Do you think you can operate well just by reading the dry goods? Stop dreaming!

Just like I have heard a lot of truths, but I still can’t live a good life. Many operators have the same question: Why is it that after reading so many useful articles, studying various successful cases, and working diligently and overtime until late every day, I still can’t do product operations well?

Most of the people who read my articles are Internet industry practitioners, and more than half are front-line product operations personnel. I also often receive inquiries from readers with all kinds of questions, but there are many things to do in operations, and the operational focus of different products is also different. Some readers even ask how to operate without even specifying the product name and product type. This kind of question obviously cannot receive effective feedback. There is another type of readers who are particularly obsessed with practical skills. Product operation does have a systematic methodological system, but it is not just "skills". Product forms are changing, and product types are constantly evolving. Sticking to the operation skills of a single channel only solves a specific problem at the moment. In the rapidly changing era of mobile Internet , the only way to succeed is to form your own operational methodology through practice.

The thoughts in this article are partly my past self, and perhaps also yours who are currently troubled. You may want to check it out yourself.

1. Not liking your own products

I have seen many operators who love to complain. When they encounter difficulties, the first thing they think of is that the product is not good and the product managers are scum. They feel that they have a bad product in their hands and are completely unable to operate it. When you choose this retreat, it means you have given up on doing a good job of operation.

The lack of interest essentially stems from a superficial understanding of the product. One does not know what the team is doing, so one feels confused. What does it mean to love your product? You will use this product to the fullest extent, and every functional point will be familiar to you over and over again. You will also know what has been updated in the latest versions of similar competing products in the industry.

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

When Yu Jun, the father of Baidu's PM, was doing search, he searched at least 200 queries every day for more than a year, compared the search results page experience and then thought about product strategies. Otherwise, do you think Baidu really relied on the government to defeat Google ? When Ma Huateng started his business , he pretended to be a girl to chat in order to attract new users. These big guys made their products successful because they had deep passion for them.

If you think these only exist in the press releases of bigwigs, let me tell you a real case:

I once had a colleague who was working on a mobile office software product. From the moment he took over the project, he insisted on writing PPT on his mobile phone. Can you imagine? It wasn’t a tablet, but a small screen on a mobile phone, which made me worship it to the core. Some people may think it is stupid that they have a good PC-based Office and are torturing themselves by not using it. However, in this process of self-abuse, he understood mobile office more deeply than anyone else. This was not something that a genius product manager came up with, but was the result of real experience and thinking. Without passion, he would not be able to persist for a week. This product is now the best mobile office software in the world. That’s right, it’s the mobile version of WPS Office.

When I first started working in operations, I didn’t have much confidence in the product line I was serving. A colleague told me: Just brainwash yourself and keep repeating in your mind that this product is great. I say screw you, this method doesn’t work for a rational person and it’s also stupid. Then I did this: I used the official Weibo account to search for product keywords on Weibo every night and responded to users' complaints and compliments. At the time, this was not part of my job description, nor was it considered a KPI, but after doing this for three months, I became confident. I knew what users liked and disliked, and from an operational perspective, I could highlight the advantages and hide the shortcomings. All of this was based on passion and a desire to make this product a good one from the bottom of my heart.

Some people may ask, isn’t this customer service? Yeah, what happened to customer service? Do you think it’s low to be a customer service representative and reply to user comments? Put away your proud self-esteem, customer service is the front line of contact with users. Regardless of the level of product operation, it is necessary to maintain the habit of communicating with users, even if it is just silently listening to what users say.

People who don’t love their products will never be able to operate them well.

2. No goals

Before deciding how to do something, ask yourself why you want to do it and what you want to do. If you do something without having a clear goal in mind, you will only become more and more confused in the process, and even go astray.

Let’s take the example of new media operations : WeChat public accounts have now become standard for enterprises, and no one has ever questioned it because everyone is doing it. At the same time, the official Blue V accounts of many companies are basically no longer maintained, and I have unfollowed many of them. Many people have not carefully analyzed the changes in these two platforms. There was also the QQ official account internal test last year. Many friends tried to grab it, but in the end they didn’t get it and felt very disappointed. I comforted them and told them that there was no need to rush and that I would not do it even if registration was open. Why? Because my users are not on Mobile QQ, the input-output ratio is too low for me, so why do it?

Why do we need to create a WeChat public account ? Why do we need H5 communication? Before a new popular new media platform emerges, Weibo has given up and WeChat is languishing. What else can it do? Is Social = Weibo + WeChat? I often ask this question to readers who come to my WeChat public account for consultation. Before sharing how to do it, it is particularly important to clarify why you do it and what you hope to achieve.

The same is true for product operations. Take Alipay as an example. Many people say that Alipay is doing social networking , but it is not. The activity of collecting five blessings is not intended to trick users. It is to establish friendships based on payment scenarios and complete the closed loop of payment. It is also a defensive measure. That’s why there is the activity of collecting five blessings. In Bai Qi’s opinion, its goal has always been clear. You know, Alipay’s product operation is not as stupid as many self-media say.

When WeChat first started using red envelopes, many company operations created WeChat groups and applied for funding to send red envelopes to users in the name of user feedback. This seemed stupid to Bai Qi. What happened after the red envelopes were sent out? The user quits the group, or the WeChat group becomes completely dead with no one talking. This is a typical case of knowing that you have to do something but not thinking clearly about why.

3. Always looking for shortcuts

Someone asked me before what is the secret to quickly increasing followers on WeChat public accounts? I always reply "Let's go to Taobao". If there is a truly effective and universal method of increasing followers quickly, it must only be applicable to a small number of pioneers, because users are not stupid, and a method will inevitably become ineffective after being used by many people.

"Shortcut" and "efficiency" are concepts at two different levels. Efficiency refers to a unique method of achieving a great result with little effort, while shortcuts seek to gain something for nothing.

Take the example of increasing followers of WeChat public accounts. After all, this is a rigid need for many new media operators. A few years ago, when WeChat public accounts were just becoming popular, I did mutual promotion with the official accounts of several well-known software products in the industry. At that time, there were not many people doing mutual promotion, and users were very receptive, so the effect was very good. Later, we even set up a brand alliance and organized activities on a regular basis, and the number of fans on each WeChat account quickly accumulated. This is an expansion of promotional channel resources and a new way to increase followers.

Product operation is a "no effort, no output" job. The result of pursuing shortcuts too much is that it is difficult to grow. I have read a lot of useful articles in the industry, but have never put them into practice myself. I have collected many book lists , but have never read a single one. Many people like this process and even feel satisfied with themselves for seriously looking for shortcuts, even though it is useless.

The first step is to go from knowing to taking action. Other people’s experiences will only tell you the good side, and it is difficult to know the bad side. However, the detours and failures you have taken are also very important. You have not stepped into the pits that others have stepped into, and you are destined to make up for this lesson at some point in the future. At which stage will the loss be greater?

Forget shortcuts and use trial and error.

4. Self-righteous habit of treating users as fools

There is a theory in the product industry called "Don't Make Me Think", which means that when making a product, you should fully consider the users and make the product simple and easy to use without requiring users to spend too much learning and thinking costs. Later, this theory was further simplified to "treat users as novices", and some people also said "treat users as fools", which both sound right.

But one thing you must remember is: don’t treat users as idiots! ! ! Once you do this, users will also think you are stupid.

There is still a difference between these three words: "newbie", "fool", and "idiot".

However, the user is not stupid, he has a veto power. Users don't like the feeling of being fooled. Alipay has suffered a lot of criticism for the Jingyefu incident. Sometimes, even if it is not the original intention, the final result of the execution will result in users thinking that they are treated as fools by the authorities. One can imagine their anger and desire to vent at this time.

What are some specific examples? When a new product is launched, product managers who have no operational sense usually think that their product is awesome and that users should come naturally from the first day of launch. It is not a big deal to attract millions of users without spending a penny. Of course, some self-media authors who write random articles should take the blame, but do users really come on their own? If this is true, what is the point of product operations?

To give another example, ever since the emergence of products such as Faceu and Zuji that became popular with the help of WeChat Moments , many people have high expectations of detonating social platforms. What will they do? Add a share button to the product, but you will find that users don’t click it. Or automatically post a Weibo post for users after a new version is updated. Many junk products have done this, right?

These are all examples of treating users as idiots. This wrong idea will make people believe that users are here to lick my boots, and they will definitely operate according to the set logic. It is even okay to not follow the user's will and force the user to complete something they don't want to do. Many product managers are also doing this to please themselves, but ignoring the most essential human nature.

If you treat your users as idiots, they will also treat you as idiot. What you lose is not only a user, but also your own reputation.

5. Focusing on KPI numbers

I mentioned earlier that an operator’s sense of purpose is very important. Another issue that corresponds to this is KPI, a topic that no one can avoid. Especially in large companies, KPI is important, but many times it is just a number. What are the various KPI indicators used for? Quantify your work! If we are obsessed with this number and forget the original intention of setting this indicator, we will be putting the cart before the horse.

Many KPI figures are easy to complete, because as long as they are numbers on the Internet, they are more or less inflated through channels. Whether it is the number of users, fans, activity, retention rate , or rankings, the complete industrial chain behind them has already exceeded your cognition.

An excellent product operator will think about the long-term development model of the business while completing the KPI, choose the most suitable operational focus at the moment, do the right thing at the right time, and will never easily kill the chicken to get the eggs.

Pure Silver once said, "It is very common that the numbers look good but the results are ugly." Perhaps everyone should think about the business in their hands. Are they doing it for the results or for the numbers?

6. Lack of curiosity about the world

There is a very popular online drama recently, called "Addicted". How popular is it? Even after being banned by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television for several days, it was still active on the Weibo hot list, with a total reading number of over 1 billion. I said in my circle of friends that people over 30 would not watch this drama because they are all old.

The reason behind the popularity of this online drama is actually the growing gay subculture. Whether you admit it or not, gay culture has almost become a must-see plot this year, and the more the authorities suppress it, the more stubborn it becomes. Whether it is the previously popular "Go Princess Go" or the recent "Addicted".

Whether a subculture can become mainstream culture depends on the influence of the core group in the short term and on the degree to which the mainstream culture absorbs the subculture in the long term, that is, whether the mainstream culture absorbs the subculture as a part of the mainstream culture. Just like the "diaosi" and "otaku" of the past, and the "gay" and "2D" of today.

What does this have to do with operations? Ma Huateng once said a very classic saying, and Bai Qi always uses it to remind himself.

Sometimes there is nothing wrong with you, except that you are too old.

This aging is not just about age, but more about psychological aging, with a decline in curiosity and understanding of new things. How long has it been since you paid attention to online hot spots? Nowadays, few people mention the concept of post-90s, because the first batch of post-95s are about to graduate from college, which means that post-95s users have begun to appear in many fields. Are these users very different from those born in the 90s?

No one can guarantee that something will remain unchanged forever, because human nature is to be renewed. If you don’t understand subcultures, you will find that you understand less and less about the new things and people in this world, especially when it comes to leveraging hot topics. Don’t wait for the topic to cool down before you realize it.

Always stay curious about the world and live like a young person.

7. The biggest flaw is that life is too boring

Working overtime is basically a normal thing in the Internet industry. People sit at their desks for 10 hours a day, getting information from the world through WeChat Moments, Weibo, and various online channels, looking at user-related information and the data left behind, and then guessing what the users' daily lives are like. Instead of relying on guesswork, it is better to experience life yourself. After all, as product operators, we ourselves are first and foremost users, with our own interests and temper.

It is difficult for a person with a boring life to do well in operations. He or she must have one or two hobbies outside of work that can make him or her happy. Go to the cinema to watch movies when you need to watch them, go for a run when you need to exercise, read well when you need to read, play masturbation when you need to play masturbation, and travel when you need to travel.

Life is where you find inspiration, where you can gain a deeper understanding of things and then copy the experience from offline life into product operations.

Why is it that everyone can understand Alipay's Five Blessings Collection activity at a glance without having to read such long activity rules? Because it is exactly the same as the Water Margin theme cards of the Little Raccoon instant noodles that we collected when we were children, doesn’t this activity originate from the childhood memories that our generation has experienced? The only difference is that the card has been replaced with the word "Fu", the offline physical card has been turned into an online virtual card, the way to obtain it has changed from buying instant noodles to adding friends, and the process of exchanging cards has also changed from offline to online. The whole activity is the same in a new form, even the fact that the number of people who can win a prize is determined by limiting the number of cards/Fu characters issued. Why didn’t you think of such an activity? I believe that the product operators of Alipay must be people who love life.

WeChat's red envelopes also originated from offline life, the Guangdong region's unique Spring Festival red envelopes, and the experience of each of us receiving red envelopes when we were children. After being transformed and copied to WeChat, it has become a phenomenal activity in which the whole nation participates. Red envelopes have become a standard feature of most products when running activities.

An excellent product operator must also have a wonderful life.

This can also be called "life management".

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

The author of this article @白崎由(APP顶级推广), compiled and published, please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!