How to implement a user growth plan from 0 to 100?

What exactly is user operation ? Literally speaking, it means operating and managing users. Based on user behavior data, a series of marketing initiatives, content, capabilities, experiences, etc. are used to attract users, retain users, extend user life cycle, and maximize user value.

Find your target customer group, provide services for them, attract them, retain them, and maximize their value; this is user operation.

Because product operation is mentioned in the title, many people may ask about the relationship between product operation and user operation. Here I will first explain my personal definition.

Product operation: It is a job to manage the relationship between product content and users from four levels: content construction, user maintenance, event planning, and product promotion. Therefore, it can be understood that product operation is a general term for operation. The products we make are all to provide services to people, and ultimately we are dealing with people. In fact, my understanding is that products and users are inseparable and complement each other.

Next, let’s get down to business and talk about user operations. What exactly is user operations?

Literally speaking, it means operating and managing users. Based on user behavior data, a series of marketing initiatives, content, capabilities, experiences, etc. are used to attract users, retain users, extend user life cycle, and maximize user value .

In fact, the products we make are made for people to use. Ultimately, we are analyzing people. People are different, but how do we summarize and classify the world, find our own target customer groups, provide services for them, attract them, retain them, and maximize their value? This is user operation.

So what does user operation need to do?

I usually divide it into the following three major stages, and each stage is further divided into different goals:

In the product 0 to 1 stage, we position users: that is, the product planning stage, starting from the point where the product has nothing and setting planning goals. At this time, we need to work out which user groups we want to target in conjunction with the product. To put it bluntly, who will use this product after it is completed? This is what user operations need to do——
Product stages 1 to 10, verify users: After the product goes online, we can get some user behavior data. At this time, we need to analyze whether the users we originally targeted are correct or whether there are any deviations. Based on user behavior data, we can analyze product optimization and adjustment strategies to improve product experience and further meet user needs. User operations mainly focus on:
During the product 10 to 100 stages, develop users: Through the user verification stage, user behavior data analysis and product data analysis, the product is optimized and iterated. During the product explosion stage, user operations must focus on user life cycle operations.

1. Product 0 to 1 stage

This is the planning stage of a product. There are no real users to study, and it is necessary to find, discover, and locate potential target users. At this time, user operations mainly involve research, analysis, and user location.

1. Discover & research product needs

It may be by chance, shared by others, or through market research, you may discover a product demand (i.e. user pain point). For example, during the epidemic, many small and micro enterprises were hit hard. From the news and entrepreneurial friends around me, I found that a big pain point for these small and micro enterprises is to continue to turn over funds and have no channels to learn about support policies. So here we find a user pain point: consulting source + loan.

2. Is the demand a common demand?

Analyze whether this demand is a group characteristic demand (translated into plain language, it means that you have to make sure that someone will use what you have done). This step needs to be achieved through some means, such as expert interviews, offline surveys, telephone surveys, etc., to confirm that this demand has a certain breadth and is a common demand of a certain group of people. Someone probably has to ask here, where do the experts come from? Where do the subjects of the survey come from? This doesn't need much explanation. Since you want to make this kind of product, I believe you have certain resources to use (except for free).

3. Sort out product capabilities

It is divided into two steps:

First, refine the core product capabilities, that is, the main task of the product, to solve the user's pain points. Based on the above example, solve the user's consulting and loan needs.
Second, extend product capabilities, that is, the product's side quests and peripheral capabilities, to enhance user experience. Based on the above example, industry consultation and other information can be added.

4. User scenario simulation

Act as real users and experience the scenarios we plan and build to confirm whether the core capabilities have solved the user's needs and extend the product capabilities to bring users a better product experience.

5. Refine the precise characteristics of the target population

Based on the product positioning, a portrait of the target group is drawn, which is divided into external attributes and internal attributes:

Intrinsic attributes: age, gender, hobbies, income, education, etc.
External attributes: region, marital status, activity venue, etc.

6. User Verification

Based on the virtual character portrait we identified in the fifth step, find some real users who fit the portrait, and use interviews, observations, focus group interviews, usability testing, etc. I have explained this in detail. You can find a lot of them by searching on the Internet, but the key thing to remember is to verify whether the core capabilities of our products solve user pain points and whether the capabilities of peripheral products can bring users a better experience.

Interview method: In-depth exploration of the problems and feelings that users encounter when using the product;
Observation method: When interviewing users, they may be in a state of recollection. Because it is recollection, it is easy to ignore the context and emotions of using the product. It is necessary to observe and record all the information of the user like a shadow;
Focus group interview: Gather users with similar attributes for interview and discussion;
Usability testing: Observe the user's actual operations during real use, record and analyze in detail the problems users encounter when using the product, with the aim of discovering usability problems in the product and making product improvements.

7. Product optimization and improvement

Optimize and improve the product based on the problem points collected in Article 6 and put it online for testing.

2. Product Phases 1 to 10

It is the initial seed user acquisition stage of a product. During this period, a certain amount of user behavior data is accumulated through the use of the product by seed users, and user analysis and research can be carried out to verify the product. User operations during this period are mainly to verify users and provide a basis for product optimization and iteration.

1. Data analysis of tracking points

Recording user behavior processes and results in order to meet the needs of fast, efficient and rich data applications is a commonly used data collection method (I believe that every company you work for has its own way of collecting data).

Conventional platform user behavior monitoring process:

Activate APP: When launching APP, you need to subpackage it in your own installation package, commonly known as package name, to monitor the users brought by each application download platform. This step mainly records the download rate and activation rate , which is used to analyze whether the user group of the application download channel matches the target group of the product (low download rate or low activation rate indirectly proves that the channel user group does not match. How to judge whether the download or conversion rate is low requires looking at the data separately).

User registration: The general user habit is to browse some content after entering the product to see if the content is of interest. If interested, the user will register (of course, there are many ways to increase user registration, which will be written in future articles). At this time, the registration rate is mainly monitored. The registration rate directly reflects whether the product content has aroused the user's interest.

Search behavior & entry into columns: Both are a behavioral branch after users enter the product and see the content. When the content & column classification displayed on the current page cannot meet the user's needs or is not of interest, the user will search. At this time, it is necessary to record the search behavior or the proportion of users entering the column, the search keywords, the number of searches, the type of column entry, etc. Here we can analyze what the user's needs are, what content they are interested in, and the degree of demand (when the same information is searched through different keywords, I understand that the user has a high demand for the content).

Details page: It is necessary to record the jump rate from search and column to the details page (details page UV/(search UV+column UV)), as well as the final arrival rate to the details page (details page UV/click-to-jump UV). The jump rate is obvious. Users will click to jump only when they are interested in the content, so the jump rate will naturally be high. If users have no interest in the content, the jump rate will naturally be low. The arrival rate can reflect the hardware strength of the product and whether the jump experience is smooth.

Final conversion: Branching is required, as the data from content platforms and e-commerce platforms are different:

Content platform: Like rate, comment rate, and collection rate can indirectly indicate the degree of liking for the content (think carefully, you will comment only when you are interested in or have opinions about the content). It can verify whether the content we provide really solves the needs of users and is what users want. At the same time, it can also mark users' interests for subsequent interest recommendations;
E-commerce platform: E-commerce is relatively direct. After users enter the details page, the most direct thing is to place an order. Finally, the order is placed and paid, which directly shows the degree of attraction of the product to the user. Here we need to pay attention to several data, including order rate, order submission rate, and payment completion rate.

2. User research

The old method is still to collect product information feedback through interviews, observations, focus group interviews, usability testing, etc., and to perform iterative product optimization. Since the methods are the same, I will not go into details.

3. Product 10 to 100 Stage

This is the explosive growth stage of the product, during which the number of users may grow explosively. User operations must manage and monitor the user life cycle, identify problems in a timely manner, and make timely improvements.

The user life cycle is usually divided into five stages: introduction, growth, maturity, dormancy, and churn.

1. Introduction period

In fact, it is the customer acquisition stage. We need to reach our target users through a series of means (advertising, interest guidance, content guidance, product process guidance, etc.), APP (download, activate, register), official account (follow), mini program (open mini program, authorize registration).

APP: Download rate/activation rate analyzes channel conversion effect and selects the most suitable promotion channel; registration rate reflects whether the product can meet user needs or bring help to users;
Official Account: reflects the content or functions of the official account, whether it can meet user needs or bring help to users;
Mini Programs: The opening rate and authorization registration rate are the same as those of official accounts, both of which reflect whether they can meet user needs, attract users, and provide help to users.

2. Growth stage

The definition method is to see whether the user has completed the full experience of the product (some look at payment, some look at content browsing), such as completing the first purchase on an e-commerce platform, etc., and the information platform looks at the first information browsing, etc. (different stages of the product define different indicators). The indicator is the first XX conversion rate, which indirectly affects the relationship between the number of APP visits and purchase conversion (for example, an average of 3 visits complete the first conversion), and the relationship between interests and hobbies and purchase conversion (for example, a certain type of content completes the first conversion after N visits).

3. Maturity

At this stage, users have developed certain habits and dependencies, and have performed multiple repetitive behaviors (shopping, browsing, watching, etc.), and have a fixed visit frequency (such as weekly visit frequency, monthly visit frequency). At this time, you can maximize the user value through transactions, activity, social capabilities, or extend the user's maturity period, thereby extending the value that users bring to the product. The core focus indicators are repurchase rate, average order value, average number of purchases per person, ARPU, etc.

4. Dormant period/loss period

Users who are familiar with the product may become tired at this time, and their visit frequency, shopping frequency, visit duration and other indicators are all declining, leading to user loss. At this time, user operations need to define dormant/lost users, analyze key indicators of user loss, and intervene and guide users.

Definition of dormant/churned users: This depends on the business. If one or more of a user's indicators are lower than a certain threshold, the user is defined as a dormant user. If the indicator is 0, the user is defined as a churned user. For example, if the average monthly visits of users on an e-commerce platform are 10 times, when a user visits less than 10 times for N consecutive months, or if the average monthly visits of the user are 5 times and the number of visits is 2 times for N consecutive months, the user is defined as a dormant user. If the user has not visited for N consecutive months, the user is defined as a churned user.
Analyze key indicators of user churn: monitor data and model pre-dormant/churned users. Define or mark dormant/churned users based on the reasons for dormancy/churn of users;
User intervention and guidance: Reduce user dormancy and churn, analyze the causes of user churn based on user behavior data, and conduct intervention and guidance.

In fact, the dormant period and churn period run through the entire user life cycle. Regardless of the introduction period, growth period, or mature period, there are user dormancy and churn situations in each stage.

In the introduction stage, users are new users, and the user group may be non-target users due to the low quality of the promotion channels; secondly, there are problems with the product’s own design;
In the growth stage, users are just getting started, the platform does not have suitable products and content, and the platform shopping process is not smoothly designed;
During the mature stage, changes in the purchasing environment due to personal reasons of users, intermittent or untimely updates of product content, or a lack of fresh operational methods can also cause user loss.

In a word, operation is about dealing with people, analyzing people's psychology, constantly thinking about what users think, providing what users need, grasping users' psychology, and implementing it in products, so as to truly capture and retain users.

Author: Jiji412

Source: Jiji412