Get APP product analysis

Before fully understanding this app, everyone thought that the Get APP was at best a knowledge service application with a good product experience, satisfying consumers' needs to enrich themselves in fragmented time.

1. Market Status Analysis

According to iMedia Consulting data, since 2017, the market size of China's knowledge payment industry has expanded rapidly, reaching 39.2 billion yuan in 2020, and is expected to reach 67.5 billion yuan by 2021; the scale of China's knowledge payment users has maintained a steady growth trend, increasing to 418 million people in 2020. As people's acceptance and recognition of knowledge payment continues to increase, the scale of China's knowledge payment users is expected to further expand.

According to the "2021 Knowledge Payment Industry Research Report" jointly released by Qianliao and other knowledge payment platforms, the development of my country's knowledge payment industry has gone through the following stages:

1. Starting with WeChat public accounts, mobile payment technologies were gradually improved through membership systems, paid appreciation functions, and other mobile payment technologies, and the concept of knowledge payment began to take shape.
2. The first batch of knowledge payment platforms represented by Zhihu and Duoduo emerged, and the online system of knowledge payment has gradually improved.
3. Industry giants have emerged and market segments have taken shape: comprehensive platforms represented by Himalaya and Zhihu, and vertical platforms represented by English Fluency and Chaos University.

2. Product Positioning Analysis

1. Product Slogan Analysis: Build a world-leading lifelong university.

Slogan analysis: lifelong; university .

The product slogan fully reflects the product value and product positioning, and is a highly concentrated version of the product strategy. In the product slogan of the Get APP, we can analyze two pieces of information: lifelong and university.

University:

• University is first and foremost a place to acquire knowledge and an important stage for an individual to enter society. Universities achieve personal growth of students by imparting knowledge, thereby achieving overall growth in social value.
• Alumni relations are an important resource for universities. By establishing alumni relations, students can expand their social networks and personal connections .
• Acquiring knowledge and expanding personal connections have a "double-wheel effect": providing new knowledge (new courses, new clubs, etc.) helps to broaden social relationships. Similarly, new alumni relationships also help to form new exchanges and collisions, thereby gaining more knowledge.
• Universities emphasize the professionalism of knowledge , and teachers must have certain qualifications and convincing abilities.

lifelong :

Lifelong service should be understood from two aspects: length and width. Length refers to a long service cycle , and the goal is to cultivate loyal users; width refers to a wide range of services, which can meet any needs of any group of people as much as possible, so that users will not give up halfway. It can be divided into the following dimensions:

1. Lifelong: Lifelong education refers to the ability to meet the learning needs of users at all stages , including both formal and informal education; including all stages and forms of the education system.
2. Universality: Since it is lifelong education, it should also be universal. Regardless of gender, age, wealth, race or region.
3. Comprehensiveness: It can cover all stages of life and is education at all times, in all places, on all occasions and in all aspects. Including various educational contents such as family, society, and school.
4. Flexibility: In line with people's differentiated characteristics , the time, place, content and method of learning are determined by individuals.

2. Product goal analysis: Provide new knowledge and good alumni relations so that everyone can gain strength from knowledge.

Product mission deconstruction: new knowledge; relationships; power.

New Knowledge:

1. New content: refers to knowledge content that users do not understand or have not been exposed to.
2. New form: Package and recreate knowledge in different forms to turn knowledge into knowledge products.

Relationship: Create a knowledge-based community and use knowledge products as a link to connect users.

There are four basic relationships:

1. Knowledge ➡ Teacher ➡ User
2. Teacher ➡ Knowledge ➡ User
3. Knowledge ➡ User
4. User ➡ Knowledge ➡ User

strength:

In the product mission of Get APP, special attention should be paid to "power". The Get product manual mentions, "Get's product philosophy is that the product serves specific people rather than knowledge itself. Knowledge can only become personal power if it is absorbed repeatedly." Power has the following two meanings:

1. The essence is the incremental knowledge formed through product design, relationship transmission, etc., such as new perspectives, new methods, new ideas, extended learning, practical experience, etc.
2. Power has a superimposed effect in the transmission process . Good knowledge products or functions can include more or broader relationships as much as possible, thereby obtaining more knowledge increments, attracting more users to learn, and forming a knowledge closed loop.

The positioning of the Get APP can also be fully appreciated in its product logo: a century-old prestigious school, wisdom and companionship.

3. Product Model Analysis

1. User needs analysis

5W1H analysis:

WHO (target users): People who have learning needs or self-growth needs and are about to enter or have already entered society.

WHAT (user needs):

a. In an increasingly competitive society, we can alleviate our anxiety by acquiring knowledge and continue to learn and grow;

b. In the era of information explosion, you can filter valuable information for yourself through professional applications and reduce the time cost of obtaining information.

WHY (Why does this need arise):

a. Social competition is fierce and we need to constantly improve ourselves to adapt to the rapidly developing society.

b. The quality of Internet information is uneven, and it is difficult for users to make a clear judgment on the quality of information or it takes a lot of time.

WHERE, WHEN (when and where such needs arise): According to the product definition of the APP, it should meet the learning needs that users may have at any time and in any scenario. Currently, the most commonly used and mainstream method is learning in fragmented time scenarios, such as on the subway, driving, lunch break, housework, etc.

HOW: In terms of course content design, we launched products such as Listen to a Book Every Day, Brand Interpreter, and Get Headlines, focusing on the professionalization of lecturers, and outputting professional knowledge to users in a highly condensed form; in terms of course format, whether it is a column, audiobook, or course product, it adopts a combination of manuscripts and audio or video, while meeting the user's "two-task" fragmented time management scenarios and knowledge recording scenarios; in terms of product functions, it meets the needs of each learning process from discovery learning, recording learning, sharing learning to learning expansion, and combines popular notes, knowledge extraction and other functions to further save user time.

The user's learning needs can be broken down into the following five parts:

1. Discovery Learning: Discover valuable learning paths based on your own needs.
2. Learning records: record learning content and review it frequently to gain new knowledge.
3. Learning sharing: Share and exchange learning content, and exchange new knowledge and learning experiences with like-minded people.
4. Encourage learning: Gaining a sense of accomplishment or emotional value from learning encourages users to continue learning.
5. Learning Extension: Discover more related fields and move on to the next stage of learning.

The user's learning behavior at one stage can be broken down into the following three stages:

1. Before learning: understand your own needs and find the learning content or teacher that suits you.
2. While learning: record and share the key points, and communicate difficult points and doubts.
3. After learning: review notes taken during study; rate learning content or teachers; share new knowledge; expand learning.

The role of the user in the learning process can be broken down into:

1. learner
2. Course representative: responsible for sorting out course knowledge and outputting high-quality notes or knowledge essence
3. Evaluator: Just like the course evaluation at the end of each semester in college, service-oriented products need to be evaluated.

Usage scenario analysis:

The picture above is a product scenario illustration designed by the Get APP. It can be seen that the Get APP’s own scenario positioning also focuses on the user’s alone time and fragmented scenarios. Judging from the average length of courses and audiobooks on the GetAPP, one episode is concentrated around 15-25 minutes, which fits the contemporary people’s learning model of “utilizing fragmented time”.

In summary, as a knowledge-based paid application that aims to build a "university", it has established roles that all users may play; before learning, it helps users discover learning content; during learning, it provides tools for learning records and sharing; after learning, it encourages users to exchange their learning experiences, and sets up a reward mechanism to encourage users to continue learning; it helps users discover more learning content.

2. Core Function Analysis

The figure below is the core business map of the Get app.

There are two business closed loops for Dedao APP:

1. Through the comprehensive search function and knowledge city social function within the APP, users can discover more learning interests during the learning process and continue to enter the next round of learning.
2. Achieve viral marketing through sharing-reward incentives and promote the APP to more new users.

Based on the learning process split and core business map, the result of summarizing the product functions is shown in the figure below.

The main functional structure diagram drawn based on the core business map above is shown in the figure below. The complete product function structure diagram is too large to be easily read and is not shown in this article.

The main functions are broken down according to before learning, during learning and after learning, and the results are shown in the figure below.

3. Core product analysis

The Get APP currently has 10 products, which can be divided into the following categories according to different learning modes:

1. Active exploratory learning products: This type of product is based on the premise that users have autonomy and strong guidance, and the product provides certain resources that users need , so it can also be called a resource-based product.
2. Passive guided learning products: This type of product generally refers to users who have the need and desire to learn or improve in a certain direction, but have no clear concept of what specific content they need and to what extent they need to learn, and need guidance from the product. Users have clear expectations for the results, and this type of product can be called a course product.
3. Learning products used to provide emotional support: Just as campuses sometimes hold various lectures and academic exchange activities, these products are designed to strengthen the brand image, bring students (users) closer together, and showcase their existing resources. These products can be called prestige products.

The product categories are shown in the figure below:

Looking from the top to the bottom, as product types change, the importance of users also changes. From the perspective of usage cycle, e-books, audiobooks, and live lectures are "one-time services" . Users may use the APP because of a certain e-book or a certain speaker, and the use may end when the service ends. However, courses, training camps, and other content have the characteristics of longer cycles and higher customer unit prices . Training camps even require registration and screening. Customers who choose these services have already established a basic sense of identity with the application;

Users who attend the weekly inspiration club, the annual New Year’s Eve speech, and offline events held from time to time can be said to be “heavy users”. Differentiating users by product dimensions and providing in-depth services to users of different dimensions is a major user operation strategy of the Get APP.

4. Product Iteration Analysis

Now that we have learned about the existing functions and variety of content products of the Get APP, we will analyze in detail the product iteration process of the Get APP, collect and organize the product update records of the Get APP from 2016 to 2021, and analyze the different focuses of the Get APP on product functions, product content and marketing methods at different stages.

2016-2018:

2016:

The Dedao APP was launched in May 2015. 2015-2016 was the stage of product framework construction and function improvement.

(1) In terms of marketing methods

The Get APP is in the stage of promotion and attracting new users. The main marketing methods are content red envelopes, asking friends to read, and using early users introduced through "Logical Thinking" to recommend new users.

(2) Product content

The Get APP has not yet formed an independent content system. On March 11, 2016, it cooperated with the "Chaos Study Society" to launch the Chaos Study Society series of courses; on September 28, 2016, Listen to a Book Every Day was launched, which is also the most basic product of the Get APP.

This method of extracting and condensing the contents of a book, having a trained professional lecturer explain it in 20 minutes, and providing the knowledge to users in a highly concentrated manner is not only novel, solving the needs of users to use fragmented time to study, but also highly consistent with the product mission of the Get APP "not only to spread knowledge to users, but also to enable users to truly gain power from knowledge."

Secondly, why did you choose to launch this product first? It should be noted that another product of the Get APP is the e-book. Listening to a book every day is not only an independent product, but also provides information services for the e-book product. If users still have the need to read books after listening to the book, the Get APP can continue to meet the user's subsequent reading needs. It achieves seamless connection between two products and two learning needs.

(3) Product functions

In January 2016, the search function was launched; in April, the e-book launched the underlining and note-taking functions to meet users' needs for learning records; in September, the study report was launched, and in December, the study group and knowledge medal were launched. By the end of 2016, the underlying functional framework of the Duode APP was completed, which initially met the users' needs for discovery learning, learning record, learning sharing and learning encouragement before, during and after learning.

2017-2018:

(1) In terms of marketing methods

Launch a variety of new user experience marketing strategies to give new users more experience opportunities; combine personalized posters, customized book lists and other services to provide differentiated experience;

(2) Product content

We have introduced high-quality resources and created a professional brand image , and launched modules including insider knowledge, knowledge lecturers, brand interpreters, book lists by big names, and anchor recommendations.

(3) In terms of functionality

Focusing on the establishment and improvement of community functions, the knowledge account function was launched in November 2017 to integrate various learning records and learning resources.

2019-2020:

In terms of product content, the product format has been further enriched. In April 2019, a video module was added; in January 2020, a new question-and-answer module was added;

In terms of product functions, there are several focuses:

(1) Pay more attention to saving user time

It launches the function of writing messages while listening to videos, supports small window viewing of live broadcasts, allows users to take notes or browse other content while watching live broadcasts, is compatible with IWACH, covers more scenarios (such as fitness, running), etc., which can be said to maximize the utilization of fragmented time.

(2) Pay more attention to community-based operations

Through the knowledge city-state supporting topic interaction, the interactive area supporting user page jumps, recommending similar users, and providing teachers' homepage subscriptions, we can strengthen the concept of community and enhance relationship connections.

(3) Strengthen the use of user-generated content

Strengthening the display of high-quality messages, notes, and comments generated by users during the learning process has three benefits:

a. Give lazy users a chance to copy homework;

b. Strengthen the learning atmosphere of the community;

c. Works are expressions, which make up for the incompleteness of community user information and realize true "knowledge friendship".

(4) Emphasis on optimizing search functions

Searching is the first step to start learning. Whether you can understand user needs and extract the content that users want from the vast ocean of information based on the combination of keywords can be said to be one of the most basic and core functions of knowledge-based products. In January 2020, Duoduo Knowledge Search was launched. In the second half of the year, Duoduo added entries from the Great Dictionary of Chinese and an encyclopedia of 30,000 historical figures to the knowledge search. All search results support classification (e-books, audiobooks, tips, lectures, etc.) . During the learning process, Duoduo launched the function of long-pressing to jump to the dictionary to query the meaning of a word and long-pressing to instantly jump to the search engine to find more relevant content. It is committed to providing accurate and comprehensive search services for knowledge seekers.

2021:

In terms of marketing methods, Duoduo started to plan some marketing activities this year, such as the Ten Thousand Volumes Festival, the 618 big discounts, and the buy-one-get-one-free annual membership during the National Day, to promote consumption.

In terms of content, Duoduo Short Video was officially launched in August this year, and supports users to upload and publish videos. This is the only product that supports user creation and is not limited to knowledge transfer.

In terms of functions, the most notable is that the platform has introduced more incentives to cultivate users' long-term usage habits. In February, Duoduo launched the sign-in function. In September, Duoduo launched sign-in protection cards, daily sign-in and other functions. In addition, Knowledge City added the @ function, and comments supported the "building" function to further promote interaction between users .

Statistics on the frequency of major function update optimizations from 112 product update records after deduplication

In terms of service functions, the Get APP focuses most on the note-taking function, that is, the function of recording learning, which is also the main advantage of the Get APP that distinguishes it from other competitors; the second is knowledge search and intelligent recommendation. The optimization of these two functions helps users find the content they need and enables users to enter the learning process as soon as possible; the third is the construction of a knowledge-based community, which provides users with relationship ties and expands their network resources.

V. Summary and Optimization Suggestions

Overall, the advantages of the Get APP are mainly reflected in functional services, which are mainly reflected in the following three points.

(1) Powerful search function

In the use of search engines: search results not only show the products, but also related content such as purchased, book lists, lectures, lists, etc., making full use of various information generated in the application;

During the learning process: long press on a selected document to directly search for related content or perform a dictionary query.

(2) Good learning experience

① Get provides a wealth of learning records and sharing functions

It supports document marking and note-taking functions, and can also view other people's popular notes, and provides the function of directly collecting and forwarding popular notes. At the end of the audiobook or course content, a knowledge summary is provided, and you can directly save the summary content to your notes.

② Good interface reading experience

All products of the Get APP support switching between audio and text, or video, audio and text learning methods. The interface provides multiple operations such as switching themes, switching fonts, changing font size, etc. It has developed exclusive reading and voice experiences such as "Get Jinkai" font and "Luo Pang Voice".

(3) Create a combination of incentives

Get to create a "combination punch method" of sign-in, study plan, generate study reports at any time, medals, study achievements, study certificates, get credits, study challenge activities, etc. Its incentive mechanism covers the whole process from opening the APP to the learning process and the end of learning. Users can sign in and get sign-in rewards by opening the APP; then they can start today's study according to the study plan and the guidance of the study challenge;

During the learning process, you can check and obtain learning reports at any time to motivate users to achieve the same learning time as in the past; after learning, you can get medals, learning achievements or credits and other rewards. In terms of reward methods, we increase the retention of new users by providing reward mechanisms (such as coupons, Getbei, etc.), and at the same time, we enhance users' sense of competition and increase the learning time of old users by quantifying learning outcomes (medals, credits, achievements, etc.).

After the above use and analysis experience, this article will put forward some humble opinions from four levels: presentation layer, framework layer, structure layer, and scope layer:

1. Presentation layer optimization suggestions

The presentation layer refers to the level reached by the user's vision. It controls the movement of the user's line of sight. A good presentation layer design can provide effective guidance for users without interfering with the user's attention to effective information.

(1) The most obvious problem of the APP in the presentation layer is that the page layout is relatively chaotic

First of all, there is a lot of recommended content on the homepage. The recommended content such as live broadcasts, tips, courses, e-books, etc. have different presentation forms, and the interactive form is interspersed with left and right dragging during the browsing process of dragging up and down. It is easy to create a visual perception of too much information. The page layout styles of other different products, such as audiobooks, e-books, and tips are also different. For example, the homepage, e-books, courses, etc. have dynamic panels, while other pages do not have dynamic panels. There are two small icon systems used, and users may put pages of different small icon systems together during the process of self-layout, which causes visual confusion when sliding.

(2) Optimization suggestions

In the recommended section of the home page, unify the way information is displayed as much as possible, or put modules with the same display method together. The layout of the main interfaces of different products should be as consistent as possible.

2. Framework layer optimization suggestions

The framework layer refers to the layout of the content in the presentation layer, including the location of buttons, controls, photos, and text areas.

(1) The most obvious problem of the APP in the presentation layer is that the list column design does not conform to user habits

In order to facilitate users to define the menu bar order according to their own situation, a <List> button is designed in the main menu bar to filter product categories. Click it to adjust the classification order of the home page (as shown in Figure 1 below).

At the same time, separate category buttons are set under each page such as the home page, e-books, audiobooks, etc., so that specific products can be viewed (as shown in Figure 2 below).

First, the order adjustment button is easily confused with the category viewing button. Secondly, the categories under different products (audiobooks, courses, e-books, etc.) are highly overlapping, but the order of category arrangement is different. I don’t know if it’s because of different product managers… but this inconsistency may not be conducive to the formation of user habits.

Figure 1. The <List> button adjusts the classification order of the home page

Figure 2. Click the <List> button to view product category information

(2) Optimization suggestions

1. For order adjustment buttons, you may need to collect statistics on the frequency of users' accidental touches. If the frequency is high, consider moving the button to the end of the list. This button will not be displayed if the list has not been scrolled to the end.
2. Try to unify the classification order of different product sub-category lists.

3. Structural optimization suggestions: Deepen the concept of learning plan

The structural layer refers to filtering the content that can appear on different interfaces and defining the hierarchical structure of different pages and elements.

The resulting <Learning Plan> module has two main functions:

1. Help users quickly find the content they are currently studying;
2. Encourage users to complete their learning plans and develop learning (usage) habits.

Regarding the study plan, the author has two considerations.

First, the current study plan only displays the courses to be studied, but not other content, such as books that have not been completed or read. The author believes that courses are not the user’s only study plan, and the user’s other learning content should also be taken into consideration. In addition, after the user completes today's learning plan, the user can be recommended tips, audiobooks, e-books and other related content based on the current user's learning plan and the reasons for the recommendation can be given. It may increase the user's reading probability.

Second, the author believes that the learning plan has not yet tapped into the user's needs at the root level. If it wants to become a "lifelong university", it can pay more attention to the user's long-term growth plan. For example, if the user is reading a course on "health and wellness", then the user's goal may be "live to 100 years old"; if the user is reading a course on "Internet" or "product design", then the user's goal may be "become a senior product manager".

If you visualize this long-term goal and tell users that every time they complete a day or a series of learning content, they are one step closer to this goal, you can drive users at a deeper level. On the one hand, the combination of long-term learning plans and short-term plans can have a deep motivational effect. On the other hand, it can also help the application side better understand users and make more accurate recommendations based on users' long-term goals.

4. Scope layer optimization suggestions: enrich usage scenarios and improve user care

The scope layer is to define the functional scope of the application, that is, to determine what business and functions to be selected according to the strategic layer.

The main usage scenarios of the Get APP are fragmented time such as taking the subway, driving, and doing housework. The author believes that this daily scenario is not enough for Get's vision of making education a "service economy" and a "lifelong university". Fragmented time management focuses on the user's immediate needs, but cannot provide long-term user care. At different time points, the issues that users care about and the learning scenarios are different. In addition, the main usage scenarios of the Get APP focus on the user's usage scenarios when they are alone, while learning is a group behavior and users desire to be paid attention to and supervised. Based on the above two points, it is recommended to add the following two scenarios:

First, differentiate between the learning content for weekdays, holidays, and weekends, and design a holiday mode : for example, study highly specialized workplace content on weekdays, and study literature, family education, or other auxiliary subject content on weekends; users can set rest and do not disturb modes when traveling or taking long vacations.

Second, users can bind their learning accounts to learn and grow together with their relatives and friends: users can choose one person to start the joint learning mode, and can see the other person's learning status on their own homepage, supervise each other's check-ins, check learning progress, etc., breaking the "one-person learning" norm, and cultivating learning habits through external incentives in the relatives and friends mode, thereby increasing the usage rate of the application.

The above are just some of my humble opinions. Everyone is welcome to give advice and discuss in the comment section. In addition, the author believes that the knowledge city-state function of Dedao has a good starting point, which is to establish a real "Dedao alumni relationship" through the knowledge city-state and offline activities while imparting knowledge.

However, users cannot communicate privately - of course, this should also be for the sake of maintaining the community environment, but it is impossible to count how much role the Knowledge City can play through functions similar to "Knowledge Weibo", and there are no better optimization suggestions for the time being.

Author:Peco

Source: Peco