannot quickly standardize the "user level" standards for yourself and the interviewer, you may be confused in the subsequent explanation of the ideas of "advance or retreat" and "only advance but not retreat", thus confusing both the interviewer and yourself.

So what exactly is a user level?

In fact, many operations students may not be able to figure out this problem clearly.

For example, which of the following items are considered user levels?

1. JD Diamond Member

2. JD.com Value

3. King of Glory Level

4. King of Glory Ranking

5. Didi Member

6. VIP Privileges of China Merchants Bank

7. China Merchants Bank Card Points

8. Legendary Game Warrior Level 40

9. Autohome Moderator

10. Level 40 football expert in Hupu community

11.QQ Member Level 5

I personally think:

1. JD Diamond Member

3. King of Glory Level

5. Didi Member

6. VIP Privileges of China Merchants Bank

7. Legendary Warrior Level 40

10. Level 40 football expert in Hupu community

11.QQ Member Level 5

All of the above are considered user levels. Because users only need to complete the basic actions of the product, such as shopping, fighting, taking a taxi, saving, killing monsters, posting, daily logging in, etc., they can accumulate experience points and gradually upgrade in an orderly manner.

At the same time, another very important point about user levels is that they have clear stage markings.

For example, it may be marked as Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, or it may be marked as Diamond member, Platinum member, Gold member, or it may be marked as Ordinary VIP, Senior VIP, VIP Customer, and Ordinary User.

JD Jingxiang Value, bank card points, etc. are more like additional points or rights rewards. At the same time, they do not have specific stage markings, so they cannot be counted as user levels.

The rankings of Honor of Kings and the battlefield rankings of major games are also not part of the user level.

Although they have clear stage levels (such as Supreme, Platinum, Bronze), this level system is more like a leaderboard, similar to Honor.

Rankings are always changing, and if we regard these changing rankings as user levels, there will be a lot of uncertainty in the formulation of operational strategies.

This also goes against the basic requirement of creating a user rating system.

The moderator of Autohome is not a rank, he is just a position, a position similar to that of a manager. Although many moderators do have certain level requirements.

Therefore, the premise for answering this question is to "standardize the standards for user levels" and to clearly distinguish between user levels and points, rights, honor rankings, and positions.

If you compare user levels with rankings and points horizontally, for example, comparing Jingxiang Value with JD membership, or comparing QQ membership with King of Glory ranking, it is easy to confuse yourself, and finally find that no matter how you explain it, the logic is not self-consistent.

Therefore, before answering complex questions, it is important not to rush to answer the questions, it is important to standardize the standards first.

This is not only an interview skill, but also a very important skill in debates, discussions with others, meetings, speeches, etc.

First standardize unified standards.

02

After we have standardized the standards, we need to sort out the products whose user levels can be promoted or demoted, and those that can only be promoted but not demoted.

The products that can be imported or exported are:

• Didi membership: divided into multiple levels such as gold/platinum/diamond/black gold. The membership level fluctuates every month and will rise or fall according to the taxi-hailing situation.
• QQ members: If QQ members do not renew their membership, they will lose experience points every day and their level will be lowered.
• Bank card customer levels: such as VIP bank cards, VIP customer bank cards, platinum customer credit cards, etc., will lose corresponding customer levels due to the gradual decrease in savings, cash flow, and credit card consumption.

Products that can only be imported but not exported:

JD.com and many other e-commerce products, such as JD.com’s very classic diamond membership in its early days.

Legend and many other upgrade-oriented online games.

With a large number of community content products such as Hupu and Autohome

Didi membership level is a classic "advance and retreat" system.

After sorting it out, let’s talk about how to answer this interview question.

And how this question reflects the level and depth of the applicant's thinking.

That is to say, think about the problem in terms of "points, lines, and surfaces".

03. First of all: point

If you can think quickly and come up with a product for specific analysis, then you are undoubtedly great.

For example, you can take JD.com as an example. In the early days, JD.com hoped to retain more users through continuous upgrading of users and continuous improvement of their levels, so that users can stay on the platform for a long time and bring more consumption.

Or you can also use Autohome as an example. As users post, comment, participate in activities, etc. in the Autohome community, their experience points increase and their user levels gradually increase. By continuously improving, users can grow into big Vs and core users in the community, making them feel more honored and thus staying on the platform for a long time.

You can say something that can be advanced or retreated.

You take Didi as an example: by allowing users to advance or retreat in membership levels, you can encourage users to take more taxis, increase the frequency of taxi rides, and increase revenue.

If you can use a certain product as an example and give a detailed analysis, the interviewer will think that you are good; at least it shows that you usually pay attention to various products, think about why these products do this, what the purpose is, and can explain it clearly.

The more products you answer, the richer your observations are; but no matter what, your level of thinking about user operations only stays at the "point" level, and there is still a lot of room for improvement - because using a single product as an example and explanation is ultimately very narrow.

You should try your best to train yourself to answer at the "line" level of thinking.

04. Next is the “line”.

If you think carefully and firmly say:

User levels can be advanced or degraded, and the focus is on increasing transactions, conversions, activity, and frequency of use. For example, the ultimate goal of Didi Taxi, QQ membership, and bank benefits is to encourage users to consume, renew, and use products more and more frequently.

The key of “advance without retreat” is to retain users, retain users, and allow users to have a longer life cycle on the product. For example, for community products, e-commerce products, and gaming products, the higher the user level, the longer they will stay in the product, and the life cycle will be greatly extended.

Of course, the greatly extended life cycle will also indirectly (please note that I said indirectly) increase the possibility of activation, conversion, and transaction.

If you can answer this level, congratulations, you not only observe more products in your daily life, but also have strong summarizing and generalizing skills; at the same time, the interviewer will generally think that your understanding of user operation has begun to have a certain depth - because you did not stop at a specific product to analyze and substitute it into this problem, but stood on the latitude of multiple fields and multiple types of products to summarize and analyze this problem.

The depth of your thinking about user operations has begun to reach the "line" level; the depth of most people's thinking about user operations will basically remain at the "line" level - very few people can reach the "surface" level of thinking.

05. Finally, it’s “noodles”.

When it comes to user operations, those who can think at the “overall” level are definitely the best.

Because this requires looking at the problem from a higher perspective, and being able to see through the surface and see through the core needs that user operations solve.

The needs that user operations apparently solve are attracting new users/retaining users/promoting activation. But the real core requirements are:

How many high-quality resources can user operations provide for users of different levels?

This is the most important demand that user operations need to solve, and it is also the significance of our building user levels.

Why do we need user levels?

We hope that we can differentiate users by levels, so that users at different stages can enjoy different levels of quality services.

• For example, when you are a Didi bronze member, you get very few premium services, but when you become a Didi diamond member, you can get direct access, priority ride-hailing and many other premium service resources;
• For example, if you are a level 5 legendary player, you can only use a stick to blast pheasant chrysanthemums in the novice village, but when you become a level 50 legendary player, you can roam the entire area with the dragon-slaying sword; you enjoy more high-quality resources given by the game;
• When you are a newbie in the community, your avatar and title in the community are civilians; but when you become a level 40 big V, your avatar will light up, you will have a crown, and your posts will be featured immediately; you will enjoy more high-quality resources given to you by the community;
• When you are a VIP platinum cardholder of China Merchants Bank, you will enjoy free access to the airport first-class lounge, priority loan approval, large loan quotas and other high-quality resources; but if you only have a small white cardholder of China Merchants Bank, you can probably only get a barrel of soybean oil every year...

Therefore, the core key behind user level is whether the product can provide users with sufficient, low-cost or even free-cost high-quality resources.

• If products and platforms can provide users with sufficient or even unlimited high-quality resources, then the user level will inevitably improve and not decline.
• If the product cannot provide users with sufficient high-quality resources, the user level can only go up or down.

Because on some platforms, high-quality resources are limited, and it is impossible to provide high-quality resources indefinitely.

06

In fact, the supply efficiency of high-quality resources determines the basic strategy of user operations. For example, the direct channel for hailing a taxi and the quick taxi hailing that Didi provides for its high-quality users are extremely high-quality and limited resources - because these resources need to be urgently dispatched and coordinated by the market to ensure the needs of high-quality users.

And these requests are limited in number - because there are only so many high-quality resources, and if they are shared among everyone, there will definitely not be enough.

Therefore, Didi’s user membership levels must be adjustable, so that users who take taxis less frequently can be downgraded, thereby giving high-quality service resources to other high-quality users.

The VIP level of banks that can be promoted or demoted is easier to think of: the bank's high-quality resources are limited, and it is impossible to let users who no longer meet the level requirements occupy resources in vain, so it must be set up in a mode that can be promoted or demoted.

What about the product that only goes up and never goes down?

They have lower costs and even decreasing marginal costs in providing resources to high-quality users.

For example, high-level influencers in the community, titles, crowns, logos, and other high-quality resources provided by the platform are almost at zero cost. As long as you reach a certain level, it is easy to give them to you without having to control the quantity.

The sales resources of e-commerce are also unlimited. Because e-commerce itself is an infinite shelf, there are no limited resources. Even if high-level members of some e-commerce platforms have the right to free shipping three times a month, the cost is very low when converted, so the membership level can only be increased and not decreased, because the platform can completely cover this kind of cost.

The same is true for games.

So if you can answer this question from the perspective of high-quality resource supply:

• A platform that can provide unlimited high-quality resources, where users can only advance in level and never retreat;
• A platform that can only provide limited high-quality resources, and the user level needs to be able to advance and retreat.

Then you not only have a strong ability to summarize and generalize, but also penetrate the fog and valley of user operations and find its real core needs; this is an extremely high level of thinking, and it is the ultimate way to answer questions on the "surface".

So where does your thinking dimension stop? Is it a “point”, a “line”, or a “surface”?

Source: Liu Weidong's Operation Notes