A high-level product manager can always clearly sort out the product line, know exactly what to do at the moment, and grasp the core of the problem. So how do they analyze the problem?Today I will share my method, which I call the "chain splitting method", which can help everyone clarify product ideas, and more importantly, let PMs understand their true positioning! Let’s take the taxi-hailing software as an example and analyze it.1. Organize business links/modulesOur first step is to figure out the entire business process and sort out the important links.First, we need to find a starting point for the business. For ride-hailing apps, it is nothing more than passengers calling for rides and drivers picking up passengers. To connect passengers and drivers, we basically need a passenger line and a driver line.With a starting point, the next step is to simulate the business process.The user needs a car! The passenger sends a request for a car from point A to point B. At this time, we need to send this request to the driver and tell them to come to work. However, we found that sending a car request is not that simple...
Which drivers should they send it to? Do you send it to those within 1KM or 2KM?
What if there is no driver within 2KM? Send to those within 5KM? If it is sent to too many drivers who are not nearby, will it be considered as harassment to the drivers?
What is the sending queue like? Who should be sent to first and who should be sent to later? Do you want to send nearby drivers who are about to complete orders?
What if there is a driver nearby, but the driver is picky and doesn’t want to accept the order? Increase price or force order?
Carpooling seems to be popular nowadays, so how can we match the routes of multiple users and issue orders to drivers?
…If you think about it carefully, there are a lot of things involved in dispatching orders. It seems that dispatching orders is an important matter, so we need to add an order dispatching system.OK, now the order has been sent to the driver. The driver has accepted the order, used navigation to pick up the user, and then used navigation to send the passenger to the destination. It’s time for the passenger to pay, and he finally sees the return money. But, here comes the problem again. How do passenger users pay in cash? credit card? Bank payment channel? WeChat? Alipay? Using someone else’s payment method also requires paying a handling fee. Is there any way to save money? How is the charge calculated? Is it the same price during the day and at night? Are the prices different for different types of cars? How is the toll calculated at the toll booth? The finance department also needs to look at the income flow. What? The financial MM also required that different amounts of money be deposited into different company accounts to avoid taxes. Oh my God, I knew that anything related to money is not a trivial matter. It seems that a settlement system is still needed.So, is it enough to just have the passenger side, the dispatch system, the driver side, and the settlement system? As long as these things are done, will there be a large number of users using it every day? Obviously not, we still need operations to get more users to use us and let users who don’t know us experience our services. Therefore, our operations sister will often organize some H5 activities, send out some coupons, and lower the billing standards. At the same time, we also need to manage orders, drivers, and passengers. So we also need an operations support system.The private car market is booming right now, with companies issuing large numbers of car coupons and providing subsidies to drivers. So a new profession was created: fake orders. For example, the amount of a taxi order is 50 yuan, and the platform takes 20%, so the driver can get 40 yuan. However, in order to encourage drivers, the platform provides a subsidy of 30 yuan. Then the driver’s income for this order is 70 yuan. So, if the driver places an order for himself, after paying 50 yuan in fare to the platform, the driver can get 70 yuan. Net profit of 20. On the other hand, in order to stimulate users to place orders, the platform will also issue coupons to users. Assuming that the driver uses a 20-yuan coupon when placing an order for himself, then he only needs to pay 30 yuan for an order of 50 yuan. This means that the driver paid the platform 30 yuan for the fare and received 70 yuan...it's really a no-cost business! If we let these people run rampant, not only will we fail to expand our market share, but we will actually make less and less money. That’s why we have to catch them! The risk control system is very important.So, these are the various business links/modules we have sorted out.2 Disassembly of each link/moduleAfter seeing the picture above, I believe you have guessed what to do next. That’s right, it’s the disassembly of the module.As senior product managers/directors, we need to think about the role of each module and formulate their main product lines and tasks.Passenger side : The core of the user's taxi-hailing tool should be the user experience. Minimize the difficulty of use for users and provide the most efficient taxi-hailing service. At the same time, it can flexibly support various operational activities to stimulate users to place orders.Order dispatch system : The essence of ride-hailing software is to connect users and drivers through dispatching orders. Making full use of every transportation resource is the core of dispatching orders. The dispatching algorithm is the key to the utilization of transport capacity, and the success rate of calling a car is an important indicator.Driver side : The driver's order-taking tool, the core is that the driver's use is smooth and effective. At the same time, as the only carrier connecting the platform to drivers, notification, communication and guidance are also important parts.Settlement system : The settlement system is mainly characterized by complicated business processes, and each payment channel has its own process rules. It takes someone to be familiar with tracking. In addition, the connection with finance also requires the PM to have a basic understanding of the financial structure.Risk control system : two major tasks: finding out the cheaters and specifying rules to prevent them from cheating.Operation support system : It only needs to meet the needs of operations. The product difficulty is generally not great, but usually very few resources are allocated. The key is to strike a balance between limited resources and unlimited operational needs.So the complete picture is thisYou can look at your own abilities from the picture above. If you can do a good job in optimizing one or several modules, you are a qualified PM; if you have your own understanding and optimization plan for the entire module, then you are definitely worthy of the word "advanced"; if you know all the modules in each link well and can handle the whole thing, congratulations, you have been upgraded.3. Grasp the key points according to business goalsEverything has its priorities, and the quality of a PM depends largely on his ability to choose. A product will have many modules. For a senior product manager/director, it is impossible to focus on every part, so it is necessary to find the key points. The same goes for a senior PM, because each module is a bottomless pit, so the most important needs must be grasped. So what is the reference for measuring importance and unimportance? It's business. Business goals vary according to the different stages of the business.What is the most important thing in the early stages? There is a complete process, and the most important thing is that the passenger side and the driver side promote and verify the model. When the market has not yet been exposed to such products, users/drivers can use it without any barriers. Therefore, the experience on the passenger side and the driver side is key.In the medium term, the user market has accepted this product, but the number of drivers has not yet caught up. The order dispatching algorithm is the key point. Algorithms and predictions are used to achieve 100% utilization of transportation capacity. For example, orders near the destination are dispatched to drivers who are about to arrive at the destination, and orders heading to areas with fewer vehicles are dispatched to drivers in areas with dense vehicles, etc. At the same time, in the medium term, the company must also get on the right track, and financial regulations must naturally be improved, and the settlement system will also become a focus.Now, in this fierce competition period, with the stimulation of high discounts and subsidies, any experience is not so important. It has completely become operation-driven, and the operation support system has surfaced. High subsidies and high discounts will lead to more fake orders, and risk control will be more important than ever before. It is said that tens of millions of dollars were spent on a certain designated driver service in the first few days after it was launched. This is also why a company that has newly joined the subsidy war is willing to recruit a risk control PM with a starting salary of 400,000.In the future, during the stable period, when all competitors are defeated and there is no longer a need to attack them through subsidies or preferential policies. Faced with a huge market of 1.2 billion people, algorithms and efficiency will become the focus of business improvement.This kind of life cycle level example may be too far away from everyone. Let’s take a simple example. For instance, carpooling is very popular right now, so let’s see what needs to be done to add a carpooling feature.Passenger side: Open a carpooling portal. The key point is that carpooling is a new interactive process. How to make it compatible with the previous business? At the same time, as a new concept, it is very important to let users understand what carpooling is.Order dispatch system: the focus is on matching different passengers’ itinerariesDriver side: The focus is on the process of drivers picking up multiple passengers and settlement guidanceSettlement: One more carpooling calculation formulaRisk control: General rules similar to those of the platform, no special processing requiredOperational support: add one more order type, pay attention to the association between different passengers' carpooling ordersAfter reading the above content, what do you think is the most critical point in deciding to carpool? Think of the answer before reading on.Of course it’s the dispatch system! The key to carpooling is matching people who are going the same way. The other items can be solved by just spending some time, but route matching is not only the key point but also the difficulty. UBER, for example, does a very poor job. A carpooling trip takes almost twice as long as a non-carpooling trip, which is basically "forced" carpooling. If you want to do well in the carpooling business, algorithms are your weapon. Of course, if you use crazy subsidies, such as carpooling for 9.9 no matter where you go. Then there is no algorithm. This can also be considered a strategy, using high subsidies to get users to accept carpooling, while at the same time improving the algorithm so that users will gradually accept it.Like all methodologies, this is just an analytical method to organize thoughts. What determines the level still lies in the key decision in the third step and the final execution! Just like the carpooling algorithm, you know it’s critical, but can you solve it?PS As an aside, people who want to change jobs often ask me, how about working for XX company? In fact, it is very simple to judge whether a job is good or bad. Using this method to analyze, you can see whether your job is at a key point in the company's business or a key point in the future. If so, even if the company goes bankrupt, you can still make a living in a rival company, haha.
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This article was written by @ KHan and published by (APP Top Promotion). Reprinting this article requires the consent of Top Promotion , and please attach the link to this article!
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