How to operate a (product) APP?

This article is a summary of novice operations . The purpose of this chapter is not to teach you how to operate products step by step according to the methods, but how to find the key points of operations through some of your own learning experiences.

When we operate a new APP or product, a common problem we encounter is that we cannot find the starting point for operating this product. We often use some traditional methods to perform ineffective operations. Blind and ignorant operating methods not only fail to attract users, but also have a reverse effect.

This situation occurs because you do not understand the product and do not quite understand its value. The purpose of writing this article is not to teach you how to operate products step by step according to the methods, but how to find the key points of operation through some of my own learning experiences.

Of course, this is a summary of a novice operation, and the target audience is also a novice operator. If there is anything wrong, please point it out.

Starting point: Using the core value of the product

First of all, we say that the core value of the product must meet two points:

1. Sufficiently attractive to users’ surface needs

Products can grasp the user's pain points in an instant and form a potential dependency relationship, such as Ele.me , Meituan and other catering software, letting users know that they need to open it when they need it.

2. Ability to uncover potential needs of users

If a product only meets a single demand of users, it is very likely that it will be eliminated by the market due to the emergence of similar competing products. Once you understand the potential user needs that can be generated by a product, this is the core of the product and cannot be imitated by similar products, such as WeChat and Alipay .

Looking at these two software, both started out by satisfying users' social and payment needs, but did not stop there. Instead, they created complete handheld payment systems and social home systems through various fission methods. The product is constantly "evolving" around its core functions, making it impossible for similar software to imitate and becoming an indispensable part of users' lives, thereby ensuring the long-term existence of the product's core advantages.

Therefore, a short-tail explosive product will capture the user's superficial needs; a long-tail effect software will fission the user's potential needs.

When operating a product, what needs to be considered in the promotion process is to use surface demands to sufficiently stimulate the user's excitement, while slowly leading the user to the product's hidden fission demands.

It should be noted here that the fission demand of the product may not be equal to the potential demand of the users, so the operation needs to "package" it in this process. Like the brainwashing effect in the common "pyramid scheme", users are introduced to the fission needs shown by your product through copywriting and techniques.

For example: Alipay’s “Tree Planting Charity”, the points emphasized in the application are “charity” and “tree planting game ”, but Alipay’s real purpose is: to emphasize the frequency of users opening Alipay in order to increase user stickiness and fit. It is also a means for Alipay to win users’ “fragmented time” through charity games, and each additional time the application is opened will increase Alipay’s traffic value.

Although the game may seem simple, it actually contains a huge amount of data that can be used to analyze user behavior in the background of Alipay. Each user’s click and focus will become the key plan for the next operation.

Planning point: Use the community to operate and attract traffic for products

The core of community operation products is to grasp the user's "weak psychology", that is, the weaknesses of human nature. Everyone has certain emotional or value pursuits. If you want to achieve initial traffic generation, you need to conduct a behavioral analysis of users and study what psychological or behavioral "weaknesses" each user has that can be discovered and exploited.

Only by understanding the user's weak behaviors can you better cooperate with your purpose of attracting traffic. Different types of users require more careful treatment. Don’t try to attract them with interest points that you think they will be interested in, like you would ordinary “locust users”.

The conversion rate of high-quality users does not require efficiency in quantity and time, but rather in their loyalty and long-term retention. As for how to grasp the user's "weaknesses", you can use the advantages of small groups to gain further understanding.

The different behaviors of users in each circle can be fully understood through several changes in circle communication to fully grasp certain user weaknesses, and then slowly break them down.

Here are a few tips:

1. Internet recommendation method: Post some interesting stories about the product content in the community, such as comics or stories, emphasize product features based on user needs, and use clever story (copywriting) plots to let the product choose itself among the same related competing software. Personalizing the copywriting is the key to success.
2. User interest method: All users have a "love to play" heart. Only when users find your product interesting will they download and use your product. We can see that WeChat is already a very powerful social product. However, it is always games that open up the WeChat usage channel . The previous game "All People Shoot Airplanes" is an example, which took advantage of users' social competition and honor psychology to open up the WeChat market. Different products can be made social among users through some light games, allowing users who like games to open up hidden markets, which is much less troublesome than selling the products yourself.
3. Social psychology analysis method: Nowadays, the Internet has shortened the communication distance between people through apps, but the inner world is more difficult to understand, so psychological methods can be used (setting some small test questions for spiritual friendship). Making users feel spiritually secure on the new app is still a way of taking advantage of people’s social nature, allowing them to gain recognition inadvertently and share this feeling of recognition with more people.

For users, replacing old apps with new ones is a process of deducting points, especially for homogeneous apps. When it exceeds your psychological deduction point, you will choose to uninstall it. For example: if it is more in line with your usage habits compared to the old app, it will be deducted 10 points; if it has more advertisements than the old app, it will still be deducted 10 points; and if it has poorer continuous content output, it will be deducted another 10 points.

When you adapt the new app to your psychological bottom line and have not uninstalled it within a certain period (this period is about 2 months, and the period of game apps will be longer because game apps are fast food and are often updated very quickly), then the features of this app will be a plus in your mind. Using social media to operate a product will subtly influence users’ usage and emotional affiliation with the product, and be more in line with the stickiness between users and products, which is what we often call the brand effect.

Foothold: Using data analysis to develop planning strategies

Data analysis is a commonly used method in operating products and community users. Analyzing operational data helps us further perform differentiated operations for users.

First of all, let me explain two points. Current data analysis operations are divided into two parts: manual data analysis and artificial intelligence data analysis.

The former is used for personalized and short-term operations and activities through data analysis, while artificial intelligence data analysis is more suitable for stable and long-term operations and activities.

The complete growth of data analysis users is divided into three stages: user introduction period, user retention period, and user sedimentation period.

• The first is the user introduction period: the browsing and participation of new users in the published activities over a period of time, which includes: visit frequency and visit interval time. If a high number of views and participation can be obtained, it means that the activity has been forwarded many times - that is, the viral spread of high-quality activities has been formed. Users are also interested in the content and presentation format of such activities, and can refer to them when holding an event next time.
• User retention period: Participating users can be divided into water army (small accounts registered specifically for participating in activities) and formal users. Water army users will generally leave the community or unfollow the official account immediately after participating in the event. The participation of such users is usually invalid. Formal users will have a certain selection period after participating in the event, which is also commonly known as the user retention period.
• User sedimentation period: During this period, users generally choose to remain silent or lurk to see if this place can continue to satisfy their appetite. If they are satisfied, the customers are likely to stay; if they are not satisfied, they will leave. Therefore, during this period, the product's essential content (surface demand) and long-term temptation points (fission demand) must be presented to users. Only users who have passed the user sedimentation period can be called true user growth activities.

Data analysis of user growth cannot be done by simply comparing the data before the event starts with the data after the event is completed. The user growth situation can only be fully analyzed at least 3-4 weeks after the event ends.

Several points to pay attention to in data analysis are: the authenticity of the data, the accumulation of the data, the variability of the data, whether the data is regular, and then compare and analyze the "deviation points" of each data (referring to the reasons for data changes and the scope of changes), and use the deviation points to formulate new operation plans.

The above are some of the operation methods I have summarized. In fact, there is no fixed routine to follow for operating products. The real routine is to adapt to circumstances without routines, just like in martial arts novels, novices use swords, masters wield swords, and saints make swords.

Refers to operations: primary operations use tools , intermediate operations master operation tools , and advanced operations can create operation tools by themselves.

Therefore, the most important thing is to operate it with your heart. Only when you have sufficient understanding of what you want to operate and learn to use fixed methods flexibly, can you become a qualified product operator .