Regarding "user growth", these may be things you don't know

Judging from the current situation, the domestic Internet industry's understanding of " user growth" (UG) is mostly limited to single and superficial forms such as conversion funnel optimization, user invitation, and ABtest. If you don’t believe it, you can find relevant articles, books, and training to learn more.

The reason for this problem is that UG was introduced from abroad, and there are not many domestic practices with mature and systematic methods. More importantly, the very few people who understand it will not come out to share it at this stage, after all, it is still in the bonus stage.

I firmly believe that domestic UG should have its own way of playing, which is completely different from that of foreign UG. Because foreign Internet companies do not have roles such as operations and business channels , but in China, these two jobs play a decisive role in activating new users and retaining old users .

So, to those who have published books and given lectures on UG, I would like to ask: Have you actually done user growth? Do you have any practical experience? You only know that if there is a problem with the registration or ordering process, and then solve it through optimization to increase the conversion rate , is this user growth? There aren't so many stupid products that would have major problems in these two links.

The idea of ​​optimizing the conversion funnel is a very basic requirement for PMs. It is already very mature and common, and people take it very seriously. It would be meaningless to treat it as a new concept to make money.

Extend a section. I only recommend people who have done serious practice and have representative cases. Otherwise, no matter how well you write your articles or how well your books sell, it will be useless. Because many people can talk about it, and when they talk, they usually analyze a successful case, which is very simple. When practicing, you will face many unexpected and unpredictable problems, which is a real test for you.

Back to UG. I opened Lagou and searched for "user growth", and found that only a few large companies were recruiting people in this field, such as Toutiao, Didi , Meituan, Mobike , and NetEase , where I work. From the recruitment needs, we can roughly infer that the industry is currently only interested in the concept of UG, but very few people are truly invested in and have established independent departments and organizations.

Current problems of UG in China

1. Lack of a truly actionable strategy

UG is definitely not just the optimization funnel that those people talk about, but it has its own way of playing. Toutiao, Meituan, and Didi are all doing well. We are also exploring, but it seems that no one has shared their experience yet.

2. Lack of people who really understand

I have surveyed the people who are currently working as UGs on the front line, and all of them are latecomers, and their previous backgrounds are very mixed, so it is impossible for them to have a so-called professional background. Those who are closer are those who switched from data analysts , and are more involved in operations, marketing, channels, etc., and what they did before had nothing to do with UG.

Therefore, there may be only one or two people in each team who truly understand, and the others just follow the overall strategy and are highly replaceable. But the one or two people who truly understand this are very valuable talents.

3. Difficulty in cross-departmental collaboration

The characteristics of UG determine that this is a team that requires multiple roles, and the roles are very different. For example, growth strategies, business cooperation, channel deployment, data analysis, products, R&D, etc.

But in most Internet companies, these roles are scattered across various large departments. Therefore, the best way to do UG well is to reorganize the team, ensure the efficiency of cooperation and communication, and avoid cross-departmental cooperation. As a second best option, you can also choose the virtual project team approach.

Whether the team organization is done thoroughly or not depends on whether the company's top management attaches importance to it and has the determination. If you are not so determined, you will get half the result with twice the effort, so it is better not to do it.

My understanding of UG

1. New users mainly rely on advertising

It's not that it's impossible to attract new customers through products or marketing , but it's too difficult and it's something that can only be encountered by chance. This is probably the national condition. Therefore, new additions still depend on investment.

So, which channels should be used for delivery and what are the specific strategies? These are very specific questions. There is nothing wrong with spending money itself, as long as the cost per user is controllable or can be recovered through a business model , it is reliable.

2. Capability of commercialization

As mentioned above, you can spend money as long as you can earn it back. This is the ROI model of an investment. It is best if the product itself has the ability to be monetized, whether through traffic monetization or conversion of orders. As long as the delivered traffic is subsequently converted into revenue, this is a complete closed loop.

3. Not only new additions, but also activation

To increase the number of users, we must not only increase revenue but also reduce costs. That is to say, by studying the user life cycle and building an RFM model , we can retain new users, activate low-activity users, keep high-activity users active, and recall lost users . There are many things that can be done in each link here.

4. User growth is not the task of the UG team

Quoting the concept of OKR (Objectives and Key Results), the difference from KPI lies in O, which means goal. Assuming that the short-term goal of a product is user growth, the execution path of this O should be broken down into the entire team, not just the UG group.

For example, activities, KOL, and UGC operations can all be broken down into strategies with the goal of user growth. This way, we can better form a synergy with the UG group and avoid the entire team working alone.