Three elements of user operationThe methodological accumulation of operations is not as good as that of products; many operations managers have their own insights into user operations.First, let’s take a look at how the operations leaders define user operations:(1) User operation refers to improving user contribution, activity and loyalty through operational means. It generally occurs in the operation of user modules in user-based products or comprehensive products.——Han Xu from MeituanMovies(2) User operation refers to the development of operation plans and even operation mechanisms based on user needs, with the goal of increasing the activity, retention , and payment of website or product users. The core of user operation is to increase revenue, save costs (reduce churn), maintain (promote activity and improve retention), and stimulate ( convert to payment).——Zhang Liang, the master of Zhihu operations(3) The core of user operation is to increase the scale of active users. There are two ways to do this: increase revenue and reduce expenditure. Increase revenue is for registrations, and reduce expenditure is for lost users. There is another way, which is to maintain activity, making inactive users active and active users more active.——Innovation Factory Jinpu(4) Content operation and activity operation are both means to achieve the ultimate goal of improving user operation, which is to retain users, promote activity, and increase the number of active users. ——Han Li from Dajie.com(5) User operation refers to being user-centric, setting operational activities and rules in accordance with user needs, formulating operational strategies and operational goals, and strictly controlling the implementation process and results to achieve the expected operational goals and tasks.——Baidu EncyclopediaIn general, each definition embodies the following three core elements: users, products, and strategies . And the three core elements are closely linked:User operation is carried out based on products; products determine user operation strategies, and different products have different means and methods; different products differ in product form (PC/mobile? Tools / e-commerce /local life services...? Software/hardware?), core value of the product, short-term goals and long-term goals of the product itself, etc.For example, although Dianping and Meituan have become one company, the core values provided by these two products to users are different. The core value provided by Dianping is "recommending stores with good reputation", and the core value provided by Meituan is "cost-effective stores"; so in terms of operational methods, Dianping will carry out the operation of "dictionaries" more in-depth, while Meituan will carry out the operation of "discounts" more in-depth. There are many cases where people have forgotten what their products are. When Xiaomi’s hunger marketing was popular, every product was thinking about how to do hunger marketing; when Durex was successful in chasing hot topics, every product was thinking about how to take advantage of the hot topics, without independently thinking about what their products are suitable for or should do.Dianping sets up a "Footprints" section to strengthen review operations; Meituan focuses more on event operations to give users discountsWith products as the foundation and core, user operations need to formulate corresponding operational goals and a series of strategies based on the goals; these strategies include short-term solutions and means , as well as operational systems and mechanisms formed through sedimentation. For example, Xiaomi initially formed a team of enthusiasts to collect user feedback, then hoped to do marketing and self-media at zero cost; and then gradually settled into a fan culture, step by step creating an operating system and mechanism that can be said to represent the highest level of Chinese product operations .Xiaomi "Sense of Participation"User operations ultimately come back to "users", user output, and user output indicators , such as user feedback, user scale, user activity, user contribution, user payment, user recommendation, etc., reflect whether the operation is accepted by the market and the degree of acceptance. In different stages of the product life cycle, user indicators are different; for example, in the early verification stage, more focus is placed on whether the product is needed by the market, and user feedback is the most important. Of course, the user output and user output indicators of the different products mentioned earlier are different. User output (such as feedback and contribution) is specifically mentioned here because products produced by users mean that the product is on the road to success. According to a recent survey data on information apps by Penguin Intelligence, 13% of users comment on information products, while more than 70% of users frequently browse comments from netizens. This shows that if an information app can allow 13% of users to produce output, it will directly affect the activity of the entire APP.Penguin Intelligence's research on information appsUser operations emphasize execution and optimal pathCompared with other positions, such as product manager , R&D, and testing, I think operations positions place more emphasis on execution.First of all, operations can be said to be "a sure loss if you don't have it" to a certain extent . It is often difficult for product managers to say that we will definitely lose without this feature, but operations managers often encounter such problems; for example, "the app cover focus push has not been updated today" and "as a cross-border e-commerce platform, we did not do any Black Friday activities."Secondly, operations is indeed a miscellaneous job, which may involve a lot of repetitive work and a large number of small and complicated tasks, such as data labeling and replying to posts under pseudonyms. The execution of operations often makes people who are not strong in time management and project management feel dizzy and have no sense of accomplishment. Finally, you will also find that operations require many skills to learn, including planning, negotiation, copywriting , video, PS, data analysis, etc., so you need the ability to learn quickly, which is also an important ability for rapid implementation.This passage on the Internet talks about the knowledge that needs to be learned in operations. It contains some joke elements, but it also reflects a state.When it comes to execution, “if you don’t have it, you will definitely lose,” but “having it” also needs to reflect that you have chosen the best path. From goal to result, there are many means, the more common ones are event operation, channel operation, content operation, etc.; the optimal path is needed in both strategy and tactics; for example, the Xiaomi participation model mentioned above has found the optimal path.There are many operational paths from goal to resultLet's take a look at how several products choose their optimal paths: the optimal path for local life service Didi is to use subsidies to attract new users , retain users, and activate users; unlike many e-commerce and cross-border e-commerce platforms, the optimal path for Yangmatou is not to continuously organize activities, but to operate content; the path that Sina Weibo chose at the beginning was to operate celebrity influencers ; the path that Zhihu chose at the beginning was to operate industry professionals with content production capabilities; now all major video websites are competing for top dramas and making their own dramas. Through these, you will easily find that if you can innovate ideas and continuously improve on the optimal path, your product will be more likely to succeed.User Operations and Growth HackingIn recent years, the concept of "growth hacker" has been very popular and highly praised by everyone. It was proposed by an American named Sean Ellis in 2010. It advocates achieving growth through the following keywords : " data-driven ", "market guidance", "technological means", "deep understanding of user psychology", "creativity" and "low cost". In fact, these growth methods are what user operations itself needs to do and is doing. The only difference is that growth hackers require multiple capabilities to be integrated into one person, while user operations will work with the team in terms of data, technology, etc. Let’s take a look at how user operations are done in these aspects.Data-drivenThe daily work of user operations can be said to be looking at data, reading feedback, adjusting strategies, thinking of ideas, and executing them. Sensitivity to data can quickly grasp the root cause of the problem. Funnel analysis and pattern analysis are what we pay attention to almost every day. It is very necessary for an excellent operations manager to develop the habit of spending the first 20 minutes of work every day looking at the previous day's data, and an excellent user operations team should be equipped with professional data analysts . We can look at the important data conversion that a typical e-commerce app focuses on in the user behaviorfunnel model .Before entering the browsing stage, analyze whether the user is a new user (wait-and-see user) or an old user (loyal user), a user with a clear target or a user browsing casually. Based on this data, you can continuously optimize and adjust the app homepage (when there is enough data, you can implement the predecessor first based on the previous operation strategy); in the user purchase process, analyze which steps have a high user churn rate and which pages' traffic can be redistributed; finally, in the ordering stage, add which preferential strategies can increase the user order rate.User behavior model of a typical e-commerce appMarket guidanceIn the growth hacking theory, there is a concept called PMF ( Product /Market Fit), which is more suitable for entrepreneurial teams or the birth process of new products. Benchmarking to user operations is actually the first lesson of user operations, which is to collect user feedback.The author believes that the company that attaches the most importance to user feedback is Tencent. In the PC Internet era in 2012, Tencent's support platform was the platform that Tencent's product managers had to check and reply to users every day, continuously improving product value through user feedback. The success of Xiaomi MIUI is also inseparable from the feedback from enthusiasts in the Xiaomi forum.Many companies, including many large companies, do not pay enough attention to user feedback. Operations staff are limited to how to get users to use the product. This approach of missing the forest for the trees may result in "no success in operations even if more resources are invested." There are also many companies that like to assign this part of the work to an independent department. For example, there is a product marketing team (to find demand in the market) + a product team (to realize demand) + an operations team (to let users use the product). Such operations teams tend to be at the back end and often do not have enough understanding of the market. Operations are to make the market/users accept the product, so they must be the ones who understand the market/users best.Tencent support platformTechnological meansAn excellent user operation team needs to have an independent R&D team, rather than handing over the operation needs to the product manager and then having the product manager lead the R&D. Growth hacking requires development capabilities, but in China, at least for now, there are very few operational talents with development capabilities. We should improve operational efficiency through organizational collaboration.Here we would like to propose a concept called "operation productization"; operation productization includes operation tools (activity page configuration system, content publishing system, etc.), marketing tools (full-discount activities, full-refund activities, etc.), and data platforms. The process of operational productization reflects the continuous sedimentation and improvement of the operational system and mechanism.Construction, operation and R&D channelsDeep understanding of user psychologyOperations must operate "human hearts, human nature, and human feelings"; human hearts include user behavior analysis and user psychological analysis; behavior analysis is to analyze the entire behavioral path of users from entry to payment, such as from the time a user enters the APP to the time the user becomes a loyal user of the APP and repeats the purchase 5 times. This is an important conclusion based on user behavior analysis, which guides us to design plans to constantly stimulate users to buy; let's talk about the example of user psychology analysis, such as 64 yuan + 5 yuan shipping fee; and 69 yuan free shipping, more users will choose 69 yuan free shipping, and users will think that they are only paying 69 yuan.Human nature involves Maslow's hierarchy of needs and the seven deadly sins of human nature; for example, discounts and promotions mainly take advantage of the human weakness of greed. Personal relationships, such as the operation of fans and core users; for example, when a dispute arose between Bilibili and a well-known video website, a group of Bilibili fans went to the Weibo of that website to defend Bilibili, and the operation of Baidu Tieba has been building a good relationship with the bar owner, which is called emotional operation.Get creativeStudents who work in new media operations have a deep understanding of creativity, and creativity means the ability to attract attention. With the development of the Internet, it can be said that the threshold for creativity is getting higher and higher. Many smart minds have already given users many interesting ideas to play with, and users are tired of them; but creativity can often play a multiplier role; so operations managers need to try to summarize the methodology for thinking of creativity, such as emotional resonance/sympathy can trigger users to forward, unexpected/abnormal/hot events can attract users to watch, the era of appearance/national entertainment can bring traffic, etc.Taking advantage of the hot topic (the 90th anniversary of the founding of the army) + the era of appearance (every user's photos are beautified) it has set off a wave of friends .low costFirst of all, low cost involves a word called "operational efficiency", which is a question that an excellent operations manager should constantly think about; from how to improve personal efficiency, to how to improve team efficiency (including process efficiency and manpower efficiency), to the efficiency of the operation process, such as subsidy efficiency, single user acquisition cost, etc.The circle of friends of a Qutoutiao user; Pinduoduo guides users to buy in groupsSecondly, the most important resource for user operation is "users". You will find that throughout the entire process of user operation, we do not know how to guide "users" to help us achieve low costs; for example, during the cold start , seed users help us optimize products and build word-of-mouth; in the rising stage of the product, we guide users to fission to acquire more users; in the mature stage of the product, we guide core users to contribute to gain more activity and loyalty; and user fission is perhaps the most deeply felt way to achieve growth at low cost. For example, Pinduoduo and Qutoutiao not only use user fission to acquire users, but also fission into a business model for their operations.
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