The functional design involved in any product, the specific functional situation has to be improved according to the actual problems, which is an operation recognized by many product managers. So, if the wrong function appears, does it mean that there is a problem that does not exist at all? What issues should product managers pay attention to before functional design? How to analyze the problem and create a super product that belongs to the enterprise.
In the process of building a super product, the functions provided to users and the problems encountered by users are integrated. Each function in the product comes from the problems encountered by users and solves some problems of users in some form. .
Take the search function as an example, it is to solve the problem of inconvenience for users to find content, while the shopping cart solves the problem of users wanting multiple products. Refresh is to let users get the latest content.
Analyze the problem, find the problem that the product needs to solve, evaluate the severity of the problem, and then determine whether to launch new features.
If the problem proves to be not that important, then it would be wrong to spend a lot of effort to develop this type of product function.
Then there will be a thinking: the problem solved by the product function must exist.
01
Analyze the cause of the problem
Food can solve the problem of hunger, so do companies need to provide food to consumers?
On the surface, this sentence seems to be a causal relationship between the two. Food is the solution to the problem. It can solve the problem of consumers' starvation. Enterprises provide consumers with food.
In fact, the two are independent of each other, and there is no causal relationship. First, food can solve the problem of hunger, but it cannot be used as a reason to provide food to consumers.
For example, pet shops can provide beauty services for pets. Consumers will choose to buy pet supplies, bathe pets, and perform physical examinations in them. However, such an environment is not suitable for pet shops to provide consumers with food.
So let us return to the problem. Food can solve the problem of hunger, but it may not be the reason why companies provide food to consumers. It is not the food itself that affects the company’s judgment, but the company’s positioning and the core user groups of the service. .
If you want to create a super product design product function, you must first think about who the company’s core user group is. The function is to solve specific problems. It is precisely because of these problems that the function will be designed, but it will not be a judgement. Reasons for this.
Then at this time, analysis of the problem becomes the key, and then we can try to think about these problems:
Refreshing the page can help companies obtain the latest information. Whether the product should provide users with a refresh function depends on whether the user has the need to obtain the latest information.
When evaluating functions, it depends on user needs and becomes an important indicator of evaluation. Therefore, we will find that the product features launched by many companies are targeted and can solve user problems. A product that does not have the ability to solve the corresponding problem will lose its furnishings that cannot meet the needs of users.
02
Create super products
The needs of users and the existence of problems depend on the core users selected by the enterprise. Only the users who are really affected represent the existence of real problems. If there are no users who are affected, it is a hypothetical problem and does not really exist.
Seeing this, companies must understand that the key to creating super products is to solve the unsolved problems of users.
Not only that, companies want to design product functions, but also deal with the details, just like the question of whether a pet store should provide consumers with food.
Food can solve the problem of hunger, but pet shops do not have the ability to solve the problem of consumer hunger. The problem they need to solve is how to care for pets. Therefore, hunger has no effect on consumers in pet shops.
Because when people encounter hunger problems, they only choose to enter the restaurant and solve the problem through the service provided by the restaurant, so their identity is the consumer of the restaurant, not the consumer of the pet shop.
Many consumers will incarnate as different users. When using different products, they will be plagued by different problems. Those problems may have in common, but there are still many changes (the market where the product is used, the product used, and even It is the design of functional logic, coupled with the impact of the living environment...) It cannot be generalized simply. Starting from the details, it becomes a breakthrough for companies to create super products, using details to improve user experience and make users impressed with the product.
03
Evaluate the problem
Under normal circumstances, users are the unified name of product users, covering a large range, but when designing product functions and analyzing products in the process of creating super products, the users we refer to are the core user groups. But it does not mean that we should ignore other user groups.
When users use the product, they will have a lot of problems, which may also lead to a mutually exclusive relationship between the problem and the problem. When the problem is evaluated, the user group affected by the problem can be found, and their value can be compared. Analyze the severity and find the correct functional design direction.
Two principles for evaluating problems:
1) Prove the authenticity of the problem
The existence of user groups affected by this type of problem means that the problem is real. On the contrary, the problem does not exist, and the direction of the functional design is wrong. The basic condition for evaluating the problem is the situation where the problem really exists.
2) The size of the user group
The larger the scale of users affected by the problem, it means the seriousness of the problem. Finding the corresponding solution in time and responding to user feedback can improve the user experience.
04
to sum up
Product managers continue to find problems, verify problems, analyze problems, evaluate problems, and finally design product functions. They cannot guarantee that they can build super products. If they want to build super products, product managers can only proceed from the details to improve user experience. Let the product exceed user expectations, just like Sukiyabashi Jiro Sushi Restaurant starting from the details, effectively combining the needs of users with the interests of the company, making sushi this product popular among diners.