In the early stage, the whole Internet and society had a large number of demands for products, which led to the birth of a large number of product manager positions, which prompted many friends in different positions to devote themselves to product managers. However, due to the limitations of previous positions, friends who changed careers may only touch a part of the product and then change careers to become product managers, lacking experience and understanding of the entire product life cycle, As a result, the boss is not satisfied, the colleagues are not flattered, and the products are not easy to sell. Finally, they will go on the road of being a backer. The systematized theory of product managers is now quite rich, and this article hopes to share seven common problems of product managers, referred to as "seven deadly sins of product managers", from different perspectives of product managers according to actual cases and practices.
1、 Lack of law awe: violating the development law of products
Each product has its own life cycle, just as human beings also have infancy, adolescence, youth, middle age, and old age. The goals and development strategies of each stage are different. It is difficult for young children to write code, and it is difficult for old women to run marathons. The products also follow similar laws. The introduction, growth, stability The decline period has different product characteristics and development goals, but many bosses and product managers often force the product strategy in the stable period to be used in the products in the introduction period, which results in many products failing at the initial stage. This problem is also the root cause of many product failures,
Here is a case:
An app provides users with weather information by displaying weather on maps. The original feature of map display is its core highlight, but in the early stage of the product, the boss and colleagues always said that they should see how competing products do. For example, Ink Weather added local service functions today, and added social functions tomorrow, leading to the so-called rapid iteration in the early stage of the product, It is to copy the functions of competing products, and finally go online. The boss also asked: What's the difference between our product and competing products? (Is it a familiar question?), so the question here is: Ink Weather is already in a stable period, its core task is to increase user stickiness and reduce loss rate, but this app is still in the introduction period, its core task is to let users generate basic cognition, and use the stable period to "increase user stickiness" to create products that "let users generate basic cognition" during the introduction period, Once online, there are weather, social, service and content modules. As a result, users can't remember the core highlights of the product and can't form effective product cognition.
2、 Lack of design principles: the root of all nonsense
Many product managers will encounter a scenario, such as whether the designer's question list is closed or fully expanded by default. Most product managers will rely on their own "intuition" and "experience" to judge whether it should be closed by default, because "I think it looks good" or "competitors are closed", But it is obvious that such a reason is that smart designers and programmers cannot be persuaded, even themselves. The reason is that design principles were not formulated for products at the initial stage of product planning. Design principles are as important as the values, vision and positioning of products, and are one of the core elements of product planning. To determine the design principles of products as early as possible can avoid wrangling and internal friction in the design, review and development of products, and reduce unnecessary discussions. The design principles can be very simple, such as "flat design, obvious interface level, prominent focus, low frequency subject to high frequency". When the design principles are formulated in the early stage, the designer's questions, group fights at the review meeting, and the boss's opinions of slapping the head at will can be easily solved.
Here is a case:
An APP for video editing tools, the core of which is the efficiency and effect of video editing. When a colleague saw the annual bill report of Alipay, he suddenly opened his head and said that we should also make an analysis report on user use data, and then struggle with the style and content of the report all day long. However, the click rate of tool products for content is generally appalling, At the same time, there was no time to deal with a bug in the video editing function. In the end, the core functions could not be done well, and the useless functions were fidgeting around, which ended up being abandoned by users. If the product manager formulates design principles in the early stage, and makes it clear that APP is a tool, when the user scale does not reach a certain amount, it will not do any content, social networking, and game functions, so that interference can be reduced, and the product can be more stable and focused in the early stage.
3、 Lack of strategic thinking: always struggling at the tactical level
Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching has an important idea of "Taoist magic", which has been gradually enriched and evolved into "Taoist magic tool" (I will open another article later to elaborate on the Taoist magic tool of the product manager). Its core is to behave and do things. First of all, it is clear that "Tao" refers to rules, superior, and it focuses on the pursuit of the natural law of yin and yang, and the rules of the universe; The second is "law", which is a method and principle of law. It is a method found and summarized in the operation of natural rules; The last is "Shu", which is a way of doing things in the Tao's jurisprudence.
The product idea corresponding to this idea is that to build a product, first we should clarify the values, vision, positioning and principles of the product, secondly we should think about what needs to be done to achieve this value or vision, that is, strategy (what to do), and finally we should think about how to achieve it, that is, tactics (how to do it). In short, in the early stage of product planning, It is necessary to clarify a philosophical question: "What do I want to accomplish, what do I want to do, and how do I do things?" These three questions have a hierarchical basis. Simply thinking about a certain part will lead to the failure of overall consideration and difficulty in achieving the original vision.
Here is a case:
The boss hopes to create an APP for sports data recording, and then push different fitness programs in combination with sports data. The vision is to make every user feel the joy of sports. One month after being launched, the product manager is required to get 10000 active users, so that the product manager can search for various operational dry goods and various operational programs on the Internet based on pressure, For example, "10 days zero cost harvesting 100000 users", "how to achieve 100000+articles reading", after learning one round of practice, the goal is still not achieved, so the key problem here is that product managers focus on specific tactical level, while others' successful experience is based on the construction of product values and clear strategic deployment, Other people get 100000 users in 10 days at zero cost, which is a high traffic platform based on resource exchange, not because other people use Spring Festival marketing to read more than 100000 articles, provided that other people have the support of big V, not because the articles are well written or the title party. Therefore, the product manager should think more about the strategy, first define what to do, and then think about how to do it.
4： No thinking and reference: the results of competitive product analysis are often imitations
Competitive product analysis is a required course for product managers, but product managers often exaggerate the impact of competitive product analysis. Competitive product analysis covers a wide range of contents, ranging from the company's vision, founder's background, capital operation, to product function details, operation mode, market mode, etc., but it often ignores a key point in the analysis, that is, the life cycle of competitive products. Users have different perceptions of products in different life cycles, and the corresponding products and operation strategies are also different, We often compare with the industry benchmark at the initial stage of the product. This approach is very easy to lose control. The product and operation goals are focused on competing products, and it is easy to ignore the real feedback of users. This kind of reference without considering the development stage of competing products and thinking will only waste time and resources.
Here is a case:
Coca Cola broadcasted the creative advertisement "Making a Phone with a Bottle Cap" in 2015. The advertisement described that the South Asian workers in Dubai could not talk to their families because of the high telephone charges. Coca Cola Company placed a special telephone in the labor area, and the workers could talk for 3 minutes for free by putting a Coca Cola bottle cap into the fixed telephone! This advertisement is perfectly combined with corporate value, social responsibility and social welfare, and is imitated by many domestic enterprises, competing to broadcast all kinds of "warmth, public welfare and responsibility" advertisements. For example, an unknown beverage broadcast "drinking XX, warming the whole family". At first, it seems to be a good advertisement, but the users did not respond too much, The reason is that people's basic understanding of Coca Cola's brand has been very solid. Everyone knows that Coca Cola is carbonated water. Now Coca Cola is advertising to improve its brand image and added value. However, this unknown beverage has imitated the advertising model of Coca Cola before it has gained the basic understanding of users (whether it is juice or sugared water?), The result is that users cannot form a clear understanding of the brand and product, and the advertising effect is very little.
5、 Operation without value: too many operation activities without value
My own definition of operation is the sum of all activities between products and users (for interested friends, see my previous article "Internal PPT Sharing in Operation: Easy to Understand and Talk about Operation"). The core goal of operation is to deliver product value and solve users' pain points. If the operation action does not achieve the core goal of operation, it is for the purpose of phased drainage, promotion For example, the quality of users is likely to be uneven, and the loss of users is only a matter of time. This is not to say that the diversion, promotion and transfer fees are incorrect, but to do the conversion rate work on the basis of realizing the product value or solving the user's pain points, which will be more quality and efficiency.
Here is a case:
We often see this kind of operation activity: a two-dimensional information APP has just been launched. In order to quickly attract users, the online download gives free calls, and the offline download gives gifts. Within a week, the number of users has reached 100000, but after the promotion activity, the number of users fell back quickly. The product manager had to comfort himself that "this is to do high-quality user screening", However, in fact, this promotion activity is totally dependent on the market cost, and uses the discount and benefit to drive users to download and install, rather than passing on the novelty of the second dimension, or solving the pain point that the second dimension users do not have a network discussion gathering place, so the cost of the activity is spent, but the real users are not obtained. There are countless examples of this kind, such as the overwhelming event marketing, and the products that are out of reach are also bundled with the Army Day to make concessions. Therefore, all operational activities should take "whether to deliver the product value, whether to solve the user pain points" as the evaluation criteria, rather than always focusing on "how many users, how high the conversion rate, and how much to charge", It should be the former before the latter!
6、 Meaningless discussion: spend time on unproductive discussion and internal friction between departments
The core figure of the product is the product manager, whose energy is distributed in different ways in different stages. The product manager should have absolute decision-making power in the introduction and rise periods of the product, so that the product can be launched and optimized faster. The stable and declining periods of the product should be group decision-making, so that the risk can be dispersed and the loss of related benefits can be reduced, However, the reality is that no matter what stage the product is in, group decision-making is greater than individual decision-making, leading to various forced product review meetings, product reporting meetings, and endless tongue wars (programmers/designers). In fact, in the middle and early stages of the product, the product manager should focus on users and products, and strive for the decision-making power of the product, Otherwise, most of the discussions and collaboration in the work are meaningless internal friction.
Here is a case:
A business unit plans to carry out a drifting bottle activity with H5 on Valentine's Day, and design the matching probability according to the user's points and contributions in the APP. It is still five days away from Valentine's Day. When the product manager starts to have ideas, he first communicates with the operator, then finds the developer to confirm the technical feasibility, and then reports to the leader. Everyone thinks it can be done, and then starts to make plans, After the plan came out, the design, operation, technology and leadership held a review meeting. As a result, many opinions were raised, such as whether the drifting bottle should be set to a heart shape and whether the matching should be a simulated couple. After that, the product manager made another round of changes according to the opinions of everyone, changed and reviewed again, and then changed after review. It was still 2 days before Valentine's Day when the final version was changed, When implementing, I found that I could not do so much. Finally, I emasculated, deleted and reluctantly went online. The operation activities turned into four different things, and the effect was very poor.
When the activity is resumed, the product manager can only comfort everyone, saying that everyone has tried their best during this period, and we will continue to work hard next time... But the problem is that the product manager only shares the risk of decision-making with the team, and even if it fails, it is also a problem for the team, so he can feel at ease. The better way is that when the product manager starts to have an idea, he should start to design the overall situation and directly let the design and technology implement without too much discussion. The product manager should bear the responsibility for the results, whether successful or not. Under such a time constraint, individual decision-making will be more efficient than group decision-making, and the product manager can also omit meaningless discussion time, To make more operational preparations.
7、 Project thinking: use project thinking to make products
It is believed that many product managers are transforming from B-end projects to C-end products, and there are several obvious characteristics of project-based products:
- Stacking function to obtain higher contract amount;
- Develop according to needs, first meet customer needs and then consider user reality;
- Get used to working overtime to catch up with the project progress.
If we take the idea of these three projects to make products, we will have the following situations:
- Focus on competing products all day long to "learn" all their functions, or put irrelevant functions into product planning;
- If you want to build a product, let the technical personnel develop it immediately if you have an idea. First, Android+IOS+WEB+WeChat, and then take it to the user to use. After being despised, you said that it was polishing the product and iterating quickly. But in fact, because the top design of the product was not done well, and the planning, design, market, and operation of the product were not clear, you were very impatient to develop it, As a result, no one used the product, and the product manager became the scapegoat;
- Work overtime day and night with the passion of the project, but the problem of product strategy has not been solved yet, so I use overtime to paralyze and comfort myself. Even if I fail, I will say that I have tried, but it is a pity that these efforts are useless. The more I try, the more wrong it is. This is a typical "tactical diligence covers strategic laziness".
Therefore, whether you are a project friend or a product transfer friend from another position, you must have a zero mentality, have enough respect for the products, and do things according to the rules of the products, so that you can avoid a lot of trouble and internal friction.
OK， The above is the common situation of product managers that I have seen or experienced. Welcome to discuss, thank you!
Author: Huang Guoqiang, K12 educational products and operation, 2 years of experience in technical projects in the communication industry, and 5 years of experience in K12 educational products, operation, projects and marketing.
