Excellent product or operation: You have to understand the "emotions" and "desires" of users

As we all know, a product only has meaning if it is ultimately used by someone. What kind of products will be popular with users and make them willing to pay for them? If you want to understand this problem, you must consider the user psychology. This is why the author has always believed that an excellent product or operations manager must also be a qualified psychologist.

1. User "emotion"

1.1 Good Faith

The saying "Man is inherently good" was instilled in us when we were very young. Regardless of whether human nature is inherently good or evil, I think most people must have kindness in the softest part of their hearts. Maybe they protect this kindness very well, but it does exist.

Existence is reasonable, and as those of us who deal with users on the front line, we must not turn a blind eye to this. The use of "human kindness" is indeed an ancient practice: beggars, one of the oldest professions in the world, are not the most typical representatives of this. Not to mention the various "poor people" who are difficult to distinguish between the real and fake and now live under the overpasses. If we study their copywriting carefully, we will definitely gain something. It is so sad to hear it and cry to listen to it.

But to arouse the kindness in people's hearts, some tragedy is always needed as an introduction. Therefore, this kind of operation method has been suspected of "exploiting the victims" from the very beginning. If people of my generation really want to take advantage of this momentum, I hope to bring practical help to the victims. If we become like "Luo Er", then it is better not to have such explosive articles.

1.2 Seeking Knowledge

Humans are naturally curious about the world around them. Just as a baby is full of curiosity about the world as soon as it is born, it looks around with its eyes open. The rise of various content entrepreneurs today is largely based on people’s enthusiasm for obtaining unknown information. Here I mainly want to talk to you about the most typical category of knowledge-seeking: "gossip".

Gossip can be said to be the instinct of the Homo sapiens group. Yuval said: The reason why Homo sapiens was able to become the ultimate winner surrounded by enemies such as large animals is mainly because we can "tell stories." These stories give us common goals and beliefs, and bring us closer together. Most of these stories that deepen our understanding of each other come from daily trivialities, or gossip. Gossip brings us closer together.

And human history has developed over so many years. Today, the gossipy heart about the things around us can be said to be deeply embedded in our "genes", and this has become the most commonly used point by "content-based" operators.

If a copy is to arouse the user's curiosity, the title is very important. Here I take Toutiao as an example. As a well-known clickbait among content apps, it can be said that it has gone further and further down this path. But we have to admit that there is indeed a large number of users who are deceived by its title.

Image from Toutiao app

After reading these titles, will you be curious about gossip: "Who are these 6 male stars?" "The New Legend of the Condor Heroes is very popular recently, but there is actually a TV series that can surpass it?" With these confusions, will you click in to take a look? That’s right, these titles and topics take advantage of the gossip-seeking nature of official users.

So what topics can trigger people's gossip? In fact, if you understand the situation of Toutiao, you will probably know the answer to this question.

The biggest public pressure Toutiao is currently facing is that its content is “vulgar and lacks values.” Zhang Yiming’s answer to this, “Technology has no values,” actually tells us what type of content is popular and gossipy enough. Toutiao’s recommendations are completely dependent on system algorithms, and it recommends what the user likes. In other words, the current situation of the proliferation of vulgar content on Toutiao is caused by users. A large proportion of the "vulgar content" on the headlines is entertainment news.

It is true that operators like to take advantage of various celebrity gossips, such as the "Ma Rong incident" and " Lin Dan cheating". In fact, these things have nothing to do with our daily lives, but it is the "gossip" due to human nature that makes these hot events ferment and spread again and again.

From this we can conclude that one of the content types that is suitable for exploiting users’ gossip psychology is “entertainment industry”. In addition to these, there is actually another type of content that is very suitable for gossip: the people and things around us.

Here we take the example of a small WeChat Moments game called "Prank" when the product ZhuiTA was first launched. The way it is designed to work is: the prankster shares the link to the circle of friends, and people who are unaware of the truth click on the link to enter and answer 7 sensitive and private emotional questions: such as "What is the name of your loved one?", "When did you have your first time?", etc. Everything is disguised so well that people would mistakenly think it is an old-fashioned little test on the circle of friends.

But when the person being pranked answered these questions and submitted them, what he received in return was not the test results but the mockery of "You've been pranked". The information filled out by the person being pranked will be sent to the prankster’s WeChat account , where all the answers will be visible. Users have been tricked into doing this, so why don’t they take “revenge” immediately? Isn't it killing two birds with one stone to be able to take more people into the water and know other people's little secrets? It is precisely based on this kind of "gossip about friends around" that this small game in the circle of friends became very popular at the moment.

1.3 Vanity

I think everyone has vanity. It is actually a variation of the "respect need" in Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory. People always want to be recognized and establish the image they want to create in the minds of others.

This also explains why there is a saying circulating in the self-media circle: what users read is not necessarily what they are willing to share. The reason is simple: when we read it ourselves, it is based on what we want to know and what knowledge we want to acquire, and when we decide to share it, what we think is: I hope more people know about this content or I hope they know that I am reading this. In actual practice, it is often the latter rather than the former that prompts users to share.

After all, when many people get good things, they subconsciously keep them for themselves rather than share them. Sharing based on the latter can make people feel: "Wow, this person actually reads such cultured content, he is so knowledgeable and ambitious." This is exactly the effect we hope to achieve through sharing, to create an image that we want others to see and to satisfy our vanity.

1.4 Laziness

People are naturally lazy. Let’s take sharing as an example. When users have the urge to share, if they need to go through the trouble of opening a web page and writing an original statement, the cost of this operation is very high, which will invisibly block some people from sharing. This is why more and more products now have one-click sharing features, and will even help you write a paragraph when sharing, making full use of people's laziness and helping users to be lazy.

Share Jianshu articles to Weibo interface

In addition, we are guiding users along the path. The same logic holds true: for every additional link in the path, 20%-30% more users will be lost. Users are lazy. Once you make them feel that your product path is complicated and the operating cost is high, they will abandon you. Therefore, when we design the conversion path, we must make the process as short as possible while ensuring that the main information is clearly conveyed.

Of course, the rise of e-commerce platforms like JD.com and Taobao , the popularity of food delivery platforms like Ele.me and Meituan, and the favor of OTAs like Ctrip and eLong among users essentially satisfy the users' lazy psychology, allowing them to obtain information and achieve their goals more quickly. Originally, the Internet as a tool is meant to make our lives more convenient.

2. User Desire

2.1 Power

The membership level system can be said to have achieved the transformation of user power from abstract to concrete.

In Internet products, these powers will ultimately take the form of privileges or services. Privileges include one-click sign-in for advanced users of Baidu Tieba and various privileges corresponding to blue diamonds, green diamonds, and red diamonds for QQ members; and services, many products will use it as a value-added service to stimulate users to monetize. For example, Evernote paying users can log in to the same account on multiple devices and have larger storage space.

In short, the design of user "power" in the product makes users appear unique, and to exaggerate a bit, they may even feel like they are "looking down on the world."

2.2 Lust

There is no need to say more about this. “Everyone has a love for beauty.” Humans are born to like beautiful things.

Female users like to see themselves beautiful. The most typical example is beauty software such as Meitu XiuXiu . Its recently launched hand-drawn selfie function has swept the author's circle of friends for a while, and its viral nature is very strong.

Meitu Xiuxiu’s hand-drawn selfie function

Male users like to see other people’s beauty. We can see that "Momo" can occupy a place in the strong social field of WeChat through stranger social networking. The Momo product attracted a large number of young and beautiful female users, which naturally attracted more and more male users. The more male users there are, the more recognition and other opportunities female users will get on this platform. Naturally, more female users will come here, thus forming a virtuous circle of a dramatic increase in the user base.

This is actually the same as the "men A, women free" policy implemented by many offline bars. As long as such dating platforms have high-quality female users, there will naturally be no shortage of male users. Small tips for specific operations: let the operation staff pretend to be beautiful female users, use small vests to retain more male users and capture the early batch of users of the product.

Let’s take the example of WeChat Shake. I have to say that Tencent’s products are really great. WeChat Shake can be said to be a perfect exploitation of the power and lust in human nature.

WeChat shake interface

The shake function itself, which allows people to make friends with strangers around them, has some indescribable meanings. The opening and closing of the phone image to reveal the image of flowers behind it is even more meaningful. The action of vigorously shaking the phone and the sound of a loaded rifle after completion is a metaphor for male power.

It can be said that this function, from its design to its ultimate purpose, revolves around power and lust.

2.3 Greed

There is actually no need to discuss this point in too much depth. Because we have seen too many examples of this and we have made good use of it.

Chris Anderson mentioned in his book "Free": In the 20th century, "free" was a powerful marketing tool, but in the 21st century it has become a new economic model. China's major Internet companies are making this a reality. From free trials of products to educating the market and snatching users through the so-called subsidy war, all of this takes advantage of people's greed.

This has also become the main reason why more and more Internet companies are finding it difficult to find a profit model. After all, once users get used to free services, if such services are charged one day, users will inevitably rise up against them.

Just like when Tencent was first established, it was under pressure to survive as QQ’s profitability was out of reach. In February 2001, Tencent decided to charge for the QQ number registration service, which had been free before. This caused Tencent to encounter its first public opinion crisis since its establishment. In July of the same year, a netizen posted a message titled "Tencent QQ, you are so awesome! ”, severely condemning Tencent’s charging behavior and warning Tencent that “if there is a second online instant messaging software that can compete with QQ, Tencent’s launch of this registration method that is not welcome by users would mean suicide.” The author then called on everyone to boycott Tencent’s charging behavior.

I give this example to illustrate the terrible "greed" of people. Logically, there is no free lunch in the world. These Internet companies provide services to users, and of course we need to pay some price for doing so. But when it comes to interests, people tend to be irrational, especially after experiencing the benefits of free things, just like "it's easy to go from simple to luxurious, but difficult to go from luxurious to simple." But it is precisely people's obsession with "greed" that makes it easier for us to take advantage of this psychology of users.

Seizing the user market through subsidies is one way, and offering rewards for forwarding in the circle of friends in various ways to induce sharing is another way. But no matter which form it is, it is based on the user's "greed" psychology.

3. Summary

"The most unpredictable thing is the human heart." We always say: product design is based on user needs, and operations require users to be the top priority. But if we don’t understand user psychology, how can we talk about “serving users”? There is so much content in the field of psychology that is worth studying, and in-depth research in this field will definitely help us become an excellent product or operations manager.

In this article, the author only lists several common user psychology, such as reciprocity, seeking help, fear of loss or missing out. In order to avoid the article being too lengthy, the author did not discuss these in the article. The author is currently reading the book "Scarcity" co-authored by Cederhill and Elder. After reading it, perhaps I will have a deeper understanding of user psychology. I will share it with you then.

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The author of this article @糖愫尔 is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!