In-depth analysis: the underlying logic of user needs

In the ups and downs of the business world, there are too many "user needs" that are self-satisfied and taken for granted, but too few that are truly down-to-earth research and analysis. This "lack" means having a pair of eyes that can discover, but not grasping the key points of the discovery. There is no guideline , no standard process method and template in the analysis process. Therefore, this series of articles was created. This is the first one. Enjoy~

Examples

In the 1980s, there was a county in northwest China that was rated as a "poverty-stricken county" every year. The reason is that there is a small village in this county that is particularly poor and has always been lagging behind.

The reason is actually because of over-birth. As a result, the more they gave birth, the poorer they became, and the poorer they became, the more they gave birth, which was a vicious cycle, and the Family Planning Commission was helpless to do anything about it. The county magistrate was also helpless and had to order the town mayor to go to the village to do the work, and if he didn't do a good job, he would be kicked out.

Mayor Wang was very diligent. He went to the village and did ideological work door to door. After running all over the village and still finding nothing, he had no choice but to leave.

Mayor Li, who had worked in pyramid schemes before, was very good at brainwashing people, so he first held a collective meeting for the villagers to give a lecture. Then we will do ideological work one by one. However, there was no result either. Get lost too.

The mayor, the protagonist, appeared and first inspected the village. He found that the village was really poor and they were still using kerosene lamps. Seeing this situation, he suddenly had an idea. He immediately provided electricity to the village, installed televisions, and set up an open-air cinema in the center of the village, arranging people to broadcast it every night.

There was no family planning propaganda, but over the years, the villagers' quality improved and the village gradually became prosperous.

Let’s look back and ask ourselves why only the protagonist, the mayor, can do it?

It’s not because he was lucky, but because the protagonist, the mayor, has a strong ability to analyze user needs .

1. The purpose is clear: to solve the poverty problem in the village; and before conducting an investigation, we will resolutely not propose solutions that are unrealistic or just to cope with the task.
2. First, observe the user group: when checking in the village, we found that there was no electricity and people were using kerosene lamps.
3. Conduct in-depth user interviews: Ask people in the village how they spend their daily lives.
4. The scenario is as follows: There is no electricity in the village, and the villagers as a whole have nothing new to pay attention to. It gets dark around five or six in the evening, and they have to go home.
5. Analyze based on the clues: If you want to save some kerosene money when you get home, you can only go to bed early. But if I go to bed so early, my energy is still strong. What should I do if I can’t fall asleep? The only thing left is sex, that’s why people have more children the poorer they are.
6. The core problem was discovered: without electricity, the villagers had nothing to do.
7. Solution: Add electricity and increase the villagers' evening entertainment.

Similarly, in the ups and downs of the business world, there are too many "user needs" that are self-satisfied and taken for granted. There are very few people who truly conduct down-to-earth research and analysis.

This “little” is not just because people are lazy and unwilling to analyze carefully, nor is it because there is no pair of eyes that can discover.

Instead, they have eyes that can discover, but fail to grasp the key points of discovery. In the process of analysis, there is no guideline, no set of standard process methods and templates, and no similar cases in the same industry to refer to.

Therefore, our User Needs Research Institute focuses on the theme of "user needs" and specially launches a series of articles on user needs research and analysis, thinking methods and operating procedures, as well as hundreds of industry analysis cases.

Chapter 1 Understanding User Needs

In order to give an authoritative explanation of user needs, we read dozens of literatures and found a problem.

People often confuse the terms "user pain points", "user needs", "user ideas", "user problems", "their own ideas", "their own assumptions", "their own needs", "product needs", "user solutions", and "product solutions".

So much so that when we usually talk about "user needs", it seems that everyone can talk about a lot of thoughts and ideas. It seems like everyone can understand user needs, but they just can’t put them into practice!

But most people's understanding is very similar to that of Mayor Wang and Mayor Li in the preface story. They believe that what the villagers lack is quality education and guidance on family planning concepts. However, after reading the story, we will find that this is not the real user demand. There are very few people who truly have the ability to analyze user needs.

Let’s take another example and explain in detail what user needs are.

Those who have children at home know that a crying baby is a real headache, especially if the baby cries at night, which will surely disturb the whole family.

But can you say that crying medicine is what you need?

If there is medicine for crying out loud that can stop you from crying, you might buy it, but be careful. Stop crying, this is just a result you want, not a demand.

Assuming that the baby is the target user , then crying is the user behavior . Through this user behavior, we can see that he may have three needs: wanting to eat, wanting to poop, and wanting to be held.

These three needs are different. Eating and defecation are physiological needs, which are rigid and cannot be changed. He will not stop crying if he is not full and has defecated.

Hugging is different. Hugging is not a necessity, but it can be transformed into a necessity. Wanting a hug is a superficial and confusing need, and the real need when it is transformed into a sense of security. Therefore, in addition to hugging, imitating the state of the baby in the amniotic fluid can also create a sense of security, thereby stopping the baby from crying. Products such as cradles and rocking chairs are designed to meet babies' need for a sense of security .

Then we can define user needs as: the group characteristics of target users and related user scenarios obtained by observing the behavior of the target user group or conducting in-depth interviews. The underlying reason behind these target user group characteristics and user scenarios is the real user needs.

Think about it: Suppose you have a weight loss product. What are your user needs?

lose weight?

Lose weight?

Users buy slimming products in order to lose weight and slim down, but losing weight and slimming down is just a result. The beauty and confidence after losing weight are the real needs.

Therefore, the real user demand analysis is to explore what is driving the users when they have this desire. By developing products, content and services based on user needs, you will have the opportunity to create greater value for the company. This is the significance of user needs analysis.

Chapter 2 User Demand Analysis Applicable Groups

1. People working in front-end positions such as market research, market analysis, and user demand analysis.
2. For entrepreneurs , the ability to analyze user needs is an essential quality for entrepreneurship. During the project operation process, user demand analysis thinking needs to be integrated into every link.
3. Product managers analyze user needs to decide on product development, update and optimization, and product operations .
4. Company decision makers decide to enter or exit a field, expand or reduce production scale, adjust marketing strategies in a timely manner, and improve sales management, channel management and product functions based on user demand analysis.

In addition to the above, governments or other institutions also need to have the ability to analyze user needs when carrying out any work. And if you apply this kind of thinking to every aspect of your life and work, you will find that everything becomes simple and efficient!

Chapter 3 Purpose of User Needs Analysis

For enterprises, there are three main purposes of user needs analysis:

1. Evaluation Project

Many of the ideas of entrepreneurs are the result of a flash of inspiration or long-term accumulation. Whether this idea can be established as a project requires objective feedback and evaluation from user demand analysis to determine whether this project can be launched.

1. Optimize your product

In product operations , companies need to continuously upgrade and optimize products or content services, and user demand is an important reference for product upgrades.

1. Marketing growth

In the process of marketing operations , appropriate marketing methods are adopted based on the common characteristics of user groups and subtle changes in demand, so as to achieve the goal of marketing growth.

Personally:

The thinking method of user needs analysis is a difficult skill to master. If it is not fully understood and mastered, the mentioned needs are something that everyone can think of, so no one takes the position of user needs seriously. Therefore, if you can master this technology, you can truly create value for the company and create wealth for yourself.

Chapter 4 Key Points and Difficulties of User Needs Analysis

1. Find the most accurate target users

No matter how groundbreaking your ideas are or how perfect your business model is, if you fail to identify your target users and analyze the specific needs of each user segment at the moment, you may miss out on opportunities.

We have disassembled Dapu.com before. Its founder Wang Zhiquan initially targeted high-end women over 40 years old who frequently travel abroad by plane. He believed that this group of users had strong purchasing power and the best taste. As a result, there were very few orders.

It was 2014, the bonus period of social e-commerce , and social circle of friends became the largest traffic entrance. Almost everyone read WeChat circle of friends , and everyone posted on circle of friends. However, through studying successful and tasteful women over 40 years old, it is found that the content of their circle of friends is more about life insights, charity and other high-end content.

Another group of people, young mothers aged 20-30, are the ones who love to share and spread the details of life the most. They are happy to share useful items with friends on WeChat Moments. Dapu.com eventually adjusted its target users in a timely manner and eventually opened up the market.

Therefore, whether a project can be successfully launched has a lot to do with whether the target users are found accurately enough.

1. Authenticity requirements

From the poverty alleviation case in the introduction, we can draw a classic conclusion, namely: the key factor in whether a plan is effective lies in finding and grasping user needs .

Look,

The supporting role, the mayor, found false needs : poverty alleviation, family planning, and quality education.

What the protagonist, the mayor, found was the real need : there was too much free time, and something else was needed to fill it, to replace xx activity.

Here, to emphasize the importance, let me cite another classic case.

Many people have heard the story of the founding of Ford Motor Company .

Henry Ford said: If you ask users what they need, they will say they need a fast horse. They don’t have the concept of a car in their minds at all.

Here, I would like to ask you a question.

The user needs "a fast horse". Is this a real demand or a false demand?

Whether it is a real demand or a false demand depends on the reason behind the user's need for this horse.

If a new breed of horse had been developed to make it faster and more enduring, there would have been a market for it. However, due to advances in technology, a product has emerged that better meets user needs rather than a specific form. Therefore, whether it is a faster horse or a faster car, it cannot avoid user demand .

In addition to identifying the target users and determining the authenticity of needs, there are some dimensions that need to be carefully considered during the project process:

1. Besides yourself, who else needs this? family? friend? classmate? colleague? Which groups of people can be covered? How wide is it?
2. What proportion of the target user group does this demand account for?
3. Does this demand occur frequently? Daily/weekly/monthly/yearly/lifetime?
4. How painful is this problem for the target users?
5. Is it the right time to do this project now?
6. Does this demand match the positioning of the project or product: Will it affect the core services of the product? Will it damage the user experience ?
7. Is this demand achievable? What basic technology is required for this demand? Are there currently such development conditions?
8. If so, what resources are needed? What are the costs? How long will it take to see the final return? What is the final profit? What are the best and worst outcomes for me if I do this?

Inaccurate analysis of any point in the above dimensions will affect the final result.

Chapter 5 Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

When it comes to needs, we have to bring out the world's most classic Maslow's theory of needs for detailed analysis.

Let’s take weight loss as an example:

If you are making slimming products, let's analyze the needs of users at different levels based on Mars' hierarchy of needs theory.

1. Physiological needs

I am a 50-year-old middle-aged man. I was very thin before I was 30. Since then, I have started to gain weight. Now I weigh 180 pounds. When I climb stairs, I am often out of breath and feel it is difficult to breathe. I went to the hospital for a check-up and the doctor said that the three highs were caused by obesity. For the sake of my health , I have to lose weight.

1. Security requirements

I am a model, I am 22 years old, I just gave birth to a baby this year, and I am going to go back to work next month. But I found that the abdominal abdominal muscles were gone, and there was a lot of soft flesh instead. In order to keep my job , I had to lose weight.

1. The need to belong

I fell in love with a person, and I couldn't help but want to go to his workplace no matter if I had nothing to do or not.

However, according to inquiries, he likes slim and petite girls. So I looked in the mirror and obviously I was not his type, so for my own mental satisfaction , I decided to lose weight.

1. Respect needs

I am a self-media person. Now I have gathered over 100,000 fans. In order to narrow the distance between me and my fans, I want to hold a fan meeting next month. I wanted to appear in my best condition at the meeting, but when I looked in the mirror, I found that I had gained weight and looked haggard. So, I plan to use this month to lose some weight and lose weight.

1. Self-actualization needs

My self-control is very poor. I always eat a lot of junk food every day, and I sit all day and don’t like to exercise. I wanted to control it before, but I couldn’t. I recently read a book that said that self-control has a huge impact on a person's achievements.

So I wanted to improve my self-control ability through deliberate practice, so I started with the most basic things: controlling my mouth and moving my feet. In order to increase the success rate and as a sense of ritual, I can buy a slimming product and stick to it in the name of weight loss. Improve your self-control by losing weight.

You see, even if it is the same product, it may involve a wide range of users. Although they all need to lose weight, the needs of each of them are completely different.

Knowing these, you can then choose a segment that is more suitable for you in terms of product positioning and user group positioning. At the same time, because you understand your user segments better, your users will have a good user experience and become your loyal users.

Chapter 6: Digging Deeper into User Needs

In the traditional sense, how do some very powerful companies, including those in the industry, find user needs in their own fields?

You can also check to see if this is done. Suppose you want to analyze the target audience of headphones:

So first of all, based on your feeling, who would use headphones?

List them out: students, drivers, office workers…

What if I can’t think of anything else?

Search online: Baidu, Zhihu, Lizhi, Douban ...

So what next?

Check big data again: iResearch, 1993T...

I write down what I think of and what I have found, and that’s it.

Think about it, are any of the user needs you usually deal with similar to this process?

Haha, I heard many sounds of people falling to the ground after being shot.

Don’t worry, we will reveal the three-step method of exploring user needs created by the User Demand Research Institute :

1. Scenario Analysis

The so-called scenario analysis is to describe and analyze the user demand scenario, including what type of user it is, the specific time and place, the relationship and background, the situation, the motivation, and the purpose.

Through the above series of scenario analysis, you can understand why your product fails to impress your users.

In this process, remember to observe and analyze problems objectively with a normal mind, and don't be influenced by your own fixed mindset.

Lindstrom, the world's chief marketing guru, once did a case:

In order to help a world-renowned cereal producer find out why it lacks market share in India, the world's top marketing guru visited Indian families and, in order to recreate the scene clearly, made a particularly careful study of the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in India.

You see, it is quite normal for the world's chief marketing guru to study the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law during the process of user needs analysis.

1. Benefit Analysis

By combining scenario analysis, user feedback, user surveys, user interviews and various detailed observations, the clues revealed can help us find group characteristics and the reasons for the demand scenarios, and identify the vested interests and the logic behind them.

There is a classic rule that is to always communicate with the customer's other self.

Because in the process of social interaction, people often go through repeated modification and practice, and what they show is an ideal self, but not the real self. Only by communicating with others' real selves can we discover what customers really want.

1. Desire Analysis

By analyzing these reasons, we can find the emotional gaps of target users. That is to say, spiritual satisfaction at the human level, and then find the real user needs.

Connect the above information to find the emotional gap of the target users and how this gap is created. What kind of conclusions can be drawn from the information we collect? What kind of emotions will be aroused in the target users? In other words, what kind of desires are not satisfied?

However, some personalized emotions, habits and hobbies can inadvertently expose potential desires and unsatisfied desires, which are the real user needs. Our ultimate goal is to come up with a feasible compensation method to satisfy users' unmet desires.

Above, we still use the example of weight loss to analyze user needs.

If a user tells you, I want to lose weight quickly.

Then, the scenarios, interests, and desires he reflects correspond to the following needs:

Chapter 7 Mainstream Changes in User Demands

1. Demand Popularity

A demand epidemic occurs when a user group suddenly shows a particularly strong demand for a certain attribute without any warning. This is called a demand epidemic. The epidemic usually lasts for a short time, usually less than a year. Including consumption trends and channel trends. For example, bell-bottom jeans were popular in the 1990s, Tik Tok became popular in 2018, and Volcano Video became popular in 2017.

Research on popular trends needs to be fast and accurate, so it places high demands on the founder's business acumen, accuracy and execution. If you happen to possess these qualities, it is easy to seize the bonus period of popular demand and make quick money.

1. Demand Trends

Demand trends refer to the changes in user group demand over a period of 2-5 years. The time is neither short nor long, and it is what most of our projects need to focus on in the early stages. No matter whether you are in the red ocean or the blue ocean, you can still enter the market if you can identify the development trend of user needs in a segmented industry.

Here we take the user demand of e-commerce consumption as an example to give everyone a more intuitive understanding of the demand development trend.

Eighteen years ago, when the Internet was just emerging in China, there were not many consumers and sellers willing to give it a try. For consumers, being able to buy something online was a quasi-demand.

After 2007, the frequency of the keywords "bought fake goods" and "slow logistics" in Taobao reviews increased year by year, and the growth rate was also very fast. Obviously, the demand for "genuine" and "fast" products is also increasing.

Entrepreneur Liu Qiangdong sensed this business opportunity, so he adopted a model of self-operation as the main business and established franchisees as the auxiliary business to ensure the authenticity of the goods, set up warehouses across the country, and built his own logistics system to improve logistics efficiency. Using these two points as entry points into e-commerce, you will eventually gain a foothold.

Then until now, the consumption trend has quietly changed. People born in the 1980s have become the main consumer force. They pay less and less attention to brands . Instead, they tend to efficiently find and lock in the products they want to buy. They care more and more about the quality of the products, while brand awareness is gradually weakening. At this time, the NetEase Yanxuan model was born.

Therefore, even in an e-commerce market that seems to be a red ocean, as long as you can control the changing trends in user demand, you can find market opportunities to enter.

1. Demand trends

The major demand trend refers to the 6-20 year period, which is a major change in user demand across the entire industry. This big change is more of a change in values. Also because of the long time interval, the study of major trends is relatively complicated because the historical period to be referenced is very long. But we have another, more pleasant way.

We are in China, and China is a developing country that is developing very rapidly. For example, all walks of life are calling for consumption upgrade, consumption upgrade. Is it only China's consumption that will upgrade and change?

Obviously not, all developed countries have already experienced this.

So if I want to find the general trend of user demand, I can directly refer to the history of developed countries to see how this country developed in the next 5, 10 or 20 years when it was at our current level.

Which industries will emerge? Which industries have disappeared? Use this as a general direction to help you make choices.

above.

In the next article, we will introduce the principles and thinking methods of user needs analysis, as well as the operation methods of each specific step, including some industry cases. Please continue to pay attention!

Source: Crabs walk sideways