"User-oriented" is the way of product manager's study

Donnald Norman A story about his visit to the Science Museum in his book Design Psychology. The labels on the exhibits are very beautiful, but they are very difficult to understand. Norman told the museum official of the idea. Officials say the labels are great because they are attractive and durable. Norman replied, "Can visitors learn anything?" ”

Beyond the label surface features, "whether to pay attention to user needs" is a good example to explore user-oriented. If your product does not give users a good experience, then your good intentions for the product are insignificant.

As a product manager, you need to be a spokesperson for your users. You need to think deeply about what your users need and think. You need to understand how your product goes into people's lives and what problems will be solved.

When product managers are not sufficiently strong in user-oriented awareness, make common mistakes: it's possible to assume that the user is the same as yourself; you might construct a feature that they think is cool, regardless of whether it's beneficial to the user or has been used, to optimize the product for a direct customer rather than to balance the needs between the customer and the customer.

User orientation is the habit of building empathy and thinking deeply about a user's goals. First you have to understand what users really want, and then when you make a product decision, remember to use the user's needs that you understand.

Here are three exercises to help you improve your user-oriented awareness.

Exercise 1: Read and answer the message

Answering messages is a good way to connect users and improve empathy. This gives a powerful insight into the demands that users make in their own language.

When it becomes a responsibility to respond to a confused user, you have a new understanding of how users think about your product and what they expect from your product. Once you understand how several users are confused about a feature of your product, it's much easier to believe that you need to make improvements to the product.

Many of the messages you see are more like human error. Remember, many human errors are caused by poor design, at least through excellent design. Don't think your users are idiots, try to understand what they're doing and what they expect.

When you look at the feedback, consider Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory and see if you can find the deep meaning of the user's needs. For example, when someone looks for emoticons, don't just think they want emoticons, think deep, and discover deep reasons for functional requirements. Perhaps what they want is a link to a friend or they want to show their creativity.

Exercise 2: Communicate with the seed users and watch them use your product

The best way to understand users is to communicate with them and observe their behavior.

If your company has already run a testable test, start looking at the user. You can look through software settings and even make requests to visit them through social media.

While observing them, focus on what they say and what they do. It is your responsibility to find the problem like this.

When you see users doing something amazing, ask them. Just follow up and ask them why they are dealing with things in a way that you can learn a lot about their expectations and thinking patterns. It is easy to see that each user is different from you and the user is not the same.

Exercise 3: Return to the user's goal

As a product manager, you have no shortage of ideas for improving your product. But the function you think of doesn't mean it's good.

Ideally, we start with the user's goals, and the product functionality comes from those goals. But in the specific work of product managers, things often do not happen in order. Sometimes, when you play with your product, the idea of a new function is in your mind. It's great to have this phenomenon, but it takes time to think about why you like the idea.

Finally, I hope these exercises will help you understand user orientation. Promoting user orientation is the root of all practice until it becomes a habit to think about the user's goals.