How newcomers cultivate their own product thinking

What exactly is product thinking?

The term of retreat is to know where to come, to know where to go, and to know how to do it.

Pragmatic words are called grasping the needs of users, predicting the future of the product (MRD), and knowing how to promote the formation of the product.

At the beginning, you must play a variety of products very extensively, and when you have a wide horizon, you will have more directions to think about, and you will have a feeling when you make products.

Secondly, you should usually experience and analyze products, and don't do extensive and comprehensive product reports. That yield is too low.

In the process of actual combat, you will feel more and more that a certain functional module of each product has the logic of the product manager behind it.

So how to understand the thinking of the product manager under this product?

It's still an old saying, that is, to grasp a module, to grasp its entrance and its exit to analyze.

If you can't grasp the thinking of the product, you can take a look at how this module of the competing products of this product is done, so that the comparative analysis should be able to better understand the product thinking.

Another way is to graft the product form of this module to another different kind of product function, and then see if this product form is suitable in different user scenarios.

In this way, you can learn which product form is most suitable for which user scenario.

The improvement of product thinking is formed by the accumulation of bricks over time, and Jobs also made many mistakes. Instead of going to Zhihu and making circles, it is better to do something down-to-earth.

Realize that it is your own.

Find out how the company is evolving. What products does the company mainly produce, what is the scale of the company, what is the company's performance, what is the company's efficiency, what is the company's development prospects, etc. These things about the development of the company, as a newcomer, should be clarified step by step.

Strive to learn the company's management rules and regulations. Take the initiative to learn from colleagues in the company, ask questions if you don't understand, and try to take study notes. Or make full use of the time to learn these management rules and regulations, so that you can grasp the company's rules and regulations as soon as possible.

Newcomers should know how to observe and have a keen sense of judgment.

Just as everyone has a different understanding of Internet thinking, product thinking as an abstract high-rise existence, naturally there is no standard definition. However, this word is mentioned a lot, indicating that different companies are paying more attention to the rules and regulations of making products. I understand that product thinking, which is equivalent to what some people call "product feeling", is that as a product manager, when analyzing problems in life and work, you can think about problems from the original intention of the designer and the experience of different groups of people in different scenarios at the same time.

The most effective way to practice is to put yourself in the shoes of a thorough study of all products in a certain industry, from the in-depth process to the horizontal comparison, the whole process is supplemented by dialectical logical deduction, taste judgment, to get a comprehensive result. Like actually making products, the process of developing product thinking requires long-term and deliberate training and accumulation, and it is difficult to achieve it quickly. It generally starts with product analysis and decomposition, and there are two difficulties:

The first is to truly put yourself in the shoes of the fool and let yourself enter the fool's source mode to understand the designer's intentions and know the essence and dross; The second is to start with familiar products, analyze them one by one, and form their own thinking framework and routines. The former is a test of a product manager's all-round ability. Most people start with the products they use every day.

However, newcomers should try to avoid analyzing WeChat, QQ, **, Weibo and other world-class products as soon as they come up, these products have been successful, to analyze the diverse user needs and values they meet, the observer needs to stand higher, and if it is difficult, it is easy to be blind, and finally it is superficial, only producing some comments and not forming insights. It would be better to choose some products that are medium-sized and well-known in a certain industry, such as Xia Kitchen, some products of Douban, Meiyu, Instagram, Same, Path, etc. After selecting the target, think about the product value and the decomposition of the crowd, information architecture, use process, product core mechanism (leverage) and other aspects.

I think the following aspects can help a product newcomer to build their own product thinking.

1.Develop your own aesthetic abilities.

The absence of aesthetics is a terminal disease, especially for Internet product posts. Improving your aesthetic skills can help you truly recognize what is high quality and what is low. How to improve your aesthetic ability?

First of all, you need to read some professional design books, have an understanding of the basic design principles, I recommend a book, called "Design Book for Everyone", this book is from a design master, but the content is simple to understand, very conducive to newcomers to read and learn. Once you know some basic design principles, you should apply them. It's not about getting started with your project right away, but using the design principles you understand to look at the designs you see around you, and see what makes good design and why.

2.Develop your own product mindset.

Now that we have the basic aesthetic skills, let's talk about product thinking. Long before the Internet product, there was a product manager position. How to understand the real product thinking, I think it is still necessary to go to some classic books and textbooks to gain insight, here I recommend the "Design Psychology" 3 sets of books, namely "Daily Design", "Management Complex", "Emotional Design".

The knowledge in these three books is a truly cross-industry universal product design guideline. By the same token, once you see these guidelines, what you need to do is still look at the products you see around you, and analyze what makes a good product design and why it's good.

My understanding of product thinking is that it enables decision-makers to consider sales from the perspective of consumers, how to successfully sell goods and maximize the benefits of goods. Product thinking is what kind of sales means the company uses to sell things. So having a good product mindset can drive the company's growth.

The newcomers to the product are often new to the workplace, and they are novices in the workplace, how can they cultivate a good product thinking?

The ultimate purpose of the salesman is to sell things, so you look at the problem from a different angle, consider it from the perspective of the consumer, what is the purpose of the consumer to buy something, why should he choose your things in a dazzling array of goods? If a product newcomer wants to have a good product thinking, he must look at the problem from the perspective of the consumer, so that what you see is more objective.

After all, thinking is a kind of subjective and logical conceptualization, it is still based on objective understanding, so the product newcomer must have a deep understanding of their own products, and have an overall grasp of the product. This will be more conducive to the new product to conceive a good sales method and form a good product thinking.

Product thinking is not something that can be mastered in a few simple words, it still needs to be constantly explored and summarized in practice, and product thinking is also updated day by day.

In fact, product capability is a kind of underlying ability in life. It trains you to: grasp the main points and find opportunities from the chaotic information; Integrate their own resources and build the necessary capabilities; Make your own value into a product; Gain word of mouth and make yourself better able to survive and thrive.

Having it can give you a sense of confidence and groundedness when you step on the ground.

Course Catalog: Product competencies are the underlying competencies of each individual.

Case Study: User Experience & Marriage Coaching.

Empathy training: how to understand pleasure and unhappiness.

Empathy Training: How to Understand Anger and Fear.

Empathy training: The product should conform to the user's subconscious.

Recognize the nature of human beings and understand role-based survival.

Excellent product people town building!

I've led a lot of fresh graduates to make products, and I've been working in the position of product manager until today. Let me tell you about it.

First of all, as a product manager, you must have the right mindset. Ability and mentality, which is more important? I think it's the mentality. If the ability is not good, we can strive to do better through practice, learning, and hard work. But if the mentality is not correct, then there is nothing to talk about.

What does it mean to have the right mindset? You have to know that you are a newcomer, you have to lower your posture to learn from others, ask what you don't understand, don't hide and pretend that you seem to be very nb, in this way, no one will ever communicate with you well, or even teach you new things. Don't think that you seem to know a lot of things about Internet product managers on Zhihu and product managers, you seem to understand it very well, you should lower your profile, have a peaceful mind, and actively learn.

Second, you need to be diligent. The smallest things that need to be done must be done. All big things start with small things.

No accumulation of steps can lead to thousands of miles. Don't look at the old people of product managers who do big things all day long, maybe people won't write requirements documents anymore, maybe people won't do screenshot comparisons anymore, that's because people have different stages of product managers, and different stages need to exercise different abilities, which you still need to improve after a while, don't worry.

Okay, let's talk about how you should exercise.

Industry dynamics, to know every day.

This place can be the knowledge of the industry where your essential work is located, or you can set a goal for yourself to dig deeper into an industry every month or quarter. During this quarter, you only look at the knowledge related to the industry every morning. You can take a look at the subway in the morning or on the way to work.

Competitive product analysis, at least 5 models in an industry.

Knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent will not be defeated in a hundred battles. The competitors here are the same as the previous industry, you can analyze the industry where you work, and you can also analyze the industry that you want to explore every quarter. How to analyze competing products, you can search for it yourself.

Competitive product analysis, from the market environment, the information structure of competing products, the development process of competing products, the market pattern, etc., are all to be analyzed, basic skills, don't be lazy.

Product design. This place can be a document, a prototype diagram, or a PPT of an analysis and design summary. It's better to follow what you said at the beginning, you set yourself a goal and analyze an industry. Then try to design something yourself, draw a prototype, make a system diagram, etc., and finally design the product.

The above is the method of exercising for newcomers. It may be difficult at first, but I hope you stick to it, and once you stick to it and form a habit, it's hard to change. After a long time, you will find that your vision is reminded, praise and praise

Internet entrepreneurs often experience "three habits": product, market, and management. Generally speaking, the product is one, and the market and management are zero.

If one**, you can turn it into 1 million, 10 million, but if not, everything is equal to zero, the decisive factor of the product, the survival of the enterprise and the development of the product has become a big risk. The product manager can control the quality or quantity of the product, but it depends on whether the product manager can keep up with the development of the network and meet the needs of users. From this perspective, product thinking determines the future and future of the enterprise.

One is to put yourself in a position and put yourself in "fool mode" to understand the designer's intentions, to understand its essence and dross. The second is to start with familiar products, analyze them one by one, and form their own thinking framework and routines. The former is more of a test of the product manager's overall competence.

All of this is based on the user's point of view

If the product manager is not a user and does not know the user's needs, then this must be a failed product.

For newcomers, the ultimate workout product mindset is to do more projects. Just like the generals who fought the war did not graduate from a regular military academy, why could they fight? And win?

Whether it's a company project or a personal project, this is a great opportunity for you to discover your own product projects. For example: To make a product, you need to think about your product positioning and target users.

0-1 products need to do these functions, how to make the product cold start, how to use the needs of users, etc., these can make your product skills get a comprehensive exercise.

I think the most important thing to cultivate your own product thinking is to have your own understanding of the product, no matter what you encounter, first ask yourself more in your mind, why is this? When there is a doubt, there is the motivation to solve it.

So I think curiosity is very important, and in the process of cultivating your own product thinking, good curiosity is an important driving force to move you forward.

In the process of life, we will see a lot of very interesting, or very interesting products, and most people will see them, but when a person with this kind of product thinking lets him see it, he will have questions in his mind, why is this product so popular, why does it make me feel so interesting? How did they make it so interesting? What is their entry point?

That's the question, that's the first step in the thinking of product thinking.

When we have doubts, you will start to do it, want to figure out these doubts, so at this stage to do more, to sort out the information of those products, and compare them with the same type of products, in this process, you will do a lot of documents and charts to compare, to sort out your own thinking, to sort out your own notes, all the things you have learned, to integrate them, to become your own things.

In the final analysis, the most important thinking is actually a kind of thinking abilityYou have to think a lot to be able to memorize those interesting things in your mind, figure out the root behind it, simulate it in your mind, and see how far you can do it if you make this thing yourself. Make this thought process your own.

Summary

No matter what new products come out, as long as you think with this kind of thought process, then you will definitely slowly improve, and you will definitely improve slowly.