How to create a hit product amid product homogeneity?

Have you noticed that some products become popular in a short period of time? For example, products under Douyin and NetEase, or milk tea from a store near your home . However, some people’s products can only stay in the same place forever without any major changes, or even gradually decline.

What are the reasons for these two results?

Most people may think that this is because people who make good products put in a lot of effort in the early stages. However, we find that with the same cost, some people’s products can become best-sellers, while some people still cannot make products that consumers like.

Even with the same team strength, the same starting base, the same time and energy cost, and even the same creativity, etc., the final results are still very different. It’s like two people spend the same amount of time preparing for an exam, but their final exam results are different.

Different people have different reasons, but the most important reason is that there are different ideas on product iteration.

Most products that are not liked by users and are just spinning in circles are stuck in thinking at one level, without addressing the root cause.

For example, always thinking about how to increase promotion efforts to increase sales, how to defeat competitors, etc. These are all thinking at the product sales level.

In order to create products that continue to be popular with consumers, we need to think innovatively and break through limitations at a certain level. Don’t just think about how to promote sales, but also keep looking for greater consumer demands . This will naturally increase the chances of making products that are more popular with consumers. This is the breakthrough thinking for product iteration (from the thinking model in "Leap").

I mentioned a case in a previous article about an offline professional suit store. The method of increasing sales and popularity was basically centered around "price reduction and promotion ", but the effect was not good. Many companies that quickly embark on the path of branding and achieve other profit goals rely more on stepping out of a certain level, thinking out of the box, and seeking real solutions.

The biggest advantage of this kind of “breakthrough thinking” is that it allows your products to innovate quickly and break out of the limitations of spinning in place. At the same cost, we can find user needs faster and better than others and make products that are more popular with users.

The specific operation process of this product's breakthrough thinking has three links:

1. Discover anomalies - discover abnormal user behavior towards the product from background data or phenomenon observations. For example, if you find that a user stays in your online store for a long time but refuses to place an order, this is an abnormal situation.

2. Hypothesis - Make assumptions about the abnormal situation to see what larger undiscovered needs exist behind it, or find out the possible causes of the problem . For example, as mentioned earlier, if users stay for a long time but do not place an order, we can make the most likely assumption based on relevant data and other observations. For example, although the products in the store are tempting, they may lack reasons to encourage users to place orders.

3. Testing - Conduct a small number of tests on the hypothetical results of the second stage to quickly verify them. For example, we have previously hypothesized based on relevant data that the reason why users stay for a long time but do not place an order may be that there is a lack of reasons to encourage them to place an order. In this case, we can add relevant promotional content (limited-time sales discounts, etc.) to the details page for testing.

If the final test result does not meet the hypothesis of the second step, then decisively abandon the hypothesis and quickly conduct a new hypothesis and test;

If the test results are in line with the hypothesized expectations, it means that the cause of the problem or the user’s greater demand has been found, so increase investment - the so-called blockbuster product may emerge. For example, NetEase has many popular products.

Even if you don’t end up creating a “hit” product, this product iteration method will at least allow you to make faster progress in product or marketing innovation than in the past.

(Of course, funding and execution are also important factors, but here are some ideas for your reference.)

If you still don’t know how to start, here are the three specific steps of this product breakthrough thinking.

Whether it is products, marketing or consumer behavior, many potential needs and innovations are often hidden in these anomalies.

Nowadays, many people do marketing based on feeling or intuition, but most people's intuitive judgments are often wrong . You think your users like cheaper products, but maybe your users actually prefer stores with faster logistics, which ultimately leads to a disproportionate input and output.

So how do you discover the causes of potential needs or problems?

There are two ways to start:

I believe that many people will have relevant data statistics when making products or doing marketing. Some anomalies in these data are often potential problems and needs (unfortunately many people do not pay attention to them).

For example, if you are doing e-commerce on Taobao , there will be a lot of relevant statistical data in the background; when you run an offline store, you need to collect statistics, such as daily or weekly statistics on customer flow , conversion rate , age and income of users who come to consume, etc.

Then find abnormal situations from these data. For example, in the example mentioned earlier in the article, the background data found that users stayed in the store for a long time, but the conversion rate was very low. This is an abnormal situation.

In addition to anomalies in the data, we can also observe them from the behavioral perspective. This kind of discovery requires you to pay more attention to anomalies in consumer behavior, from which you may discover the causes of greater needs and problems.

For example, if you are in the catering business, you may find that many consumers who wear very cheap clothes and do not seem to have high incomes like to order slightly more expensive dishes. This is an abnormal phenomenon, and we need to conduct a hypothesis analysis on it to find out the real reason behind it, which may reveal potential greater needs.

For example, there is a social application in the United States called Instagram. In its early days, it was similar to Weibo and WeChat products, allowing users to share pictures, text and other content on it.

But later it was discovered that users share pictures more frequently than text articles - this is a different behavioral phenomenon. Later, through hypothesis analysis and test verification, it was eventually built into a unique social application platform that is different from products such as Facebook and Twitter, a social product that focuses on sharing pictures (now acquired by Facebook).

In short, discovering anomalies from relevant data and user phenomena is an important part of product iteration and innovation and finding the root cause of the problem. Next, you can hypothesize and test these anomalies.

Propose hypotheses based on previous product or user anomalies. Because no one has yet been found who can 100% determine the cause of an abnormal situation, in most cases it is necessary to make assumptions based on these data or phenomena and then conduct tests and verifications later. This is also an effective way to prevent blind product development and marketing.

For example, when many people see that their products are not selling well, they blindly reduce prices for promotion. In the end, not only do they lose profits, but they also make consumers have a negative perception of your products, thinking that they are inferior goods. This is the result of no analysis of data and phenomena and no assumptions. Even if you succeed once or twice, most of the time it may be due to luck, and it is difficult for the product to achieve sustainable development.

How to make assumptions?

Here is a method tool : drawing a hypothesis diagram.

(Intuitive images can increase people's confidence in the correctness of their assumptions)

Then choose the most likely hypothesis to test.

For example, going back to the example at the beginning of the article, users stay in your online store for a long time and collect a large number of favorites, but the conversion rate is not proportional. Then list them and make assumptions .

(Click to enlarge)

Then we test the most likely hypothesis. There may also be multiple reasons, in which case it is necessary to test multiple hypotheses simultaneously.

Similarly, if you find that the customers in your restaurant seem to have little money but like to order more expensive dishes, you can use a similar method to conduct a hypothesis analysis of this anomaly. It may be that this type of guest is temporarily vain, or it may be that this type of guest is eating at public expense (it is not their own money, so they will not feel bad)...

Try to combine as many different aspects as possible to make assumptions, come up with the closest assumptions and solutions, and then test and verify them.

Testing does not mean blind investment, but verification of previous findings and assumptions. As mentioned before, for many people working on products or marketing, the input and output are not proportional. A big reason for this is that they increase investment without conducting a small amount of testing, resulting in unnecessary waste.

If the previous discovery of anomalies and assumptions is to reduce the cost of trial and error, then testing is an effective way to continue to reduce the cost of error and increase the cost of correct investment.

Different test results require different corresponding measures.

One is to stop investing when the test results do not meet the expected results of the hypothesis, and then retest other hypothesis results.

For example, if you find that even after increasing your promotion efforts, your store's product conversion rate is still very low, then continue to test other hypothetical results, or test multiple hypothetical results at the same time. Instead of blindly investing all your money to make what you think is the right decision.

Another possibility is that if the test results meet or exceed the assumed expectations, you can increase investment and create a more popular product.

For example, after your online store adds trust endorsement and reasonable promotional methods, the conversion rate and repurchase rate increase, which verifies the correctness of the hypothesis and you can continue to increase investment in this hypothesis.

If you think you can further improve your product iteration or marketing methods, you can continue to follow the breakthrough idea of ​​"discovering anomalies - hypothesis - testing" to find a more suitable method.

How can we achieve higher benefits and make products sell better with the same input cost? You might as well try the product iteration method of "breakthrough thinking", which has three steps in total:

Find the anomaly - hypothesis - test

Finally, I’ll summarize a picture for you. Long press to save it, and use it right away!

This breakthrough thinking is not only beneficial to product iteration and innovation in marketing methods, but can also be applied to your life and help explore your career planning. You can tell us what other aspects you can apply it to, or share your feelings in the comment section!

The author of this article @Mr. Monster is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

Product promotion services: APP promotion services, advertising platform, Longyou Games