Reverse product thinking: What is the logic of "use it and leave it"?

I think "use it and go" should be a reverse product thinking. Compared with the moderate thinking, I think reverse thinking can more perfectly interpret the concept of "use it and go".

Before writing this article, let me review the birth of the concept of "use it and go":

In early 2016, Zhang Xiaolong first proposed the concept of “use it and leave it” in a WeChat open class.

One of its values, and it was proposed that WeChat is developing " application accounts " that are different from public accounts and service accounts.

On September 21, the long-silent "Application Number" released the news of internal testing under the name of " Mini Program ", which immediately swept the circle of friends and major Internet media. Zhang Xiaolong also once again said that mini programs are products that can be used and discarded.

On November 3, WeChat’s “Mini Program” was launched in public beta.

This article does not talk about mini-programs, but about WeChat’s “use it and leave it” feature. Perhaps, we are talking about a kind of reverse product thinking.

What is Use and Go?

When most people hear the idea that "a good product should be used and discarded" , they should find it incomprehensible. They will think: Isn't it that a good product should get huge traffic? Isn’t the purpose to retain users and not let them leave? Isn’t it just about getting higher and higher activity rates? Even most people would think: WeChat must be awesome to say this.

Let’s first think about what it means to use it and leave it.

I believe that many people will easily fall into a misunderstanding, that is, when the word "product" is mentioned, they will think of various APPs. For example, when talking about products for writing articles, people would think of " WeChat public account platform" or "Jianshu", but not "pen" or "notebook"; when talking about travel products, they would think of "Didi" or " Uber ", but not "bus" or "subway" (you can try to make more associations with such examples, and think about why we fall into such misunderstandings).

We have completely forgotten the various very common and real products in our daily lives, but perhaps such products are the most essential products. And these are what we call “use it and go” products.

When we write with a pen, we put it away after we are done. If you keep playing with it, then you may have a pen hobby; when we take a bus, we get off when we reach our stop. If everyone stays there and refuses to leave, then the bus cannot operate normally; for example, when we go to the toilet, we leave after we are done. Is there anyone who refuses to leave?

So, this is “use it and leave”, using a product to efficiently solve your needs, and after solving the problem, put the product down and walk away, and never continue to cling to the product and refuse to leave.

Why these products can make people leave after use:

• These products are all tool products (even can be understood as infrastructure)
• Most of these products have only a single function
• These products meet the urgent needs

Why does WeChat want users to leave after using it?

WeChat has become the infrastructure in the mobile Internet era

Just like the example I just gave, WeChat has become as important to most people as daily necessities and means of transportation. Life seems to be unable to function normally without WeChat. In a sense, WeChat has become a new infrastructure in the era of mobile Internet.

If you keep playing with the pen after finishing writing, it will reduce your efficiency; if you still sit in the car after arriving at your destination, it will be a waste of resources. When it comes to infrastructure, we can’t do without it, but we can’t be too dependent on it either. The same goes for WeChat. As a product (infrastructure) that uses social networking as its entry point, if you do not leave after using it and continue to browse various information of little value, then this will not only reduce your efficiency but also affect your quality of life.

WeChat’s Social Responsibility

Extending from the social infrastructure, it involves the social responsibility of infrastructure managers. The number of WeChat users determines that the responsibility behind this is very huge, and the role of managers is also crucial.

Here are a few examples. For example, in the early days, WeChat’s shake function would often trigger some social news, so WeChat would limit the number of times each person could shake the app per day. For example, when a WeChat public account becomes popular, various inducements to share and follow can be seen almost every day, which will lead to the spread of a large amount of false information. Therefore, WeChat will vigorously restrict the behavior of inducing sharing and following, and does not encourage users to follow too many public accounts.

WeChat has too much attention

Just like the Spring Festival travel rush every year, the high passenger flow at the peak of the year will make social managers extremely nervous, and all kinds of supporting facilities must be on standby for fear that any abnormal situation may occur. And this situation seems to have happened to WeChat more than once a year.

As the saying goes, people are afraid of becoming famous just as pigs are afraid of being fat. Once anything receives too much attention, it will inevitably bring negative effects. WeChat is also in such a situation. You will find that WeChat is very cautious when releasing any new feature, because once a feature is released, it will immediately become the focus of attention, and after becoming the focus, the external comments and the things that follow will become increasingly uncontrollable.

For example, a link that was circulated on WeChat Open Class at the beginning of the year almost flooded everyone’s circle of friends, and the sudden surge in high traffic caught WeChat off guard. After that, various rumors of virus links occurred, which is the trouble of high attention. If the user leaves after reading this link, the probability of uncontrollable things happening later may be greatly reduced.

Information overload takes up too much of the user’s time

The advent of the Internet age has also brought us into a world of information explosion. Any information is at your fingertips as long as you are connected to the Internet. The birth and development of WeChat has brought the information explosion to a new level - information overload.

Various push notifications from public accounts, various messages from groups, various messages from Moments, and messages from friends, these complex information flood our eyes every day. While we are afraid of missing out on some valuable information, we are also receiving and even spreading junk information. Information overload has become a major obstacle to our daily use of WeChat, and how to remove this obstacle is more valuable.

Super APP (OS)

Nowadays, it is normal for everyone to have fifty or sixty apps on their mobile phones. But let's do an experiment. Delete all the apps that can be deleted from your phone, but don't delete WeChat. I believe you can still live a normal life. Because just using WeChat can meet most of your needs. As an open platform interface, WeChat has connected to a variety of services and products. You don’t need to go anywhere else, just stay in WeChat.

Social phobia

I believe many people have had the following two experiences: one is that they have added some friends or been added as friends, but after being added by friends, they have never communicated with each other.

Another issue is joining groups. After joining many groups, the groups become quiet over time, or even become advertising groups. However, some people are reluctant to leave the groups, for fear that something big might happen in the group one day and they might be wrong. I think it is social "phobia" and it can only be cured by staying away from WeChat.

The logic of WeChat is to use it and leave it

When I first explained the concept of “use it and go”, I mentioned that “use it and go” means using a product to efficiently solve your needs, and after solving the problem, you put the product down and walk away, and you will never continue to cling to the product and refuse to leave.

I think the use-it-and-leave-it concept of WeChat should be like this: with a smooth user experience, users can efficiently solve their needs, leave immediately after solving the problem, and come back efficiently when they have needs again, and WeChat does not disturb users during this whole process.

Smooth user experience shows WeChat’s intentions in commercial advertising. There is still no advertising on the APP startup page, and the ads on Moments are also very careful, and even become a hot topic after they are released;

High efficiency seems to have been a feature of WeChat since its inception and is also one of the important reasons for its growth. The novel information presentation and voice-based information transmission are both WeChat’s initial and efficient social manifestations.

As for the last point about not disturbing users, I think WeChat has not done a good job. We are now actively or passively disturbed by WeChat almost every day, which has led to a gradual decrease in the efficiency of WeChat.

Does WeChat really want you to use it and leave?

I remember when iPhone just launched 3D touch, WeChat updated the version to support 3D touch. In the version at that time, WeChat had a detailed 3D touch function. When you pressed the WeChat APP icon hard, it would evoke the 3D touch function list, which included an option called "Do Not Disturb". At the time, I was thinking, isn’t this feature redundant? Users open WeChat every two or three minutes, so why do you still want a “Do Not Disturb” function?

At some point, the "Do Not Disturb" option disappeared and was replaced by today's QR code and payment related functions.

Looking back now, my original idea was totally wrong, because now I use the Do Not Disturb feature on iPhone almost every day. After turning on the Do Not Disturb feature, my efficiency will be greatly improved.

Perhaps, some people will say that since the “Do Not Disturb” function of WeChat has been cancelled, then he just wants WeChat to disturb users! But I think the trial and cancellation of any function must be based on data . The trial of "Do Not Disturb" may be based on the data that users use WeChat for too long, and the cancellation of this function may be based on the fact that too few users use this function.

In other words, reducing disturbance to users in this way has failed. However, at least we can see that WeChat is trying to “not disturb users” and is working hard to “use it and leave it”.

Let’s go back to the “Mini Programs” recently launched by WeChat. This is another good example. Mini programs have no followers, no external links, cannot be shared to Moments, have the experience of native programs, no games , no live broadcasts , and WeChat review mechanisms. These are all good examples of a smooth and efficient experience that does not disturb users, meaning users can leave as soon as they are done.

Just like what Zhang Xiaolong said in the WeChat Open Class at the beginning of the year: Use it and leave it has become one of WeChat’s product values. WeChat has been slowly practicing this value. The examples I just mentioned from my own experience and the launch of mini-programs seem to be good examples. As WeChat continues to grow and develop, “use it and leave it” has become one of its major tasks.

Are there really good products that can be used and discarded?

If you ask me what product is more difficult to design than a good product, I think it is only a "use it and throw it away" product. So, this task was done by the WeChat team that created this great product.

Products that are not easy to use are really something you use and then leave, never to return to (I believe many of you have had this experience).

A good product will definitely make users use it many times. But, should we let users use it and leave? Doesn't that mean it won't bother the users? For example, most e-commerce products just want you to stay in them as long as possible. Does it push information about various products that you want to buy or don’t want to buy to you every day? Although most tool-type products are designed to be used and discarded, they do not seem to be very efficient, such as the built-in text messaging function in mobile phones.

Therefore, it is very difficult to make a product that is useful and can be used and discarded.

Have you found any good products that you can use and leave? Think about the apps you use every day (my answer is: Keep )

Use it and leave it, which is a reverse product thinking

When I first conceived this article, I thought the idea of ​​using it and leaving should be a good interpretation of a school of Chinese philosophy, that is, the doctrine of the mean in Confucianism, which is to be impartial, not too much or too little, just right, just like we often say that liking is unrestrained, but loving is restrained.

However, as I continued to think and write, I felt that "use it and throw it away" should be a reverse product thinking. Compared with the moderate thinking, I think reverse thinking can more perfectly interpret the concept of "use it and throw it away".

When we are making products, we always consciously or unconsciously start from our own perspective and from the product's goals. So we will design a lot of functions for the product, set up various product plans and operation plans to promote activation and conversion. Over time, the user experience will decline, the user's efficiency will also decline, and slowly, the number of users will decrease.

Well, let’s think about it the other way around.

When we meet a certain requirement, we try to design a smoother user experience from the user's perspective, with more sincerity and less routine; when we expect users to stay in the product and be more active, we try to let users leave after using it, provide efficient product solutions, and try not to disturb users. In this way, you can satisfy the user's needs in the most essential way without causing any disgust to the user and can also leave a very good impression on the user. And the goals we set at the beginning may be achieved.

Trying to achieve our product and operational goals in this reverse way must be a gradual process.

Only with the mindset and methodology of use-and-leave can we design products that provide a good experience, are highly efficient, and allow users to use and leave. Only in this way will users frequently return to the product, and thereafter we can meet more of the users' needs step by step.

at last

Each part I wrote may seem to be independent entities, but I think when you finish reading it, I believe it will be connected into a line and you will gain something from it.

I just mentioned a few questions, you can think about them again:

1. Have you fallen into the misunderstanding that when the word product is mentioned, you will think of various apps?
2. If so, why would we fall into such a misunderstanding?
3. Among the products you have used, is there any that you think is a good product that you can use and leave?

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

This article was compiled and published by @张建威 (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!