Understand what product operation is in 10 minutes!

What is operation ? All means used to connect users and products and generate product value and commercial value are called product operations .

Why do we need operations (what problems do we solve)

1. Once a product is produced, if it cannot reach users, it cannot reflect the product value and realize commercial value.

Operations are used to connect users and products

2. Internet products = product value + commercial value

User needs are constantly changing, and products need to be continuously iterated and improved to meet user needs. Without operations, it is impossible to always understand changes in user needs;

Internet products themselves do not serve as profit points. The saying "the wool comes from the pig, and the dog pays the bill" refers to the Internet's "traffic thinking". Without operations, it is impossible to convert user traffic into commercial value.

Operation is to make the product continue to generate product value and business value

Purpose

1. Connect users and products

Establish a relationship between users and products (attract new users)

Keep users and products connected (retention, activation)

2. Continuously generate product value and business value

Specific workflow

Specific functions

1. For "connecting users and products": traffic construction, i.e. promotion, drainage, and new customer acquisition

Promotion, traffic generation, and new customer acquisition: To allow target users to use the product for the first time, you need to consider:

• Where are the target users? （User portrait）
• How many times of exposure and what means are needed to trigger a new user? (Conversion Funnel Model)
• Exposure - What obstacles need to be overcome during use? (How to optimize conversion rate )

Specific means

Channel Operation

Mainly websites & app stores ( SEO , SEM and ASO ) and social media (WeChat, Zhihu, Douban, Tieba, Weibo, 36kr , Toutiao)

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization) refers to the process of optimizing product keywords by studying the search results crawling and sorting rules of search engines (such as Baidu, 360, etc.) and formulating relevant search keyword matching strategies to improve the product ranking on the search interface (thus obtaining more traffic). It focuses on optimizing and improving the natural ranking of search engines;
• SEM (Search Engine Marketing ) is the process of converting rankings using marketing methods. It targets the results of search rankings, such as paid rankings, pay-per-click, and keyword advertising. Focus on marketing & conversion
• ASO (App Store Optimization), also known as App Store Optimization, refers to the process of improving the product ranking in the App Store by optimizing the product's keywords. It targets the natural ranking of search engines and focuses on optimizing and improving rankings. It is similar to SEO, but is targeted at the App Store.

Content Operations

To provide high-quality, accurate content integration, services and promotion for target users combined with product-related content, we need to focus on four points:

• Who is watching your content? Target Users
• What do users like to watch? What is the content? The key lies in the selection of content. You can choose to leverage hot events and people, but it must be consistent with your own product positioning and tone.
• How to make content reach users? What are the push methods (channels)? How often?
• How to guide users to interact with content and spontaneously generate secondary dissemination? How to guide topics and create atmosphere? How is the propagation mechanism designed?

Event Operations

Plan activities based on user needs, festivals, hot spots and goals, such as Double 11 and Double 12, etc., and pay attention to:

• Clarify the objectives of this event operation. Attract new customers? Retention? Promote vitality? Brand promotion?
• Who attends this event? Target Users
• What are the specific content and format of this event? The key lies in the topic selection of the activity. You can choose to leverage hot events and figures, but it must be consistent with your own product positioning and tone.
• How to make event information reach users? What are the push methods (channels)? How often?
• How to get users to better participate in activities and interact?

Brand Operation

Carry out product brand promotion through marketing activities, business cooperation (BD), PR and other means.

2. Regarding “generating product value”: user retention, i.e. retention and activation

Retention & activation: Keep target users in the product (retention) and use the product more often (activation)

• What triggers product uninstalls? How to overcome? (User Churn Model)
• How can I increase the frequency of use?

Specific means

• Event Operations
• User operation (user retention & data analysis )

Qualitative user operations

a. Responsible for communicating with core users, maintaining close contact with users, better understanding user needs, understanding product deficiencies and improving products.

You can set up a QQ group or WeChat group to attract these valuable users through the community . Spend some time every day communicating with these users, whether it is casual chatting or communicating about the product. On the one hand, listen to their feedback, observe user behavior habits, explore user needs, and obtain user feedback and suggestions; on the other hand, establish emotional connections with users in this way.

b. User feedback

User feedback issues are generally divided into four categories:

• Addition/modification/deletion of functions: This part is the most important to test the product manager 's real skills, such as judging the authenticity of user needs, etc.
• Performance improvement: Generally speaking, this needs to be done, but the priority is determined by communicating with the technical department.
• Interaction & visual design: In addition to user opinions, you also need to consult design professionals;
• Pure complaints: To appease! To comfort! To comfort! Secondly, in fact, the points of complaint are just for reading, generally there is no use...

Finally, prioritize the issues: performance improvement > new/modified/deleted functions > interaction & visual design > pure complaints

Of course, this priority is not absolute, it depends on the specific situation.

Quantitative user operation

First, we need to clarify which product usage data we want to analyze:

• Indicators of user scale and quality: The scale and quality of major users. The main indicators include: total downloads, user composition indicators, number of new users, retention rate , and activity.
• Engagement analysis: mainly conducts in-depth analysis of user participation in product use. The main criteria are: number of launches, usage time, and visited pages.
• Channel analysis: mainly analyzes the changes in quantity, quality and trends of product users in various channels
• Function analysis: mainly analyzes the activity and usage of functions. The main indicators include function usage rate, function access path and conversion rate
• User attribute analysis: mainly used to profile users. The main indicators include user basic attributes, psychological attributes, consumption attributes and behavioral characteristics (device terminal, networking method)

User scale and quality indicators

Total downloads

User composition index: refers to the analysis of the composition of weekly active users or monthly active users. By understanding the composition of new and old users, we can understand the health of the product's active users. For example, if we analyze weekly active users, the composition of weekly active users includes the following types of users: returning users this week, users who have been active for n consecutive weeks, etc.

Number of new users

Retention rate: Start using on day n, continue using on day n+x, that is, x-day retention rate

40-20-10 rule of user retention : If your goal is to get your app’s DAU to 1 million, then your daily retention rate should be greater than 40%, weekly retention rate greater than 20%, and monthly retention rate greater than 10%.

Activity: users who have launched the app within a certain statistical period

The main measurement indicators are monthly active users (MAU) and daily active users (DAU)

Engagement Analysis

Number of launches: users who have launched the app within a certain statistical period

Usage duration: the total time from the start of the App to the end of use

Page Views (PV): refers to the number of pages that a user accesses at one time.

For example, the number of active users on pages 1-2 and the number of active users on pages 3-5. Of course, there is also the UV indicator, which I will not describe in detail here.

Channel Analysis

Channel source: From which channels do users come?

Page access path analysis: mainly analyzes where users leave the app, and counts the page access and jumps of users at each step in the process from opening the app to leaving the app

Functional Analysis: Function Usage

The main focus is on the number of users of the function, the number of new users, the number of active users, the number of retained users, etc. This is similar to the indicators of "user scale and quality", but this part only focuses on a certain functional module rather than the entire App.

Conversion rate (funnel model)

The conversion rate refers to the ratio of the number of people entering the next page to the number of people on the current page. The funnel model describes the process of user loss when passing through the path, and is used to analyze the conversion rate of the key path of the product.

User attribute analysis

User basic attributes: gender, age, zodiac sign, region, education, occupation

Psychographics: Interests & Hobbies

Consumption attributes: monthly income, monthly expenditure, source of income, source of expenditure, etc.

Behavioral characteristics: Device terminal: model, resolution, operating system

Network connection: operator network (2G, 3G, 4G), Wifi (private or public)

Of course, these are just some general reference data, and specific products still require specific analysis. As for what data analysis is done, I will not go into detail here. (I will write an article specifically about "data analysis" later)

3. For "generating commercial value": conversion, that is, user value → commercial value

The main business models of Internet products

• to B-for enterprises: advertising, bidding ranking, etc., a typical example is Baidu;
• to C-to individuals: value-added services, etc., a typical example is Tencent;
• to P-platform-oriented: agency fees, commissions, etc., a typical example is Alibaba.

The premise for realizing commercial value is to not damage user value, that is, to balance user value and commercial value.

Summarize

The so-called product operation actually involves combining various operation methods (channel operation, content operation, event operation, user operation, and self-media operation) in different ways to better connect users and products, which is reflected in the growth of a certain specific data of the product. Improve product value and continuously generate business value.