Demand acquisition is the user Service in agile development of small companies

Web page Production WEBJX article introduction: recently, perhaps because we interviewed a lot of users to discuss the need to gather more and more topics, as if suddenly we are all of a sudden attention to the product of this process. Of course, there are many methods of demand collection, many predecessors have summed up a lot, can be referred to even moved to their own projects to achieve. These methods are used in large company projects, as long as the grasp of good, data analysis work to do

Recently, perhaps because we interviewed a lot of users to discuss the need to gather more and more topics, as if suddenly we are all of a sudden attention to the product of this process. Of course, there are many methods of demand collection, many predecessors have summed up a lot, can be referred to even moved to their own projects to achieve. These methods used to large companies big projects, as long as the grasp of good data analysis to do a good job, can completely put the user needs of the product analysis is very good. However, in the agile development of small companies, these requirements collection, whether it is focus groups, or examination papers, or point to point interview, want to do is perfect, very comprehensive, and set up an accurate user model, it takes time, and this time will slow down the rapid product development process, And a lot of small companies and small projects can't afford the development cycle of the product has been deferred.

Here is a small company and start-up companies Agile product user requirements acquisition method, a total discussion. Large companies do not apply to large projects, because large companies face a large number of users, the role of the huge and large, need to establish a complete set of requirements, need to be specialized to analyze the summary, so as to get a demand priority, and to meet the majority of users. Small companies small project product objectives will be relatively single, the face of the user base is relatively single, often vertical and subdivision of the user domain, pay attention to rapid agile development .

User needs who best understand, in what time to improve? Proposed product development , proposed to do a product of the people who know the best user needs, usually in small companies this role is the boss. Is the boss in the money to do a product, but also the boss first saw the business opportunities, but also the boss of the project to generate confidence in the future. That's why money is invested to do the project, and where the profit point is clear, no boss will spend money on a product that doesn't see the future. Usually such a company time is valuable, the project is not suitable for long-term development , there is no time and no extra money to give you focus group, there is no effective channel to let you analyze the questionnaire.

At this point your needs should first be derived from the project sponsors, but not from the promoters to get the demand is perfect, or reasonable, the project sponsors tend to only focus on a certain point in the product, or a few points, and these points is precisely the core of the product, but also the profit. From the form of products to the market will be very thorough and understanding of the profit. The Product manager should first verify the requirement and refine it in the process of verification, so that all the requirements of the product are complete and the requirements are complete, and the product architecture will be complete. Verification of existing needs, itself is the acquisition of demand, but more purposeful, more targeted, will allow the acquisition of demand more accurate and fast. Verification requirements than acquisition needs to be much simpler, at this time whether it is to do focus groups or to do user interviews, are more efficient and efficient, rapid completion of demand collection, this time the user needs or needs in the product development has been continuously validated.

Last time I saw an interview, it was an interview with the boss of catching shrimp, said he found out in a casual. Now girls are beautiful, and love to share the United States, in the creation of a share of the site "Beautiful said", is the project sponsors first to have this core point, to share the beauty, this time to the product manager, Product Manager has the core point of demand, Then around this core point is to look for additional external requirements and design the specific performance of these needs, is the picture, or with the text, how to reflect the sharing of it, how to let users often come back and often find new things? These are the product managers need to implement, but the implementation of these functional points to be considered is not acceptable to the target user base, so there will be a large number of small requirements. Interested students can Google this interview, which talked about small companies small project success or failure experience, for small companies.

You have to make sure that usability/usability testing runs throughout the product cycle. Prototypes can be presented to users only when they are prototypes, even drafts drawn on paper can be used as usability tests. As for the user, you can find your familiar target users, friends, classmates and even new colleagues can do. "5 usability tests found 80% of the problem", this is practical, simple and convenient, and do not need any cost input. This side to do side correction, until the product developed more and more close to perfection.

Analyze the needs of competitors, the Internet has developed to the present, unless you are creative to create new products, such as twitter,guoupon, or else you do any one of the products in the same field will have more or less competitors, even if not at home, foreign countries must have similar products. Find out the advantages and disadvantages of their products, from the opponents of the product analysis of user needs, both get the demand, and make good use of his stone, but also for future operations lay the foundation, because you understand the opponents.

Finally, the product manager's own product quality, in addition to the need to have comprehensive knowledge, master the skills should be mastered, but also need to have a wealth of experience, so that can play different user roles, so as to play users from the performance demand. This is what the so-called product managers want to do, but this is not an unfounded thought, but rather you become a member of the user, positioning themselves as a role, to adapt to the role of general needs. I know there are a lot of product managers taboo, even opposed to criticize this method, said that such things can not be close to the real user, the end of the castle, but also the root cause of product failure, this is still to be discussed, at least I think that there is a certain reason, because at this time the site targets and service groups have been set up, The requirements you think are just usable and easy to use, only make the product more fun, is a process of perfecting the requirements, rather than creating demand. Just try to verify these requirements in the following process.

I play outdoors, as an outdoor donkey, I know what these people need, what they want to use, I have not been to the club, but I know what the current outdoor club is missing. I used to be a student, I know what I need when I am a student, what my classmates need. I like traveling, as a traveler I can push the needs of most travellers. I rented my own house, and I was surrounded by a lot of people to rent, so I understand the general needs of tenants. And so on, we are users, we are product managers, we have reason to use professional knowledge to analyze the general needs of users.

Get the needs from the project sponsors, get the needs from the people around you, analyze the requirements from your own experience, and then continue usability/usability testing, basically the user needs of this product can be collected 70%, the remaining 30% in the operation process to improve it.