It feels good to want to-know how to use it.

The first is the cognitive level. When users have certain demands, they can think of you at the first time, which is called wanting.

Next is the performance level. The logic of the product should be simple and clear enough, and users can play well in it after coming in. This is called knowing how to use.

Finally, at the kernel level, why do users think you are easy to use? It may be that a design detail touched him, that it provided more content than others, or that its performance was better than others. Whatever the reason, you are always one step ahead of all your competitors. This step is your core strength and the key to defeating your opponent.

What are we doing when we make products?

Making a product is to grasp the user's mind, leave an impression on the user's mind, and let him know how to use it when there is a need. The essence of educating users is not "education", but "building mental cognition" and "making his cognition smooth" in the user's mind. Remember, "education" costs money and is very expensive. What the product manager pursues tirelessly is the improvement of efficiency and productivity. It should be remembered at all times that measuring the input-output ratio and how to generate more value in limited resources is one of the core product thinking. So you should know that although the title of this article is "What is educating users", I don't really like the word "educating users" because it always makes people feel less interesting. Products are passive art, and excellent product managers should not let users start the subconscious defense mechanism, but should follow the subconscious of users to make products. People's desires are natural, not "I tell you how to do it", but "I have insight into your thoughts, so I follow your thoughts to make you feel that everything is natural." As long as I can achieve my product goal of "building mind", why not choose the lowest cost?

There are two most difficult things in this world. The first thing is to bring me the money in your pocket, and the other thing is to put the ideas in my head into you. It is very difficult to build cognition in users' minds. How can we reduce the cost of educating users?

Find the right entry point

For most products, you will not be in a blue ocean field, and there are countless opponents in any field every day. In other words, the products you want to make basically have competitors and have corresponding head products. But don't be depressed. Any product has weaknesses and places that cannot be covered. Choose a smart way-find companies and people that your competitive products don't cover or do well, and start here. For example, IBM is an absolute giant in the computer industry. It seems that no one can challenge it, but Apple has successfully emerged, launching small home computers and seizing the market from the giants. The reason is that IBM's target users are large enterprises, and its architecture, supply chain and ideology are all directly to B. The target is accounting and data processing of large institutions, which does not cover to C's business. For enterprises, survival is the first, and everything of enterprises is given by their users. Therefore, IBM missed to C's home computer market while serving these large enterprise users who supported its survival. Here is a digression from Liang Ning: "Users are our important assets, but they may also be the biggest blind spot of our innovation."

Another example is a lot of goods. When Taobao's shop order rules become more and more expensive, what will his sinking users do? This is a user that Taobao cannot cover or even actively eliminate. Does Taobao not do it mean that these users have disappeared? No, users and markets exist objectively and will not disappear because enterprises do not do it or have no related products. So, Pinduoduo found this market and survived the competition of giants. He successfully educated those users who were indirectly eliminated by Taobao to open stores in Pinduoduo and buy goods cheaper than Taobao.

Finding your opponent's weakness will greatly reduce the cost of frontal attack.

Conform to the user's subconscious.

Enterprises spend a lot of money to study users every year, hoping to be as close to users as possible, reduce the sense of distance and design products according to users' subconscious and cognition. For example, how to reduce the cost of education by adapting to the user's subconscious mind-the entrance battle in the era of WeChat and Alipay mobile payment.

The transition from cash payment era to mobile payment era is a typical educational process. Prior to this, everyone knew nothing about the experience of either taking cash transactions, swiping cards or scanning codes to pay. Alipay obtained the payment license from 20 1 1 and began to lay out the payment. Therefore, in the field of mobile payment, he is the first player to enter the market and has a huge first-Mover advantage, while WeChat is a latecomer. Countless experiences tell us that in China, the most rude and effective way of education is to spend money, but there is no significant difference in the efficiency of spending money, so WeChat was still weak in the tug-of-war between the two sides at that time, until the emergence of WeChat red envelopes. Using the social relationship chain of WeChat and the tradition of giving red envelopes in China during the New Year, a large number of users use WeChat to bind bank cards and open WeChat payment. This is a brilliant move, which truly embodies what is meant by "human desire is justice". Although the use cost of binding bank cards is high, users still flock to WeChat to pay, because it conforms to the user's subconscious mind, "It is normal for me to give red envelopes to my family and friends in the New Year" and spend the least money to do the most efficient thing.

To give another example of low output, our competitor Eggplant Express has more than 300 million users in India, which is a national application in India and has sufficient user traffic. Because of the change of market network environment, eggplant began to transform from 17 to the product form of streaming media, trying to transform its huge user traffic. However, according to our research results in India, his transformation was not smooth. The reason is very simple, because users now think eggplant is a communication tool. Why should I come here to watch the video? The direction of transformation has nothing to do with the mental impression it gives users, which is naturally unexpected. Entrance and traffic are not equal to the scene, and the user's subconscious can't be triggered in a suitable scene. The user can't think of it at all, and the education cost will rise greatly.

As simple as possible.

Whether attracting new customers or educating users to use products, the whole process should be as simple and efficient as possible. The more complicated a behavior is, the higher the cost of educating users, because users may give up products at any link and cause losses. Therefore, under the premise of ensuring the realization of functional goals, it is the simplest.

The essence of educating users is not education, but building users' mental cognition. There is a cost in educating users, so if possible, we should not "educate" but try to be close to users, obey people's desires, find the right starting point and reduce the cost of creating minds.

The essence of business is to evaluate the input-output ratio. As long as my harvest can finally cover my cost, it is a good deal. The same is true for educating users. We just want to benefit from the act of "education". So, try to quantify your behavior and keep asking yourself these questions, just like making a product:

1, what can I get?

2. How much do I have to pay?

3. Is it worth it?

4. Can I wait?

If you want to understand these four points to decide whether to do it or not, the rest is the means and methods.