If a tool app wants to transform, what should the operators do?

Meitu was cashed out by early-stage investment institutions for HK$6.1 billion in one month. In the revenue report released in March, the revenue of Meitu XiuXiu , a tool product with hundreds of millions of users, did not reach 1/10 of the revenue of the hardware business. Meitu XiuXiu has the support of a large company like Meitu, so it can still survive even if the revenue is not high. However, for small companies, pure tool products with low or even no revenue cannot survive at all.

Many people have cried out that tool products are dead. In fact, this is not the case. If tool-type products can complete the transformation from tool to content to social , they still have the possibility of survival. How should tool-type products be transformed? During the transformation process, what auxiliary work can operators do to facilitate the transformation of tool-type products?

1. Find a good positioning for your product

The birth of every product is based on the real needs of users. Therefore, no matter how complex the structure of a product is, it has its most core and basic functions.

The core function of the Xiachufang APP is recipe sharing, and the unique browsing mode of horizontal screen step-by-step browsing allows users to browse the menu extremely conveniently while cooking. It solves the problem of cooking difficulties faced by users, but if the Xiachufang APP is just a pure tool product, once the user completes the preparation of delicious food, the usage process is completed. User stickiness is not high. In order to solve this problem, the Xiachufang APP has launched other auxiliary functions.

The marketplace function solves the need of users who cannot find ingredients and tools, and the function of uploading self-made recipes solves the need of users to cook and share. The recipes uploaded by users can be collected and commented on by other users. This kind of interaction between users encourages users to continue using the product and also outputs a large amount of content for the product.

In the process of product development, it is important to find its own positioning and, based on this positioning, find the most appropriate transformation path for the product. The core of the Xiachufang APP is still the practical function of recipe sharing, but due to other auxiliary functions, the user stickiness has been greatly improved. The Xiachufang APP product has found a way to monetize through continuous exploration.

2. Segment the users of your product

User stratification operation is an inevitable result of user operation . Classifying users and conducting targeted operations can not only save operators’ time, but also maximize the operation effect. As for how to do Box Fungus, it has been discussed in detail in the article "APP User Operation: How to Classify Users and Use Operation Methods ". If you are interested, you can take a look at it. I will not go into details here.

3. Emotions between users

The transformation of tool-type products into social ones essentially creates linkages between users within the product, allowing people to communicate with each other, and once sparks are created, they will remain in the product together.

1. User sharing behavior

As a fitness tool product, the core function of Keep is to provide fitness videos for users to learn, solving the pain point of users exercising anywhere and anytime. After completing a set of fitness, users can share their achievements through social channels. Sharing on social channels can attract a group of friends to watch, and can convert potential users among the user's friends into real users. Interaction between users who already know each other makes it easier for users to stay. Another way to share is to share to Keep's own community, where strangers can comment and like the shares. This kind of stranger social method allows for emotional exchanges between users.

2. Product internal topic activities

There is a topic discussion section in Discovery, where users can post their own opinions on official topics. Other users can cheer, comment, collect, and other actions under their own opinions, thereby completing the interaction between users and forming an emotional exchange.

Operators can use the topic activity function to initiate different topics and spark discussions among users. This not only increases user activity, but also allows for interaction between users, which increases emotional communication among users.

The emotional communication between users plays a key role in user retention . If the emotions between users are handled well, users will be willing to stay and play.

4. Make users feel emotional about the product

It is actually quite difficult to make users feel emotional about a product. Although humans are emotional animals, with so many products of the same category, how can you ensure that your users are loyal to you? To make users feel emotionally attached to a product, we need to work on both product design and operation.

1. Anthropomorphic product design

I believe many people have used accounting apps. I have also used it and was a loyal user of Timi Time Accounting. When I used it for the first time, I was impressed by the simple and easy-to-use interface of the app. But after using it for a year, I gave it up. After all, people are lazy, and Timi Time Accounting's simple sign-in points system is not enough to stimulate Box Jun to continue using the APP.

Recently, Box Jun found a special accounting APP - the Accounting City APP. Every time you record an expense, you can build a building. After building a certain number of buildings, you can invite travelers on the road. Click on the building to assign tasks to the travelers. After the travelers complete the work, the user can get gold coins. Virtual currencies such as gold coins and diamonds can be used to upgrade existing buildings. Users can use these gold coins to purchase new buildings to make their cities look brand new.

The core function of the Accounting City APP is accounting, but it exists in an anthropomorphic way. While recording accounts, you own a city with buildings and residents. The user of the APP exists as the mayor. As the highest leader of the city, he can only record every expense to promote the prosperity and development of the city.

2. Operations help users to achieve emotional connection

The Accounting City APP is different from ordinary accounting APPs. The anthropomorphic function of creating a city in the Accounting City APP encourages users to complete accounting activities. Although the core function is accounting, if users don’t understand how to use the app when they first enter, and leave after messing around with it, won’t that result in user loss?

Therefore, if your APP is very different from other APPs of the same type, onboarding is actually very necessary. The Accounting City APP provides onboarding when users open the APP for the first time. Under the guidance of Chief Financial Officer Qian Miaomiao, Box Jun successfully created its first building, thus starting its own accounting city journey.

The book "Demand" says that the time when a product is launched is not the main reason for whether it can capture the market. What can truly occupy the market is the first product that resonates emotionally with users. It can be seen that making users feel emotional is a future development direction of products.

Summarize

The transformation of tool products is a long and difficult process. Only when users accept the transformation of tool products and are willing to stay and play, can tool products be considered truly transformed successfully. Of course, this requires the joint efforts of product and operations.