About the user growth system, an operation note you can't miss

My recent work requires me to study the user growth system, so after reading dozens of related articles online, I decided to sort out my own understanding and notes. At the same time, the author found that no one seems to have studied Dianping’s user growth system. Thinking about the reasons, it may be that the threshold for membership and VIP of Dianping is too high, and it is impossible to experience it personally; it may be that Dianping’s user growth system is too complicated and difficult to understand. Therefore, as a senior member of Dianping.com, I decided to combine my own advantages and add a case analysis of Dianping.com’s user growth system in the follow-up of the article. Please stay tuned.

What is User Growth System?

Product managers have a whole system of points, growth values, levels, etc. Some people call it a user growth system, while others call it a user incentive system. The author's understanding is that they are all the same, and there is no need to get hung up on words; the key lies in the study of connotation.

Regarding user motivation (or growth, growth will be used uniformly below), to put it simply, it is to let users "voluntarily" do what the product wants them to do. The key words for the product are "activation" and " retention ". A good user growth system is a win-win result for both users and platforms. A user growth system without value is a burden to users and often has the opposite effect.

Here is a brief introduction to the HOOKED model. Its theory is derived from the study of game mechanisms.

There are eight key words in the middle of the HOOKED model, representing eight different core driving forces.

• Core Drive 1: Epic Meaning & Purpose: Do something more important than yourself!
• Core Drive 2: Development & Achievement: Making progress and achieving success
• Core Drive 3: Creativity & Feedback: Creativity, instant feedback!
• Core Drive 4: Sense of Ownership: Collectible Games, Cultivation Games
• Core Drive 5: Social Influence & Connection: Show off, compete, collaborate…
• Core Drive 6: Rarity & Impatience: What you can’t get will always make you restless!
• Core Drive 7: Unknown & Curiosity: Curiosity kills the cat and the mouse!
• Core Drive 8: Loss & Avoidance: Fear, fear of loss, all negative emotions

Therefore, the user growth system is a manifestation of the gamification of a product. The motivation (M) corresponds to our exit, and the trigger (T) corresponds to our entrance. Gamification is actually Human-Focused Design, which maximizes consideration of human psychological factors such as emotions and motivations during the design process. No matter what product it is, no matter how powerful its functions are, if users don’t want to use it at all, then it is a failure. Medals, red flowers, certificates, trophies, belts and other things are actually "symbols of achievement". They themselves have no meaning, but they represent the sense of accomplishment people have after going through untold hardships and overcoming numerous challenges! So games have no real functions (the so-called "waste of time"), but they have the magic power to make people invest a lot of time and energy.

The HOOKED model includes another model, namely BJ Fogg's Behavior Model: B=MAT——Behavior=Motivation*Ability*Inducement (or Trigger). The occurrence of any behavior depends on the three variables in the above formula.

The core of this theory lies in "A" (Ability) and "T" (Trigger), which allows users to smoothly perform desired actions by simplifying the process of completing a certain behavior and reminding users at the right time. Eventually, this behavior will be solidified into a "habit", which means that users will naturally use your product or service without much thought (expected behavior).

In summary, the user growth system is a combination of the "system", "cycle", " operational means" and "product mechanism" of the product.

Design principles of user growth system

Not all products are suitable for, or require, the design of a user growth system. When the demand is very strong, you don’t need to motivate users. They will all invest in your products, so there is no need to add anything unnecessary. For example, WeChat ’s instant messaging (chat) function is very simple, but 800 million users still choose to use it without hesitation.

There is another type of product that is not suitable for a user growth system, which is a low-frequency product. For example, services and products related to weddings, funerals, and graduation ceremonies are things that are only used once in a lifetime or once every few years. If you insist on encouraging users to use them more often, then you don't really understand human nature.

Therefore, high-frequency demands and less intense demands are more suitable for the use of a user growth system.

Designing a user growth system also requires a lot of attention. If it is not done well, it can easily disgust users and even push your product to the brink of collapse. It can be summarized into the following 4 "needs" and 5 "can be":

1. The system should reflect the core business characteristics of the platform: the elements and mechanisms therein should be as unique as possible, rather than being something that can be used anywhere.
2. The input and output of the system need to be balanced: preventing excessive costs, only obtaining meager returns, or not having a carefully calculated growth mechanism is an important part of not forcing the company to death.
3. The experience system needs to be separated: the growth system and monetary system between different business systems within a company must be separated. Different business systems have different growth systems, which can be more flexible and unrestricted and easier to operate.
4. User needs classification: Different users are motivated in different ways. Users can be divided into new users, ordinary users, active users, core users, etc.
5. The system can be expanded: if there are fewer levels and users can easily reach the maximum level, the system will lose its original value and function. Realizing sustainable development of the system in an appropriate manner is an important factor in determining the quality of the system.
6. The threshold is open: If the entry threshold is too high and the difficulty is too great, it is easy to lose the meaning of motivating users. In the first step, you should pay special attention to not scare users away.
7. Incentives should be perceptible: users should not be harassed, but neither should they not be notified at all. The presence of the user growth system should be emphasized in a timely manner to reflect different differentiations and expressibility, so that users will be motivated to play.
8. Levels can be expected: use mechanisms and gameplay to maintain a sense of scarcity, and consider adding demotion or lower limit mechanisms: for example, if you do not speak for 12 consecutive months, your account will be cancelled, and if you fail to complete a task, you will be downgraded.
9. "Fake brushing" can be prevented: including daily tasks can only be completed a certain number of times, specific behaviors only count the first time, repeated identical content is not counted, etc., which are also effective ways to ensure the sense of scarcity in the system.

Briefly describe the steps of designing a user growth system

The modules of a complete user growth system include "entry", "growth form", "calculation method" and "exit". Let’s quickly talk about the overall design process, and then discuss the details separately below.

1. Define the product’s business metrics;
2. Classify/model users according to product business characteristics;
3. Plan the best user path, determine what actions we expect users to take, what type of user they are changing from, and what the ideal operation and path are for users during the process;
4. Define the weight of each behavior according to the operational goals and choose the appropriate growth form;
5. Calculate the upper limit of the daily growth value based on the growth value (or other forms) obtained from the previous step;
6. Set the upgrade duration for each level and the overall upgrade calculation method, such as exponential function, power function or Fibonacci sequence, to divide the growth value required for each level;
7. Define exits for each entrance of the growth system to form a closed loop of user behavior , including designing levels or other required medals and titles, and planning display locations.

How to choose an entry point (setting goals)

Definition: The entry here refers to the way to obtain growth points/points/virtual currency, etc. There are many user behaviors in an APP. How can we select the user behaviors that can be used as the entry point?

1. Purpose Division

This is the most basic and simple method of division and selection, corresponding to the four basic goals of operation, and will not be explained in detail.

• Attract new customers
• Retention
• active
• Recover lost users

2. User classification (modeling)

Design different entrances and exits for different users. Targeted design will be more effective. Moreover, user behavior should be able to form a "closed loop". The user growth system should provide more incentive points around the behavior of different users based on their usage habits and purposes to promote the formation of a closed loop.

Our commonly used division dimensions:

• Behavioral characteristics: certain behaviors performed by users, such as activity, usage time, duration, certain specific operations, etc.
• Identity characteristics: based on the user's own attributes, such as gender, region, education, city dimension, marital status, etc.
• Channel attributes: attributes determined based on user sources. Common channels include Baidu, local marketing , mobile advertising , etc.
• Sensitivity attribute: an attribute judgment based on user psychology, such as price sensitivity, service sensitivity, etc.

Let’s take an online multi-person karaoke software as an example to enhance everyone’s understanding.

1) Big users: mainly singing and seeking self-realization

2) Group users: forming a family and hoping to gain recognition in a small group

3) Friends group users: offline users’ friends groups break geographical restrictions and have fun together

4) Self-entertainment users: mainly singing and practicing, and expanding their network of strangers

3. Classification by behavior:

• Active behavior: refers to the user's active behavior on the product, such as sharing personal homepages, posting, etc., mainly to increase user activity, quantitative dimension
• Passive behavior: refers to the recognition of other people after the user takes the initiative, such as likes, reposts, etc., to ensure the quality of user activity, rather than just filling in the numbers, the qualitative dimension

Choose the right entry and weight regularly

After determining which entrances are needed, we usually classify them and determine different usage frequencies for different entrances. The purpose is to create diverse gameplay and mechanisms to ensure that the user growth system will not become boring too easily, while guiding different users to play around the core behaviors that suit them as much as possible.

1. Novice tasks

It is designed for new users with a low threshold and is educational and guiding. Common entrances include registration, completing personal information, and completing a user behavior for the first time.

2. Daily tasks

It mainly serves to increase DAU and encourage users to open your APP, which is the first step for them to use the product. Common forms include signing in and the first completion of certain main tasks. There may be overlap between daily tasks and main quests. The focus is on the first completion of the day, and the reward method will be slightly different.

3. Main Mission

It is to make users perform the tasks you most want them to do. The core functions and value points of each product are different and vary from product to product. The main task should be the task with the highest reward, the least execution restrictions and the greatest weight. Common main tasks include live streaming ( live streaming platform ), uploading works (Karaoke software), reading (reading tools ), exercise (fitness platform), etc.

4. Non-fixed income

As the name suggests, the task benefits are not those that appear at fixed periods, but mostly things that bring surprises and extra encouragement to users. These include obtaining extra rewards from fans, rewards for operating activities, tips from other users, and the common treasure chest picking in the game.

Common growth patterns

Growth form refers to the presentation method and rules for obtaining rewards or user growth through the entrance. Different products are suitable for different growth forms and have a variety of applications. I have sorted out the common ones in daily life and found that there are 13 kinds. The following is a brief list of their respective characteristics. They are all easy to understand, so no pictures are provided to avoid adding to the burden of a long article.

1. Number of relationships/number of fans: reflects the user’s influence and voice/status
2. Identity authentication: authentication required for relatively rational and serious products, including real-name authentication, corporate authentication, and asset level authentication
3. Feature certification: mostly provided by official review, including V certification, expert certification, etc.
4. Medals/Titles: Titles that can be obtained through certain specific user behaviors, on-site operations, external advertising promotions , etc.
5. VIP membership: Trialable, with validity period, and multiple time packages. It is essentially a value-added service (IVAS) to encourage users to pay
6. Charm value/experience value: targeted scores related to various businesses
7. Growth value: a comprehensive score, non-consumable, and can be recycled regularly
8. Points: can be consumed
9. Virtual currency: can be consumed
10. Virtual props: Similar to a privilege, also used as gifts, with the property of exchange and secondary sale
11. Ranking list: You can set rewards for being on the list
12. Level: divided by points and other numerical values, and may have an expiration date
13. Series of tasks: Pack multiple simple tasks into one big task, and you can get medals, titles, commemorative cards, etc.

Calculation Basis of User Growth

A reasonable calculation method is set up to create gaps and boundaries between levels. A good calculation basis can make a set of growth levels have good differentiation and scarcity. Because the author is not from a professional background, in order to avoid teaching others how to do things, I quoted this part from Jinkey's original text. Everyone is welcome to read the original text "In-depth Recommendation | The Most Complete User Growth System Design Analysis in History, with 6 Case Studies".

1. Power function

The power function is generally used in platforms with more levels, such as Mafengwo and Pokemon Go .

A platform with a large interactive space, a very broad scope for obtaining growth value, and easy growth is suitable for configuring more levels. Therefore, online games generally have a lot of levels, because you can gain growth value through many gameplay methods such as fighting monsters, daily tasks, activities, dungeons, upgrade bonuses, equipment forging, life skills, fertility systems, and competitions. The growth system is mainly for DAU rather than GMV. You can consider setting up more levels and configuring a larger interactive space.

Example: Pokemon Go's growth system, after regressing its total experience value, we get the formula shown below:

2. Exponential function

The Fibonacci exponential function is generally used in platforms with fewer levels, such as e-commerce platforms such as JD Membership and Tmall Membership, and vertical platforms such as NetEase Cloud Music . E-commerce platforms and some other platforms do not have much room for interaction other than purchasing, commenting, liking, and logging in, so there are fewer ways to gain growth value (it is also possible that the product managers are too lazy...233333...). So if your platform has little interaction and your growth system is mainly for GMV rather than DAU, you can consider setting fewer levels.

Example: The growth system of QQ members, after regressing their total experience value, we get the formula shown in the figure below.

3. Other piecewise functions

The growth of piecewise linear functions is relatively gentle and the difficulty of upgrading is relatively low. Generally used when the level is not too important for the platform. The picture below shows the level distribution of LOL . The summoner level of League of Legends is actually useless. It mainly depends on the player's operating level. Because LOL has a very good team matching system, it is rare that a level 1 summoner will be matched with an opponent who is the strongest king.

4. Calculation method

Based on the user's historical data, the weighted average is used to get the upper limit A of experience a user can get every day, the set number of levels B, and the sustainable duration C of the system. Calculate the proportion of each level according to the exponential function or power function (custom coefficient term), distribute the sustainable duration C to each level proportionally, and see if the value is too outrageous, such as it takes 10,000 days to upgrade. Tencent has only been around for 19 years. If you need users to spend 27 years to reach one level, who would play...

After determining that the number of days Dn required for each level is roughly reasonable, use A * Dn to get the upgrade experience required for the nth level. If you want to get the total experience required for each level, you can sum the experience of the first n-1 levels.

Taking QQ members as an example, since we don't know the proportion of users with different payment methods, we will use the average of the highest and lowest as an example:

Calculations have proven that no matter what function you use to calculate, the number of days required, total experience, and experience per level you calculate are basically consistent with the function used.

Notes on level classification

Any form of growth has its own points and values ​​set, and levels are everywhere. Therefore, the division and setting of levels are particularly important. In fact, many principles in the user growth system are centered around levels. Therefore, we would like to list the points of attention in the classification of grades again to raise everyone's attention.

1. The concepts between levels should preferably be related and easy to understand;
2. The concept of grade should be understandable;
3. The level design should have good scalability. When the number of users explodes, the levels can be well added with more levels and gameplay. When the number of users in the highest level approaches the number of users in the second highest level, a new level should be introduced, because it means that the users in the highest level are beginning to lose their dignity;
4. In addition, the design level should be considered from both the user and operation perspectives to achieve a reasonable distribution of levels. You can’t allow many users to reach the next level too quickly, otherwise the operating space at that level will be very small;
5. The grading should be benchmark and scarce. The higher the rank, the harder it should be to obtain, indicating the nobility of that rank;
6. Design a downgrade system to ensure the quality of each level and increase scarcity;
7. There should be strong differentiation in exports between grades.

Reorganize the 5 categories of exports

Definition: The export mentioned here refers to the growth value/points/virtual currency etc. that users can redeem for their own physical rewards or services. When exploring exports among a variety of different products, the same problems as in the growth form were found, namely diversity and non-identity. Therefore, after listing all the exits I have seen, I tried to categorize them, which will also make it easier for me to think in these directions when designing exits in the future.

1. Functional privileges

• Gift Redemption
• Remove ads
• Product-related practical function expansion
• Get birthday gift pack
• Gain more experience points with a single operation (speed up)
• Reach the activity participation threshold

2. Resource Priority

• Official Hot Recommendations
• Add tags, official tag classification recommendations
• Priority is given to participating in official activities
• Increase the chance of winning an event
• Priority customer service
• Priority will be given to the microphone according to the situation

3. Restrictions relaxed

• Photo batch upload quantity and space capacity
• The categories of goods available for purchase in the mall have increased
• Relaxation of restrictions on the number of function operations (such as the number of times to change avatars)

4. Visual difference display

• Avatar, nickname
• skin
• Home page decoration elements
• Appearance form: microphone effect, entrance effect

5. Redeem for cash

• (Limited time/first come, first served) Redeem gifts
• Participate in the lucky draw
• Cash back on shopping mall purchases
• Free shipping and return guarantee

Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising

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