WeChat Mini Programs are popular. I have summarized the 4 best ways to learn mini programs by yourself in terms of product and operation.

With the public beta release of WeChat Mini Programs , discussions about it have never stopped. In the past few days, every party I have attended always starts with the topic of Mini Programs .

The day before yesterday, Xiaofen, the BD of Mantou Business School , chatted with me and talked about the impact that the arrival of WeChat mini-programs will have on Internet operations and product managers , and whether it will bring any opportunities to Internet operations and product positions. Following the topic at the time, I wrote this article to share with you my recent insights on WeChat Mini Programs.

This article mainly looks at WeChat Mini Programs from the perspective of Internet products and operations, avoids involving specific R&D technologies, and tries to provide more descriptions from the perspective of ecology and application scenarios. We hope to deepen everyone’s understanding of WeChat Mini Programs.

As I just mentioned, the topic of WeChat Mini Programs has become increasingly popular. Like me, you may have been paying attention to WeChat Mini Programs for a long time and want to learn more about product and operation, as well as what are some useful methods to self-study Mini Programs.

First of all, I would like to talk about why mini programs are so important?

In today's mobile Internet era, WeChat has become the de facto overlord. In addition to having the largest number of users, it also has the highest average usage time among users.

Liking, forwarding, following and scanning codes have become our "daily work".

Various practitioners who are active in Moments, WeChat groups or public accounts are also looking for their own money-making opportunities in the WeChat ecosystem, and there are many people who make a lot of money among them.

Therefore, it is inevitable that every move of WeChat will attract much attention. However, the attention aroused by the launch of mini-programs by WeChat this time has far exceeded the attention aroused by the launch of official accounts by WeChat. This is very worthy of our exploration of the reasons behind it.

The success of WeChat official accounts today has exceeded the imagination of most people when it was first launched. The mini-programs launched by WeChat are precisely to make up for the shortcomings of official accounts, and continue the original idea of ​​launching official accounts and go further. For this reason, coupled with everyone's interpretation and imagination of WeChat Mini Programs on the Internet, WeChat Mini Programs have attracted more and more attention.

Let’s take a look at what other important things are behind WeChat Mini Programs besides their increasingly popular influence.

WeChat public accounts are divided into two types: [ Subscription Account ] and [Service Account]. Subscription accounts can send a tweet to followers once a day. The following are two subscription accounts that are more familiar to people:

1. Limitations of subscription accounts

These subscription accounts that are doing well are only a small part of the many subscription accounts. Most subscription accounts encounter problems with low article reading rates and commercial and profit difficulties. As a result, some subscription accounts use illegal means such as paying for readings, which also prompted WeChat's previous rectification of public accounts and technical upgrades of its own platform.

All subscription accounts are folded under the secondary item [Subscription Account] in the conversation window. In addition, this item will change its position due to conversation messages, making it inconvenient to access subscription accounts. Moreover, many people tend to use subscription accounts as business carriers for content service providers, which are not suitable for other Internet services.

2.What are the shortcomings of service accounts?

Another type of public account is the service account. Although it is not folded under the secondary entry, its storage location will also change due to conversation messages, and a service account cannot be easily found and opened.

Most Internet services cannot be implemented solely through the session window of the service account. Many service accounts have developed their own HTML programs. When using these services, there are problems such as slow loading and unsmooth operation, which are not a good experience.

The weekly group push notifications from the service account will also cause disturbance to users. Our operations partners all know that the specific push notification day of the week is often the day when we lose the most fans.

Another problem with official accounts is that when we are visiting a web page of an official account, we cannot switch to other sessions and switch back, which also brings inconvenience to our use of the official account's Internet services.

From the original name of WeChat Mini Program, “ WeChat Application Account ”, we can see that the original purpose of launching the Mini Program was to make up for the shortcomings of the current official accounts.

By simplifying and customizing web technologies such as HTML and CSS, we have obtained the language and technology dedicated to WeChat Mini Programs. Their corresponding relationship is as follows:

WeChat Mini Programs work in a browser customized by WeChat. From a technical perspective, there are three significant advantages:

1. All mini-programs are stored on WeChat's own servers. Once a mini-program is [added] by a user, it will be downloaded and temporarily stored on the user's mobile phone. In addition to being able to load and open quickly, it can also be opened without an Internet connection.

2. WeChat’s customized browser has optimized mini-programs, and the user experience is as smooth as using native programs.

3. The development technology of mini programs is much simpler than traditional web development technology. With a little learning, many long-tail demanders can also develop WeChat mini programs for themselves.

Let’s first take a look at what WeChat has pre-set for future mini-programs:

1. Entrance

Mini programs can only be obtained through searches provided by WeChat and recommendations in conversations.

2. Service Standards

An official design guideline was released in the hope that all mini-programs would serve users with similar interaction habits.

3. Rules of the Game

Operational regulations and numerous "no's" constrain user behavior.

4. Closed Environment

Specific development language, strict auditing, and private release channels ensure a closed environment.

5. Benefit Sharing

Currently, even reserving an advertising space for marketing accounts, games, live broadcasts , etc. is strictly prohibited, leaving opportunities for WeChat to establish a profit-sharing distribution mechanism in the future.

From these five points, it is not difficult to see that WeChat has planned a closed , mutually beneficial ecosystem for mini-programs. This ecosystem mainly provides users with a variety of mobile Internet services, and WeChat and the system's participants share the profits together.

When faced with this emerging thing, the above sentence may be the most direct thought of many people.

In the process of establishing a new ecosystem, the first participants to "take the plunge" will have the opportunity to develop rapidly along with the new ecosystem.

If you fail to catch up with this initial development period, it will be difficult for later participants to achieve a similar development speed on their own. Such opportunities are what we often call "bonuses."

The first wave of dividends from China's mobile Internet came when smartphones were first launched. With the help of the App Store and Android's application store, many application developers grew and prospered. When WeChat launched official accounts, it can be seen as the first wave of dividends, which has achieved many enviable projects, such as the well-known subscription accounts mentioned above.

For a company that exists in the mobile Internet, with the powerful WeChat mini-programs, your business may be the first to reach a new blue ocean and escape from the current crowded competitive environment.

What we can see directly is that the arrival of WeChat Mini Programs means an increase in jobs, and there will inevitably be a manpower gap for a while. For those who are the first to master the technology and knowledge related to WeChat Mini Programs, it is obviously a good opportunity for promotion and salary increase.

For a mobile Internet company, if it wants to enter the WeChat Mini Program field, it needs to add Mini Program R&D positions to the original developer ratio, resulting in a ratio of native technology engineers, Web front-end engineers, WeChat Mini Program engineers and server engineers.

Although Web front-end engineers can take on the development work of WeChat Mini Programs after a little training, the codes developed by WeChat Mini Programs cannot be directly reused with traditional Web front-end codes. Developing WeChat Mini Programs increases the actual workload, and it is necessary to assign someone to do this job.

The impact of WeChat Mini Programs on Internet jobs is not just the addition of new development positions. As will be mentioned later, the new ecosystem has brought new requirements for practitioners from thinking to specific operating methods.

If a project or product wants to gain dividend opportunities in this new ecosystem, it will be difficult to achieve the goal by simply copying the existing product to the WeChat mini program.

If you want to develop in the WeChat Mini Program ecosystem, everyone from product and operation to the entire team needs to learn and master the rules of the game in the new ecosystem.

Maybe opening your own coffee shop has been your long-cherished wish, or maybe you have already raised money and are ready to quit your job to open a corner convenience store. Starting a business is the most tacit wish of this generation of young people.

Regardless of whether your entrepreneurship is still in imagination or already in practice, you must consider the WeChat ecosystem in your entrepreneurship considerations, even if you do not expect any traffic or dividends. Using the WeChat public platform to maintain customer relationships is the most effective and practical way to start a business today.

The arrival of WeChat mini-programs also provides people trying to start a business with an additional opportunity in an alternative direction. In the future mini program ecosystem, new projects will definitely grow and develop. What is particularly interesting is that when one ecosystem competes with other ecosystems, there are more opportunities for entrepreneurs. This point will be mentioned again later when introducing the use of mini programs for e-commerce .

Having spent so much effort talking about the importance of WeChat Mini Programs may make everyone even more confused: where are WeChat Mini Programs used? Next, I will share with you how to learn WeChat Mini Programs and discuss with you the applicable scenarios of WeChat Mini Programs.

The most direct way to become familiar with and understand the mini program is to refer to the mini program documents and demonstration cases provided by WeChat. These official materials can help us form a preliminary impression of WeChat mini programs.

1. The first study suggestion

Visit the official website of WeChat Mini Program to obtain first-hand information.

The picture below is a screenshot of the official website of WeChat Mini Programs. You can see that WeChat provides four types of materials: development documents, development tools , design guidelines, and Mini Program experience DEMO.

Download and install the developer tools, and then download the mini program experience DEMO. By opening the DEMO through the developer tools, we can run this official DEMO to help us establish a preliminary impression.

The "WeChat Mini Program Design Guidelines" and "WeChat Mini Program Platform Operation Specifications" officially released by WeChat are materials that Internet operators and product managers engaged in WeChat Mini Program-related work must be familiar with.

2. Second study suggestion

To deepen your understanding of the WeChat Mini Program ecosystem, you need to change your mindset first.

In the era of WeChat public accounts, traffic thinking can be seen everywhere. It is the mainstream way of thinking in operations and product development. The terms "attracting new customers", "retention", "sharing" and "conversion" that we often talk about are all terms based on traffic thinking.

With the traffic thinking, whether it is Internet operations or products, what we are thinking about is how to induce users to share and spread, so that our products or services can be known by more people. The people affected by these communications are the traffic we hope to obtain, so that some of this traffic will settle down and become our users, or some commercial value will be converted and generated.

When talking about WeChat tweets, the often mentioned terms "clickbait", "hundreds of thousands of likes", "excellent copywriting " and "if you don't forward this, you're not a Chinese" are all manifestations of traffic thinking.

In the future WeChat mini-program ecosystem, traffic thinking no longer seems to work, and we need to switch to a new way of thinking.

Only by replacing traffic thinking with scenario thinking can you play with WeChat mini programs!

The following lists several different characteristics of WeChat Mini Programs compared to Official Accounts, which help us see why traffic thinking is not applicable to WeChat Mini Program projects.

What is scenario thinking in the WeChat mini-program ecosystem?

When, under what circumstances, for what reason or purpose, the user needs the service provided by a mini program. This is the application scenario of this mini program.

When it comes to developing potential users, scenario thinking allows us to consider how users will look for mini programs to provide services when they need the services we provide in a specific scenario. If we can adapt to their approach, we may be able to gain this customer.

For old users who have used our product before, we also use scenario-based thinking and consider user needs, thereby encouraging users to use our mini program again.

From this we can see that scenario thinking helps us think about how users find us? Why do you need us? How can you remember us again? All of this emphasizes how to silently serve users based on user needs, rather than relying on traffic to snatch users. Perhaps this is also in line with WeChat founder Zhang Xiaolong’s concept of “good products”!

Another way of thinking that needs to be changed is to distinguish between community and social interaction !

The purpose of social interaction is to establish connections between people. Everyone has many connections, and such connections make the relationships between people constitute an interpersonal network. WeChat can also be regarded as a social software. Its relationship network has always been regarded by the outside world as WeChat’s greatest asset. WeChat has never intended to develop its relationship network to ecological participants.

WeChat's relationship network is very messy. Your friends, relatives, colleagues and bosses are all on the contact list. In this case, many projects try to build vertical social networks on WeChat, hoping to rely on specific relationship types to establish a relatively pure relationship network on the WeChat ecosystem.

However, such vertical social networks rarely succeed. The key reason is that people connected based on a simple type of relationship cannot generate rich interactions, and such interpersonal networks are prone to lose their vitality.

A community is a group of people who are brought together for similar purposes. A community emphasizes mission, vision and values. A group that can reach consensus on these three elements is likely to be an active and stable community.

WeChat mini programs can provide Internet services that meet similar needs for users in specific scenarios. Such a service is likely to meet the needs of a group of people with similar purposes. In this case, such a WeChat applet can become a service carrier for a community, through which a community can be established and maintained.

For example, people who check in for morning jogging can form communities based on their regions because of their similar hobbies and the purpose of exercising. If a small program opened for morning jogging can cover a certain group of people, it may be possible to establish and operate one or more morning jogger communities of its own.

3. The third study suggestion

Understand the applicable areas of WeChat Mini Programs.

The applicable areas mentioned in this suggestion actually answer the question "What is WeChat Mini Program suitable for?"

For WeChat mini programs, there are three most easily understood application areas.

1. Gadgets

Various tools and services such as checking the weather, menstruation, and community errands will first be launched in the WeChat mini-program ecosystem.

2. Community

As explained in the previous topic, community services are suitable to be rooted in the WeChat mini-program ecosystem.

3. E-commerce

Small e-commerce companies built based on scenarios are also suitable for development in the WeChat mini-program ecosystem. In addition, given the mutual isolation between Alibaba and Tencent, WeChat is unlikely to impose too many restrictions on e-commerce services in the ecosystem. It is a good choice to design an e-commerce mini program based on potential consumption scenarios.

Below is a screenshot of this e-commerce case.

In addition to the three easy-to-understand applicable areas mentioned above, content service providers can also seize the opportunity of WeChat mini-programs and launch WeChat mini-programs with content services as the main body. Let’s go back to the official WeChat document mentioned earlier and look at the identity requirements for mini-program applications opened by WeChat. Media is listed separately, which shows that there is also a place for content service providers in WeChat’s ecological planning for mini-programs.

As a content service provider, when developing WeChat mini-programs, you must fully consider the advantages of the hardware interfaces that WeChat opens for mini-programs, and use the data collected through the hardware interfaces, combined with big data and intelligent algorithms, to provide users with personalized and accurate content.

With the deep integration of the Internet and other industries, more and more non-Internet industries are looking for points of integration on the Internet. WeChat mini-programs happen to be the best point of integration between traditional service projects or products and mobile Internet. For example, through a WeChat mini program, we can easily open our door or control the air conditioner at home.

4. The fourth study suggestion

Join the WeChat Mini Program learning community and grow together.

Joining a learning community on WeChat mini program will undoubtedly help us improve our learning efficiency and broaden our thinking and horizons. Everyone can share their discoveries and experiences together, and exchange mini-program components developed by each other.

As mentioned above, the WeChat mini-program courses that Mantou Business School will launch are targeted at a wide range of Internet people, especially our Internet operations and product managers. We hope that more people will participate in this course, and that we can come together to learn WeChat Mini Programs and form our own WeChat Mini Program learning community.

The difficulty of developing WeChat Mini Programs is reduced by nearly half compared to traditional Web front-end development. With a little learning about our products and operations, you can directly write some simple WeChat Mini Programs. This allows product and operations personnel to deepen their understanding of R&D technology and improve their ability to work in their own positions.

With the official release of WeChat Mini Programs, there will be many open source components and modules that will be placed on the Internet for everyone to download and use freely. There will also be many cloud services on the Internet that implement specific functions. With the help of open source components and cloud services, our operations and product managers can also create various practical WeChat applets.

Because WeChat Mini Programs have not yet been officially released, people still do not have a clear understanding of how a WeChat Mini Program can build its own business model in this ecosystem. In addition, WeChat has formulated strict operating rules. How to operate a mini program project well and achieve a certain profit conversion is a considerable challenge for our operators.

As mentioned earlier, the purpose of WeChat launching mini programs is to provide users with a wide range of mobile Internet services using the WeChat platform.

The foundation of Internet services is still our Internet products, that is, our WeChat Mini Programs. The product manager’s mastery and understanding of the WeChat Mini Program ecosystem is the key to doing a good job of WeChat Mini Programs. And when this new ecosystem is first established, it will also encounter fierce competition. This is precisely the competition of innovation capabilities, and product managers face opportunities and challenges based on innovation capabilities.

Finally, I’d like to give you a spoonful of chicken soup. The bonus always belongs to those who are prepared. While WeChat Mini Programs have just started public beta, join us in opening the door to learning Mini Programs!

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

The author of this article @漫头商学院 is compiled and published by (APP Top Promotion). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!