How to operate a project that starts from scratch?

All things are difficult at the beginning, then in the middle, and finally at the end. After working in operations for so long, have you ever had this feeling? However, after a brief moment of self-mockery and joking, we will still pick ourselves up and continue on our way with positive energy. Today, I want to share with you a project that was cold-started from 0 to 1, hoping that it can bring some thoughts and inspiration to you who are currently doing operations.

Discovering problems, analyzing them, and then solving them is critical to operations. An operator's growth and abilities all revolve around this seemingly simple process.

Since I joined an Internet startup company in May this year, I have been responsible for the company's new media operations , event planning and other work. I have experienced many growth projects from 0 to 1. Here I would like to share with you an operation project that I personally handled alone── Chief Product Experience Officer of Fanxun . I hope that by analyzing this project in depth and sharing the experience and methods with you, it will be of some help to your daily operations.

This series of articles mainly discusses the four parts of a cold start project: the current situation layer, strategy layer, execution layer, and iteration layer . Today we enter the first article in this series - the current situation layer and the strategic layer .

Current situation layer

If you are a young person who has just entered the workplace, with no qualifications, connections or background, and hope to settle down in a company and do something meaningful, then you will definitely not be able to achieve it overnight, so you can only achieve your goals in stages.

After one month on the job, I had a clearer understanding of the company's business and the industry it was in. Gradually, I discovered that one of our shortcomings as a real estate software service provider ( tool product ) was the lack of channels to maintain contact with users. So I came up with the idea of ​​doing a project centered around product fans and loyal users.

However, having a good idea is only the first step. If you don’t come up with a corresponding solution to implement the idea and produce results, the idea is like a mirage. Although beautiful, it is ultimately an illusion and has no meaning.

So, if we want to build a project from 0 to 1, how should we start?

Theoretically, you should first do positioning and then research, but when you really do it, no company will give you absolutely ideal support. You need to consider the budget, demand priority, manpower and time costs, development cycle, etc. In addition, every company has its own complex and unique situation, so if operations want to implement their ideas, they must find a viable path among these complex problems.

It took me a total of half a month to make a plan, give three team reports, and constantly polish the details. Finally, a month later, I launched this new project - Chief Product Experience Officer of Fanxun . With the support of my boss, I was able to mobilize teams from customer service, marketing, and other directions of my department ( product operations ) to implement it.

Even so, I still get anxious sometimes. After all, this project is a new idea, different from the previous operating model. There are no cases to refer to, and we are completely crossing the river by feeling the stones . Therefore, we have no confidence at all whether we can achieve the expected results in the end. In addition, there are many problems that need to be solved in the process, and sometimes I don’t know what to do.

But as a newcomer, I was not afraid of tigers. I thought to myself: I'll invest some resources to give it a try. Maybe after a few tries, I'll know which direction to go.

Strategic Layer

Regarding the Fanxun Chief Product Experience Officer project, let’s first think about a few questions:

• What is the key point for the project to work?
• What is the basic business logic of the project? What basic work do we need to do around this basic business logic?
• What are the operational purposes and objectives of the project?

Next, let's answer and disassemble the above questions step by step:

1. The key point of Fanxun Chief Product Experience Officer Program lies in the quality of the product experience officer and whether he can put forward constructive suggestions. Therefore, the selection of product experience officers is particularly important .

Must have the following characteristics:

• Love this industry and this job;
• Well done;
• Sufficient experience.

Therefore, it takes a certain amount of time to find and select product experience officers . Careful selection of poor users and real seed users will have a great impact on the entire project.

1. Based on the thinking of the first question, we can basically sort out the business logic of the product experience officer project operation

Select high-quality users, cultivate them into loyal users, provide them with more accurate and humane services, and enhance product value in a timely manner based on the real experience feedback of loyal users.

After understanding the basic business logic of the project , you need to consider the following aspects:

The first step is to recruit product experience officers, that is, where the users come from. Was it recommended by the salesperson? Or selection during network operation, etc.

Secondly, establish a product experience officer community and carry out refined community operations . What kind of open source mechanism is used to ensure the continuous joining of community members? What kind of cost-saving mechanism is needed to ensure the activeness of community members, generate value and achieve conversion , etc.? These are all issues we need to consider.

Finally, listen, observe, and record your users’ ideas and feedback.

Spend time maintaining friendships with product experience officers and let them open up to you. Communicate with them seriously and provide feedback in a timely manner, and attach importance to every suggestion they make.

1. Once we have sorted out the basic business logic of the Fanxun Chief Product Experience Officer project, it will be easier to determine the operational objectives and goals:

Purpose: Understand users, listen to their voices, and strengthen the connection between products and users

Goal: Establish a channel to communicate with users and cultivate a group of loyal users.

• Strengthen the entry point for user feedback, and promptly analyze and respond to the needs of core users to improve products.
• Collect effective product feedback from users and allow high-quality users to participate in development.
• To maintain core users, we mainly use social network strategies and many-to-one operation strategies to increase user feedback channels and the company's feedback speed.

The current situation layer and the strategic layer are the most critical in a project. Only by thinking through the project thoroughly in the early stage can you make the project proceed in the direction you expect during the implementation process and maintain a good sense of operation rhythm .

We often say that strategy is the way of operation and execution is the art of operation . Once we have determined our strategy, the next step is execution. I will discuss the execution layer and iteration layer with you in the next article.

Final Thoughts

Regarding the workplace, I believe that there is not only fighting among colleagues, but also mutual learning. I hope to communicate with you and grow together. I am Lu Renjia. I hope my independent thinking, free spirit and keen insight will be with you.

I hope you can gain something from the above.