Choose the most reasonable solution and find the product growth point

Recently, during an interview, a friend excitedly told me about a project he had worked on, and I could tell he was very satisfied with it. But the more I listened, the more unreliable it seemed, so I asked a question: Is it online?

He sighed and said: Alas, I didn’t go because there was no schedule.

To me, this is "zero", which means doing nothing. Having a good idea is just the first step. Next you need to face practical and specific problems. Only by coming up with corresponding solutions, putting the idea into practice and producing results, can it be considered a complete thing. It is meaningless to just stay at the level of "ideas".

1. Pursue the most reasonable solution

This kind of situation is not uncommon, not only in interviews, but also sometimes when chatting with new colleagues. First come up with a solution, and then tell me that it was not implemented due to product or R&D reasons, or because the boss does not support it.

Therefore, the ability to implement and solve problems is one of the criteria for measuring whether an operation is good or not. You don't need to look at what he said, but look at what he did and how effective it was. This is the real skill.

Almost every operator can give his or her own ideas, but no company will give you absolutely ideal support. You need to consider the cost, 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.

In this process, there will inevitably be some compromises and solutions to some problems. Only in this way can we find that path.

Therefore, the necessary quality for operations is not to come up with the best idea, but to choose the most reasonable solution.

It’s like, when you were in school, you always wanted to find a smart, virtuous, beautiful, busty, long-legged girl to be your wife, who came from a wealthy family and loved you very much. Later, you found that this idea was unrealistic, and you could be happy only if you made some choices.

When doing operations, the ultimate goal is not to come up with a beautiful plan, but to achieve the set goals, so we pursue reasonable plans and have the ability to implement them.

2. Implementation capability is the core

The field of product managers has developed faster than operations and started earlier. In addition, some star CEOs insist on calling themselves "product managers", which gives this position a halo.

Product managers have standardized and systematic design concepts, many mature typical cases, and thinking and skill models that have been precipitated over the years, giving people an overall "high-end" feeling.

Looking at operations, the boundaries of responsibilities are not clear, there is no authoritative methodology, and there are few classic and reusable cases. Compared with the "high-end" products, operations feel a bit "low". There is no intention to be disparaging here, it is just to express the contrasting difference.

"Low" operations place more emphasis on implementation capabilities. Planning capabilities are important, but without implementation capabilities it is nonsense. For operations, the "last step" from execution to profit is the most challenging, and many people have never been able to take this step.

It’s like working in sales. Many salespeople seem to work very hard, making phone calls and visiting many customers, but in the end they just can’t sign a contract. This last step is actually the decisive one.

The ability to implement something cannot be an overly formalistic or process-oriented execution method, but rather the ability to solve problems flexibly.

If operations must have detailed data, launched product features, and awesome UI design as a prerequisite before they can work, then your operation has no value at all. Imagine that the product is already perfect, and users will come to it on their own accord and voluntarily enter the closed loop of the product. In this case, there is no need for the operation role at all.

Therefore, operations must conduct low-cost trial and error to verify whether the inferred model is feasible. After verifying its feasibility, we will then discuss the productization and functionalization of this model. If this process were reversed, the risk would be too great, and a major wrong decision could kill the product.

At this stage, there is often not enough evidence or cases to follow, and one has to rely on subjective judgment and invest some resources to try it out. Try it a few times and you will know which direction to go.

Don’t think that what I mean by “subjective judgment” is just making decisions based on one’s own ideas.

First of all, we must understand that not all decisions have sufficient data supply or clear market research, and data and research are only auxiliary tools . The final decision still depends on subjective analysis, which is the embodiment of operational value. If we can make a good product just by having data and research conclusions, then things would be simple.

Secondly, the subjective judgment mentioned here is also based on the most basic analysis, such as product positioning, target user analysis, analysis of needs and implementation forms, etc. This information can help us make decisions without going astray, but it cannot provide a direct answer.

After trying it, I can give you a general direction on how to implement it.

3. Find growth points

The most core responsibility of operations is to drive growth. Whether it is the number of users or transaction volume, it varies depending on the product positioning.

When you get the operation work of a product, it is impossible to take care of every corner quickly unless you sort out all the work systematically first. The most important thing is to analyze the current situation of the product and quickly find growth points.

Grasp this most core issue, concentrate your firepower and attack fiercely to achieve results, so that you will have more time to sort out the issues systematically. After all, human energy is limited, so we must first prioritize things before investing resources.

I posted this in my circle of friends :

How to start operating a product. Theoretically, you should first position your business, then do data analysis and market research. But when you really start doing it, who will give you the time, the ideal support, and the process to start from scratch? It is simply not practical.

So, when it comes to actual operations, it’s like a fight. You can't use a complete set of moves against your opponent, but you have to find out his weaknesses and then beat him to death with your own methods.

It would be best if this could defeat the opponent. If that doesn't work, try other tricks.

The "opponent" mentioned here does not refer to competing products, but to finding the weaknesses or growth space of your own products, and then concentrating manpower and resources to achieve wild growth.

This is a strategy that starts with a rough approach and ends with a refined approach. It has a sequence of steps and is also a process of progressive development.

Many companies can start with extensive operations first, because I believe that few companies have data that is complete enough to carry out refined operations.

At least for unicorn companies like Meituan , their operating models are not particularly sophisticated. In the past two years, we only focused on new customers and rarely paid attention to old customers. In the past two years, we have started to create user portraits and RFM models , but the specific implementation is still mainly based on extensive methods such as big promotions.

The reason why Meituan did this is definitely because the focus a few years ago was to attract new customers, and to get the users first, which was the growth point at that stage; then in recent years, it has to start to refine it, because new customers have been almost grabbed, the focus is on repurchase of old customers, which is the growth point at this stage.

The above, from pursuing reasonable solutions to implementation and then to finding growth points for products, provides a non-mainstream but very practical operational approach.