Author: @Haifeng Shanzhu
Recently, media reports have indicated a significant drop in user activity on Weibo. The reasons for this may be related to Weibo's own positioning and the competition from WeChat. Today, I would like to discuss another factor from the perspective of users—product design. Before analyzing these two products, I want to first talk about the key points of product design. Understanding these will make analyzing products relatively easier.
There are three most critical factors in product design:
A deep understanding of user needs; Creating products that meet user needs; Shaping product advantages according to market conditions.
Among these, understanding user needs is quite important. This is also why many products that only focus on innovation without considering user needs often go unnoticed. The reason Steve Jobs didn't need to conduct market research was because of his deep understanding of human nature and knowing what people essentially need.
So, how can product designers quickly and deeply grasp user needs? The key is to focus on the essence. I have a good method: Market development trends + User primary needs = Product design direction. Among these, user primary needs are the demands that exist regardless of external factors, and they are the starting point of all needs. To better understand, I will provide an example to illustrate this formula. When most people used mobile phones only as communication tools, Steve Jobs proposed the concept of a phone being a mini-computer, thus designing the iPhone and rewriting the industry landscape.
From his judgment, we can see two points. First is the market development trend: The construction methods of computers and mobile phones are largely the same, and components such as CPUs and memory will become increasingly refined, so what can be done on computers can basically be achieved on mobile phones in the future. Second is the user primary need: Users value convenience and efficiency. Mobile phones can be carried around, making them very convenient. Additionally, through mobile phones, people can fully utilize fragmented time, greatly improving efficiency. If mobile phones can achieve the functions of computers, it will greatly satisfy users' pursuit of convenience and efficiency. Steve Jobs grasped these two points, so he was ahead of others and led the trend with the excellent design of the iPhone.
What are the primary user needs? Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory provides us with a guiding direction. Maslow believed that human needs are divided into five levels, namely physiological needs, safety needs, emotional and belonging needs, respect needs, and self-actualization needs. These five needs include most primary needs, but the standards and degrees are relatively vague, lacking a certain degree of operability. Therefore, beyond this, we also need to observe the characteristics of human nature in daily life. Steve Jobs once practiced in India for seven months, and his attitude towards pursuing spiritual experiences allowed him to transcend external material interference and reach the depths of human nature, deeply understanding primary needs. This is an important reason why he could know user needs without conducting market research.
After discussing user needs, let's return to the two social products, Sina Weibo and WeChat. What are the original user needs for using social media? One is internal within the circle: Expressing emotions, maintaining communication with friends, and caring for each other. The other is external to the circle: Hoping to meet more like-minded people and expand one's knowledge and abilities.
After knowing the user needs, the second key point of product design is to create products that meet user needs. Classifying user needs, they mainly fall into three categories: Expressing emotions, interacting with friends, and expanding outwardly. We will compare the characteristics and differences between Sina Weibo and WeChat from these three aspects.
From the above three lists, it can be seen that both Sina Weibo and WeChat do well in meeting user needs, but their characteristics are also quite distinct. Sina's interaction with friends is slightly weaker, but its external expansion is very strong. WeChat's interaction with friends is very strong, but its external expansion is slightly weaker. This is related to their respective strengths and market environment. Sina has stronger media capabilities, so it performs better in external expansion. WeChat has strong social networking (SNS) capabilities, so entering from SNS is a good choice.
Since they each have their targets, there are naturally pros and cons. The advantages don't need much explanation, which can be seen from the number of users of the two products. A product's disadvantages are not easy to discover; they require a user practice cycle and then gradually manifest themselves. Therefore, the earlier-released Sina Weibo has now begun to reveal its disadvantages, namely insufficient friend interaction. When Sina Weibo first came out, everyone enthusiastically posted photos, even taking pictures before eating. But as the influence of big Vs grew larger, the contradiction between internal and external needs also became greater. For ordinary users, messages posted by buddies basically sink into oblivion, rarely escaping being overwhelmed by posts from big Vs. Users' messages not getting attention lead to a lack of a sense of belonging, eventually causing them to leave Sina Weibo for WeChat. People around me have experienced this, which is an important reason for the recent decline in Sina Weibo's activity.
WeChat focusing on SNS also has certain defects, because communication among users requires content support, and each piece of content is a topic. I'm sure everyone has experienced diving when logging into QQ, doing so to avoid the awkward atmosphere of someone finding you but having nothing to say. Lack of content support is the defect of focusing on SNS. In life, some couples transition from having endless conversations to having nothing to say, which is due to the same reason. The root cause of this defect lies in unmet user needs, specifically the need for external expansion. Now, WeChat has made progress in external expansion by adding features such as official accounts, finding nearby people, and shaking the phone, which can be used for external expansion. Additionally, the market environment is favorable for WeChat. Previously, QQ Zone had similar functions to Moments, but its activity level was much lower than Moments. An important reason is that the social market environment has changed; previously, even short content was embarrassing to post on QQ Zone for fear of being judged as lacking sophistication. Nowadays, like Weibo, 100+ characters suffice, so a lot of content that was previously too embarrassing to post can now be freely shared, which is precisely what SNS needs—topics.
By now, some might wonder, isn't product design supposed to start from the user and then create products that meet user needs? Why don't Sina and WeChat fulfill all of them? In fact, from a developmental perspective, both will inevitably move towards this direction, and their product functions will have many similarities, just with some subtle differences in implementation. Features like shaking the phone, nearby people, and official accounts are good examples. Sina added shaking the phone, while WeChat added another type of big V—official accounts. The reason they haven't immediately met all user needs is because product design needs to adapt to the market, which is the third element of product design, namely shaping product advantages based on market conditions.
Products need to adapt to the market for several reasons: 1) Comprehensive products lose focus, making them harder for users to accept. 2) Limited capabilities prevent achieving perfection immediately. 3) Avoiding homogenization with existing competitors' products necessitates creating differential advantages. How to analyze the market and competitive relationships can be referenced using Porter's Five Forces model and SWOT analysis, which I won't elaborate on here. In terms of creating differential advantages, WeChat is a great example. WeChat was launched when Tencent Weibo and Sina Weibo were at a disadvantage in their competition. To turn the situation around, WeChat was destined not to follow the path of Weibo. Therefore, WeChat's first promoted feature was voice walkie-talkie, which was both convenient and free, greatly satisfying user needs, thereby creating a differential competitive advantage.
Shaping product advantages is divided into two levels, one strategic and one tactical.
At the strategic level, to have a place in a highly competitive environment, one needs a strategy akin to Liu Bang's "openly repairing the栈道while secretly advancing through Chen仓" (excluding those who rely on connections). This strategy is to find a细分market with good expansibility and become the first, then gradually expand. This way, direct competition with giants can be avoided, and one's brand can be gradually established, seeking opportunities to grow later. Of course, a细分market with good expansibility needs to meet two conditions: 1. It must have a large market space. 2. It must have the ability to transition to another large market. Otherwise, it might end up like a dead-end alley, impossible to exit once entered.
At the tactical level, the most prominent feature is single-point breakthrough, achieving excellence. This single point can either be a product function, such as WeChat's walkie-talkie function, or a product characteristic, such as Xiaomi's high configuration at a low price. Excellence means making your product exceed user expectations, thereby generating high satisfaction. From a certain perspective, excellence is a kind of spirit and attitude. It's unrealistic for a product to achieve excellence all at once; even the iPhone 4 went through several generations of product exploration before it was created. However, we can progressively move towards excellence in the process of designing products, which requires fully considering user needs and deeply grasping product details, such as functions, interactions, and designs, thereby designing an extremely satisfactory product for your users and shaping your product advantages.