Facing the termination order of operation, I summarized three points of work reflection:

I just saw a Weibo post about Zuckerberg's execution ability. In the past, I would just read it and remember the content, which was nothing more than inspirational speeches. Now, through summarizing my own two months of operational work, I find that sometimes the decision is just a matter of a few millimeter, and the execution strength will directly affect the market's reaction and results. To borrow a famous saying from "The Book of Zhou: Records of the Winter Official": It is better to get up and act than to sit and talk.

There are many definitions of operations work on the Internet, but different people will have different interpretations, and different companies require different approaches. At its core, I think there are two aspects to doing operations well: first, you should regard yourself as the boss, think what the boss thinks, and worry about what the boss worries about. Second, you have extensive connections and good resources.

The articles I often see are all about teaching people how to do operations, but few analyze the relationship between the boss and operations. I have encountered this embarrassment at work. Perhaps the direction of executing instructions is wrong, or the communication with the product is wrong, or the attitude of trial and error is wrong. I am learning and exploring, but I am told that the operation will be terminated soon and I will be replaced by other jobs. But after two months of practice, I have gained some insights, and I write them down for those who can see or are interested. I hope you can avoid detours.

First, operational work cannot be rushed.

I am a person with strong execution ability. This is a good habit I have developed during more than ten years of working in foreign companies. I usually do not leave the work arranged and instructed by the leaders overnight. I have ideas at the time and take actions later. But as an operator, you must have the right ideas and take the right actions, otherwise, you will go further and further away. In reality, this is actually a bit difficult to do.

First of all, today's Internet companies, especially startups , have small staff, limited funding, and not much spare time, so their operating costs are actually very high. Today's front-line combat is done by a refined iron triangle: an information intelligence expert, a firepower bomb expert, and a combat expert. With such an equipment, as long as the data, positioning and support from the rear are accurate and sufficient, it will be a matter of days to flatten a few hills. So operations, how do you play the role of a combat expert? We just mentioned ideas and actions. Are your ideas the same as your boss’s ideas? How many people cooperate with your actions? I made a similar mistake, and it was a big one.

The project I am currently running has not yet been put into production. The instruction I received on my first day at work was that it would be launched during the Spring Festival in two months, and I needed to make a product manual first. So I approached all the product team leaders one by one, read their development introductions word for word, and checked every English and code. Unfortunately, I did not graduate from this project major, so the time and energy I spent was twice as much. About half a month later, the instruction manual came out. I felt that it was a complete mess. The professional terminology was unoriginal, and the text structure was confusing and unexpected. However, it was passed (I later learned from the product manager that the product would not be launched until May, and that there were already multiple versions of the instruction manual. This is a later story, but it is enough to prove how ignorant I was when it came to the product).

The next step was to ask me to prepare a product operations book, which was quite impressive. It included company portrait, industry prospects, benchmark product analysis, channel marketing , online promotion, after-sales service, product feedback, etc. It took me another half a month, and the operations plan came out. I listed them one by one, very passionately. Not only did I talk about it on paper, I also consulted my friends about the TV station's shooting of promotional videos, surveyed my classmates in hospitals, schools and other public institutions about their interest in and feasibility of our new products, and even mobilized various resources to look for cooperation and investment opportunities in the same industry. Looking back now, maybe the operation book was too low-quality, and another point was that the understanding of the product was not comprehensive and profound. But during the process of communication and learning, I have always had a question: why have I never heard the product leader say anything about benchmark products? Could it be that we have already achieved the goal of being the best? (I later realized through constant searching and learning that it is very important to do competitive product analysis . Maybe the product leader didn’t tell me because he thought I should know it, or maybe he thought I didn’t need to know it? This is another story.)

In summary, operational work really cannot be rushed, especially when making new products. When there is time to incubate and cultivate them, you must stand in the macro-social development perspective and the ever-changing industry competition to view, compare and position the product. The lifeline of the product is very important. Only when the true face of the product is unveiled, can you be so dazzling and irreplaceable. This requires a lot of data and complex analysis to support it. Only by knowing yourself and your enemy can you hit the target with one blow. So in the remaining time, what I can do is to try my best to collect as much information as possible, hoping to give the product more competitive weight.

Second, the operational work cannot be complete.

Many people would say that operations means doing everything, but I would say that if you do everything, you will do nothing well. The person who thinks about everything is the boss, the person who does everything is the technician, and operations is to implement and break down the boss's ideas one by one. We will continue with what works and abandon what doesn't. But the direction must be right, so that things will spiral towards the correct goal and finally achieve it.

As I understand it, operations unify a series of functions that are not directly involved in production, such as sales, public relations, publicity, planning, and after-sales. what does that mean? Don't talk about operations easily until you have done all the above work. Even if you have done all of them, you must do at least two of them in depth to be qualified and capable of managing operations. As for professional knowledge, people with learning ability don't have to worry about it.

Let’s talk about sales first. Sales skills, market analysis, customer group positioning, customer preference surveys, customer exploration and cultivation, sales target setting and decomposition, pricing strategies, market feedback, etc. Behind each one is the analysis of a lot of data and a lot of time investment. And the most important thing is resources and connections. So compared to the large amount of work before, you will understand why people nowadays like to build relationships and find connections, because as long as the approach is right, this is the most labor-saving and time-saving method. Although it is sometimes the most expensive, it is highly efficient, has a short cycle, and produces quick results, which meets the needs of the rapid development of the modern economy. So now, as long as the more people participate in a project, the cost will naturally be higher. It is not all high in labor costs, but high in operational turnover. You know this...

Public relations, the authoritative explanation is the communication and dissemination relationship between organizations and the public environment. Obviously, it is the relationship between people, people and things, and people and the environment. Customer visits and maintenance, approval from higher-level departments and the transmission of policies, interaction and contact with peers, and of course the most important one, the relationship with the media. In today's relatively open discourse, companies that ignore the role of the media will find it difficult to move forward. This is a double-edged sword, but if used properly, it will definitely be a win-win situation.

In terms of publicity, this is incredible. The rapid development of communication platforms, the iterative updates of communication methods, the omnipresence of the Internet, and the rise of self-media have made you baptized and changed every day. If your thinking doesn’t keep up, your products won’t be able to grasp the ultimate needs of customers; if your development doesn’t keep up, you will watch your competitors take the lead; if your publicity is not in place or accurate, you will lose all your competitiveness. The market is equal but also cruel. In this era of fast and good, as long as you have enough confidence in your own products, you should give it a try, stand firm and unmoved like a mountain before you, grasp the main line of the product, give it the value of permanent vitality, and promote it steadily in a rhythmic, efficient and not blind manner, and wait for the flowers to bloom and fall!

The planning function is probably the closest to operations among traditional businesses. In the past, companies with planning functions generally had people who were responsible for implementing the corresponding policies. But now in most new startups, the person who plans and does the actual work is the same person, which creates conflicts. In fact, many good ideas are good in theory and have a certain degree of feasibility, but they are very difficult to implement. Because people are naturally lazy, they will artificially avoid difficult challenges. Because the cost of persistence and trial and error is really high, general operators will avoid coming up with plans that they cannot achieve. If we look at those successful operations staff, almost all of them work at the level of a boss. In fact, such people can become their own bosses at any time. After becoming successful, they may stay in the original company based on training, high salary, or friendship. In short, a soldier who does not want to be a general will never become a general.

So from today on, fellow operations colleagues, your work is not for the company, not for the boss, but for yourself to become your own boss, for your own entrepreneurship and development. Take action! If you say you don’t want to be a boss, don’t want to start a business, and just want a stable job, that’s fine, but don’t choose operations!

Finally, let’s talk about after-sales service. The after-sales service of a conventional company should fully understand customer opinions, promptly resolve various opinions and complaints, control and adjust the product life cycle, etc.; the after-sales service of an unconventional company should also deal with various legal disputes, formulate response measures to emergencies, etc. After-sales service is not only about user response, but also about market compatibility. The higher the match with customers and the environment, the more vital you and your product will be. You need to adjust the supply and demand relationship through data analysis at any time, so after-sales feedback is particularly important.

After you have mastered the above functions, you are almost done with the operation work. What remains is your professional depth and your loyalty to the product and the company. This will determine your work attitude during the bottleneck period, the development period, the harvest period, and the re-innovation period, and will also determine how far you and your product can go...

Third, operations cannot stop.

There is a saying that goes "plan before acting". Now it seems that this is said to decision makers. As an operator, you have to constantly try and make mistakes for your boss, and constantly find the development path that is truly suitable for the product through trial and error. I myself am a good example of this.

For example, the product launch date mentioned earlier, why was the official launch time 3 months later than what my boss told me? Because he needs enough time to adjust after your trial and error. This is the same as looking for investment when starting a company. A boss who only looks for investment when he needs money will definitely not last long.

For example, the product leader mentioned earlier did not tell me about the benchmark products. It’s not that he thinks they are not important. In fact, our products are not industry-leading or original, so imitation and then surpassing should be our development concept. How could he not know the importance of competitive product analysis? The only explanation is that he also plans before he acts, and lets you act first, so that your information can update and support his information. Although it sounds uncomfortable, it is true. Later, I saw in another workflow platform of the company that the company's operations have been going on uninterruptedly, including recruiting people and content production, and product improvement and packaging have also been running, and it happened to be carried out under the leadership of this product team leader.

It is understandable that operations cannot stop, just like a company must always have talent reserves and cannot be tested at the last minute. This is the pattern and arrangement that a manager should have.

It was the first time that I felt the thinking of managers at such a close distance when I worked in operations; it was the first time that I was exposed to the challenges of entrepreneurship in an all-round way when I worked in operations; it gave me tolerance and vision; it gave me persistence and patience; it stimulated my learning ability and motivation for innovation; it was the turning point of my career when I worked in operations!

"The revolution has not yet succeeded, comrades still need to work hard." This was Mr. Sun Yat-sen's ardent hope for future generations. The revolution succeeded and his vision was realized.

“If the sky had feelings, it would also grow old. If the sky had feelings, it would also grow old. The right path in the world is to change with time.” This is Chairman Mao’s passion and ambition to give the revolutionary cause a new look. With the founding of New China, his blueprint has come true.

“If I were to compare the West Lake to Xi Shi, light makeup or heavy makeup would always be suitable.” This is my ideal country, a place of simple beauty and intense beauty. In short, be as beautiful as you can, create a gorgeous life and a world as beautiful as flowers!

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

The author of this article @青青 is compiled and published by (青瓜传媒). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!