We can’t copy other people’s successful experiences, but we can avoid the pitfalls they encounter. The more pits you can avoid, the closer you are to your goal. Although I have only been in the Internet industry for more than a year and do not have any good experience, my six years of management and business consulting experience have allowed me to see many pitfalls in this short year. This article is a summary of what I have seen and thought during my more than one year of work.First of all, I would like to thank my boss and this company for being able to write this summary. After all, it was a bold decision to hire someone like me with no internet background. When I came to this company, my position was product operation , but in fact I didn't have any fixed responsibilities. I just did whatever I could. During this period, I did competitive product analysis , user research, business analysis, hosted B\C\ micro-site demand discussion meetings, worked as an OSS product manager , did business analysis, took time out to coach newcomers in the operations department, and participated in an application development interest group. The work during this period allowed me to move beyond the strategic research in my previous consulting work to specific business areas, allowing me to see more practical problems. During this process, I also fell into some pitfalls, but it was these pitfalls that allowed me to continue to grow.I work for an APP part-time platform, which is considered to be in the O2O field. It has a heavy offline presence and is an industry that needs to deal with both the B\C ends at the same time. When I came here, the company had just raised 10 million US dollars. This amount of money may not be much in the Internet industry, but it can do a lot. However, the company chose to work quietly offline, and the APP is still in the cold start-up stage. It now seems that one of the main reasons leading to this outcome is what is often said in the Internet field: rapid trial and error. That’s right, this phrase that Internet people often say is actually a pitfall. Next, I will talk about the pitfalls I have encountered from three levels: product, operation, and company. Of course, some views may be biased, so please correct me if I find any.1. Small pitfalls at the product levelThe problems summarized at the product level may not be very profound, they are just small pitfalls. In addition to the pits mentioned below. I personally also found that a pitfall is the personality problem: some product personnel are too emotional and lack business knowledge, which easily leads to problems in many areas. Therefore, I personally feel that it is still necessary for product managers to learn some relevant knowledge in logic, business, marketing , statistics, management, etc. After all, compared to how to make the functions useful, clarifying what are the important functions is the first thing product personnel should consider. A phrase often said in consulting is: Doing the right thing is more important than doing things right.1.1 Let me first talk about the pitfalls I have encountered1.1.1 Not prioritizingA product manager is essentially a project manager. There will be many areas that need to be optimized when a product is first produced. The key is to prioritize the optimization points.When I first came to the company, based on my intuitive feelings, I have been pushing for the beautification of the UI. But I later realized that, given the frequent updates of features at the time, a major revision to beautify the UI would firstly slow down the progress of feature updates; secondly, with repeated updates of features, if the overall UI framework could not be in place in one step, it would be crazy to adjust the development team later; thirdly, in fact, beautifying the APP UI was not urgent for the company's development, because there would not be many users in a few months anyway. Moreover, as a tool product, the core lies in whether it can help users get what they want. UI is just icing on the cake.This problem made me realize that the annoying things don’t have to be changed immediately, but rather all aspects should be considered comprehensively, including: the actual value of the development task to users, the key tasks of current product optimization, the possible impact of taking this measure on the later development process, the urgency of the development task, etc., and solve them at an appropriate time.1.1.2 Hearing what users say without digging deeper into the real demands behind their wordsMany times users don’t know what they want, and we need to dig out their real demands based on user feedback. Be especially cautious when user feedback involves certain important processes, otherwise it may backfire.What we are making is a part-time job APP. Many of the part-time workers we interviewed said that downloading the APP was too troublesome. The people in charge of job matching in various cities also said that it was very difficult to get users to download the APP and sign up. So we launched a microsite version to make it easier for users to register for positions and then download the APP when it’s time to settle the payment. But later it was discovered that most of the users who would sign up on the APP themselves registered through the APP, while users who registered from the microsite rarely signed up on their own. In other words, this move has led to a decrease in active users.There are two lessons learned this time: On the one hand, for many users, microsites are just a passing visitor in WeChat , while APPs will settle down in their mobile phones. As for the reluctance to download the APP, the main reason is that the value provided by our APP is not enough and there are relatively few positions. The focus should be on enhancing the value of the APP itself. On the other hand, although we will eventually guide users who sign up through the microsite to download the APP to receive their wages, this process invisibly gives users a psychological hint that the APP is used to receive wages. This further weakens the value perception of the APP. Therefore, when designing the process, it is necessary to consider the impact of the process on user cognition.To sum up, the reason why users are unhappy is often not what they say, and product personnel need to dig further. I personally believe that the core of mining is "value recognition". The reason why he was unhappy was that this operation did not make him feel valuable. Here is a famous quote from Ford: If you ask customers what they want, they will tell you they need a faster horse.1.1.3 Think about completing the function in one stepWhen we first launch a function, we always pursue the completeness of the functional module. However, it is enough for a function to meet basic requirements when it is initially launched. Non-essential parts can be cut and then gradually improved later.When we first designed OSS, we attempted to create a complete and professional user screening function all at once, providing a variety of screening dimensions, plus the combination of the three logical relationships of "AND, OR, NOT". Then it was rejected during the first requirements discussion meeting. Because our operations staff have not received any logic training, they cannot understand the relationships between "and, or, and not", and complex multi-dimensional screening will take up a lot of system resources. So only keep a few easy-to-understand screening dimensions. After the simplified version was launched, we found that our operations staff were completely at a loss as to the combined applications of various dimensions and were unable to apply what they had learned to other situations. I could only tell them which dimensions could be combined to screen out which types of users, and which data needed to be retrieved through which dimensions' combinations in various analysis scenarios. In the end, only half of the developed content will be used in practice, and the other half will basically never be used.The design of this function taught me three lessons: First, during the development process, the first version should try to select commonly used functions. For uncommon functions, they can be gradually added as needed during the iteration process, rather than pursuing the perfection of a certain function at one time; second, the actual knowledge level of the users must be taken into consideration. Some things require professional qualities, which a layman cannot learn in a short period of time; third, the accumulation of various data must be considered. Some data has very little accumulation and no availability, so the corresponding screening dimensions will not work.1.1.4 Always want developers to add more functions in one version and quickly improve the APPA startup company's product demand will change relatively more. At this time, fast is slow and slow is fast. Because in the case of rapid development, the code written by developers will be very troublesome to change later. However, if enough time is given during the initial development process to allow developers to write more modules that can be flexibly changed (of course, the premise is that the development team has the ability and awareness to do so), the effort spent on subsequent changes will be much smaller. Developers will not have too much resistance when adjusting functions at a later stage. This way, if you go slower at the beginning, you will be much faster at the end. And to be honest, there are not many truly necessary functions, and many of them are non-core functions that we added in the name of perfection.1.2 Let me talk about the pitfalls I have seen others go through1.2.1 Over-advancement - hindering the optimization progress of key modulesBefore I joined the company, our APP had four modules: awaiting recruitment, awaiting employment, awaiting settlement, and awaiting evaluation. But to date, except for the waiting list, the other modules have no practical effect on users. In addition, there are many modules that have no practical application. The reason is that we are concentrating on perfecting our products according to the business model we have preset in our minds. Ignoring the actual usage of internal and external users in actual operations makes the product too advanced.There are three main negative effects brought about by advanced product development: the first is that it hinders the progress of some key tasks in the early stages. For example, up to now, the tracking work of key process pages has not been done. This results in a lack of sufficient reference basis for product optimization. For example, the update of the product's technical architecture is delayed. For a long time, the update of many product contents requires users to actively update the APP to achieve it. The second is that it will take up more development costs. Once a function is implemented, it is not easy to remove it. From product development to development, everyone will find it difficult to accept it. Take the two modules "Waiting for Employment" and "Waiting for Settlement" as examples: In order to ensure the validity of the data provided in the modules, we make distinctions based on a series of logics such as the different types of positions users have applied for and the operations they have performed. According to the logic we have formulated, even after a few months, there will be only a few positions that will appear in the settlement process. The third is that it leads to waste of resources. After all, R&D is still quite expensive for startups . A few days ago, I talked to the product director who had left before. Millions of dollars of R&D money were wasted on unnecessary features, enough to fund a few good marketing campaigns.1.2.2 Group IQ: Group IQ is usually lower than individual IQAt the beginning, our company's technical department liked to mobilize everyone to discuss and even vote on a product or operation strategy. This is a very bad approach. The so-called brainstorming is normally used after everyone discusses together, collects opinions from all parties, and then has professionals organize and analyze them. Finally, after balancing, a relatively appropriate solution is reached and the leader makes the final decision.Making decisions is not a group fight. Three hundred cobblers are no match for one Zhuge Liang. Everyone's knowledge background and cognitive level are very different. Conversations at different levels will themselves have certain communication barriers, making communication inefficient. At the same time, the logical chain of discussion cannot be extended very long. But decisions on some issues may require dozens of logical links. Therefore, group discussion cannot solve this complexity problem. However, the details at the implementation level are often complex issues with broad connections. Therefore, it is important to make it clear that group discussions are only used to collect opinions and cannot be used to make decisions. Here is an example. This is the optimal solution for a certain product design point that I obtained using the clue puzzle method (from clues 1 and 2, we get conclusion 3, from conclusion 3 and clues 4 and 5, we get conclusion 6...). The process involves more than 30 clues and conclusions regarding user choices, development direction, operations, and development. This is definitely not something that can be figured out through discussion; it can only be discovered through careful and thoughtful thinking. You can feel it
Black fonts represent clue items
Red fonts represent conclusions (the numbers in brackets represent the clue numbers that produced the conclusions)
The previous conclusion can serve as a clue for the following
1.2.3 Follow the competition - what others are doing may not be usefulOnce, I discussed the need to "cancel the step of users selecting the registration date when registering and optimize the registration experience" with people from various cities in the company's large group to collect opinions, and there were both agrees and opponents. At this time, the leader of the sales department said: "Others have this function, why should we delete it?" Then everyone was speechless. From the perspective of human nature, it is normal to pursue the goal of "if others have it, I must have it too". But from a rigorous perspective, this kind of comparative thinking is often ineffective. For example, the iPhone has much fewer functions than the Android system, but it is still very popular. The key is not how many functions the product has, but whether the product is easy to use.In fact, our product was originally copied from a competitor’s product. That competitor had the richest details and even added a community module for operation. Including the designs of "awaiting employment", "awaiting settlement" and "awaiting evaluation" mentioned in the previous article were also copied from that competitor's product. But many features really don’t make sense to users. Users communicate with merchants offline to agree on the specific date to start work, how many days to work, and when to get paid. The users themselves know these things, but we don't. In this case, it makes no sense to add these features based on the theoretical process.Paying attention to competing products is actually a common phenomenon among all types of companies. Personally, I believe that analyzing competitors in the product field is not for the purpose of copying, but to find possible shortcomings of oneself through comparison. Then put them into actual scenarios to see if these are real shortcomings or just the opponent's fantasy. Therefore, business-focused APP product managers must have a deep sensitivity to business scenarios.Another feeling is: before making a product, I always thought that those products with complex functions were great, but when I saw a new competitor that didn’t even set up a selection card and used a main page to integrate the functions of versions B and C (the part-time industry generally has two versions of APP B and C), the operating experience was very smooth and the core processes were fully covered. It was then that I realized that the best designs are those applications that look super simple. Just like WeChat, it is actually a simplified version of QQ. But it surpassed QQ.1.3. The pitfall of creating a new product from 0 to 1: unclear positioningOur department set up an interest group for some time to conduct training, and turned an idea that everyone voted for into a product from 0 to 1. This time, all functional personnel in the interest group treated users as themselves and did not attach importance to shaping the value of the product. It was really a farce.Personally, I believe that creating a new product from 0 to 1 should start from the market perspective. Based on the logical core of the idea, we should lock in a group of people that is easy to expand. Then, based on the characteristics of this group of people, we should determine the product's field of origin, the value it provides to users, and the corresponding product style. In this way, there will be a corresponding direction and evaluation criteria for the design of product functions, copywriting , visual design, and promotion plan formulation. Personnel of various functions can then work in one direction.Since there is no value positioning and no style positioning, there are no standards in the design process of this product. The starting point for the product manager to design the function is "what we want the user to do"; when discussing the copy content in the product, the operation selection standard is "I like this"; the style of the interactive interface is selected by several designers, one version each, and everyone votes; the design of the promotion point is said to be more pornographic, but the overall product style is fresh and young, and the whole thing is a mess. At first, I talked to the person in charge of this product for an hour, but to no avail. In the end, I couldn't bear it anymore, so I wrote an analysis and suggestions article of more than 10,000 words. I finally got the product manager's thinking over, but was finally pulled back by R&D with a sentence: "Just do what you want." I want to say: It is very easy to get lost in a group. And as a product manager, you must have basic business knowledge.Below I will share with you a section from the article on product value positioning and style design from a commercial perspective:(1) The impact of product positioning on product commercial valueHere I would like to talk about how I evaluate the commercial value of a product. I personally believe that competition on the Internet is a fight for the value share of user time. Therefore, by breaking down the user time share, we can obtain the dimensions for evaluating the commercial value of a product. The impact of product positioning on these dimensions is shown in the figure below.User time share is the time value of users using the product/total time value of netizens. The time value of a user using a product is the number of times the user uses the product * the average duration of a single use * the product's life cycle * the value coefficient of the user group * the user's willingness to pay. User usage times: Total number of active users*average usage times per person. Therefore, expanding the user base of a product (or product group), increasing user usage time, stimulating an increase in usage frequency, increasing product life span, acquiring high-value people, and increasing willingness to pay have become important goals for many Internet products.Product value user time share{(Total number of active users * average number of times each person uses) * average single usage duration * product life cycle * value coefficient of user group * user willingness to pay} / total value of Internet users' time.(2) Positioning includes two aspects: value positioning and style positioning.Value positioning: the core value that this product provides to users. For example, WeChat’s “ socializing among acquaintances” function has expanded its user base to almost all Internet users. But like QQ, its value foundation is the social networking among netizens (it cannot be considered true stranger social networking), and its style is also very youthful. This limits its users to young people who love chatting online. At the same time, value positioning also greatly affects the average active time, average usage frequency, product life cycle, and user willingness to pay. For example, Moji Weather, whose value is positioned as checking the weather, can guarantee the average frequency of use and product life cycle, but it cannot guarantee the average active time and user willingness to pay. Alipay , which focuses on payment, cannot guarantee the average active time of users.Style positioning: It can be regarded as a label that tells our target audience that this product is designed for you. Different style positioning determines different user groups. However, the correspondence between style positioning and user groups will change over time in the long run. For example, in 2000, the styles targeted at young people were relatively fresh. But today, young people prefer more heavy tastes such as cuteness, violence, etc. Few of the Internet start-up products that have a fresh style can become popular.These two aspects first determine the user base of the product. The total number of this group of people is the upper limit of the number of users that can be expanded within the current positioning range of the product. At the same time, the style positioning of the product is also largely influenced by the value positioning. For example, some values are directly directed to a certain group of people, such as Tencent Comics. Then the style has no choice but to be the cute two-dimensional style.(3) Product positioning determines the product’s “ease of promotion”The value positioning of a product also directly affects its ease of promotion. For example, Momo’s initial value positioning focused on “dating”, which was a hungry and itchy demand. This led to rapid initial development, and the same is true for Tantan. For example, Didi solves the problem of not being able to get a taxi and the high fares; Meituan solves the user's desire for cheap prices. So there is no need for any good design in the early stage. When faced with hungry people, they will eat anything that is edible. And once they hear that there is food somewhere, they will flock there. Therefore, if the product’s value point is chosen correctly, it will naturally have the attribute of self-propagation. On the contrary, no matter how sentimental the packaging is, it will be in vain. After all, no one is stupid. At the same time, the style positioning of the product also has a great impact on its promotion. If a popular style is adopted, it will be easier to promote. It is also best for a product to have its own unique style, which will make it more popular with users than making it a "common face".(4) The choice of product positioning is closely related to the company's capabilitiesStart-up companies generally choose to enter a vertical field, not seeking to cover all users, but only to gain a foothold in a corner. In terms of value positioning, we occupy this market segment by providing specific value to a specific group of people. This way you won’t be killed all at once by some big guys. Momo and Tantan both use this routine. Start with making appointments and earn the time value of those who know how to make appointments and dare to make appointments. Keep has attracted most of the fitness enthusiasts.In terms of style positioning, many entrepreneurial companies also adopt alternative marketing styles, such as Dajie.com's cute and cute style. For example, Luo Yonghao has always emphasized that we are a small company. For example, Logical Thinking always discusses serious issues in a humorous and offensive way. For example, the style of "The Rise of Phoenixes" is full of flaws. For example, Humi, which specializes in blue-collar social networking, has a distinct rural flavor. We can draw a conclusion that the smaller you are, the more you should not take the usual path, because among thousands of troops, only a few can cross a single-plank bridge, and most of them will fall to death. It is very difficult to make everyone like you, but it is very easy to gain the love of some people at the cost of offending some others, as long as you control the offline level and avoid being invited for tea. This is the reason why Diaoye once said, "I would rather be a durian than a banana." There are many substitutes for bananas, but there are basically no substitutes for durian.1.4 Issues that must be discussed in terms of product - CommunicationPersonally, I feel that there are no people who are impossible to communicate with, it’s just that the cost of communication is different in different situations. The biggest obstacle to communication is not the matter itself, but the understanding of it:The first is the question of how to understand it. For example, one person uses rational thinking to understand and evaluates from various angles; the other person uses emotional thinking to understand and just says how I feel; this is like cross-species communication. I was particularly impressed by a communication with a product manager, at the end of which she said: "Actually, I think what you said is quite right, but I just feel that this is inappropriate. I can’t say why, I just feel..." At this time, the communication cost will be very high. I still remember that when I was doing consulting, I once worked with a rather sentimental girl. I worked with her for three years but couldn't convince her.Another difficult issue is the "language barrier". For example, operations personnel want to label part-time employees, but the grassroots level cannot implement it. So they want to achieve it through technical means and give one or several labels to everyone who has worked in a certain position in a certain industry. But this is totally unnecessary. If this logic is followed, it would be better to manage it directly through the industries that part-time staff have worked in. But I just can't explain it. Therefore, technology is relatively easy to communicate, at least everyone understands the universal language of logic. Just beat him logically. "Language barrier" is more likely to occur in communication with designers, but I personally feel that there is no need for much communication with designers. Just tell them what the overall style is and what content needs to be highlighted. Basically, they can output something similar. Be careful not to say this is bigger, that is smaller, or this color is like this or that. If you make people angry, you will really be unable to communicate.Generally speaking, everyone has different assumptions about the topic they are discussing. In this case, just state your own assumptions first, unify them at the basic level, and then talk about the corresponding problem. If the problem is more complicated, draw it on the blackboard. If that doesn't work, take a break and think about it again. Sometimes time allows us to find a new perspective, or if some problems are not very important, just let it go and focus on more important things. These are what I learned when doing consulting, that is, when discussing a problem, it is important to make the background clear and to clarify the issue being discussed. Avoid cognitive differences. Also, different people may have different understandings of the same word, so if you find something wrong, just explain it. Another issue is the stance. If there is a conflict of positions, there is nothing we can do but bargain.2. Operational pitfallsInternet operations can be divided into two categories: one focuses on online and the other focuses on offline. As far as the part-time job industry is concerned, users' online experience is very short. Most of the experience comes from offline. Therefore, our company's offline operations account for a large proportion. But offline operations are the most difficult. The systems and routines for online operations are relatively mature. You can do it yourself or outsource it. As long as you are willing to spend money, or spend time, and have no bottom line, there will be no problem. Offline operations are difficult because offline involves the management of people. The construction of the management system can only be done step by step by yourself. Let me talk about my main experience in operations and some points I have discovered that need attention.2.1 Let me first talk about the points that I personally feel are more important2.1.1 Value operation is the coreWhether online or offline, products or operations, the core is to optimize the experience for value. The level of value can be used as the first priority indicator for determining operational measures or the rhythm of product iterations. It’s just that the subjects of optimization are different in different places. In terms of operations, promotion without considering value will ultimately be in vain. This is what happened to us, and our retention rate is very low.As a part-time job APP, our most basic value is to enable users to find the jobs they want. A higher requirement is to ensure that the jobs found are reliable. Finally, the entire process from registration to settlement has a good experience. Based on this core value experience, the focus of operations is first and foremost positions. The first thing to do is the quantity of positions, the second thing to do is the quality of positions, and the third thing is to ensure service, including offline communication with users, and optimization of online APP operation and visual experience. So in theory, products should be the third priority in our company. At the operational level, the first priority is to enrich the number of positions by crawling, and the second is to strengthen the job review during the crawling process and improve the service handling mechanism after users are deceived. The third is to improve the service level of people who come into contact with customers. However, due to management and resource issues, the crawling work has not been effectively carried out after half a year. Therefore, our APP still has no significant value to users.I advocated the promotion of job capture a year ago. However, the operation department thought at that time that the quality of grabbing positions could not be guaranteed, and they did not want to do the same as other platforms, so they were unwilling to promote it. In fact, when I was conducting research, some users also said that they stopped using an APP after being scammed once. But this is not the universal case. Most people understand that scammers are everywhere. Moreover, if a user is cheated, if we can help him to collect his salary, or provide reward for reporting, or regularly publish a blacklist of scammers, we can create the image of a part-time defender. This pitfall in grabbing a job can be turned into a marketing opportunity. But due to various reasons, it has been delayed for a long time. Looking back now, in fact, most of the truly valuable APPs in the industry are made through crawling. After all, the capabilities of BD are limited, and they cannot provide a wealth of positions and cannot meet the basic needs of users.In any industry, the core value provided by competing products to users is similar. If you want to differentiate yourself, there are generally two ways. One is to do it more attentively and better than others. Another idea is to create new value. For example, in the early days of group buying websites, they did not increase the number of products or provide more choices like general shopping websites. Rather, it is the small number of low-priced goods that everyone is willing to buy. There is also a competitor in the part-time job industry that adopts this approach. The homepage is full of interesting and fun positions, which is very attractive to users. However, this requires that BD cannot be evaluated solely based on profit.2.1.2 Writing analysis reports is an indispensable task for operationsAnalytical reports are still very important for enterprises. It can let leaders know the issues they should know and draw their attention to certain issues.Products and operations are cost centers, so big bosses often try to save as much as possible. But the root cause is the lack of awareness of the seriousness of the problem. At this time, you need to use various analyses to poke the boss's pain points. For example, when I first arrived at the company, I conducted a competitive product analysis to demonstrate the gap between us and our competitors at the online level, and later successfully launched a new customer acquisition campaign. Before I came, our technical department had planned to carry out a new customer acquisition campaign. Everything from front-end design to back-end development had been completed, but it was canceled by the big boss just as it was about to go online. The reason is that they don’t realize the importance of online. Competitive product analysis is the most effective tool to present a sense of crisis.The second is the user research report, which is the second analysis report I made after joining the company. Through in-depth interviews with users and conversations with grassroots staff, we discovered problems such as slow salary payments on the C-end and poor service experience on the B-end. We conducted an integrated analysis to let the bosses understand how bad the service we currently provide to both the B and C ends is. At present, the idea of user-first has been deeply rooted in people's minds, and bosses will also pay more attention to it. Therefore, using users' mouths to express the problems that front-line employees want to say but cannot say is also a major way to solve practical difficulties in operations.The third is the analysis report of various indicators. This type of report requires relatively high analytical capabilities and is relatively costly. At that time, I spent half a month to prepare the first indicator analysis report for the company. At the same time, the technical staff took up 10 man-days to adjust the data, which was almost half a month's working time for a technician. The purpose of this report is to explore the causes of various problems through comparative analysis of data. From this analysis, some key points emerge. For example, through analysis, it was found that the number of retained users is positively correlated with the number of job postings. In this way, ensuring the number of job postings becomes a major means to increase retention rate . Generally speaking, many valuable conclusions can be analyzed by drawing graphs in Excel. If you have the time and ability to use statistical analysis software, the correlation between the data will be more quantitative. But generally speaking, many people cannot understand such data indicators, so if they are made into reports, they are not as clear as the charts made with Excel.Finally, another very important point is the business analysis report. Generally, companies will regularly report to their leaders on several key indicators such as new users, retained users, and order volume. But this only provides a status quo. Business analysis is to interpret the reasons for the current changes in major indicators through changes in detailed indicators, clarify which city is doing well and which aspects need to be strengthened, and finally give recommendations for adjustments to the current operating strategy. Since the system has not yet added the corresponding data display and export functions, our company's business analysis has not yet started. However, this content is very important for companies with multiple branches, because as long as there are multiple branches, there will be the problem of unbalanced regional development. The most important thing about business analysis is to expose the shortcomings of each branch. Combined with the corresponding assessment mechanism, it is a set of tools to improve the overall operational level.If you want to learn how to write analytical reports, I suggest you go to Baidu Wenku and search for internal reports of China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom. After all, the three major operators have the highest level in writing analysis reports.2.1.3 The construction of the management system should also be done with the idea of MVP (minimum viable product)Shortly after joining the company, I made some suggestions to the company on improving the indicator monitoring and management system. And then it was left unresolved. It now seems that there were big problems with the way it was proposed at that time. At that time, it was a set of management contents that needed to be improved according to the standards of a mature enterprise. But we are still far from that level. We are at zero in every aspect, and the bosses don’t understand the management system very well. They will definitely be confused after reading my suggestions.If I were to make suggestions now, I would start from the most important issues at the moment, such as job operations and the improvement of service satisfaction, and directly propose corresponding optimization plans, as well as cost-benefit evaluations. In this way, we expand step by step from improving the management system of key processes to user management system, benchmarking management system, knowledge management system and other aspects, and build up the fortress silently. Instead of telling people what needs to be improved like naming a dish and scaring them away.Moreover, the most appropriate way to adjust the management system is to start from small things and change the existing structure bit by bit. For example, you can adjust the organizational structure so that the branch company can be directly under the head office instead of being directly under the sales department, with operations and sales taking charge of their respective areas. Many bosses will definitely be very cautious. However, if we first say that we want to station operational personnel in various cities, this will be easier to handle. Then we suggest that certain positions be assigned to the operations department, and then add one or two operational indicators to the branch level. Do it step by step. It will be easier for the operations department to strengthen its control over the branch companies and ultimately complete the structural adjustment in practice.2.1.4 Talking alone will not workI personally believe that the core of operations is execution. Many times, when the boss attaches importance to something, the operations department always relies on shouting when they want to push it forward. However, front-line staff often have a lot of things to do. When they are shouted at, they forget about it as soon as they turn around. Then the operations manager starts to scold them, and in the end they continue to do their original work. The reason is that shouting and swearing cannot cause any actual harm.Grassroots staff attach great importance to indicators, and will try their best to make even the most unreliable ones look good. Therefore, a new measure should preferably be implemented at the indicator level, such as adding some content to the bonus and deduction items, and adjusting the weights of some related indicators. Moreover, having indicators is not enough, corresponding behaviors must also be monitored, and random checks can be used in this regard. At the same time, the monitoring work must be carried out by someone specific, so as to ensure that supervision is in place and the grassroots will truly take it seriously. However, our company's operations are rather miserable, and the operation department does not have the power to formulate and assess indicators for the people in each branch. So there are even grassroots employees who are in conflict with operation managers.If you can't control it, another way is to provide help and guidance, such as we did an activity of sign-in rewards and job rewards. After 1 week of online, no one participated. The last question was that many cities didn’t recommend it. Later I asked a branch: This activity is helpful for matching work, why didn’t I try to push it? They said they didn't know how to push it. Later, I helped them write a copy of the group swiping in the WeChat group , and asked the people from the operation department to send it to people from each branch to scan the group. The next day, I obviously saw that more people participated in the activity. In this way, if the threshold for execution is low, it will naturally be easier to execute. Later, I suggested to the operation department that every time I went on an event, I would add two things, one was a passage that was promoted in the WeChat group, and the other was to make the FAQ of the event into H5, so that it would be much easier for everyone to promote it.In fact, the biggest problem with our company in terms of execution is the inconsistent thinking. Since each branch is placed under the sales department, everything is done by the labor company, everyone regards themselves as a labor company. Many employees think that the APP and OSS systems are cumbersome. Moreover, the key indicators for the assessment of branches are only profit and user growth. But it is actually one. Because our user growth is driven by projects. Therefore, grassroots level does not care about the promotion of APPs and activities. All I care about is to pull projects and match part-time staff. This is the biggest problem.2.2 Some other pitfalls that need to be vigilant2.2.1 Promote without money but with moneyYou can do promotion even without a budget, it’s nothing more than spending more time and energy, taking advantage of hot topics, personalizing, swearing, chatting with users more and building a community. Anyway, if you don’t have money, you have to lower your attitude, be more vulgar and have more integrity. What I fear most is that I can’t bear to spend money and have a high attitude.Let me give you a few examples here. Let’s first talk about the girls who are doing new media operations . They have always wanted to make some innovations and make some new tricks, but they have no money or resources and can’t do anything. The ready-made high-reposted cases are just unwilling to copy them. It is boring to say that others do so much, and the company level does not like those vulgar things. In fact, as long as you can put down your posture, it will be fine if you open a few small accounts and be shameless. Moreover, this girl has indeed found a good way in the process of groping, which is to take advantage of gossip hot topics and make today's headlines . Once I spent a day to integrate reports on Ma Rong's cheating, and edited them, and I had hundreds of thousands of views. Unfortunately, she felt that this was not good, so she didn't do it anymore. Otherwise, you can also open up a good publicity channel . My feeling about this is that moral integrity kills people.Besides, the Operations Department wanted users to forward our content a while ago, and it costs 50 cents a time ago. You also need to take screenshots and review. Then I want to package it as a part-time job and let the team leader find someone to do it. But the price is too shabby, and every city says it is unreliable, and the review cost is also high. In fact, it's still a matter of posture. This is a typical rich mentality. I hire you to help me forward it, and I can't see it or care about where you forward it. But because it is too shabby, no one birds at all. If it is a way to change it to a lack of money, you have to invest your energy, such as letting the little girl in the operation change her avatar that is a bit tempting and not so distant, chat with the official groups of various cities and act coquettishly. There are dozens of large groups of hundreds of people, and it is not a problem to operate them and forward them by hundreds of people at a time. And from the perspective of effect, it is probably better than the one that costs money. What's more, it's too shabby to spend money. I had already communicated with the little girl in the operation, but unfortunately the operation leader was afraid of trouble and was very anxious, hoping that it would take effect immediately and it would be left alone in the end.2.2.2 New media operates for operationThis is actually the same as the competitors mentioned in the previous article. I must have what others have. But in fact, I didn't think about how to operate it. Take our company as an example. The official account updated the content every day, and then did the activity for several months without any effect. After that, it continued to update it every day. The number of views of the article is only one or two hundred every day. But it takes up half of the working hours. In this way, it is actually done for the sake of doing. WeChat operations are essentially about organizing events. Promote forwarding and bring in traffic for APP promotion . It is actually not very useful to keep that little bit of a pity in the view. If you can't do the activities, you can't do it at all. You can focus on "Today's Headlines" to be an integrated editor for gossip news, which can also have good results.2.2.3 Niche applications rely on prizes to promote new activities for the publicNiche applications rely on prizes to attract new products, actually spend money. We have done several activities to save prizes, and those who win awards usually find someone to save money. Although the official account has increased some fans, there are basically no ones who have actually imported it into the APP. Although it only costs about 10,000 yuan, the cost of development and design is 40,000 yuan, which is really a loss.Personally, I think that if a niche application is just about attracting fans and how much it can transform depends on luck, you can just do it with various zodiac signs, tests, and forwarding all the undefeated vulgar jokes such as wishes that will come true forever. Spending money is really not worth it. After all, a lot of people come for prizes are really just to get the prizes.A better way should be to target the things that the crowd itself cares about. I saw some part-time staff who would forward the information about scammers in WeChat groups independently, which is actually a good point. If you can be a public account exposed by a liar, I believe it will definitely gain the attention of many part-time workers. It’s just that the company is afraid of disputes, so it doesn’t agree to do it.2.2.4 The return rate of points for lottery activities is too highThis pit is quite detailed, but it will be a big trouble as soon as it falls in. In a lottery with points refund, the most important thing in calculating the cost of the prize is to calculate the proportion of points refund. Once we were going to have a point lottery event, which included several rewards for returning points and several cash rewards. As a result, after I calculated, the return ratio of points was 1.1. This means that the more points you draw, the more you get. In the end, the cost is unlimited. Therefore, the points return ratio must be less than 1 to ensure that the user cannot brush unlimitedly. In a lottery with points return, the cost calculation formula is as follows: the probability of winning a cash reward for each lottery cost * the cash reward amount * (1+ points return ratio + quadratic of the points return ratio + cube of the points return ratio + …). Therefore, in order to make the amount of the cash reward attractive, it is necessary to control the point return ratio. In addition, you must also review mathematics carefully when doing operations, otherwise you will be cheated to death.2.2.5 Incorrectly selected research methodsWhen it comes to research, many times people think of questionnaires. In fact, there are many ways to investigate. It includes many methods such as on-site investigation, user visits, and friendly user discussions. The questionnaire is also divided into various methods such as online questionnaire, on-site filling of questionnaire, and out-of-call questionnaire. All methods have their irreplaceable advantages. We need to find suitable means based on the purpose of the survey. If the wrong means is chosen, the result will definitely not meet the expected requirements.Among them, on-site research is the most troublesome, but it is also the most needed. You cannot understand the real situation without going to the scene in person. For example, the process of users taking part-time jobs, their mentality, focus during the process, and the actual practices of project operators can only be seen and experienced. There are also the problems you encounter when looking for a part-time job and the pain points you have to know by trying it yourself. It is the most direct way to understand users and the market.Let’s talk about the deep interview: It’s also very troublesome. A user can chat for more than an hour, and those who can’t chat for an hour and a half, and it’s one-on-one. Sometimes some people just want to set up a salon and chat together. But it is difficult to talk deeply when chatting together. There is a big difference in psychological states for public and private chats, and group discussions will cover up a lot of things. But the deep interview is just a chat anyway. Can talk more deeply. Therefore, to make a user portrait, you must conduct in-depth interviews. Dig into users' living habits, what they like, etc. Although a lot of information obtained may not directly support decision-making, how can you know where unknown surprises are there?Another thing is to have friendly user discussions and find some users to come and chat together. This method is mostly to chat with users based on specific issues, and there is a theme. For example, what kind of position is easy to be cheated, what kind of position is good at first sight, which channel is more reliable to find part-time jobs, what to do if you don’t pay, etc., you can talk more about it with each other with inspiration. The key to a friendly user discussion is to control the duration of each issue and avoid the topic being off-the-spot.Finally, let’s talk about the questionnaire, which is mainly used to verify some hypotheses. Generally, multiple-choice questions. The question and the setting of options are largely derived from understanding users and markets. If you don’t know much about it, it is best to do on-site research, user visits and friendly user discussions first, and think clearly about the issues that need to be verified before designing a questionnaire. Moreover, the questionnaire is not achieved overnight. First, you have to find a few people to try it out to see if there is ambiguity in the question and whether there are options. Users can’t tell the difference clearly. After modification, they will be distributed on a large scale. Moreover, the questionnaire will involve many execution issues, so the water is very deep. The desired results can be obtained through the selection of samples, the selection of filling methods, the selection of execution subjects, the guidance of problems and the order of adjustment. Among them, the execution body is especially selected. For example, if you want to conduct satisfaction surveys, you must not let each branch execute it, otherwise the execution result will definitely be high satisfaction. Many of those who are dissatisfied may not be connected, busy voices, etc. Or if you fill in the questionnaire directly on the spot, then the part-time jobs will be all Party B, and you will definitely be satisfied. You should find specific routines online, and you can learn whether the purpose is pure or not.2.2.6 One-size-fits-all management, equal resources, no experimental fieldThe problem of one-size-fits-all management is quite common. Taking our company as an example, when formulating position acquisition policies, the Operations Department sets 15 indicators per city per day. But there is a big difference between Beijing and Chengdu. Whether in terms of the number of part-time jobs or other factors, Beijing should be far higher than Chengdu. When formulating indicators, the weight allocation of each region can be set according to reference data such as the number of population and number of motor vehicles in the region. This way the distribution results will be more scientific and will not result in situations where some cities can complete them with their eyes closed, and some cities may not be able to play with them even if they spend a lot of effort.There is also the equal distribution of resources. For example, our company has many branches, and the resource distribution is relatively even. It does not say that it provides more resources or policy preferences to a certain area and builds it up as soon as possible. So at present, every city is making small fuss. No city has done a lot of things. Our stronger competitor first deepens a city before expanding, and each city has a clear distinction between strength and weakness. It seems that we are pursuing "wide", but in fact, we emphasize both broad and deep.In addition, branches are a good place for trial and error. They can have as many experimental fields as they have branches, and various pilot projects can be carried out. For example, strengthen promotion and job operations based on capture in a certain city, and try to establish a service provider system in several cities. In this way, various models will have results soon. But all the company's measures are implemented in a unified manner, and the risks will be great. The most important thing is that it loses many opportunities to try. Of course, I can understand that the boss is afraid that each branch will cause problems in private, but in fact, even if the person who will have problems is managed in a unified manner, there will still be problems.3. Big pit at the company levelEverything in the business environment applies to Internet companies. However, some entrepreneurial companies ignore these traditional business logics. For example, ignoring value and services, frequent changes in strategies and strategies, confusion in management, lack of careful thinking, etc. In essence, corporate operations also fall into the category of operations. Of course, as a product or a general operator, in many cases, it may not be possible to directly intervene at these levels. However, it can be recommended that the company level be alert to these issues.3.1 The most common big pit - quick trial and errorQuick trial and error is an old saying in the Internet field. Generally, it is a strategy used by large companies when launching many products. First, if not, withdraw, and if possible, then invest resources to optimize slowly. Or a product will first take the simplest version that can pass the basic process when new functions are launched. See if the use of data is determining whether this feature needs to be retained and deepened.But in fact, the application of the strategy of quick trial and error has great limitations. First of all, no one can use a product or a function when it is launched and it cannot be said that the product is not valuable. It may be because the product promotion is not strong enough, or the product's usage threshold is too high, or the functions are hidden deep, or the product value is not passed on to users, etc. Just like Zhang Xiaolong said that when WeChat was first made, he introduced to someone else and said that he could make free voice calls, but no one was interested. But later he told people that he could shake the handsome guys and beautiful girls nearby. Everyone was interested in this moment. Therefore, no one uses it after trying it, it may not be a problem with the product itself, but may also be caused by many other reasons. Only when other aspects are guaranteed to be in place can we confirm that there is something wrong with the product and function. So for many startups, agile development can be carried out, but quick trial and error cannot be done. Only if you want giants like BAT, you have traffic, understand your user needs, and have very mature products and operation personnel. It makes sense to say trial and error at this time.And the most serious thing is that some companies now apply rapid trial and error to the company's strategy level, and try this direction and strategy. I tried that direction and strategy. After a few rounds of trial, the grassroots employees became confused. The window period was almost over and the money was almost spent. From the traditional business logic, the direction should be relatively stable, and work towards one direction. Jack Ma once said: It is better to have "third-rate strategy, first-class execution" than "first-class strategy, third-rate execution". This is the reason. As long as the direction and strategy are not too outrageous, as long as it keeps going, it will definitely be much better than bumping around.Therefore, the best way for entrepreneurial companies is not to try and make mistakes, but to plan and then act. After all, as a small company, resources are limited and there are not many opportunities to try.However, quick trial and error is still effective in trying marketing methods, such as posters, table posters, etc. during campus marketing , and you can tell at a small scale. So I personally feel that quick trial and error can be regarded as a traditional small-scale pilot.3.2 Problems that are prone to occur when they are big - management chaosThis is mainly aimed at companies with relatively heavy offline services, such as those who provide part-time services. Because the offline is heavier, the team will be relatively larger. For example, we have three major departments: sales, operations, and technology, and have 9 branches across the country, so we have higher requirements for company management. However, due to the lack of relevant experience and talents, hidden dangers were laid from the beginning.3.2.1 Organizational structure confusionWhen talking about management, we must first talk about the organizational structure. For example, our company places 9 branches across the country under the sales department, and the branches include both sales personnel and operation service personnel. The assessment rights of operation service personnel belong to the branch, and then to the sales department. This makes it impossible for the operation department to supervise the service. The ending is that the branch's operation team was officially renamed to the market support team. All policies related to user services and APP operations cannot be implemented, and the user experience has been difficult to improve. Normally, our organizational structure should be the assessment system where the leaders of each branch and the leaders of each department are in the same level, and the sales and operation departments are in charge of the corresponding personnel. However, since the organizational structure has been determined, it will involve many personnel issues if it needs to be adjusted. In the case of shortage of talents and tight funds, many companies will choose to make do with it first. Therefore, if the organizational structure is wrong in the early stage, there may be no chance of change later.3.2.2 Improper post and responsibilitiesUnder the organizational structure, the position and responsibility are determined. The position and responsibility are actually relatively weak. What needs to be done in each position is actually a guiding program. But this is very important because there are often disputes in actual work, or if the leader arranges something, some employees will feel that this is not my scope of responsibility and will feel that it is against me. These situations are often caused by unclear job responsibilities. If the job responsibilities are clear, there is nothing to be upset about. To clarify job responsibilities, first of all, we need to clarify the main business processes, which position should do that matter, which review authority should be collected from the headquarters, and which should be delegated. This area is also more likely to cause problems, because leaders generally like to think about problems from the perspective of concepts, and will inevitably ignore the actual situation. For example, in the early days, our company was afraid that various cities would make trouble, so it charged the merchant’s review authority, but in fact, the headquarters operation department was not clear about the situation of merchants in various places, so when it was time to review, we would ask various cities. This kind of review is actually controlled by various cities, but it only took a break and slowed down the review speed. It weakens the merchant's experience.3.2.3 There are many loopholes in the performance appraisal systemIf the job responsibilities are relatively inexpensive, then the pragmatic ones are to be considered performance appraisal. Performance assessment is the guarantee of execution, and it is necessary to ensure the unity of indicator formulation and assessment rights, otherwise there will be problems such as policies and countermeasures at the top. Of course, the headquarters will add supervision positions and corresponding supervision systems, but this is necessary, otherwise it will be natural to add water to it. Since this area has not been clarified by my company, very few of the operating departments can implement the policies of the operation department, and basically have no prestige for the operating personnel of each branch. At the same time, when formulating indicators, growth enterprises often face a problem: they face a lot of uncertainty when crossing the river by feeling the stones, but indicators should not be adjusted repeatedly. To solve this problem, just wrap one layer. For example, the deduction items can include relatively constant items such as serious service accidents and ordinary service problems, and then specific items will be added or decreased according to the actual situation. On the other hand, multi-objective management is required for comprehensive teams. If the branch is just a sales team, then it is under the marketing department and there is no problem in conducting assessment from a single sales dimension. However, for a branch that faces both B and C and undertakes APP traffic diversion tasks and user services at the same time, it is necessary to conduct multi-dimensional assessments, otherwise the branch leaders will automatically ignore the functions that should be undertaken outside the indicators.3.2.4 Cooperation disorder in key departmentsAnother very important issue in management is cross-departmental collaboration. Now many Internet companies are divided into two departments, including promotion and promotion of their products and APPs, which actually creates many problems. For example, the product manager is a silly, sweet and fresh person, and the operation is a dirty demon king. In this way, there will be a big difference between the user's product cognitive experience and product user experience. In fact, the best situation for the two departments of product and operation is to form a cooperative relationship led by one party and executed by the other party. It doesn't matter who leads whom. It is important to have a dominant party. Some people may think that companies that are biased towards products are dominated by products and businesses are dominated by operations. But in fact, entrepreneurial companies are often hard to come by when recruiting . At this time, which team is stronger can lead that team. Perhaps a business-intensive company has recruited a good product team, and at this time, the product team can only lead. For example, this is how our company is, the maturity of the operation team is much lower than that of the product team. At this time, although the big boss hopes that everyone can perform their own duties and do not interfere too much in the operation of the product. But in fact, when connecting products and operations, they still have to be taught how to do it, but there are still many differences. Then there will be a lot of internal friction. So the actual situation is the most important. This is the deepest experience I have gained from the field of consulting to the specific position of doing things.3.2.5 Team deteriorationIn recent years, many people who do the Internet have liked to brush orders, which is a must at many key nodes. But before brushing, you must do a good job of ideological work. Otherwise, the team will be ruined. This is what my business is. After large-scale order swiping, many grassroots sales personnel will think that Internet companies spend money and do not need to make money. So there were no profitable orders for a long time, and the company finally had a major change. Find a new marketing director. Only then did a sales team be rebuilt. At that time, many salesmen went out to find jobs to be able to brush orders. Although the company understands that brushing orders is only a temporary behavior, grassroots employees may not understand. And even if you understand. After making money for a while, my mentality and other aspects changed. Make an inappropriate example. It is easy for a worker to be a lady; but it is difficult to get a lady to be a worker.3.3 The black hole of human nature - to die to lifeAfter the investigation, I found that the life cycle of part-time jobs in the field is very short, so I will not do it after graduating from school or finding a stable internship. Naturally, society also wants to find stable jobs. So this market is a dynamic market, with new people constantly entering and elderly people constantly exiting. Therefore, the most important thing in this market is brand and reputation. Just let the part-time newcomers know which platform to go to when they come in. After the corresponding brand is formed, the expansion of the B-end will also become easier.So this market needs to be built, one is to deepen the region and the other is to build reputation. But all these cost money. If these are not effective, then you will be finished. If you try to save money, you can live a little longer. So my company regards the part-time market as a protracted war. As long as you endure all your opponents to death, the rest will be fine. But unfortunately, there is a heavyweight competitor in our industry. Therefore, in order to extend the survival time, the boss has been emphasizing profitability. I hope that each branch can support itself by providing part-time recruitment services. From this perspective, our competitors are not part-time platforms, but labor companies and team leaders that have been rooted in many years. Moreover, this market has a very complex relationship network and the market is still shrinking, so the situation is not optimistic.Since the company focuses on profitability, our position prices are basically the same as the market level and there is no position advantage. At the same time, due to the lack of supervision and guidance in service, the user experience is relatively poor, so that job operators in some cities dare not say that they are positions in our company when recruiting part-time jobs. In the operation of APP, since the capture policies formulated by the operation department cannot be strictly implemented, the number of positions in some cities is very small, and it is difficult for APP to provide the value it deserves to users. Therefore, the brand and reputation have not been established, and the traffic on the APP is also very scarce.I understand that our big boss doesn’t want to provide good service and build a reputation. The reason for all this is actually just that I hope to live longer, and I am just worried about losing the stock. But in fact, several branches have been withdrawn so far.On the contrary, many cases in the commercial society are living toward death. For example, many entrepreneurs spend more than half of their money on marketing and branding to gather various resources. Although the probability of dying like this is not low, the possibility of dying like this is greater.postscriptI also have to thank our previous product director and current boss for being able to enter this Internet industry. They not only allowed me to enter this industry, but also gave me a lot of freedom, allowing me to receive information from all levels. Understand all aspects of the pitfalls. I stumbled through the way, and looked back and saw that there were only countless pits. In the first month of joining the company, our boss told me: I won’t give you any position, but I hope you can get everyone’s support through your own abilities. This is how the product manager is, using the role of an ordinary employee to do what the CEO wants to do. But unfortunately, I failed. I want to say sorry to my boss here, and I failed his expectations. There are management issues, overall team capabilities, and market issues. But from my own perspective, the first problem is that I have not avoided these pitfalls. The second level of problem is failure to convince and form an alliance. If you cannot convince others to accept it, no matter how many problems you realize, it will be useless.If you, together with your previous product director, you advocated simplifying the product and controlling the expansion of your technical team when you arrived at the company; if you formulate an operation plan as soon as possible, you will urge your boss to set up your operation department in Beijing. Perhaps the results may be different. But unfortunately, there is no if, time waits for no one, and what has passed will pass. I hope that all friends who see the article can avoid encountering the various pitfalls I mentioned again. If you have different opinions, please also be welcome to take a look.
Mobile application product promotion service: APP promotion service Qinggua Media advertising
The author of this article @Yin Chongyun is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author’s information and source when reprinting!
