99% of products fail due to poor operation!

How to succeed in starting a business? I believe this is the issue that entrepreneurs are most concerned about.

What experiences can you learn from successful products? NO, this is totally unreliable because the success of a product is often not replicable.

So what should entrepreneurs do?

Let’s look at the formula: “Entrepreneurship success rate = 1-failure rate”.

This formula provides entrepreneurs with another reliable path to entrepreneurial success, which is to reduce the probability of failure. Entrepreneurs need to learn to identify the risks that will inevitably lead to failure and do everything possible to avoid them in order to reduce the probability of failure. Only in this way can the chances of entrepreneurial success increase.

99% of products fail due to poor operation!

Looking at the entire Internet products, they can be classified into the following three driving modes:

●Product-driven: Awesome products that conform to the laws of nature, a typical example is WeChat.

● Operation-driven: Most regular products are, such as Zhihu and Vipshop.

● Resource-driven: mainly involves industry resource integration, and often such products will penetrate national policies. The business adopts the model of "large investment, large output". Resource-driven companies tend not to pursue perfection in their products. Companies like Didi and Uber, for example, will continue to optimize in subsequent iterations.

Through the classification of Internet product driving types, we can draw the conclusion that the success of a product is related to whether the product itself can create a good experience, pursue excellence, and fit human nature, but we must be aware that there is no causal relationship between them. Therefore, product operation is the core capability for entrepreneurial success.

99% of products fail due to poor operation

In the entrepreneurial market, there are a large number of teams starting businesses and creating products, and there are also a large number of teams failing in their business. Summarizing the lessons learned from these failed startups, we will find that the reason these teams fail is often not because the product is not good enough, but more likely because the product operation is not done well.

After reviewing multiple Internet product projects and teams, we found a common problem: no operations managers were involved in product design. This is because the team did not realize who the final market-oriented products would be used for, and what means would be used to serve these users?

Users are the users of the product, and only by making products from the user's perspective can the product avoid failure.

How can we make products from the user's perspective? We recommend that teams with the conditions should establish a production and operations manager (product manager + operations manager). Integrate operational thinking throughout the entire product cycle. Product managers and operations managers will assume corresponding responsibilities dynamically according to the different stages of the product. At the beginning of product design, we start to envision the operational content of different stages, including the necessary staffing, operating rhythm, and goal achievement, and then design the product's necessary features, design architecture and other details based on this goal.

Since most products fail due to poor operations, how can we avoid such problems? We recommend that entrepreneurial teams use gamification thinking to lead product operations.

How can we avoid product failure?

Gamification operations have powerful advantages.

First of all, gamification operations can help operations personnel quickly find a sense of operation, and through specific operational purposes, they can artificially and effectively influence product operating indicators.

Secondly, gamification operations can enable the business to quickly enter an upward development channel.

Again, gamification operations can increase the probability of operational success.

What is a game? What is Gamification?

1. Have a goal

Most games have a goal and it's an epic, grand goal. For example, the strategy game "Civilization" requires players to advance human progress through continuous operations, and players shoulder the responsibility of reviving civilization. When mapped to modern society, it may be a so-called "sentiment".

When users are focused on the big picture of a product, they won’t be overly concerned with product details. Therefore, when making a product, we should refine a grand product concept so that users will pay for this big goal. We know that users pay for why you make a product, not what the product is or how it is made.

2. Clear rules

By setting clear rules, you can distinguish between winners and losers, strong and weak, and high and low. Filter out the most core users.

For example, when a product is cold-started, we can set corresponding rules (such as requiring participation in forums, offline activities, and management, etc.) to screen active users who actively participate, so as to find the initial core fans of the product.

3. Immediate feedback

Games can provide instant feedback. After using the product, users need immediate feedback, regardless of whether the feedback is good or bad. Only instant feedback can keep players motivated and allow them to continue experiencing the product.

4. Voluntary participation

Users participate in games voluntarily and it is an important indicator for judging user quality. Participation is quantified, and the higher the participation level, the more core users they are. If a product has goals, rules, immediate feedback, and voluntary participation, we call it gamification.

What is Gamification?

Gamification is not the same as games. Gamification has the characteristics of games and can bring users positive feedback, motivation, and flow state. Extracting these is gamification. Gamification is common to games and also has miraculous effects on Internet products.

Gamification has a magical effect on Internet products

Intrinsic motivation refers to: autonomy needs, competence needs, and relationship needs.

For example, in the student market, 80% of the decisions for children are made by their parents, and children need to make their own decisions. In terms of ability needs, for example, children need to see positive feedback on their abilities and see their abilities improve through continuous efforts. In terms of relationship needs, users have deep needs for social interaction in games.

Extrinsic motivations include: progress and horizontal comparison.

For example: credit cards are divided into ordinary cards, gold cards, and diamond cards, and airlines keep upgrading cabins.

It can be seen that gamification operation is very useful. So in actual work, how should we apply gamification operation to improve the operation level and effect of the product?

Four steps to gamification operations

1. Clarify business goals

Business operations require very clear goals. We do not operate for the sake of operation. Instead, we need to carry out targeted operations based on the different stages of the product by identifying the different goals that the product should achieve at each stage.

At the same time, operational activities should have a clear direction. For example, when a product is first launched, the goal is to have 1,000 core fans, and operational activities can be carried out by breaking down this goal. For example, what business indicators can be improved by our operational activities and what are these indicators? Is it new entrants, retention or returnees?

Identifying detailed and measurable metrics is the first step in gamification operations.

2. User Profile

IUI Internet User Insights Methodology asks: Do you really understand your users? Many entrepreneurs know their products very well. I will experience every updated version and spend more than 10 hours a day experiencing the product. I have made 80% improvement suggestions for the product... However, there is a big hidden danger in this situation: you are not the target user of the product, and the time you spend experiencing the product may not be a real experience.

So instead of spending a lot of energy on developing products behind closed doors, it is better to focus on your target users and get feedback on their real experiences. Who are your target users? They should be white-collar workers with an income of around 8,000 yuan, living in first-tier cities, and spending a few hours online every day. Give a complete user definition. Then reach out to users through the background to get feedback on their needs.

Such product operations are not done blindly, but to capture precise target users, do grayscale, release the products multiple times, and provide continuous feedback, so as to make targeted adjustments to the products.

3. Make interesting rules

The rules have to be interesting. For example, Didi is now sharing small, unlimited red envelopes. After people collect a bunch of red envelopes, they can only deduct one or two yuan when using them.

This unchanging rule makes Didi’s red envelopes boring, so the same operating methods may produce different results in different product stages. Operational goals should be adjusted according to the different stages of the product.

4. Beyond participation, immediate feedback

If the operation team gives immediate feedback to users' opinions, turns the product into the users' product, allows users to have autonomy over the product, and gives users the pleasure of mastering the product, users will be able to generate passion that goes beyond the sense of participation. In the game, we must respond quickly to the opinions of large RMB players or high-end active players, and tell them in the next version that we have made several improvements based on their opinions.

Gamified operations is a set of methodologies that provide operators with tools to change their mindsets. Gamified operations require entrepreneurial teams to apply them flexibly during product operations. In essence, gamification operations are a process of continuous trial and error: by taking small steps and moving fast, operational data is continuously improved to achieve the business objectives of operations.

It is also worth mentioning that in gamification operations, we should also be good at utilizing external groups (users of the product).

Product evolution is updated and iterated according to the needs of external groups, and external groups have a strong sense of transcendent participation in the product, so fully mobilizing the power of external groups will achieve unexpected results in product operations.

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