Demand insight, from "encounter" to "demand"
Although user needs are very important, they are often subconsciously confused with user feedback in actual operation.
Part I: Listening to users. Listen to the user's voice and find out what the user wants to express. Although what users say is often inconsistent with what they want, many companies have not even put down their bodies to listen.
The second paragraph: Know the users. Understanding users needs "empathy" and getting their inner feelings.
Subdivision 3: Insight into users. Insight into users needs to go beyond user thinking and see the essence of user needs. This requires not only the participation of users, but also your own continuous exploration and practice to find the real needs that users don't know. "Seeing mountains is mountains, not mountains, but mountains" is probably this realm.
Chapter one? What is the demand?
I. Definition of needs
Demand is a desire that people are willing to pay a certain cost to meet. Demand is a multi-level desire.
Demand is the unsatisfied desire of users.
This desire has many levels, not only the desire for actual material, but also the psychological and emotional level, and even the cultural level.
Maslow's "pyramid of needs"
Physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, respect needs and self-realization needs.
A person's simple actions or decisions are probably the result of the interaction of several levels of needs, and each level has a certain weight, which makes it difficult to use Maslow's demand pyramid for analysis in the actual business process.
Desire is not equal to demand.
The cost that people are willing to pay represents the value of this desire.
The cost here is not only the cost of money, but also the cost of time, energy and mentality that people are willing to invest.
If people have a desire, but are unwilling to pay for it, this desire is not a demand, because it is not strong enough, or even completely powerless.
Second, why is demand so important?
Demand lasts longer than products.
Demand is the reason for the existence of products, and products are just one of the ways to meet demand.
If enterprises pay too much attention to products, they will focus on improving product performance, but may ignore other ways and opportunities to meet users' needs until they are eliminated.
If enterprises pay too much attention to demand, they will encourage employees to satisfy users in a better way, rather than just improving existing solutions.
When technological innovation does not match the demand, technology is like a rootless tree, and it is difficult to bear rich fruits.
Demand leads development
When we truly understand the needs of users, we can think about solutions more freely.
Insight into demand can not only lead development, but also help enterprises to recognize the situation and conform to the trend.
People don't want photos, they don't want photos, they want to leave the best moments. So what is the purpose of people leaving the best moment-because it represents good memories and emotions.
Demand forecast future trend
For enterprises, if they can predict the future, they can seize the opportunity.
In fact, the future is always conceived from now on. Through in-depth understanding of user needs, enterprises can better judge which products will have better market potential and space.
When new technology enters the market, as long as it is rooted in demand, grafting technology and cost, it is possible to predict the development trend of future products.
Today, only some users may encounter troubles, and tomorrow may be a problem that all users must solve.
Third, demand insight
Find out the needs of users by observing and asking them.
This is only the final result of demand insight, which cannot be understood as only discovering what functions users want.
If you are thirsty, you want to drink. This is not a demand insight. People are eager to regain their vitality at any time, which is a kind of insight into their needs, and drinking drinks is only a solution to restore their vitality.
Different understandings have different needs.
Different people have different understandings of the same thing and different views on the same product, which leads to different needs of people, so they will have different opinions.
Some people regard cars as a means of transportation, while others regard cars as lovers.
Not only does everyone have different needs, but also a person's attitude in different scenarios will be obviously different.
Demand insight focuses on user motivation
Demand insight should not only understand what users want, but also understand why users want this kind of thing, and at the same time understand what kind of influence this kind of thing will have on users' behavior, psychology and emotions.
Demand insight needs to fully understand the user's heart, his way of thinking, his emotional driving mode and his cognitive attitude towards the world, and form a real understanding of the user's needs on this basis.
Demand insight should pay attention to the essence of demand
Find the essence of demand through the 5WHAT (why) golden circle
If the observed demand is superficial, the demand may change in a short period of time.
Of course, the relevant requirements should not be too abstract. If it is too abstract, it may reveal the knowledge of the public, and it is not easy to form an operational plan and transform it into the value of the enterprise.
The second chapter discovers user needs like Sherlock Holmes.
Have you ever had the experience of being wise after the event?
Everyone has had this feeling and found that a product actually coincides with their previous ideas. Of course, other people's products have been developed, and I am just "wise after the event."
If you could record this idea at that time, wouldn't it be a test of your insight into your own needs?
You don't lack the ability to understand needs, but the motivation to tap them.
What knowledge does demand insight need to master?
"You don't need any knowledge"
It is said that the demand epiphany "needs nothing" because epiphany is sometimes a sudden epiphany, and it seems that no special knowledge is needed. Some people are born with a pair of eyes to find problems. As mentioned above, everyone has the so-called needs.
As long as you are willing to observe and think, everyone will have their own views on demand more or less.
"You need everything."
Why does demand insight "need everything"? Because the insight into needs only has a rich knowledge reserve, and life experience can rise to the height of epiphany. Only when people have the corresponding experience can they be psychologically prepared and discover what others can't do.
It is precisely because of their in-depth understanding of different knowledge that these detectives can supplement their brains with theoretical knowledge and fill in the missing links in reasoning.
Some disciplines related to demand insight
[1] Understand the knowledge of people and society. Understanding people's psychological activities, the laws of social and economic activities, and some cultural processes of human society are the sources of demand. Related disciplines include: psychology, sociology, economics, anthropology, etc.
[2] Knowledge of data analysis. Through a variety of analysis methods, the structured and unstructured data are analyzed to find potential demand patterns or demand trends. This kind of knowledge-related disciplines include: statistics, mathematical modeling, library science, software engineering and so on.
[3] Image and text knowledge. Demand includes not only functional content, but also psychological and emotional content. It is a complex process, and aesthetics and literature can help demand insight to deeply understand this complex emotion. The main subjects include: design, human factors, literature, aesthetics, etc.
[4] Business and technical knowledge. How the demand helps the enterprise to obtain profits and whether the demand can be truly met all need to master the necessary business and technical knowledge. Subject knowledge related to business and technology includes: project management, marketing, communication, professional engineering knowledge, etc.
How can a person finish learning?
Demand insight doesn't need you to really master the content of every subject, you just need to be able to understand and apply the knowledge related to demand insight in every subject.
In the process of demand insight, you need to learn how to describe what you observe.
Just find something related to you in phenomenology.
For example, Husserl's phenomenology can learn three observation methods: description method, free association method and horizon method.
For demand insight, it is not so much that you are required to master subject knowledge, but rather that you need to have a framework for thinking about problems in various disciplines, a model for solving problems, and experience in using various subject methods to solve problems.
If you have training in economics, you will get used to understanding demand from the relationship between supply and demand; If you know psychology, you may analyze your needs from two dimensions: memory and motivation. If you have a sociological background, then you may be concerned about the influence of social pressure and group motivation on demand. If you know some semiotics knowledge, you can be more sensitive to some symbolic "symbols" in the research process. If you have practical experience in anthropology, you may be better at interviewing and observing and capturing more content.
In the process of demand exploration, only by integrating knowledge in various fields can you reach a higher peak.
Three qualities of demand insight
Empathy-think like a user
Empathy is everyone's instinct.
Empathy is the ability to understand the feelings of others. With empathy, you can enter other people's hearts and feel their deepest needs and emotions. Empathy allows you to grasp the needs of users, not to judge according to your own needs.
There is a special neuron in the human brain, called mirror neuron, which can make us feel empathy when we see or hear other people's behavior, just as all the processes are our own experience.
However, people do not have empathy for everything. Mirror neurons only work when they are directly seen or felt. If it is too far away from users, it is difficult to feel the needs of users.
Empathy is the foundation of demand insight.
It's hard to imagine why your real customers want to buy your products when you sit on the top floor of a skyscraper and talk about company strategy.
Associative power-open your brain hole
Demand insight is a kind of diffuse thinking, which requires rich imagination. This kind of imagination is not fantasy, but association based on in-depth observation of environment, behavior or interaction details, combined with one's own knowledge and experience. Imagination can promote a deep understanding of phenomena and the formation of valuable ideas.
Through association, your mind will go out of the box.
If we regard the process of discovering demand as a trip, then what you observe is like various scenic spots in the trip, while imagination is like a car, carrying you from one scenic spot to another. When all the scenic spots are strung together, the truth will gradually emerge.
Demand insight can constantly explore outward and look for possible connections. This kind of diffusion may not be meaningful every time, but the more branches there are, the greater the chance of finding a connection. Finally, the various behavioral characteristics of users are strung together to form a complete user demand.
If every user's behavior is a tree, then insight needs to play the role of Lenovo, touch another tree through the forked branches, and continue to spread until you see the whole forest.
In demand insight, associative power can often help the insight to relate seemingly different or even contradictory behaviors and find out their internal consistent motives.
Curiosity: Exploring the Real Mystery of Demand
For the demand insight, curiosity can help the demand insight break away from the disguise of superficial demand, constantly dig deeper reasons for demand, and then have a deeper insight into demand.
People's needs can be divided into two types, one is explicit demand and the other is potential demand. For users, clear requirements can be clearly expressed.
Potential demand is the demand that users are not aware of. Users didn't realize that they had this demand before it was met.
Potential demand often has greater value, but it needs to be deeply curious and insight, constantly asking "why", looking for clues from the clues of users, so as to find out the details worth exploring and dig deep-seated motives.
For demand insight, satisfying curiosity is already a reward, and this pure curiosity often leads to different insights.
The three qualities of demand insight are like three tools for treasure hunting.
Empathy is like a key, which opens the door to treasure; Associative power is like a map, guiding you to find the clues of treasure; Curiosity is a shovel to help you dig out the real buried treasure. For enterprises, if they can meet the needs of users, it is really priceless.