10 tips for new operations people to help you avoid operations pitfalls!

After I wrote some operation articles in Product Rookies, some friends began to think I was an old man. In fact, I was born in the 90s and have just started in the operation field. It has not been smooth sailing along the way. What I wrote before were all positive experience summaries. Today I plan to add some salt to my own operational wounds. The pitfalls I have experienced repeatedly from a startup company to Baidu Tieba.

Correspondingly, we will also give 10 suggestions on how to avoid these pitfalls. They may not all be correct, but I hope they will be helpful to new operators.

In chronological order, let me first talk about my operations in a startup company. In November 2013, I joined a cross-border e-commerce community (hereinafter referred to as Moushu) which had less than 10 people at that time through Sequoia Capital Wuhan campus recruitment , and was responsible for community operation and promotion. Because there are not many people, basically one person is working on one direction, including UI, product manager , technology, and of course, operations and promotion.

After introducing the background, let’s get into the topic! These are my five reflections on working on a book in the early days, written for new operators in startup companies.

1. Return to zero, keep a low profile, and let go of past achievements.

Before working in the operation of a certain book business, I worked in the campus channel of Baidu for almost two years, and achieved some results, including creating a club called "Baidu Encyclopedia Club of South-Central University for Nationalities" from scratch. Later, as a regional manager, I set up more than 100 university clubs for Encyclopedia in one month, and interned in Baidu's Campus Brand Department... All in all, it was quite fulfilling for a college student.

A certain book is mainly read by female white-collar users, which is a very unfamiliar market for us. At that time, we used the campus structure and way of doing things to operate "Bai Fu Mei", which more or less encountered some problems. The leaders also suggested many times to put aside the previous campus experience and step out of the student circle. I won’t write much about what happened afterwards... In short, I still didn’t leave the campus where I thought I could do great things.

So here’s my advice to new operations people: forget about your achievements in your previous job, don’t keep anything except your connections and resources, and don’t worry too much about the choice of your current job.

2. Don’t just do what I tell you.

"Don't just do what I tell you, do what needs to be done" was a joining gift given to me by a book leader when I first arrived at the overseas shopping guide community. Just like the title of the book, it reflects the leader’s expectations for newcomers! In this regard, I personally feel that I have done a relatively good job. I have been very proactive in working overtime and taking on various operational tasks. If there is one thing that is lacking, it would be the lack of awareness of increasing friendship among colleagues outside of work.

As a newcomer in operations and in a startup team, everyone is very busy and I still need to consciously discover work. Even for projects that are valued by company executives, it is inevitable that they will not be fully considered. When you encounter this situation, you have to ask yourself more often "what else needs to be done"? Everything is for the growth of the product. Don't worry about personal gains and losses, just take the lead yourself.

Reply "do things" in the public account "Product Rookies" to read my reading notes "Don't just do what I tell you, please do what needs to be done."

3. Startup company operation and self-value search.

This overseas shopping guide community was not as popular in 2013 as it is now. In addition, the direction was unclear and the promotion experience was scarce. Before a fixed channel for attracting new customers was found, the promotion work was actually quite complicated. I have done promotions in forums and QQ groups, Baidu SEO , knowledge marketing , community operations, talent management, express delivery for events, etc. In fact, the chores are not the most difficult part, as they can be done by working overtime. The most difficult thing is to find the value of your own work.

Why do I say so? The startup team's technology, UI, editing, and products all focus on improving the product in the early stages, and product releases and iterations are all manifestations of the value of their work. Operational promotion requires early work around the outside of the product. There are few things that can produce immediate results. Even for an operations expert, it takes some time to achieve results, let alone a pure operations newcomer.

Therefore, what we need to do here for new operations personnel in startup companies is to clarify their own operational value, whether it is new value or brand value....

Keep moving closer to this value, write project reports proactively and seriously more often, and support your value through some indirect achievements.

4. Watch more, learn more, and do more.

As a new operator, there are many things that you don’t understand. After your leader assigns you work, it is recommended that you do not jump into execution without thinking through the entire process. You can first search for the problem you want to solve on platforms such as Baidu, Google, Zhihu, and AdChina. After all, these problems are experienced by others. You can refer to their experience and avoid being scolded less.

Gaining experience is just the beginning; being able to apply what you have learned is the goal! For example, when optimizing SEO, if you have read the experience in SEO, you will definitely know that in some optimization processes, such as keywords, descriptions, and titles, it is easy to fall into the trap of not distinguishing between half-width and full-width.

5. Summarize more and write more, what you write is yours.

When reading some articles, have you ever had this experience: "What the author wrote seems to be what you have experienced"!

In fact, everyone understands the principles and methods of doing things. The final distance lies in who summarizes and who writes it down. The process of typing is the process of experiencing dialogue yourself. Only when you have sorted it out clearly can it become your real wealth. If you can write systematically and continuously, it will become copyright wealth.

Everyone's operating experience is unique, and any summary that can be made is very valuable. Of course, during the writing process, you must grasp which content can be released to the outside and which cannot be released to the outside. Because I have suffered losses in this regard, this is also a point that enthusiastic new operators need to pay attention to.

The above are 5 suggestions I wrote based on my experience in a startup company. Although the process was difficult, the basic operational skills I learned were quite solid.

Based on my experience at Baidu Tieba, I will write down five suggestions for new operators who start working at an Internet giant.

6. Careful, responsible and reliable.

As a newcomer in operations of a large company, it is normal to understand the products you are responsible for through some very basic work.

Operations are all about details. You have to be careful and responsible in executing every detail. Do three small things well to earn back the label of "reliable". Of course, if you mess up one small thing, you need ten big things to tear off the "unreliable" label given to you by your colleagues and leaders.

Let me give you a negative example that concerns me! Updating the homepage of Tieba is something that every new Tieba content operator needs to do. During an on-duty update that I was responsible for, I confused the full-width and half-width images, resulting in incomplete display of the homepage pictures, which caused a series of problems. The most serious one was the abnormal display of the Baidu Tieba frame card on the mobile phone. Thinking back on it now, I still feel a little scared.

7. Communicate upwards and leverage leadership to schedule projects.

To operate a large product and achieve results quickly, you need to launch more projects and maintain a frequency of launching one large project every quarter. But this is only the ideal state of the project. The difference between the current situation and the ideal is technical development. The idea and thoughts are good, but the project is not ranked high in terms of technology.

At this time, learning to utilize your boss's relationship can help you do your job better. If your boss has a high reputation in the company, you should learn to leverage his power, use his personal connections, spread your project, ask him more questions, and understand the company culture and organizational structure.

If you need your boss to persuade company executives to raise the priority of your project, you must be fully prepared in advance, provide him with detailed and reliable data and information, use your strength to gain his trust, and let him feel at ease to be your lobbyist.

8. Share information and build up your network.

Communication is a problem in any organization, but it is especially so in large companies, where information has become a kind of currency that people only want to get, not spend. Many people regard it as private property and hide it away without sharing it with others.

In fact, there is gain only when there is sacrifice. Sharing information will allow you to gain more friends and resources. In exchange, others will also share information with you without reservation. Fully sharing information is beneficial to both you and the company, which is called a win-win situation.

Baidu has a habit of writing project summary emails and sending emails to groups about awesome activities/products. The first purpose is to let everyone see your achievements, and the second is to let other related friends see new ideas and ways of playing.

For example, Xiao Lei (Xiao Lei asked me to write his full name "Lei Jianning") from Baidu's Big Brand Department made a popular h5 inventory-style "My Way to Work in 2014", which had over one million UVs in a single day. From the beginning when no one paid attention to the project to later when he was asked to curry favor with others, I also learned from him how to use the power of snowballing to promote products.

9. Talk less and do more, and think clearly before starting.

When I was operating Tieba, the most painful part in the early stage was project establishment. Because I had little contact with projects at that time and the scope of my ideas was relatively narrow, I encountered a big problem in the Universal Post Bar project where dozens of proposals could not be passed.

It is difficult to apply for innovation resources out of thin air in a large company. It is unrealistic to convince your boss with just a few slides showing operational project ideas. A more feasible approach is to find three or five like-minded colleagues to create a prototype of the activity function in their spare time. You will find that prototypes have a more persuasive effect than you might imagine. A vivid demonstration is more attractive than a boring statement.

In addition, when establishing a cross-departmental project, it is recommended to review the plan with the department manager. He will consider everything and, more importantly, he will be clear about the company's key areas. After his adjustments, the plan will be much more reliable and clear.

10. Help each other and get along well with others.

In large companies, the division of functions is still very clear. Operations revolve around product users, and marketing revolves around potential users. First-tier Internet companies must cooperate with others to operate, and you need the assistance of colleagues to complete design, development, release, and promotion work.

Sometimes the market wants to have an activity recommendation position on the product. My advice is to give it as much as possible if there is a vacant position. You never know when your project will need the support of a big repost from the market.

If you like working alone, a startup company may be more suitable for you. Take the initiative to make friends with colleagues from various departments, chat about work, and introduce your current projects to everyone. Don't wait until you have something to do before you approach others. Take the initiative to help others and build personal connections.

The above 10 suggestions hope to help new operators avoid detours. The specific ones still need to be experienced in the operation work (the operation dilemma in the picture below).

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The author of this article @陈维贤 is compiled and published by (APP Top Promotion). Reprinting this article must be approved by Top Promotion , and please attach the link to this article!