There are five levels of operator realm. Which level are you at?

We who practice martial arts... um, no, it's the people who practice martial arts in martial arts novels, most of them attach great importance to the realm of martial arts.

Well, I believe that every one of us, an operator or a prospective operator, should particularly want to know which "level" he or she is currently at on the operational growth ladder, in which direction he or she will work towards in the future, and to what extent he or she can achieve.

In this article, Li Shaojia will combine his own understanding of operations and divide them into five realms, and friends can find their own level.

Below, I use Zhuge Liang’s “career development” trajectory to illustrate the five stages of operational growth: working in Nanyang, starting out as a rookie, debating with many scholars, strategizing, and taking charge of Xichuan. (The author reveals his identity as a Three Kingdoms fan)

Level 1: Working in Nanyang, Operational Stage (Passively Accepting Work)

Operation level: Assistant

Core tasks: Cultivate a perceptual understanding of operations, quickly master new operation tools , and apply them flexibly

For fresh graduates who have just entered the Internet circle, or new operators who have transformed from other positions in traditional industries, although they have more or less grasped the concept of operations, they have no practical experience after all and are just scholars.

Generally speaking, at this stage, it is difficult to have the ability to handle operational affairs independently. Therefore, the core of this stage is to cooperate with operation specialists and managers to carry out specific operation affairs, become familiar with most of the operation tools, deal with users, and initially cultivate a perceptual understanding of operations.

Typical operations include:

● User communication

Respond to users' inquiries, questions, and complaints through internal product channels, telephone, or official WeChat , Weibo, QQ, etc., and make records and summaries.

● Content Editing

Basic editing operations of WeChat public accounts (or other public accounts ), user management, message replies, third-party editors, the ability to quickly find and classify content materials (or product needs); simple creation of H5 pages , etc.;

● Social Communication

Have a basic understanding of the characteristics, applicable occasions, user groups, and content dissemination of major and popular social platforms. For example, WeChat covers all groups of people, Weibo is for people who pursue gossip and entertainment, Zhihu is for those who are studious and motivated, and Miaopai is mostly composed of female users who love beauty...gradually accumulate the "dynamic" cognition of users of these platforms.

● Online and offline promotion

Understand the mainstream online paid promotion platforms: Baidu SEO , Weibo Fantong , Tencent Guangdiantong , Wangmeng ...

Offline advertising platforms: frame advertising, airports, high-speed rail, subways, bus stations, traditional paper media, etc.

The key is to understand the audience groups of various media and to choose the appropriate channels according to needs and budget.

New operators are generally not directly responsible for paid promotion. At most, they just assist in some trivial operations. The author here reminds new operators: don’t just operate for the sake of operation, you should also learn the characteristics behind the channel.

● Data statistics and analysis

Understand the meaning of operational data, such as the number of new users, number of registrations, daily/weekly/monthly active rates, retention rates ... Aggregate and collect user data scattered across various channels, and learn to perform simple analysis of the meaning of user behavior behind the data based on business analysis needs.

After looking at the wide variety of tasks above, are you wondering whether a newcomer can handle them?

Well, new operators don’t need to feel pressured. When you first start operating, you will just be carrying out “operational” work under the guidance of the operations manager or specialists. At this stage, you don’t need to complete a whole set of work independently.

In the assistant stage, the author makes three suggestions:

1. In terms of mentality, do not overestimate yourself or underestimate yourself. Although the assistant-level work of operations may seem repetitive and tedious, it is indeed an important stage in cultivating user awareness. In fact, even if you are promoted to director or even COO in the future, you still have to directly participate in these seemingly insignificant and trivial tasks, otherwise you will lose the feeling of being a "front-line user."

2. Be down-to-earth, but don’t just focus on the present. Newcomers carry out their work under the guidance of their superiors and often do not need to "use their brains". Once they start the "muddling through" mode, it is a huge waste of the golden learning period in the workplace. Therefore, learning these operational "operations" is only superficial. In addition to the tedious affairs, the fundamental thing is to try to study the operational connotations behind the actions.

3. Most operational tools and means have a very short life cycle. What is popular this year may not be usable next year. Therefore, rather than being proficient in specific tools, it is more important for new operators to develop operational logic and the speed of learning new tools.

For new operators, in terms of the work content of operations, whether it is user operation , content operation, event operation, or new media operation , if there is an opportunity, they should actively apply to participate. The larger the scope of work, the faster the growth.

Level 2: Beginning of business, independent stage (passively accepting work)

Operation level: Specialist

Core tasks: independently complete the entire operation of the operation sub-module

Here we must first solemnly explain our understanding of the five stages of operations. In terms of realm, they are independent. But in terms of work content, they are always cross-penetrating.

For example, when a newcomer is promoted from assistant to specialist, he may be able to independently take charge of a specific operational matter, such as the operation of a public account, but he still needs to assist the operation manager in performing some executive operations on other matters. This is all very normal.

On the contrary, some small companies may never have a so-called assistant apprenticeship stage, and they are "entrusted with important tasks" to be responsible for a separate module right from the start. This places very high demands on the learning ability of new operations personnel, and they may even have to "cram" in their spare time. Of course, the “benefit” of high pressure is that it forces you to grow faster.

When operations friends are "newly-started", it means that they can start to be independently responsible for the entire work of specific operations sub-modules:

For example, responsible for updating the content of the official account every day, including: topic selection, content collection and compilation, beautification, tweets, user data analysis (number of readings, shares, and collections), content optimization, and other full-process work of the official account content.

For example, being able to independently plan a simple online/ offline event , including: event objectives, event audience range, event channel selection, event creative design, event process testing, filing, event warm-up, event delivery, event continuous monitoring, event optimization, event summary, etc.

The key points of this realm lie in the words "completeness" and "independence". For operational affairs assigned by superiors, one only needs to clearly know the work objectives and effect requirements. As for other specific measures, such as how to carry out the work, what resources are needed in the middle, and how to combine the resources, one can completely think and coordinate on his own, instead of asking for instructions and reporting everywhere.

The work at this stage is often summarized in cycles of "days or weeks". Do today’s work today, see work feedback every day, and continuously optimize and adjust.

As you become more proficient in the operation sub-modules, begin to have your own unique insights into the understanding and connection of upstream and downstream related extension modules, and can verify your ideas through simple attempts and data feedback, you will begin to enter the third level of operations.

Level 3: Debating with a group of scholars, planning stage (semi-active and semi-passive acceptance of work)

Operation level: Manager (supervisor) level

Core tasks: understanding of operational strategies, quantification and communication of goals, thorough understanding of tasks, and coordination of operational resources

This stage is a critical link between operational strategy and execution, and is responsible for the effectiveness of operational execution.

The reason why Li Shaojia used the term "debate with a group of scholars" to describe the state of this stage is because operators at this stage have a lot of internal and external communication, coordination, and promotion work to do: with superiors, they communicate goals and "compete" for operational resources; with subordinates, they implement the split operational tasks and promote the achievement of tasks.

Typically, you might start out leading a small team and be responsible for a larger operational area.

A typical example is being responsible for the company's new media operations. The upper-level operations leader (director, COO, or even boss) will give you a specific operational goal.

For example, the brand has one million monthly exposures, 20,000 new fans per month (depending on the specific industry), and the budget is so-so. As for which specific channels to expose your content, which channels to attract fans, which activities to organize, which collaborative resources to apply for, etc., it is up to you to judge, choose, plan and promote implementation.

Or, they may be responsible for attracting new users, promoting activation, and retaining users of the company's products. Based on your own understanding of potential users, lead the team to continuously deliver attractive content, advertisements, activities, etc. to places with high user density to attract new users. Continue to follow up on background data and manage users in different levels. On the one hand, ensure user activity rate and reduce retention rate. On the other hand, continue to follow up on user feedback to provide continuous optimization needs for the product and provide data support for subsequent product iterations.

Operators at this stage should deliberately adjust their work status and shift from passive work to active work.

The author believes that operators at the third level should be able to cultivate three major awarenesses:

1. Iteration awareness of operation strategy: only speed can succeed

You will begin to be strongly aware of the "dynamic" nature of operations, and realize that there are no unchanging good channels or good operation strategies. Only the operation strategy that best suits the user is the best strategy. When facing a goal, you will develop multiple operational strategies and continuously and quickly test them based on priority to find the best operational strategy.

2. Awareness of the Operational Combination

You will realize that an isolated operational strategy may only have empty data but no ultimate results, which is unprofessional and short-sighted.

For example, in pursuit of "number of readings", they constantly "select popular ones and promote them", which eventually leads to the loss of content positioning, resulting in a continuous decline in the number of fans and activity. For example, they only focus on attracting new users, but have no corresponding plan on how to properly guide new users after they are attracted, or fail to coordinate with the relevant departments to "take over", which ultimately leads to data but no results.

3. Teamwork awareness

Operators at this level must begin to have a strong sense of teamwork. You should always consider optimizing team efficiency rather than optimizing personal efficiency.

For example, in order to save time, one assigns tasks hastily, which results in saving one's own time, but the operational tasks of other team members are not performed properly, and having to start over again will cause more delays.

The work results of this stage are usually summarized and adjusted on a monthly basis.

As you gain a better understanding of the relationship between data goals and the company's final results, become aware of the importance of optimizing operational resources, and improve your emotional intelligence in cross-departmental collaboration and communication, you are ready to enter the fourth level of operations.

Level 4: Planning and strategizing, planning stage (active work)

Operation level: Director level

Core tasks: selection and allocation of operational resources, understanding and promotion of major goals

The work of a Level 4 operator may start with "bargaining."

Who are you bargaining with?

Of course it’s the COO (or boss). Why bargain? Said: indicator.

At this stage, externally, you must have a very clear understanding of the macro industry situation, competitive product situation, and user situation in the field you are engaged in; internally, you must also have a full grasp of the position of your company's products, the resources that can be mobilized, and the combat effectiveness of the team.

As the saying goes, “know yourself and know your enemy”, only then can you give a challenging operational goal relatively accurately.

Why are operational goals so important?

Friends who have experience in senior operations management should have a deeper understanding: the operations goal is like a compass that guides the direction of a ship in the vast ocean for the operations team. Without a scientific and reasonable operational goal, the operations team will lose direction and be at a loss.

If the goal is set too high, it will completely lose its meaning and the team will completely lose motivation because there is no hope of achieving it; if the goal is set too low, it will be too easy to achieve and will not be conducive to the team's progress.

The operator at this stage oversees all user goals of the entire product line. After you discuss the specific operational goals with the boss, you will be responsible for allocating the resources of the operational team to decide which major operational areas to focus on and how to combine their efforts. You will also be responsible for figuring out how to "seamlessly" ensure user mindset changes and switching processes through team collaboration, as well as how to build and optimize a systematic operational management mechanism.

At this stage, the data you should be concerned about will be the "magnitude" rather than worrying about the gains and losses of a particular city or pond. What you should be concerned about is the input-output ratio of operating resources. The focus of your work should be to continuously supervise the degree to which each operation manager implements the operation goals, the "smoothness" of collaboration among various operation modules and across departments, and provide them with professional operation support, resource acquisition, allocation, etc.

If there is a bottleneck in the data of any operation module, you will assist the corresponding person in charge to "break" the bottleneck.

What's more, if you find that the root cause of persistent problems with user data lies with the product, you will need to argue your case and promote major improvements to the product.

At this stage, your work results will be summarized on a quarterly or half-year basis.

At this stage, operators must already have a sense of mission to "shoulder the honor and disgrace of the product line": once the product is not well made and the user data is not up, in the worst case, the entire product line will be cut. On the contrary, once the product data is built up and the product becomes popular, you will get the greatest credit.

As the saying goes, planning ahead can lead to victory from thousands of miles away.

According to the author's observation, it is rare to find excellent operational talents at level 4 in the current Internet industry. Yes, there are indeed many people with the title of “Operations Director”, but most of their understanding of the Internet business model is still stuck in the traditional corporate organization model, and their thinking cannot keep up. This is why nine out of ten Internet startups fail.

Most traditional corporate managers have the bureaucratic view of "superiors managing people" in their minds, and think that from now on they can just "sit high and give orders to their subordinates" and do their job.

However, in the Internet business model, under this cruel competition of "life and death", once you lose the ability to continue to learn and grow quickly, you may pack up and leave before your product collapses.

Of course, the author believes that this is social progress. Anyone with ability and talent can stand out in the Internet business and get rewards that match your efforts and abilities.

Level 5: Taking control of Xichuan, leading the stage

Operational level: COO, VP, partner, startup boss or Whatever

Core tasks: understanding of the industry and the Internet itself, a thorough understanding of operations, and a comprehension of commercial profits

Friends who have read Jin Yong's martial arts novels must have a very deep impression of the sword immortal Dugu Qiubai, who is mentioned many times in the novels. It is said that his swordsmanship has reached the point where "there is a sword in the heart, and everything is a sword."

According to the author's definition, an operator who can reach this level will basically not be restricted by the company or industry. Whether he wants to start his own business and be his own boss, or stay in the company as a VP or COO, it all depends on his own interests.

If it takes a gifted person at least 5 years to go from level 1 to level 4, then I think it may take at least 10 years to go from level 4 to level 5.

People who have reached the fifth level should be well-known in the operations world and have their own strong influence. At this time, making money is no longer his core goal. "Winning a good reputation during his lifetime and after his death" may be his ultimate motivation.

He is well aware of the deep psychological needs of users and has a unique grasp of the development trends of the Internet. He can make in-depth judgments based on the company's own resources and identify which business models can be successful based on the Internet and which cannot.

One person oversees the operational results of several product lines at the same time. In addition, they should also develop an " operational methodology that can stretch freely like a spring" and shoulder the mission of improving the overall level of operations in the industry.

This article introduces the five levels of operations in the eyes of Li Shaojia, hoping to draw an operation blueprint for friends who are working hard on the road of operations.

Of course, no matter what stage of operation you are in now, I hope you can always maintain an "operator's sense of honor and mission" and strive to be a good operator.

And this sense of honor and this effort will one day bring you rich rewards in life.

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