APP promotion: What is it like to operate a bad product?

Someone invited me to answer a question on Zhihu. The title was "What is it like to operate a bad product?" When I first saw this title, I was stunned. Have I ever made a bad product? I have counted the product lines I have handled in the past, and it seems that each one is quite awesome. Some have DAU in the tens of millions or even over 100 million. So far, none of them has died. To be honest, when I choose a project, I often consider whether the product will fail. Operations are like raising a child. It is really painful to raise it to death.

Back to this question, I admit that I have complained about this in the past: It is really unpleasant to operate this crappy product XX.

And I believe that it’s not just me. Many students who work in product operations have complained: Can’t product managers give a little more help? Can you die by making good products? How can I promote such a crappy product? The new users that we worked so hard to attract eventually left after seeing the shoddy product, which is far inferior to the competing products. Ask yourself, have you ever said these things?

In fact, from another perspective, the product manager is also complaining about us: Damn, I made such an awesome product, why can’t those idiot operations guys promote it? You guys should do the marketing , or make an H5 to explode on your circle of friends! ****I won’t continue, you can imagine it. ****

Why are there so many "bad products"?

There is a sentence that is worth pondering for most product managers and product operators:

If you look at things from the user's perspective, everyone is a pretentious manager.

“Bad products” are mostly a problem of mentality. If you think you are making a bad product, it depends on your perspective. We all say that users will think this way and act that way, but most of the time we are still talking about our own behavior. Not many people can truly break out of the limitations of their own experience and perspective.

Some people say, I am a user myself, so my ideas represent the ideas of the general public. If you don’t believe it, just ask a few people from the team and you will find out. This is actually wrong. This approach is like populism in political science. It will lead the product into the ditch without anyone realizing it, but many teams are currently climaxing on this road.

To define whether a product is a “bad product”, you actually need to look beyond your own role. You need to have strong empathy for users. Product sense, which sounds mysterious but actually does exist, is somewhat useless. However, many people may not have it even if they have the title of PM, but everyone thinks they have it.

Why are there so many bad products? It is undeniable that bad products do exist, and if we strictly define the standards for good products, most of them are bad products. But what many people are unwilling to admit is that when they say a product is bad, they are not really talking about the product, but trying to attribute the failure of the entire project to other roles in the team.

If a product is not well made, it is due to many factors such as the product, operation, R&D team itself, company culture, resources, etc. Culture and resources are external conditions, and the only thing that can be controlled is the team's internal factors. When it comes to product development, the short board effect does not apply. When one of the boards is too short, but the other boards are long enough, there is a chance to make up for it in the short term. At the same time, the short board can also be made up later. How to do it specifically? Shirasaki will be discussed later.

How to define a "bad product"?

A product is not bad just because you say it is bad, and it is not good just because the product manager says it is good. There must be a quantitative standard. How to define a "bad product"? Looking at the actual user experience, Bai Qi summarizes the following four levels of thinking. After checking them one by one, we can answer where your product is "bad".

Core level:

Is there something wrong with the product direction? Do users really have this demand? The reason why most products fail is actually that the boss makes an impulsive decision and takes his own needs as the needs of the public. This level of rot is the most fundamental and fatal rot, and it is basically hopeless.

Functional level:

Do users approve of your solution? Does it have a unique selling point compared to competing products? Is your selling point derived from user needs or is it a selling point because you have unique resources?

This level of rottenness can still be saved because it can be iterated and modified. The easiest way is to learn from your competitors. If you can’t learn them, just copy them exactly. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. But if you can’t even copy them, then don’t do it. Many product managers are reluctant to copy as they feel it is embarrassing, so they like to copy half and add the other half of their own ideas, calling it micro-innovation so that they will not be accused of plagiarism. But I have also seen some copied ideas that turned out to be so weird that they were still unusable in the end.

There is another situation where basically every product has its own unique selling point, which is the core value. There are two sources of core value. One is to truly explore user needs and produce unique and user-recognized solutions. However, every industry is now a red ocean, and most of the things that can be done have already been done by others, so it is quite difficult to create unique value. The other is to use resources to push the product direction, that is, the product has been thought out when it starts, because only I have the resources, so I think it is very suitable and the product will definitely be successful. This path is risky. The uniqueness is met, but there is a question mark as to whether users will recognize it. For example, the product WeChat Reading claims that its core value is Tencent’s most powerful social relationship chain, because this is indeed a resource that only Tencent has. But in fact, it is of little use to the product WeChat Reading, and it only has a better PR effect when the product comes out.

Performance level:

How often does your app crash? How many seconds does it take to start? Is the data timely? Crash? Will user information be leaked? Has the database been dragged? This layer is more about the efforts of R&D personnel. Users will not praise if the performance is good, but they will definitely criticize if it is not good.

Visual interaction level:

Is the color nice? Is the interaction customary? Most entry-level product managers and operators are still at the stage of complaining about the visual aspect, because they don’t understand or explain other angles, so they can only talk about colors and gestures. Visuals and interactions are used to add icing on the cake. There is no such thing as a product that has a lot of users just because of its good visuals and interactions, but some users will leave because they don’t like the design style.

What do you do when you are operating a "bad product"?

Everyone is bound to encounter one or two scumbags in their life. No one can guarantee that one day you will encounter a bad product, and you need to operate this bad product. What should you do?

After carefully comparing the above four levels, I found that the core level is really rotten, that is, there is a problem with the product direction, and it is in a state of deviation. At this time you should talk to the product manager. If it can be changed, we should change it quickly, but if the ship is too big to turn around, it is right to leave as soon as possible. There is no need to waste your time on a failed product. You will only accumulate a lot of lessons instead of experience.

Another possibility is that you think the product is bad only because the current team has limited resources, and there is still hope for improvement with some effort. At this time, you should think more about what product operations can do for this bad product?

The first thing is to admit that the product is bad. Don’t deceive yourself. Don’t stay in a team that obviously has problems but is covering them up. People who cover up problems are probably afraid that they will be held responsible if the problems are exposed. Under the existing product conditions, explore the value points for existing users. Most bad products still have some users, and some are even loyal users who use them every day. Discovering the bright spots is also a way to find your place in the industry.

Secondly, assist product managers to improve products. Most operations staff will interact with users, summarize important user feedback and provide it to product managers, and work with product managers to consider how to change the product from an operations perspective.

Finally, when the product fails, operations must fill in. Provide service value from the operational level to reduce users' perception of negative reviews at the functional level.

I would like to end with a sentence I saw today, which is also my own thought.

The less you know, the more stubborn you are.

What is it like to operate a “bad product”? That is the experience of being an operations manager while also thinking of yourself as a product manager.