The hint method of user operation: How to hook your users at the beginning of product development?

There are two aspects to this: satisfying intrinsic needs and external intermediary cues to hook your users from the very beginning of the product.

Main content:

1. Subconscious and suggestion
2. How to hint
3. Internal hints

(1) Conformity : sharing by friends, invitations, and recommendations from small groups

(2) Uniqueness : self-achievement, self-worth, and identity

(3) Positive/negative emotions : joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, fear, and shock

(4) Human weaknesses : pride, envy, rage, laziness, greed, lust, and gluttony.

The role of a product is to use it to solve user problems. WeChat solves the problems of users' social interaction and self-presentation, Toutiao solves the problems of users' acquisition of information and killing time, shopping platforms such as Tmall solve the problems of users' convenience, comparison, and time in purchasing goods, and games solve the problems of users' self-achievement, killing time, and social interaction.

A product must first have use value and basic functions that meet user needs. However, to hook users for repeated use and purchase, it is far from enough to meet basic functions. Nowadays, we emphasize experience economy and scenario marketing . What are they all for? They all emphasize user feelings and cognition, so that users can recognize the product from the inside out. There is also a famous word called "sentiment", which is also about making the product recognized by users on an emotional level and creating loyal users .

Therefore, we can know that today's products must not only have basic functional attributes, but also must have "human touch".

Subconscious and suggestion

Anyone who has had some exposure to psychology should be familiar with the subconscious mind. Baidu Encyclopedia has a very authoritative definition, but I don’t want to use this definition here. I will use my own understanding. The subconscious mind is a part of our overall conscious level that is not perceived by us but is always running and affecting our behavior. It is a collection of our inner emotions and beliefs.

Let me explain the difference between the subconscious and the conscious using an experience that everyone has had. When we meet someone, we feel annoyed for no reason and want to leave, but we don’t leave because this person is a very important client of yours and if you leave, things will go wrong; or if this person is your aunt or uncle, you will be criticized if you leave. The reason for not walking away is your rational consciousness, while hatred is your inner emotional subconscious. In other words, the subconscious and the conscious are not unified. In other words, the body and mind are not in harmony.

Suggestion is to imperceptibly impress and induce a person's subconscious mind through various intermediary things. After reading this, you should have a clear understanding of the relationship between the subconscious mind and suggestion. I also understand why these two psychological terms are mentioned when talking about hooking up with users. We need to influence our inner subconscious through various intermediaries, thereby guiding changes in individual behavior.

How to hint?

Since suggestion has such a great effect, how can we make it happen? In fact, we are exposed to this kind of suggestion in our daily lives. Even our current values, outlook on life, and social outlook have been formed by suggestions since birth. Let’s narrow the discussion down to the product level. I divide it into two categories: internal temptation and external guidance.

Inner temptation

Inner temptation is inseparable from the level of human nature. Friends who are interested can read books about human nature and society. I will mainly talk about several aspects here.

(1) Conformity

Conformity refers to people being influenced by the majority, giving up independent thinking and following the thoughts or behaviors of the majority . We have all had this experience: everyone in a team has an IPAD, and you subconsciously buy one regardless of whether you need it or not.

For example, some cult organizations have uniform clothing, unified actions, and few personal belongings. This is a way of achieving the goal through external constraints based on herd mentality, and a unified doctrine brainwashes you, which is a method of internal recognition. Contagion and suggestion are used from both inside and outside to make you obey and agree. People are afraid of isolation, especially in group life, but they cannot live independently away from the group.

Since ancient times, people have lived in groups for the sake of safety and reproduction, and developed culture and religion on this basis. This gene is still being passed down in our DNA. Take me for example. When WeChat first came out, I didn’t use it. I felt that QQ could fully meet my needs and there was no need to download WeChat. But now, why do I use WeChat all the time and hardly use QQ? It’s because my friends, colleagues and even my boss are all using WeChat. It’s impossible for me to stick to my own way and not follow the crowd.

The most classic example is the joke where one person looks up at the sky, and then everyone looks up at the sky without knowing the truth. We also use this psychology when we operate products or activities. For example, when operating self-media on a self-media platform , after each article is published, some traffic and comments will be generated. This will give other users the impression that this article must be good, as so many people read it and leave messages, and then they will actively click on it and even comment on it. When we are doing an event, we will find some "stooges" to create an atmosphere and lure more people to inquire. Let me tell you a funny story. When I was playing in Hubu Alley in Wuhan, I saw a place with a very long queue. My friend and I didn’t even see what was being sold, so we decided to queue up first, thinking that the food must be delicious if there were so many people queuing. When it was our turn, we realized that they were selling gluten, but it was really delicious.

(2) Individual needs

Everything has two sides, if there is yin, there is yang, if there is negative, there is positive. As human beings, we also have two sides. We have the need to live in groups and do not want to be isolated or excluded, but we also have the sense of existence as individuals. Everyone's self-worth and achievements come from this aspect. This is how we distinguish ourselves from others and where we find people like us. Look at the community organizations that have become popular in recent years. Aren’t they just a group of people with similar values ​​and hobbies gathering together?

Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory places self-worth and self-realization at the top of the pyramid , and material and security needs at the base. It can be seen that people's pursuit of spiritual and ideological premise is that material is greatly guaranteed. Today's society is in line with this form. This is a society that is not short of material. People begin to pursue uniqueness. Sometimes when you wear a beautiful dress and find that you wear the same one as someone else, you feel uncomfortable psychologically. We are increasingly willing to pay for products that match our values, beliefs, and unique tastes, even if it means paying a higher price. This is not only about product functionality but also about identity recognition . Take Xiaomi’s fans for example, what they buy is not only a mobile phone, but also the feelings and values ​​​​embodied in the phone. You can get a glimpse of this by looking at how many companies have launched customized services.

Whether it is conformity, individuality, or the emotions mentioned below, they are all inseparable from our needs for safety and reproduction. This is the foundation of human nature and the source of desire. In ancient times, people lived in groups to resist foreign enemies, wild beasts, and to find marriage partners. If you survive alone, your own safety is out of control, not to mention the risk of finding someone willing to marry you. You might say that living in groups develops a herd mentality, but how does individuality emerge? Look at humans’ close relatives, the gorillas, which are also social animals. They are also divided into levels. The gorilla king is strong and defeats other gorillas to gain dominance over food and mating, which gives him a great sense of security both mentally and physically. What about humans? Nothing more than truth. When we have more resources and abilities, our control and sense of accomplishment can be realized, and our body and mind will be safer. If you have time, you can think about why men and women have different standards for choosing a spouse.

(3) Positive/negative emotions: joy, anger, worry, thought, sadness, fear, and surprise

The reason why emotions are mentioned separately is because modern people are increasingly affected by them. The rapid accumulation of material wealth has led to the inability of spiritual development to keep up. In particular, the backlog of negative emotions is very large. Why are there fewer happy people among us even though we have abundant material wealth? Why are we not happy even though we have houses, cars, wives and children? Why are you still checking Weibo at one or two in the morning? Why is road rage on the rise? Why is depression becoming more well-known? Behind this is an emotion that cannot be seen or touched. We are all pursuing positive emotions. Why? It is we who are in negative emotions.

Everyone says that this society is impetuous. Why is it so impetuous? Because of the pressure of survival. Why is there pressure of survival? Because we cannot control our own lives and society is changing too fast, we are tired, anxious and scared. But we seem powerless. No matter how hard we work, it seems difficult to change the status quo. So what is left? Loneliness, emptiness and coldness . The original intention of many Internet products is not to solve this kind of emotional problem, but they seem to have solved this problem to a certain extent, such as games, news media platforms, and shopping platforms. We all want to use these to gain pleasure and dispel boredom.

In addition to loneliness, emptiness and coldness, there is another very important emotion - fear . Our fear comes from insecurity. We are afraid of disease, so we wear health rings and download running apps. We are afraid of loneliness, so we check Weibo, self-media, WeChat and QQ. We are afraid of lack of information, so we read all kinds of news every day, including gossip, social and current affairs, for fear that others will say we are ill-informed. We are also afraid of being eliminated, so we participate in all kinds of training courses and seminars. . . We fear too much, but it is very beneficial to product development.

(4) Seven Deadly Sins

Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" mainly focuses on interpersonal relationships. The seven deadly sins summarized by religion are mainly taught to believers. When we talk about the weaknesses of human nature, we mainly want to satisfy the fundamentals of human nature to make good products, better attract users, and retain users. Look at the products we have now that are free from these seven deadly sins, which are the original sins of mankind. The very popular shared bikes this year are said to satisfy the convenience of travel, but in fact they just satisfy the laziness of human nature; what does Momo do? It just captures the lust in human nature; game competitions have to set up a champion, runner-up and third place, doesn’t that just take advantage of the vanity and jealousy of human nature? Why has Meituan become a regular APP on most people’s phones? This year, a new "Vent APP" was released. What needs of people does it meet?

After saying so much, you should understand that at the beginning of our product development, we must figure out what intrinsic needs of users you want to meet, rather than just focusing on functional usage. In the next article, we will explain the role of external cues in guiding users in using products. In the hope of helping product developers and event operators.