Talk about product managers in the O2O industry: We are not hard workers, we just work hard

Foreword: There is such an industry. When you talk to others as an industry insider, in 2014, the other person will raise his eyebrows and relax his expression: Ah~~~there is a future! In 2015, the other person's eyes would be drooped and his face would be slightly solemn: Oh...it was very popular last year! Yes, this is the O2O industry that was praised and then fell down within a year. As a product manager in the O2O industry, I have also grown up in this ups and downs.

As a product manager in the O2O industry who is more than 2 years old, he has participated in and led the product design and operation of two business modules, including 3 APPs, 1 light application and 1 backend. Take stock of some experiences and share them with friends in the industry or those watching at the door. Of course, there may be biases, and you are welcome to correct me.

1. The correct way to open the O2O product manager

Let’s talk about some brief opinions first. O2O products are essentially connections, connecting services and users. From a product perspective, it seems inaccurate to use C2C or B2C to generalize. "CPU" seems to better define this multilateral service system: Customer (Service Provider) ), Platform (product platform), User (service consumers). Therefore, the entry point for O2O products must be mature offline businesses. Regardless of Didi, Heli or Meituan, they have no production business. They are the carriers of offline businesses such as taxi hailing, manicure, and food delivery. The value of their products lies in The Internet has successfully alleviated the bottleneck of offline business. Therefore, product managers in the O2O industry must understand the business, understand the business scenarios, and understand the roles involved in the value chain. Only then can you define target users and product needs.

But what should I do if I don’t understand the business? Bubble! Soak up the market, win over users, win over local promotions... Okay, the ruining three outlooks mode is on.

1. The purpose of soaking in the market is to find patterns. (BTW, in the past, most of the Internet methods were to attract users first, and then think about the model, but O2O is not good. The model is not clearly thought out, and the scale is blindly scaled. Large scale is a cost. Such cases are everywhere.) Isn’t this just market research? Well, analyze industry reports, competitive product data, interview sales, marketing, operations, etc. No! Far from enough! Especially as a new product line, this stage can be understood as the initial conception stage of a business. No one in your team knows what you want to do and how to do it. You must make yourself an expert, at least the one who knows the business best in the company. experts. For example, when we were engaged in "repair" products, there were already a number of home appliance repair and maintenance products on the market such as Easy Home Appliances and Universal Brother. So where was our living space? We collect the number of users, unit volume, and unit price of competing products. The purpose is to use these operating data to see the door behind it. We need to know where the data comes from, or to experience their services at our own expense, so that it is easy to When the home appliance guy came to my house for service, he felt embarrassed to charge more than 200 yuan to wash a range hood that didn't need to be washed.

2. Acquire users, including server-side users and consumer-side users. Because the company's overall business is centered on community services, we also visit communities, other people's communities, observe service points such as home appliance repair, lock opening, and unblocking around the community, chat with security uncles, chat with hardware store owners, and even develop flirting skills. The "being" is improved, and the masculine flavor becomes stronger. Because our market entry point is the differentiation of "order sources", the security uncle is an important link, so if you have nothing to do, you have to go to the community to chat with uncles and buddies with various accents. Don't think that you have a clean face. If you have a good face, people will love you. No, to gain favor, you have to be cute and flirtatious. One time, you gained trust because you helped a security guard "quarrel" with a physically troublesome owner. And boys may just need to hand out a cigarette to get it done.

3. Soak and push.

This is the mentality when you first enter the industry. After all, you are a decent white-collar worker in a well-known company. Even if you play O2O, you should play with some style, right? For example, can we try to avoid such low-level things as local promotion? no! It’s not unimportant for product managers to sit in the office and draw prototypes, write documents, reports, and look at data, but they need to make way for land push when necessary. Links that don’t require collaboration (such as developing requirements, budgeting with finance, etc.) can only be used. I'll do it myself after get off work. Because this is a new business, all the routines have not yet been formed, so the product manager has to take into account market operations. Of course, it is also thanks to the company's authorization that I have the opportunity to demand this of myself. Fortunately, I am from a market background, so there is not much problem with operating in a small area, so local promotion has to be followed up from planning to coordination to execution. Of course, it is definitely not enough for me alone. How to mobilize resources is another topic. Expand. What impressed me deeply was the second land launch. It coincided with the New Year, and many masters returned to their hometowns early. Therefore, the date of the land sale had to be adjusted, and the masters were short of resources. At that time, they had to pretend to be property managers and give jobs to the masters in various small advertisements. I found it after calling and then having an interview. One of the masters was very nice, but his phone was not a smart phone. I asked the master to register with my mobile phone, and then followed him to provide door-to-door service one by one. It was the coldest winter in Shenzhen. It’s only 4℃ (please don’t laugh at me, friends from the mainland). What are the benefits of following on site - getting first-hand the most real user needs. It is worth mentioning that this master called me as soon as he returned to Shenzhen after the Chinese New Year and told me that he had changed to a smart phone. This is my first time to experience the joy of “changing the world”!

The first version of the product was completed within one month, including the client APP and the master APP. When you understand the business form, the people in the business process and what they have to do will be very clear. What is the core information for user reservations? What is the core information for the master to take orders? Is it a grabbing order system or an order dispatching system? Is it only for online payment? How to display the information level of maintenance projects? Through various bubbles, everything has the answer. The first version of the product is very simple. The core goal is to make the business logic clear and clear. As for the placement of buttons on the left or right, font color, convenience of order viewing, etc., I didn’t worry too much about the details. I made a quick decision and everything was verified by the market. Facts have proved that what users care about most is the content of the service, that is, the efficiency of "multilateral" circulation. Otherwise, no matter how cool the interaction is, if no one comes to solve the blocked toilet in his home within an hour, the product will inevitably end up being deleted instantly. .

2. Pain and happiness

? Using this product may also have its drawbacks, such as energy being dispersed, and I cannot provide 360-degree high-fidelity without blind spots. For prototypes, there is no time to carefully evaluate every test case, no time to carve out every interactive page, and no time to participate in development and design reviews. Therefore, it takes extra time to communicate and process some implementation details, such as branch processes and delivery progress. But, it's all worth it.

1. Because you have a more comprehensive vision, you will have a better sense of product life cycle control. You will know where the product is going in the future, and how it will meet different development stages. When product iteration and operation iteration interact, the collection and filtering of requirements are more efficient and accurate, because your needs are focused. Therefore, the feedback data is also focused and has clear guiding significance for product improvement.

2. Because reasonable product requirements are not divorced from business reality and also have market feedback, although developers, testers, and designers have to help you find and correct deficiencies from time to time, everyone will understand the business better as they work. , everyone’s feedback is mostly positive, which will save a lot of meaningless arguments and questions.

3. Personal abilities will be fully exercised and knowledge will be expanded as never before. Whether externally or internally, you will find the most effective communication method by adjusting the communication objects and communication purposes, including how to mobilize resources, project management capabilities, target locking, and the ability to decompose and implement. All of this can not only If you succeed yourself, you will also succeed in your team.

I am really grateful for this assignment, which gave me the opportunity to review this unforgettable "entrepreneurial" experience. Ahead is the open sky and thin air of Tibet, which is the path I want to take.