How many of the “Ten Don’ts” of Product Operations have you committed?

When doing product operations , we have listened to too many voices or read too many articles saying: "Should do this", "Must do this", "How to do it well", and other articles with affirmative words, such as "How to do content operations well", "These 5 things must be done to become a high-level operator ", etc. However, we hear too little about what product operators should avoid or must not do, because these "don'ts" are often the times when our partners often fall into traps. Today, I have organized them into "ten don'ts" to help our partners avoid some detours and reach the other side of operational victory as soon as possible.

1. Operations cannot be done without a plan

Planning is a guiding light that directs work in a predetermined direction, so it is not possible without a plan. This applies to any job position. Many of the people who are doing execution don’t know what the plan is for operating an APP or a WeChat public account ? Or you may not have made your own plan at all, and you just do one thing based on what your boss says. This kind of operational work is very tiring, because when you finish a task, you don’t know what to do next?

The plan made by your boss is not your plan. Many teams have their own operating plans, but these plans are for the team. As an individual, after knowing the team's plan, you must also make a plan for your own work. This plan is an extension of the team's plan and is more detailed and specific. It is also the driving force behind your daily work.

2. Not fully following user suggestions

Operations are closest to users, so the voices they hear are more real, but these real voices are not necessarily suggestions that are beneficial to the product. As operators, we often hear a lot of optimization suggestions. We can feed these suggestions back to product managers for modification and optimization, but you need to filter these optimization suggestions because user suggestions are not necessarily correct, and these suggestions may only represent a small part of the interests, or they may be insignificant suggestions. When the product is not stable yet, these suggestions will not bring any effect even if they are optimized, so they must be filtered out.

Product managers and programmers tend to be rational. If you need to make optimization suggestions, it is recommended that you use data to support them, which will help the smooth development and improvement of this requirement. This data can be your small-scale survey data or background monitoring data, etc.

3. You can’t wait until the product is fully developed before you can keep up with the operations

Operators have a bad habit: when operations and promotions are not ideal, they like to complain that their own products are not as good as competitors, or that the products are imperfect and cannot be promoted , etc., to exonerate themselves. Good product quality is the basis for operation and promotion, but not the whole thing. If you have to wait until the product is completely perfected, you will have no place in the market. Operations manager shares the joys and sorrows with the product. Even when the product is not so perfect, he needs to help it to be continuously improved, and he also has to do some promotional work himself, so that after the product is perfected, there will be a good explosive trend.

4. Don’t rely on your feelings when operating, trust the data

Friends who operate WeChat public accounts like to check the data every morning, but this check is just a check without doing too much practical analysis. For example, many people will not look at the relevant data after looking at yesterday's new reading volume, and then find today's articles based on their feelings, enter and push them, and complete the day's work. This way they will always stay where they are. We should do a more detailed data analysis every week, and make a comprehensive analysis of last week’s article reading volume, likes, net number of followers and other related data in order to formulate next week’s operation plan.

5. Don’t be complacent and learn from competitors

I think one of the reasons why operations are not done well is that we are not good at analyzing the situation of our opponents. I have a habit of looking at or studying some products that frequently make noises in the market, because the operating strategies of these products are often the inspiration for us to organize an activity, regardless of whether they are competing products or unrelated products. Many of the activities I planned were not original. Instead, I borrowed strategies from my competitors and improved them to form my own style. Therefore, looking at what other products do well will help you open up new ideas for operations.

6. Don’t be without a study plan at night

As the saying goes: The difference between people often occurs in a few hours at night. After a busy day, you must return home with a plan to improve yourself, because when you are busy during the day, it is difficult for you to have time to calm down and summarize yourself. And at night you will have more time and energy to do things you like or that can improve yourself. The operations position is undergoing a myriad of changes. Many operations routines that were still applicable two years ago are no longer applicable now. If you still do operations based on past experience, your efficiency will often be inefficient. What you need to do is to learn other latest operation routines, read other people’s summary of experience, and form your own methodology.

7. New operators cannot learn theory without practice

This may be a matter of opinion, but in my opinion and when I discuss with users, I always emphasize that for those who have just entered the operation position or transferred to the operation position, I suggest that they try to find a job to practice first, and then sign up for online or offline courses when they need to improve themselves. The effect will be twice the result with half the effort.

8. Don’t just throw out questions without introducing yourself

There are few big names in product operations, but there are many friends who have just entered the operation, so many friends will add many big names in operations on WeChat , and then the first message after adding is to throw a question. Do you think anyone will answer you? This is what I have realized. I think such friends do not have the qualities to do operations, so I won’t even look at such people for a second.

This is a learning process and also a discussion process, so don't put yourself in a low position when asking questions. The most correct way is to have a detailed chat first, introduce yourself, then ask your own questions, include some of your own insights under these questions, and then ask others to point out what is wrong or give some correct suggestions.

9. Don’t just do things for your own pleasure when running an event

It has been said that when doing operations, you must not fall into the rhythm of self-satisfaction, but there are still many people who close the door and do their own things. Every time we plan an activity, we start from the user's purpose, but we cannot represent the users. If we impose our will on the users, it will be difficult to achieve results.

The correct way to operate an event is to fully understand the user's usage scenarios and pain points, and then the team brainstorms creative ideas, evaluates the feasibility of the event and then executes it. When operators write copy or propose product requirements, they should not be self-satisfied and should think from the perspective of typical users.

10. Don’t get stuck in one-way thinking

When doing operations, it is very important to be flexible in thinking. You cannot just memorize things by rote or have no understanding of any theory. The key is to be flexible, because just because a certain methodology does not work for one product, it may not work for other products. When thinking about problems or doing things, you can use multi-directional thinking or reverse thinking more often, which will bring unexpected gains. The simplest example is when we organize activities, in fact, many of them are similar, but they are described by different words, and they are innovative. So you can learn more and change your way of thinking, so that you can surprise others.

If you are a person who cannot persist, operations are not suitable for you; if you are a person who has high expectations but lacks the skills, operations are not suitable for you. There is no shortcut to operations, just one word: do it!