What superpowers do growth hackers need?

I've recently been reading Fan Bing's " Growth Hacker ", which raises five major questions that need to be asked when recruiting a real growth hacker.

It can be said that the success of any project, in addition to the luck of being at the forefront of the trend, is more or less due to the contributions of growth hackers.

This article will answer these five seemingly ordinary but actually dangerous interview questions from the perspective of strategic operations , and summarize the abilities that excellent operations must master.

1. If a certain phenomenon occurs in our product (such as a surge or plunge in traffic ), what might be the cause? How would you go about finding out what the problem is?

90% of people who receive this question for the first time will directly analyze it. If it is a traffic blowout, the possible common reasons may be the increase in channels , the lowering of user thresholds, the increase in communication activities, etc., and then they will start to explain how the methods adopted are.

This answer cannot be said to be wrong, but for such an important role as "growth hacker", it may seem a bit too ordinary and common, and is not enough to reflect the strength of a growth hacker.

This problem can actually be analyzed in steps:

1. The first focus is on "our product", that is, the product of the interviewer's project.

In this question, the interviewer gives the candidate a hypothetical identity, that is, the candidate is a member of the team.

So what is his understanding of the project (before coming)? This can show his preparation and determine how much importance he attaches to the interview.

There are two situations at this time: A. The candidate has not understood the product or knows little about it. In the fourth question we will talk about how to deal with it; B. The candidate has a certain degree of understanding of the product.

In case B, you should first identify the product in the project that you are most familiar with. There is no need to elaborate here.

2. Discuss traffic changes on a case-by-case basis.

In fact, taking the e-commerce platform of the team I have been in from the past to the present as an example, under normal circumstances, the daily traffic generally maintains a certain degree of stability, and only in the relatively off-season and peak season of each year will there be a significant increase or decrease.

Especially for a calendar APP product that I have operated in the past, the overall opening rate would show a significant peak before every holiday, and would drop significantly during the holidays, so it is necessary to clarify whether it is a normal phenomenon or an abnormal phenomenon. At this point, you can use this product that you are relatively familiar with as an example to illustrate.

3. Next, we will focus on analyzing abnormal phenomena.

Normally, the traffic sources of a product include natural traffic and paid traffic.

Natural traffic is divided into new and old customers, while paid traffic is basically new customers. At this point, no matter whether you choose an APP or PC website platform, you must go through this step to discuss the situation separately.

With this step in place, we can focus on the source of this product's past historical data to make a rough preliminary judgment.

For example, the author has come across a travel consulting app ranked in the top 100, Shiliufan, which was mainly used through social recommendations from acquaintances in the past few years, and its paid traffic accounted for a relatively low proportion. At this point, the focus of the analysis can be divided into another level. The internal and external factors that affect the product, and several possible situations are listed and analyzed one by one.

4. How to find out the problem?

Focusing on the reasons actually examines data thinking and data sensitivity, as well as the experience and intuitive judgment accumulated by operators through long-term operations.

The above steps are to analyze the entire process. In fact, for a large platform, it has a very rich and comprehensive data system. Through key data related to the problem (note, it does not necessarily refer to core data), it can quickly and accurately define the problem.

Interviewer's hidden weapon:

What should many startup companies do if their data systems are not well-built and they cannot provide so much data information? This derivative question actually tests how candidates solve problems when the data is incomplete.

The overall idea is broken down according to the above hierarchical and progressive logical principles until a solution to the problem is found.

Having said that, the effect will be better if you can present it to the interviewer in the form of a mind map. Find the cause through progressive digging.

All growth hackers must have the ability to analyze, reason and deconstruct logic, and use experience to determine the most accurate answer. The ultimate cause may not be true, but this analytical ability is essential for operational excellence that goes beyond mediocrity.

2. What do you think is the most important feature of our product?

The follow-up to the previous traffic issue is the product issue.

First, let’s define the scope of the problem: product features. That is, the answer is not the product, but the problem the product solves and the value it creates.

For example, the products currently operated by the author's team include advertising products based on in-site platforms, such as CPC bidding products that charge per click similar to Through Train, and CPT image advertising products that charge per display similar to Taobao Diamond Exhibitions; there are also off-site DSP products and affiliate network products based on DPS. These products have obviously differentiated characteristics.

If we summarize all the product features, there is actually only one value, which is to create traffic for advertisers. This is to answer the question from the value attributes of the product.

Expanding on this point, it can be expanded to: providing advertisers with specific needs with traffic solutions that meet different needs, while helping the company achieve the goal of traffic monetization.

This is to answer the question from both ends, one for the user and the other for the company. This is the essence of all products.

However, in addition to its essence, characteristics also have some differentiated value, which are not possessed by similar competing products or are parts of relative advantages.

We need to give specific examples here, such as the Express product, whose value lies in obtaining traffic at the lowest cost. For entrepreneurs with very limited marketing costs, the bidding payment method can help them obtain traffic at a price as low as 0.2 cents. They can create multiple promotion plans at the same time through Kuaiche, and associate multiple search keywords or marketing promotion categories, so as to achieve the effect of low-cost marketing.

For many investors who bid on Baidu, they don’t care about burning money, but Baidu’s promotion costs of thousands of dollars a day are something that most entrepreneurs dare not easily get involved in. Therefore, the Express product helps users solve two problems: one is how to obtain accurate search traffic, and the other is how to keep the cost of this process to the minimum. This is the greatest value or greatest feature of the Express product.

Compared with similar competing products, it can also achieve the widest coverage, from search results pages to category list pages, covering almost all the most important search traffic entrances of an e-commerce website. This is also one of the core values ​​of the Express product.

So to answer this question from the user's perspective, we need to analyze user needs and how the product's advantages and functions specifically meet those needs. The ultimate goal is to build long-term user dependence on the product.

If understanding and being familiar with the product is the basis, then the ability to quickly grasp the core value of the product reflects the keen insight and judgment of a growth hacker-level super operator. Can you summarize the most essential features of the product in relatively concise language?

3. If you could add one feature to an existing product, what would it be? Why?

User experience examines this issue based on the PMF principle (product meets market needs) mentioned by the author.

How many functions should a product have? How many functions are enough and how many functions are too many? This is to examine the operator's product thinking and user thinking.

First of all, this is an experience issue, but the focus should be on achieving what goals, whether it is to improve user retention rate , increase activity, optimize user experience, or optimize existing processes.

Adding functions must be based on solving problems or meeting certain needs, and can be examined from the perspective of existing product processes. Users first come to the platform or download the product through different channels, and then use certain specific functions of the product according to their needs. To use Zhang Xiaolong 's words to describe WeChat, they use it and leave.

Please note, what is the most likely problem to occur in this process?

For most APP applications, the most common problems are user loss and a decline in daily active users. The focus of almost all content operations and product operations is on how to stimulate users to stay longer.

For 2B advertising products, the biggest goal is to stimulate users to continue purchasing and increase repeat purchases.

Take advertising products as an example. Advertising products are important marketing tools . For users, what they care about most is the advertising effect. The most direct way to measure the advertising effect is through delivery data. Whether the purchased products can be monitored for effectiveness and achieve sustainable optimization is what advertisers care about most.

The core of advertising products is not to retain users, because users have individual differences, but to let users experience the value of the product.

At the same time, since many products in startups are inevitably produced first and then user experience is done, it is normal for them to be out of touch with users.

Based on this, I did a few things:

1. When conducting large-scale user surveys, we usually sort out a set of product questionnaires with mutually exclusive questions. The questions try to cover new products, but the number is controlled within 15 to avoid high user bounce rates or non-intentional responses. Mutually exclusive questions are used to screen out invalid questionnaires.
2. Determine the research object. If it is all users, try to cover all channels, and cover all channels through SMS, product platform internal messages, phone calls, emails, telephone sales, offline sales and other channels. If you want to understand the product features in a targeted manner, you must select those heavy users who have a strong interest in the product and conduct in-depth group interviews;
3. Pay attention to the content. Whether it is a questionnaire or an interview, users must ask questions, complain, and do a good job of analysis and recording.
4. Organize problems and needs, systematically classify the problems reported by users, and analyze which functions users care about most and which functions users find least acceptable. The conclusions drawn in this way are relatively in line with market demand, rather than being drawn out of thin air.
5. The final report conclusion will invite all relevant products and operations to participate in the communication, and the exposed problems and products will be confirmed. The products will conduct demand assessment and give feedback accordingly.

After finishing this part, you can start talking about what is the greatest value perception of this product for yourself and your friends as a user (following up from the previous question), and then based on a group of special users like yourself and your friends, what is your current perceptual understanding, how you rationally view the functions, and put forward your own suggestions.

Therefore, the key point of the problem is how to rationally view the relationship between market feedback and demand, and how to build a smooth mechanism for user problem feedback to collection, evaluation and optimization.

4. Talk about your past success stories?

When candidates have little knowledge of existing products, a convincing success story is the best way to save the situation. But at the same time, this position also has different requirements for operators at different levels.

Telling a small case is a basic operation job; telling a continuously successful project and a constantly iterating project is the job of an experienced operator; telling a project from 0 to 100 with significant breakthrough value is a requirement for growth hackers.

When talking about success stories, the most important framework is the ST AR +E principle, which is accompanied by a summary statement.

Taking my experience as an example, when I go to interview for positions that require rich execution experience, I like to cite some successful practical cases.

For example, in my past experience of operating APP, I have done two activities with good communication value:

• One was a "Zongzi" (a Chinese character for Zong) activity during the Dragon Boat Festival . It started with identifying the correct Zongzi from two different characters, Zong and Zong, and then evolved to finding the Zongzi from four, six, eight, and hundreds of different Zong, Zong, Zong, and Zong characters. Finally, anyone who reached a certain level of clearance could participate in the lucky draw. The activity attracted 1.8 million UVs within a week, which was 4-5 times higher than the usual UVs.
• Another one was to take advantage of the Ghost Festival and the then-popular TV series The Journey of Flower to create a magic mirror that could detect one's identity in one's previous life. It received a lot of positive feedback from users, who asked if it was an APP and whether they could download and use it. The designer jokingly said that it had become a phenomenal application.

Back to the successful project cases, let’s take our brand promotion as an example: when we took over the project, there was a blank slate. We faced the problem of lack of relevant experience team internally and lack of cooperation resources and channels externally.

Based on our business, what we actually want to promote is the advertising products and the service trading platform where the advertising products are located. The goal is to achieve rapid brand marketing and assist in sales.

With tight timelines, many products to promote, and a heavy workload, I first planned a full-year marketing plan:

• In terms of scope, different communication targets are set, including advertisers, potential advertisers, and Internet users;
• In terms of communication tools, all channels and means such as soft articles, activities, H5, cases, posters, Q&A, Zhihu , Encyclopedia, Tieba , forums, Douban , Wenku, etc. were sorted out;
• In terms of time, the operational goals that should be achieved each quarter are planned, including quantifiable and non-quantifiable goals;
• In terms of projects, determine the relationship between major projects and routine projects, and focus on the goals and progress of major projects;
• In team building, we divide the work according to each person's characteristics and put forward challenging requirements.

During the entire process of project promotion, we kept following up at all times and adjusted the optimization direction. In the end, we produced more than a dozen brand communication activities, nearly a hundred high-quality communication articles and dozens of videos throughout the year, and built nearly thirty high-quality channels for continuous communication. The cumulative number of users participating in the activities and the number of soft article readings also reached tens of millions.

All users and sales, when they search for any of our products on Baidu, can find comprehensive and rich introductions on the homepage of the search results page, which helps sales to achieve big orders and also provides users with a good experience.

The biggest gain is that sales can take out their mobile phones at any time to recommend successful cases and products to customers during the order-making process, and product sales have shown exponential growth; the operational capabilities of team members have been improved, and the final effect also reflects the value of the entire product promotion team.

In the process of operating the project, we always faced many difficulties, such as promotion problems, team confidence problems, and difficulty in achieving goals. These problems were solved through continuous communication and thinking, and were continuously optimized in the later stage.

All success stories ultimately require growth hackers to solve the problems faced by themselves and their teams and successfully complete a high-value project.

Successful case = a complete project + conclusion + optimization measures

5. If you want to contact a company or individual, what channels can you use?

For startups and projects, channels and resources are hard currency. In addition to regular operational capabilities, a growth hacker's ability to find, mine and operate resources is also a very important ability.

A perfect growth hacker story should be based on achieving a certain goal, obtaining certain resources through channels, and ultimately serving these goals.

For example, last year we were doing a promotion campaign in Southeast Asia for one of the four largest banks in China and we needed a local partner in Singapore. This generally goes beyond the scope of the industry circle of friends , but with the help of the circle of friends I have accumulated over time, it was easy to find local friends and contact several companies that could cooperate, and finally helped to promote the implementation of the project.

Network channels + resource acquisition capabilities

An excellent growth hacker can easily tell the development history or success stories of various companies. Based on his long-term and in-depth work in the industry, he also has high-quality personal connections among peers.

Therefore, if there are similar resources, growth hackers can speak out without hesitation and build their own network of contacts in the entire industry.

Based on their personal connections, growth hackers can obtain important strategic resources that cannot be obtained directly, such as channel resources or other equally important resources, to ensure the feasibility of project implementation.

Ability to promote + execution + problem-solving

For startups or entrepreneurial projects, growth hackers can complete the process from traffic import - product design - user experience - resource integration + execution, and this process requires a combination of the above three capabilities.

To sum up, the five major questions raised in "Growth Hacker" examine the comprehensive quality and strength that candidates ultimately demonstrate through the accumulation of long-term operational practice experience, the formation of a theoretical system and strategic approach. These abilities are actually common requirements for all excellent operators.

The author of this article @Erlitou Shanyu 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