This article is how to build products from 0 to 1, the full text is long, it is suggested to collect slowly digest.
The IT industry has evolved over the years, with the emergence of multiple project development processes — waterfall development, iterative development, spiral development, agile development. Subdivide these ideas into Scrum, XP, the V model, and so on. But a lot of the time, it seems like you’re going to see a lot of these things in your own development process, right?
This is natural, methodology is just a guide to work ideas, the above method is suitable for a particular scenario, such as waterfall development. Waterfall development is defined as the most predictable approach, strictly following a pre-planned sequence of requirements analysis, design, coding, integration, testing, and maintenance. However, in real work, only traditional IT industry or outsourcing companies generally adopt this development process. However, the phrase “there will be no change in demand” is a lie. Your parents are your parents.
Agile class development has evolved in so many forms that it is not entirely suitable for all scenarios. As the entire Internet industry trots forward, these methodologies seem to be evolving faster than they can keep up. My advice to these methodologies is to take the parts that apply to the actual situation of the project, discard the parts that look useful but aren’t really useful, and don’t be completely “copycat.”
Embrace change is at the heart of agile development.
Project process
The following author will summarize a set of flexible workflow.
1. Preliminary research
1.1 Market Research
It’s always a mistake to do things behind closed doors. Find out why you’re doing things before you decide what you’re doing. If you or other decision makers think you’re experienced and prefer to “bang your head” on something, I suggest you think twice. In terms of market research, the focus is on the overall environment, and communication with marketing and operations personnel and other business related personnel (if any) will be conducted throughout the early stage of research.
WHY TO DO > HOW TO DO
Two methods of analysis — PEST and SWOT are introduced.
(1) a PEST
PEST is a macro environmental analysis model. The so-called PEST, namely Political (Political), Economic (Economic), Social (Social) and Technological (Technological), analyzes the environment from four dimensions.
PEST four quadrant
The political environment
Political environment includes a country’s social system, government guidelines, policies, laws and so on. Different countries have different social natures and different social systems have different restrictions and requirements on organizational activities. Even in the same country with the same social system, in different periods, due to the difference of the ruling party, the government’s policy characteristics and policy tendency on the attitude and influence of organizational activities are constantly changing.
For example, Initial crypto-token Offerings (ICOs) related to the blockchain economy are gaining momentum. On September 4, the central bank, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission jointly halted ICO financing.
Regulators categorize ICOs as “illegal public financing” and leave no room for them. This decree appears to be caught off guard, but “leek” is really to be cut off, who do not believe that he is the dish. In fact, ICOs use a portion of blockchain technology for issuing tokens, which accounts for less than 1% of the blockchain.
Leek, is not waiting for the bloom.
Image from Internet
The economic environment
Economic environment mainly includes macroscopical and microcosmic two aspects. Macroeconomic environment mainly refers to a country’s population and its growth trend, national income, gross national product and its changes, as well as the level and speed of national economic development that can be reflected by these indicators.
Microeconomic environment mainly refers to the income level, consumption preference, savings situation, employment degree and other factors of consumers in the region where an enterprise is located or the region it serves. These factors directly determine the current and future market size of enterprises.
The concept of “consumption upgrading” is not new, and the process is ongoing. To take an old-fashioned example, since the reform and development of China, we need to keep warm and dress fashionably, and now we have personalized matching and customization. We can clearly feel the changes brought by economic development. From X Treasure, X East to XX youpin, XX superior, XX preferred, e-commerce is more and more vertical, cake to the back into a mounted flower.
The social environment
Social and cultural environment includes the education and cultural level, religious belief, customs and habits, aesthetic views, values and so on of the residents of a country or region.
Religious beliefs and customs may prohibit or discourage certain activities. In fact, there will be a Halal window in the canteen of the university town. Everyone is used to it. 56 ethnic groups are all one family.
Perhaps the initiator of this incident may not be able to accept the special treatment of compatriots, want to stir up trouble, or it may be casual talk caused by the hot public opinion, who knows? However, what makes people think is that the efficiency of a group of public relations to deal with the crisis is not so slow compared with other peers?
Similar events, pictures from the Internet
Science and technology environment
The technological environment should not only investigate the development and change of technological means directly related to the activities of the field in which the enterprise is located, but also timely understand the state or local support for this field. Although there is such a saying about technology patents, the phenomenon of product homogeneity still cannot be stopped. The “hundred regiments war” in the history of the Internet is not only historical, but also still happening now, and will not be avoided in the future. This is also about the impact of policy on the technological environment.
The external environment looks easy to analyze, but it may be a little difficult to conduct in-depth research. There are too many factors affecting the environment, which requires a professional market analysis team to analyze, especially the uncertainty of data sources, data contamination and other disturbances.
For example, TalkingData2016 mobile game industry white paper shows that users in Yunnan, Guizhou and Xinjiang (Sichuan) pay relatively high rates.
TalkingData2016 Mobile Games industry whitepaper
Exm? Is it unscientific? Why is APA(Active Payment Account) higher in northwest inland than coastal cities such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai? Reasonable, not black, regardless of the economic situation, coastal areas have a much higher population than inland areas, could it be that the data source is polluted?
Image from Internet
If you lived through the rise of the Skye dynasty in the early 21st century, or even heard the story of that period, then you probably know why. This is a digressions, also can’t write disorderly, otherwise will be hanged by stakeholders light up.
The environment is mostly force majeure, unless your project has reached a certain level of impact, which is another story. The following SWOT analysis rules mainly cut into the enterprise, analyze the internal situation of their own enterprises, so as to maximize their strengths and avoid their weaknesses.
(2) SWOT
SWOT is S (strengths), W (weaknesses), O (opportunities) and T (threats). Clearly grasp the overall situation, analyze their strengths and weaknesses in resources, grasp the opportunities provided by the environment, and guard against possible risks and threats. This is the goal of SWOT analysis.
The SWOT four quadrant
Many product owners will boast a long list of the advantages of their products, but when it comes to a zero-to-one product, the advantages seem limited. With no data to back up a good-looking dashboard, and no product barriers to speak of, the core competency seems to be the team or company’s background, connections, channels, and other hidden resource advantages.
The disadvantage is more visible. The team is short of human resources, the team has no relevant experience, the budget is short, and the data island phenomenon is serious. Therefore, an entrepreneurial team or an enterprise’s internal incubation of new projects will experience numerous difficulties. The development team may be able to launch a product from demo to release normally, but external conditions are very important for its development after launch.
At this time, we should seize opportunities and deal with various threats.
Opportunity is one of those things you never get. Jack Ma believes that great businesses and entrepreneurs are born when business is difficult. Yes, but there is only one Jack Ma. Isn’t the fact that people try to be the best at everything they do by going through the details of their daily work just to reduce the proportion of luck in startup success?
Threats may be an overstatement, but the correct interpretation should be external disadvantages or challenges. VR/AR in a few years ago was hyped to heaven, but the industry is still a chicken feathers after calm down, summarized, the general reasons are as follows:
- VR/AR is expensive and has yet to reach the value of a consumer product (Cardboard is really not VR…)
- The industry ecology is still very embryonic, the downstream related service industry can not support the objective market scale
- Relevant practitioners with the help of media hype tuyere, delusional products from C to VC. About this all have this kind of phenomenon in various fields, the typical is mutual gold.
After analyzing this environment and the situation inside the enterprise, it is time to analyze the products of the friends.
1.2 Analysis of competitive products
Some products are divided into TO C and to B according to the service audience, and the focus of the two products is completely different. The former focuses on user needs and experience. The starting point is to solve user needs and realize business value. Therefore, users are the father. The latter are basically tool-based products. In order to solve business needs and improve work efficiency, the starting point is commercial value.
If you do not have relevant working experience, you may have no way to start the product of TO B, because the business logic of to B products is complicated and it is difficult to start planning without having experienced the construction and design of a mature product. At this time, you can try to search whether there are such to B products and services in the market, some ERP, CRM or other SaaS, there will be Demo to try. You can also find the customer service or business requirements of this kind of product to experience the product, or even ask for the instruction manual. If the product or service is in the hands of a small number of companies, and your company is in the business, my knowledge won’t help you.
To C’s products are basically accessible, which can be analyzed from the five elements of user experience, namely:
Strategic Layer – > Scope Layer – > Structure layer – > Frame Layer – > Visual layer
Pictures from the Internet, five elements of user experience
Among them, the strategic layer can only rely on speculation and speculation. When analyzing the external environment above, we will study it together and analyze it in combination with the overall environment. The strategic policy of an enterprise, the secrecy level must be s-level. The content companies distribute through various media channels has to be packaged, and if they reveal everything, competitors will adjust their strategies and target them. In addition to the listed company Qn financial statements are relatively credible, other press conferences and so on can only be listened to. If this kind of mixed message is really analyzed, it is bound to cause inaccurate analysis results.
There is much debate about the trade-off between user needs and business needs. When the interview of the product post is always asked about the interests of users and commercial interests of choice, this question benevolence, wisdom.
The scope layer describes the range of functionality that the product contains, in short, what users can do with the product. The core functionality of a product is determined early in a project meeting and will remain the same no matter what iterations become of the product. If there is a major change to the product or a new product is being developed, this could be a sign that the product is having a big problem monetizing it, or that someone else has been replaced.
From frame, structure and vision, these three layers are basically mixed together for analysis, such as the interactive experience in the process, the amount of information carried on a page and the overall information structure, which cannot be completely disassembled and analyzed.
Here’s an example.
When a user information filling form is made on the mobile terminal, a long single-page form may cause cognitive pressure on users. At this time, the form will be divided into multiple pages and the amount of information on each page will be controlled.
Single page – > Multiple pages
The switching mode of this page form is designed to be close to the natural interactive page effect, accompanied by the gentle style of the whole interface.
Load – > swipe
To enhance the relevance of multiple pages, some elements are reused across multiple pages and reflected as the page flows. A progress bar at the bottom tells the user where he is, analogous to breadcrumbs on the Web.
Elements associated
The preliminary eye movement test found that the position of form text was not considered properly, which led to the rugged visual movement path. Moreover, the navigation effect was too obvious, which interfered with the user’s use, and the user decided to weaken the navigation.
Optimizing adjustment
Finally, one more round of “subtraction” is done to remove unnecessary elements and reduce information interference.
Image from Internet
As a result, even a small form will have to be considered repeatedly by the UED team, from the framework to the structure to the visual, all cannot be separated, the user research, IxD and GUI designers and product managers need to work together, as well as requirements requesters need to be involved in the process, otherwise it may end up as a drilling well.
I need a man to dig a well. I need a man to help me.
Ding Gong dug a well and dug out a man.
Just by working on an assembly line, delivering documents and designs, it’s a big deal.
1.3 User Cases
Use Case is written in Use Case, the title is hard to make up four words, how to translate will not go into depth, the original intention is based on multi-scene, there is a sequence of target behavior interaction. For those new to the project, UML use case diagrams are the quickest way to understand the business of the project. In actual work, some students may think that the flow chart of multi-lane has already described the business process in detail, and it will waste time to repeat more UC diagrams. However, in fact, UC can clarify its ideas more clearly in the early stage of product requirement sorting, especially when the requirements have not been confirmed. A simple communication between UC and project members can save more costs.
Another point to note is the difference between use case and use story. Quote the next colleague’s explanation.
Conceptually, use cases include business use cases and system use cases. User stories are more of a business use case, whereas software needs describe more of a system use case. In terms of granularity, user stories, especially in agile development, tend to be more granular than use cases. Basic flows, extension flows, and business rules in use cases can all be transformed into User stories.
At the level, User Story focuses more on business scenarios and user stories, and more on content that users can understand or understand. User stories are units that generate core business value. Business use cases do this, but system use cases do not.
In terms of the level of detail, the user story focuses on user needs or business scenarios, focusing on the business needs and scenarios clearly, relatively simple. Use case modeling is more complex, involving business processes, business rules, input, output, interface, interaction and other aspects of the content.
If a product has too many types of users or too many functions, do not draw only one use case diagram. In this case, you can choose to divide it into several dimensions: function, scenario, and role. Otherwise the use case will come out like a spider’s web and be unreadable.
Correct demonstration, pictures from the Internet
The above three preliminary research and analysis are carried out synchronously, from a casual idea to the implementation of a demo or market analysis, there is no difference before and after. At this point, the overall product layout is already on the page, and the next step is to refine the details, which is what most product managers and requirements analysts do.
2. Demand analysis
2.1 Service Logic
On a small team or startup, requests may come directly from the boss or project manager, and these are secondary requests that require you to listen to and think about the purpose behind them. As stated at the beginning of this article, be clear about why you’re doing it before you decide what to do, or else you’ll suffer along with your team members. Changing requirements can have a big impact on morale.
WHY TO DO > HOW TO DO
The user use case Outlines the roles involved in the business and the scenarios in which those businesses occur, and it’s time to refine the process for each business. In the early stage of C-end products, the business logic will not be too complicated, but the needs of users need to be constantly figured out and studied. On the other hand, the requirements of b-end products will be very clear. The functions required by the products are very clear, and their business logic will be more complex than that of C-end products. The typical startup team will design and develop an MVP version of the product to market, or some other non-product approach, while testing the market acceptance of the product or proving the business model.
Example:
Didi hit people business logic
The core function of Didi Dada app as a platform is to connect thugs and users, collect intermediary fees and make profits. The product manager needs to consider what information the order needs to provide in order for the goons to find the target, how the goons bidding mechanism should be designed, under what circumstances the goons can complete the task, and whether the user should pay first or pay later. The business of each functional node needs to be refined to design the logical processing in different scenarios.
2.2 Business & User needs
This is where most C-side products struggle, balancing business needs with user needs. For example, it’s still a bit of a punch.
From the source of demand analysis, users need to “educate” each other because of personal emotional economic disputes, or other circumstances, because their physical quality is not good or do not have time, or because they can not find each other, so they need to seek help from professionals to deal with. The requirements here are initially analyzed when the proposal is received, and then maslow’s needs pyramid is used to analyze the hierarchy of requirements.
Let’s assume that the user, Xiaoming, owes xiaobai money and decides to use Didi To get the money back.
From the bottom of the demand to begin to speak, xiao Bai owes Xiao Ming money is not returned, Xiao Ming called urged many times but fruitless, so very angry, IQ instant negative, decided to retaliate against each other, gain pleasure; But Xiao Ming is too small because of his size, considering that he is not the opponent of the tall and big xiao Bai, in order to protect himself, he decided to think of other methods; Debt repayment is the basic rule of society, small white does not return money seems to be very weak, easy to bully; Further up, the realization of self-worth seems to be unexplained.
Maslow’s pyramid of needs
You audience master to see here must feel that the author with didi beating people as an example is very stupid, but in real life, the relevant industry has developed well, and some can even take the stage. First few years of the Internet financial P2P compared to traditional financial companies like Banks and other microfinance institutions, its lending requirements is very easy, you borrow money from A gold A company each, for example, A company salesman is as long as you come up with other peer lending proves that can lend, so not prudent risk control mechanism caused the high rate of bad debts, It also gives rise to the development of downstream debt collection industry. Some debt collection companies have even been listed on the New Third Board, which is also a “listed” company.
So let’s go back to this hypothesis.
The product solves the user’s need, but also has to keep itself alive, this is the business needs. As an intermediary platform, to help Xiao Ming recover debts, so that the thugs made money, is naturally to charge fees. After that, recommending professional training services to goons, locating target locations through big data, analyzing target user portraits and other value-added services for goons also need to be considered. The business model that can be realized by a product depends on the product form. It is quite difficult for some products to be commercialized, and how to realize tool products has been a pain point since ancient times. There are two typical examples in the industry — Ink Weather and Meitu.
Weather seems to be a high frequency and rigid demand, according to last year’s prospectus, Ink Weather has 470 million installed capacity and 30 million + daily activity, annual revenue is less than 200 million, the net profit is pitifully little. While Meitu, although always in the state of loss, the overall has been in an upward trend. According to the financial report, the total revenue of Meitu in 2016 was 1.5786 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 112.8%. In January 2017, the monthly live total of Meitu was about 520 million yuan, with a year-on-year growth of about 32%. While Meitu focuses on hardware, much of the gap comes from the software itself.
As for the comparison between the two companies, there is no shortage of excellent articles on the Internet, which you can search for yourself.
Resist the urge to pull out your prototyping tools and calmly analyze a wave of requirements, and you’ll realize that the “inspiration” that came out of the proposal in the first place may seem a little premature.
This concludes the first half of this article, and the second half will cover how to communicate requirements to the team, get the project off the ground, and how to deal with small “contingencies.”
I’ll see you next time.
This article was originally posted by @FruitBasket. Everyone is a product manager. Reprint without permission is prohibited.
Photo from PEXELS, based on CC0 protocol