[Case] ​​After working in operations for so long, have you ever thought about what the value of operations is!

Although operations personnel are responsible for KPIs, the value of operations to the product is not an improvement in core indicators; it is only a manifestation of value. I believe that the value of operations can be described from three aspects: delivering value, building an ecosystem, and creating gameplay.

Here are the details:

Deliver the core value of the product to users through operational means.

The core value of a product is the reason why users choose to use it, which is also the product's differentiation and core competitiveness. This is an existing objective reality that is difficult to adjust and change. A product has only one core value. Even if it meets the needs of users in multiple scenarios, there is only one core value behind it.

What operations need to do is to use various methods and channels to highlight and amplify the core value of the product, transform it into a form that is easier for users to understand and accept, and present it to users. For example, for group buying, the core competitiveness is cheapness; for Didi, it is speed; and for Zhihu, it is high-quality content. Operations need to deliver these cheapness, speed and high-quality content to users.

According to the idea from core value to operation strategy, the following three cases are analyzed:

Zhihu is a community of high-quality content, not a social product, so high-quality content is its core value. In order to convey this core value, it can be seen that Zhihu's products and operating mechanisms are designed to better produce high-quality content and present it to interested users.

How to maximize the profits for Zhihu through high-quality content is one of the important issues that operators need to face. After all, it is only spread within Zhihu, with limited user coverage and influence. Even if it is expanded to new media such as Weibo and WeChat, it is not ideal. If this is not done well, not only will the value of the product not be well demonstrated, but the degree to which contributing users are motivated will also have a ceiling.

Zhihu's solution is to disseminate high-quality content more fully and cover a larger number of users through independent products such as Zhihu Daily and Dudu Daily, as well as multi-platform and diversified content distribution channels such as EDM, books, and e-magazines. Although some content-consuming users are not registered users of Zhihu, this method may convert these external users. More importantly, for contributing users, seeing their names and content appear on various reading platforms will inevitably increase their sense of personal honor.

Baidu Encyclopedia is positioned as a Chinese encyclopedia. Since it is a "book", the core value of the product is authority. Around this point, the encyclopedia has collaborated with professionals in various fields to launch "authoritative entries", such as the medical industry entries launched in cooperation with the National Health and Family Planning Commission, the art entries launched in cooperation with the Chinese Calligraphers Association, and the science entries launched in cooperation with the China Association for Science and Technology. Through the participation of these professionals, the professionalism of the entries is guaranteed; and because of the endorsement of professional organizations, the credibility of the content is improved, and users' awareness of the authority of Baidu Encyclopedia is strengthened.

This project was completely initiated and implemented by operations, which required negotiating cooperation and communicating needs externally, as well as coordinating resources and following up on products internally, which was not easy.

The encyclopedia also has a "digital museum" project. In order to spread authoritative knowledge more conveniently, they have cooperated with 217 museums across the country to display the objects in the museums online through voice explanations, 3D panoramas, virtual experiences and other technologies, allowing users to "visit" the museums at home. This approach adds more fun and themes, increases users' willingness to visit, and strengthens their awareness of the product's authoritative brand.

Another example is that Baidu Encyclopedia has cooperated with the Beijing Botanical Garden and the Zoo to add Baidu Encyclopedia's QR code under the name of each animal and plant, which can be scanned to view the animal's entry page. The value of this matter lies in that it connects online product functions and offline usage scenarios, and also plays a role in educating users on how to use the product, opening up a new channel for delivering product value.

For group-buying products, low price is the core value, at least that is the strategy at this stage. Meituan attracts new customers by offering prices below the market price, and users use Meituan for the same reason, so on the product page, you will see various words such as "one yuan", "special price", and "50% off". Because the operation revolves around the core value of discounts, we have implemented subsidy strategies or collaborated with merchants to carry out such promotional activities.

Establish and maintain an ecological closed loop of user-contributed content and user-consumed content.

For user products, there must not only be users contributing content, but also users consuming content (browsing content). Because user consumption of content and the resulting interaction is the most basic incentive for contributing users. If this can be done well, there is no need for a too complicated incentive system, and contributing users will continue to contribute. In addition, existing users will attract new contributing users, just like a snowball, the number of contributing users will grow larger and larger.

Similarly, with more contributing users, the content on the product will be richer and may meet the needs of more browsing users, so the number of browsing users will also increase.

E-commerce products also have such a closed loop. For example, for platform-based e-commerce, merchants and consumers restrict and promote each other. The principle is similar to the contribution-user closed loop mentioned above. Let's analyze two cases below:

How do you think Baidu Tieba should be operated? If you only focus on the user product direction of Tieba and do not consider commercial monetization issues, the operation of Tieba is actually the operation of the bar owner. As the core user, the bar owner operates and manages each bar. Although these core users only manage a few forums, their views and number of posts account for the vast majority, supporting the entire forum.

Take the operation of the bar owner of Baidu Tieba as an example. From the perspective of the entire bar, it is to maintain and monitor large bars (such as the Emperor Bar and the World of Warcraft Bar), support potential bars (such as the Positive Energy Bar), establish and promote new bars based on hot topics (the Diaosi Bar and the Two Sessions Bar at that time), and create an ecosystem of "birth, aging, sickness and death" for the entire bar.

The above is the strategy, and the specific operation methods are completed through the operation of the bar owner. Tieba is divided into key categories and general categories according to user base, activity level and industry characteristics. Key categories are operated in a refined manner, with dedicated operators responsible for each category. In addition to maintaining relationships with forum owners, they will also promote the operation of functions and activities based on industry characteristics. General categories are managed in a laissez-faire manner and are operated independently by forum owners, and the official only accepts feedback and function requests.

The ecosystem of content contribution and consumption is not just a simple cycle between two groups of people, but may also become a complex cycle between multiple groups of people. This is user stratification. The user-stratified operation model is not only for refined operations, but also for creating a user ecological cycle.

Taking Maoyan Movie as an example, more and more users are rating, writing film reviews and engaging in interactive discussions on it. If this part of users is regarded as the main body of operation, they can be divided into different levels according to their characteristics and needs. Users at different levels have different characteristics, needs, and product benefits, so the operating methods are also different.

The first layer: celebrities, such as actors, directors, screenwriters, etc. The role of celebrities is to attract attention, brand endorsement and personal appeal, which basically applies to all types of products. Therefore, there are many products on the market that use celebrity as a brand.

The second level: professional film critics, users who are influential in the industry and can produce professional content, belong to PGC. These are the people who contribute professional content on the platform. Although they account for a small proportion in number, the demand exists and they need to be used to enhance the professionalism of the brand.

The third level: movie-watching experts, who are users who can produce high-quality content but do not have a professional background. The content they write is down-to-earth and is popular with ordinary users, so it belongs to UGC. The amount of content produced accounts for a large proportion, and they are the main force in contributing content.

The fourth layer: active users, who have high brand loyalty and activity, but lack UGC capabilities. They will consume content and contribute interactive operations to the content (such as replying, liking, and other lightweight operations), which is the basis for incentivizing contributing users. If this group of people does not exist, the value of the above three layers will have nowhere to be reflected.

The fifth layer: ordinary users, who rarely consume content and engage in UGC activities, and may even be logged in users. Although this group of people accounts for the largest proportion, they are not the core users of the product, so there is little value in operating and managing them, and usually no manpower is invested in full-time operations.

To summarize the idea: according to the product positioning and the characteristics of the target users, the population is stratified, and the definition, characteristics and needs of each group of people are clearly understood, and corresponding operation plans are given for these needs. More importantly, there is a relationship of mutual restraint and promotion between these groups. Each group is a prerequisite for the existence of other groups. This is the ecological cycle of user contribution.

Extending from this idea, the characteristics of user groups have become more complex and are no longer simply composed of a group of users with high similarity. Therefore, during the operation process, the target user groups should be treated differently and targeted operations should be carried out based on their different characteristics.

For example, if I take my whole family to have a reunion dinner, the people participating are my target group, and their characteristic is that they are all family members. However, the family members include elderly people like grandparents, who have bad teeth and want to eat soft food; they also include young children like sons and daughters, who do not want to eat spicy food. Therefore, when ordering dishes, the needs of the elderly and young children must be met separately so that everyone has food to eat.

It should be noted that not every product is suitable for layered operations and can draw a pyramid. Specific operational strategies should be formulated around the product rather than simply copying the routines in the book.

Use operational means to create new ways of playing based on existing product forms.

Although the product is user-centric and rapidly iterated, it ultimately serves the majority of the target population and meets universal needs. If the operation has segmented or temporary demands for promotion or activities, it is normal that the product cannot meet them. Therefore, operations have the ability to create more fresh ways of playing without changing the product form.

An interesting example comes to my mind: a kid is playing with a frisbee. Sometimes he holds it up with both hands as if it were a car steering wheel; sometimes he puts it on his head as if it were a hat. In this process, the Frisbee remains fixed, but the children created two ways to play with it.

This idea also applies to the Internet industry. Here are three cases to illustrate:

Let’s take Baidu Encyclopedia as an example. From an operational perspective, Encyclopedia seems to be a very boring product that only allows users to write entries. But the operation has done a lot of interesting things, such as creating "featured entries" around celebrity fan groups.

In recent years, more and more Internet companies have hoped to use the power of fan groups to do something for their products. The difficulty of this matter lies in whether it is possible to seamlessly connect fan needs with product needs so as to achieve a win-win situation. The solution of the encyclopedia is to create special entries for celebrities and redesign the pages to be more suitable for displaying the celebrity image. Fans can upload super-large profile pictures, photos, videos, etc., and have the privilege of priority approval. This makes good use of and satisfies the fans' demands for supporting celebrities and improves the core indicators of the product.

From this case, we can see that Baidu Encyclopedia entered from a niche field, planned an operating model, and turned a boring operation into a dynamic one. In the end, no matter how things change, the essence remains the same, which is to improve the core data for writing entries.

Lu Han's entry

Common entries

Didi Chuxing launched the "Spring Festival Travel Home" module before the Spring Festival, taking advantage of the hot topic of Spring Festival travel to solve everyone's difficulty in returning home. The ride-sharing, airport pick-up, designated drivers, etc. in this module are actually Didi’s daily business. It is equivalent to repackaging and reorganizing existing services and presenting them to users as solutions to hot demands.

In this module, there are no new services or functions. This gameplay is created without changing the product form, and it has a direct impact on the core indicators of the product.

Same is a community app with a strong literary style. Users can create their own channels of interest and post pictures, music, movies, voting, check-ins and other types of content in the channels.

While keeping the product form unchanged, Same creates many interesting ways to play. For example, the "You send me a selfie and I will draw" activity in the picture below is based on the picture-posting function. It is a low-cost but eye-catching activity that brings contributing users and browsing users to the same.

Momo is a stranger social app, so its core is to allow strangers to communicate through interests and other media. This medium can not only be interest, but also other factors, such as red envelopes.

During the Spring Festival, red envelopes are the hottest keyword. Not only do they fit the festive atmosphere at the time, but real money is also attractive. Momo took advantage of the hot topic of "red envelopes" and launched the "Red Envelope Battle" event. Just find someone nearby with a red envelope icon and go into their profile to receive the red envelope. Users who grab the red envelopes can also send them out to attract other users to grab the red envelopes. Through this way of communication, more and more users will send red envelopes, thus triggering the entire activity.

By planning this red envelope activity, the operator guided users to complete the core operation process without changing the product functions, thereby improving user activity.

Although there are different types of division of labor in operations and the things done are also varied, from the perspective of product revenue, the value of operations cannot escape the three points mentioned above: delivering value, building an ecosystem, and creating gameplay.

You can stop here, pick up the cases around you, and try to feel these three points again. I believe it will help us understand the operation itself more deeply and will also serve as a guide for our daily work.

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