APP promotion: Six principles for obtaining user needs in product operation!

1. What users want may not be their needs.

You design a mobile phone, and you go after users to do research, asking them if they want this feature, and they say yes. You then ask them if they want that feature, and they say yes. You go and sell the features, and they all say good. You are very happy, and you think you have captured a large market, and it is just around the corner to surpass your competitors and become the dominant player. But when you release your product, you see that, even though you promised them this and that, why do users still buy Apple products?

Users certainly like icing on the cake, but if you don’t provide a basic product that satisfies users, those flowers will not attract users.

Apple still doesn’t have dual SIM dual standby support. Do you think this demand is clear? But your phone can't be as good as Apple's. Even if you say you have dual SIM cards and dual standby, and ten more functions than Apple, it's useless.

2. Users often have headaches about demand

When users are unhappy, displeased, or annoyed in their daily lives or when using popular products, these often represent needs, or so-called pain points.

Why is my phone so laggy and slow? The optimization master and cleaning master appeared.

It’s fun to watch others surf the Internet, but I can’t remember so many URLs and I don’t know how to input them. URL navigation solves this problem.

Chatting and typing were slow and laborious, so voice input and video chat emerged.

There are many similar successful products in technology.

There are so many Android channels in China, and it is very troublesome to package and release a product in various channels. Therefore, an integration toolkit similar to anysdk has appeared.

Apple and Android each developed a set of software, which was a waste of both manpower and time costs. This is when cross-platform engines emerged.

Basically, every successful Internet product can correspond to people’s traditional pain points, that is, troublesome problems.

3. Identify false needs and do not blindly meet all needs.

But even if it is a problem that users are worried about, it does not mean that they must be satisfied.

Users often hope to enjoy the best service without spending any money, hate all kinds of sales promotions and advertisements, and not have to run around. Yes, these are all demands, but the question is, what is the basis for the existence of a commercial society? It's an equal exchange, right? You want me to provide this and that, but you are unwilling to pay or contribute. This unequal exchange is fundamentally against the essence of business. Some entrepreneurs shout every day that they have discovered user needs, but in fact many of what they have discovered are false needs.

The user said, I do nothing and just stay here all day, but you still want to give me money and food. This is a strong demand, who will satisfy it?

Some fake demands are actually financed, and then money is burned like crazy, which really makes users happy. Their subtext is, I will make you happy first, and then after a certain period of time when you are used to our service, it will not be too late to collect money. As a result, when you start to collect money, users will scold you for being a hooligan, and you will abandon the users, and then leave your platform one after another, without remembering any kindness. What do you want? You know what, this is really robbing the rich to help the poor and build a harmonious society.

But there is a problem here, that is, the so-called false demand is not so easy to judge. For example, in the Microsoft era, Bill Gates said that it is a stealing behavior for users to get free software without spending money. Yes, isn’t it a false demand to get technology products without spending money? Rising later also said that free antivirus software are all rogue, and then Rising died. Why? The cost is passed on and users do not pay directly, but the free software is bundled with complex and tortuous business logic, which foreigners have been unable to understand for a long time. But this model actually works. Why does this model work? Because users will generate continuous consumption while surfing the Internet, and this consumption capacity will increase over time, whoever controls the entry position through free products and services will have the opportunity to recommend and promote different brands and products in this consumption process, and thus get a share of the pie. This business path did not exist in the Microsoft era, but now it is particularly clear. Going from unclear to clear does require some judgment and courage.

For example, I have been thinking these days that the Chinese film market has been particularly hot in the past two years, and the work to combat piracy has been very effective, but thinking back, do free movies have any chance? I thought about it and it's really possible. If I opened a cinema, I would probably operate it like this. In the off-season, when there are not many blockbusters, I would set aside one or two theaters to replay some classic movies, such as Avatar, the Lord of the Rings series, etc., and then run free shows on a loop. However, many people have to buy a drink and popcorn to enter. Although I cannot say that everyone will buy them, attracting people for free will always lead to conversions, right? Isn't this business? This is the first one, what about the second one? Free tickets are given at random seats. If you want to choose a seat, you need to pay a seat selection fee. Of course, it is much cheaper than ordinary movie tickets. You can imagine that a couple would have to choose a seat. Thirdly, movies now have more than ten minutes of advertising at the beginning. For advertisers, this is not free. If there are more free users, the advertising fees can also be income. These of course need to be carefully calculated. I may be a little wishful thinking, but what I want to explain is that it does not mean that free or below-cost prices are false demands. If there are related business models and business behaviors, many seemingly unreasonable demands can actually be met.

4. Demand is often hidden in search engines

I have talked about the three levels of SEO before, and mentioned that understanding user search terms is often a need.

Take Meitu XiuXiu as an example. At the beginning, they made a small tool called Martian Text Input Method. It was popular for a while and had a large number of users, all of whom were non-mainstream children. But later, giants also made this thing. Then the business route was unclear, so they prepared to transform. But with so many non-mainstream users, what should they do? Mr. Wu did a very simple thing. He searched for words related to "non-mainstream". As a result, he found that the search volume for non-mainstream pictures and non-mainstream avatars was extremely high.

This is a strong demand. When Meitu XiuXiu first started to explode in the market, it was actually through the creation of some avatar generation tools such as bobblehead dolls, which quickly spread on instant messaging. At that time, the market-leading Photoscape had no idea what the needs of grassroots netizens were.

Analyzing search indexes and checking Baidu Knows is an important way to find out user needs. I emphasize this again.

5. Follow or lead users

This was once a big discussion, because some high-profile analysts said that Jobs never listened to users, he only led users. These analysts looked down on people who followed users. In particular, in their eyes, Chinese users were particularly low-level, so how could those particularly low-level product managers be in their eyes.

Based on this discussion, I wrote a fable, which I previously posted on Baidu Space.

It is said that there was a valley and a village with local people who lived a peaceful life. Then there was a shortage of water in the mountains and they needed to dig wells. It is said that there was a very nice master who was very good at detecting where there was water. He dug wells quickly and well, and produced a large amount of water. He was deeply trusted by the villagers. However, there were more and more people in the village, but less and less water. The wells were dug deeper and deeper, and everyone was still working very hard. There lived a man on the mountain, who usually didn’t interact with the villagers. One day he came and said, “Stop wasting time here and come out with me.” The villagers asked, “What is there outside?” The man said, “There is a large field of flowers, tall trees, and running animals outside. It is so beautiful, it would be a pity not to go and see it.” The villagers were stunned and thought, "What does it matter to me whether it is beautiful or not?" and continued to dig the well. The man left angrily, muttering, "Stupid villagers, you have no sentiment at all." There was a young man in the village who also worked hard to dig wells. He followed the master every day and everyone liked him very much. One day he ran to the top of the mountain to take a look, then immediately ran down the mountain and shouted to the villagers, "Stop digging wells. Come with me to the outside of the mountain!" The villagers said, no, no, we are busy. The young man shouted, we don’t need to dig wells anymore, there is a big river outside!

This fable is actually very easy to understand.

Villagers are users

The masters are traditional product managers who know the users’ pain points well and provide products based on their needs.

People on the mountain are common critics. They stand high and see far, but they don’t understand the suffering of users. They only see the surface of many needs but not the essence. Relying on appearance to determine direction will naturally fail to attract users.

The young people mentioned here are product managers who can lead users. First of all, you must know what users need and what the essence of user needs is. A deeper well is just a description, and a better answer is one that can go beyond the user's description.

Indeed, many times, users do not express their needs correctly, nor can they see clearly where the future lies. I think of two old cases, both of which I saw on TV when I was young.

When mobile phones first came out, they were very large, heavy and expensive. Only wealthy people could use them. Then there was an interview on TV asking ordinary people if they wanted to use mobile phones. The people said, no, no, those were for wealthy people. They had a telephone at home and it was very convenient. When mobile phones are only a product for a few people, other people will not feel that they need mobile phones. And when this thing is very expensive, ordinary people will not think it has anything to do with them. This was also the reason why IBM ignored personal computers back then. Who would have thought that a family could have a computer at that time?

When the Internet first came out, it was a new thing, and discussions about whether the Internet would lead young people astray began to increase. What was the public thinking at that time? Surfing the Internet = not doing your job properly, which is a good thing. The Internet is full of unhealthy things. My parents always told me at that time, "Can you do something serious instead of surfing the Internet all the time?" No matter how many times I explain that surfing the Internet is work, they still have a deep-rooted belief that surfing the Internet is just playing and a waste of time. At that time, the media went to the streets to interview Beijing citizens and asked them whether they went online. Some people said they went online occasionally. Then they asked what would happen if they did not go online, and they all said it would not affect them. This happened at the end of the last century. Today we all know about the sweeping influence of the Internet, but at that time, users could not see it.

The most correct judgment I made when I was in college was that the Internet would change humanity. I was fascinated by it from the very beginning when I went online. I should have come into contact with the Internet in my junior or senior year (we were still on the evil five-year system at the time). Before I came into contact with the Internet, I really had no idea what I was going to do in the future, what kind of job I would look for, and what kind of work I would do. After I came into contact with the Internet, I set a goal for myself that I must get into this industry in the future. This judgment is very simple. This kind of thing is the kind that once you get used to it, you can't get rid of it and you can't go back at all.

But I don’t have the vision of Professor Yu Jun. I have never had a clear concept of the specific application scenarios and scope of change of the Internet, so I missed countless opportunities. However, I give this example to say that it is not that difficult to look further than ordinary users. We need to think about the future, not the current situation. For example, mobile phones will become cheaper and cheaper, Internet charges will become cheaper and cheaper, and content will become richer and richer, so the threshold for using mobile phones and surfing the Internet will become lower and lower, and so on.

History is a mirror that can help us understand the rise and fall of nations

If you have a deep understanding of the history of ancient times, it will be helpful when you make judgments later. Let me give you another example.

In 2010, feature phones still dominated the market and Apple began to gain market share. In 2011, Android phones were just beginning to gain a little market share. At that time, the mobile divisions of all Internet giants were still focusing on Symbian. But at that time we had already started to vigorously promote the use of smartphones in companies in Xiamen. When I shared with my colleagues and talked about the future, I asked everyone to judge how big the future market size of smartphones would be. Please note that at that time the smartphone market share was still very small (including Symbian), and feature phones were still the mainstream. At that time, I gave my judgment that smartphones would swallow up most of the feature phone market. What is the basis of this? The first is definitely the reduction in costs and prices, and the second is the so-called island effect. Whether it is a social product, or a product with social attributes like smartphones or mobile phones, if everyone around you is using it and you are not, you will become an island. When others are contacting and having fun together, you cannot join in the conversation. You are alienated, perhaps unintentionally, but you are marginalized. So you must be consistent with them (when others have mobile phones and you don’t, you become an island; when others have smartphones and you use a feature phone, you will also become an island) in order to keep up with everyone’s pace. This is the reason. I said at the time that when everyone goes out to play in the future, others will be clicking and sharing photos on their phones, and you will be confused and have no idea what others are doing. How will you play with them in the future? So, once smartphones become popular, they will immediately sweep the market, and later users will be forced to change their phones by the behavior of early users, there is no doubt about that.

When users are not on an isolated island, and the threshold of the platform is too high and the cost is too expensive, users do not think they need such a product. However, when the threshold of this platform is lowered and the island effect is reflected, the needs of users will be reflected. This is an important idea.

6. Grasp the essential needs instead of blindly following the user's description

Here is another important idea: grasp the essential needs of users

Users often make demands based on their own historical experiences, and the development of technology and civilization may better meet users' demands without them realizing it.

In the above parable, the user's expressed need for more wells essentially means the need for more water. A better solution is to move to a river.

Historically, users needed faster horses, the essential demand was speed, so cars solved this need.

When we look at the needs described by users, we need to understand their essential demands and solve the problems based on their essence to avoid wishful thinking.

Let me give you a classic example. When 360 was just starting to rise, I had a chat with some security experts. At that time, some security experts didn't think much of 360. Why? They said that 360's technology was not that good. To be honest, 360 did not rely on technology to win in the early days. Then I asked a question: users need security products. What is their essential need? Is it security?

Without looking at the answer first, think about it, do users need security products for the sake of security?

Actually, it is not. Users need security products. The essential demand can be summed up in one word: to have fun and to have a more enjoyable surfing experience. Why are you unhappy? Would you feel good if your account was hacked while you were playing a game ? Is it fun to open a browser and see ads popping up everywhere? How can you feel good if your computer is so slow? Then you look at what 360 has done, something that many technical experts disdain. I cleaned out all your plug-ins, accelerated your browser, and made a boot acceleration assistant. The experts said, this thing has nothing to do with security. This thing makes users enjoy surfing the Internet.

Windows has been much criticized for its security issues. Later, a version called Windows Vista was released with greatly improved security. But then it suffered a disastrous market defeat. Why? Because the user convenience was sacrificed for the sake of security. Users were unhappy with the operation, so how could they be happy? If they could understand the essential demands of users, they would not make such mistakes.

So, when the user says, hurry up, give me a security product to protect me, he just needs something that allows him to surf the Internet with peace of mind, but you give him a product that provides all kinds of protection but prevents him from surfing the Internet, he will definitely be angry and uninstall you without hesitation. This is a mistake made by many product people.

How to use data and logs to understand users’ real needs during product and operation processes

The first thing I want to say is about reading the logs. Some people say, what should I use to read them? See with your own eyes.

How to deal with a lot of logs? The simplest way is to find a user's IP address and grep it. You can get the user's complete access and operation track in minutes.

Of course, the premise is that you really record detailed enough logs.

When he was at Baidu, Sun Yunfeng once hosted a sharing session about products. I don’t remember the specific content, but I still remember one case he mentioned clearly. He was talking about what the chief architect of Baidu did at night? Go to the server to check the access log and see a user's search behavior. Why do we need to see the user's search behavior? By tracking search behavior, we can analyze whether the user's search expectations are consistent with the results given by the search engine. If there are differences, we can use other methods to analyze where the differences occurred. The example given at that time was very interesting. It said that the user entered a keyword, "apple". At this time, you cannot know what the user’s real purpose is, because apple is a multi-directional word. Is it a kind of fruit? Is it a digital brand? Or was it a popular movie at the time? The user did not generate any valid clicks, but instead searched for the second word, "Apple Fan Bingbing". Okay, we already know that the user was looking for the then popular movie Apple, but what was the user's purpose? To read the plot introduction or the behind-the-scenes footage? Or watching movie videos? I still don’t know, but I already know that when the user searched for Apple, he didn’t find the results he wanted. Then I saw that the user searched for the third word, "Apple Fan Bingbing nude video". Now I finally know the user's purpose. However, of course, this search target is definitely fruitless. At that time, due to the reasons of the relevant departments, all Apple videos were banned on the Internet. Then the user kept changing keywords, from Baidu web search to video search, and then changed multiple keywords again. Finally, he searched for a keyword, Yahoo. Left. Let's put ourselves in the user's shoes and think about why he searched on Yahoo. It's easy to imagine the user's mentality at the time. He was deeply disappointed with Baidu's search results, and then he went to Yahoo to continue searching. But the interesting thing is that after 20 minutes, the user came back and continued to search for such keywords. So, what does this mean? He didn’t find it on Yahoo either, right? In the end, the user finally gave up. But in this example, Sun Yunfeng said something that I would like to share with you: it is about understanding the user's struggle.

This example is particularly typical because it is impossible for him to get the result he wanted, but what we can see here is that as product designers and operators, by tracking user log behaviors, we can put ourselves in the shoes of users to understand their moods and situations, and thus understand whether there are some inappropriate or improper aspects in our own products and operations.

Many companies will say that we have a data analysis department, we produce data reports every day, and our engineers process a lot of data every day. But in retrospect, this kind of physical work that seems to have no technical content, reading logs and inferring user behavior characteristics, is actually of great value. However, in most companies, no one does this kind of thing. They think they have programmers and databases, so why should they do such a low-level thing? But the real user operating habits and the detailed demands of users during use are often hidden here.

Then someone will ask, I have so many logs, how do I know what to look at?

I have talked about the three key points of data analysis before: comparison, segmentation, and tracing.

Simply put, it is to filter all the data through data comparison and data segmentation, find the users you think need attention, and then take out the behavioral characteristics of these users and take a look. Understand your users’ needs and struggles.