recommends two classic business analysis tools, hoping to help you.
may have great differences in work content for user experience practitioners, different product lines, different positions, but they will face the following common problems:
- products are constantly being revised, and the core links in the design are constantly changing. How to grasp the core links for design is a trouble for designers. In the
- study, the research report has no value and the research results cannot be implemented. This is the worry of user researchers.
For design students (ui, vision, motion, interaction), understanding the core links in business models and products can help you cultivate value-oriented thinking in design; for researchers (user research), understanding the core links in business models and products can allow you to propose good research based on the core of your business.
This article tries to share some of my thoughts and practices about research with everyone. I hope to provide you with a general method to quickly understand product models and grasp key links for design and research.
Business Model Theory
Business Model was first proposed by American scholar Timmers in 1998: Business model is a system of products, services and information flows, and draws on the Porter value chain to describe different participants and their roles, as well as the potential interests and final revenue sources of these participants. After years of development, the definition of business model has formed four major schools. These four major schools explain business models from the perspective of operational perspective, profit perspective, strategic positioning and systems theory.
focuses on the business model view of the operation model and focuses on the value creation and value transmission activities of the enterprise and the corresponding support systems, and puts the value activities of the enterprise in the social value network to examine it, emphasizing the way enterprises embed into the business ecosystem; the profit-based business model view defines the business model as a description and summary of how the enterprise makes money; the strategic positioning perspective definition is based on the consideration of corporate strategy; the system-based perspective definition believes that the business model is a system composed of multiple factors, a system or collection, and a multi-angle integration and collaboration. In real life, the business model that most people talk about is based on the perspective of profit, that is, how products or companies make money.
Business Model Analysis Model
After a preliminary understanding of the concept of business model, you still need to know the common models for business model analysis. After years of development, the mainstream business model analysis models are divided into four types, namely the three-dimensional model, the four-facet model, the trading combination model and the nine-element model. Thethree-dimensional model comprehensively summarizes and highly condenses the essence of the business model, and deconstructs the business model into three elements: market positioning, business system and profit model. However, this model does not define the enterprise boundaries and customer interface, so it is difficult to clearly reflect the relationship between the enterprise and various stakeholders to a certain extent.
four major structural aspects, namely core strategy, strategic resources, customer interface, and value network. The four major structural aspects are important considerations for enterprise operations, and each structural aspect contains multiple sub-elements. The four-faceted model is proposed to guide enterprise changes. It is just a conceptual model that lacks operability when implemented in actual application. At the same time, the selection of some elements is also worth further discussion.
transaction combination model regards the business model as a business activity system that describes how an enterprise "does business" with customers, partners and suppliers. This operation system exceeds the operational boundaries of the enterprise. It includes not only the operational activities of the enterprise, but also the operational activities of the enterprise partners, customers or suppliers. However, it lacks thinking about the value proposition system, and the specific operationality needs to be further improved.
nine element model, which specifically includes: core capabilities, resource allocation, value proposition, distribution channels, target customers, partnerships, cost structure and profit model.The nine-element model has been widely recognized by scholars because it fully reflects the company's strategic positioning, operation process and profit sources, and has a certain degree of operationality, and has been widely used in real business activities. In addition, Osterwalder, the proposer of the nine-element model, proposed the Business Model Canvas based on the nine-element model, and also incorporated the perspective of strategic positioning. In this way, the business model canvas is easier to be analyzed, and has become a powerful tool for many start-ups and transforming companies to analyze business models. Based on this, this paper selects the business model canvas as the analysis framework of the business model.
Business model analysis of precious metal trading platform based on business model canvas
Business model canvas is divided into 9 aspects and 4 perspectives. The 9 aspects are: value proposition, customer segmentation, user acquisition channels, customer relationships, revenue flow, core resources, key businesses, important partners, and cost structure; the 4 perspectives are: who to provide, what to provide, how to provide, and how to make money. When using
, you can sort out the logic in the following order: first, position your company, then understand your target user group, determine their needs and current pain points, and then consider how to get in touch with them, what kind of relationships to maintain with them, and finally, what chips and methods to achieve profitability. Which partners are there in this process? Of course, don’t forget that you need to comprehensively consider cost and profit goals.
focuses on analyzing the business model of precious metal trading platforms. Analyze the precious metals industry according to the sorting logic mentioned just now.
First of all, as far as the platform is concerned, the precious metals trading platform should be committed to providing investors with a stable and reliable trading platform. In terms of investor attributes, investors participating in precious metal trading are all users who can bear certain risks. According to the user value, they can be further divided into ordinary users and high-value users; according to the amount of investment experience, they can be divided into novice users, investors with certain experience, and senior investors. Investors come to precious metal trading platforms in the hope of making profits through trading. Traditional precious metal trading platforms have poor trading experience and poor brand credibility. Users who prefer precious metal investment products cannot find trustworthy and high-quality investment platforms. This is the user's pain point.
The emerging precious metal trading platform has innovated and upgraded in product vision, interactive design, etc., improving the user experience of investors. In terms of channels to obtain users, we will promote and promote it through free Internet channels such as Baidu , Baidu Tieba, Baidu Wenku, Tianya, etc., and at the same time promote it in paid channels such as Baidu search engine promotion and Toutiao, so as to reach out to potential investors and establish contact with them.
In terms of customer relationships, win-win and lasting are the relationships that any platform hopes to establish with customers. Win-win is not limited to customers making money through platform transactions, but also includes the improvement of customers' investment level and investment skills. The win-win and lasting goal is inseparable from the joint efforts of analysts, investment consultants, customer service, operation and R&D personnel and other related personnel, and is inseparable from high-quality services. In terms of cost structure, the cost expenditure of precious metal platform includes employee salary and network infrastructure investment. The income mainly comes from one's own handling fees and transaction income. The handling fee specifically includes commissions, spreads, late payment fees, financing and commodity fees, etc. The income structures of different precious metal platforms are different. Of course, the realization of income cannot be separated from the support of key activities. Key activities include acquiring users through internal promotion and external promotion, as well as guiding users to deposit and transactions through marketing and operational activities.
In order to achieve the normal operation of the business, exchanges, banks and network infrastructure providers are important partners of precious metal platforms. The above is a typical business model for precious metal platforms.
After gaining a comprehensive understanding of the business model and key links through the business model canvas, it is also necessary to further analyze the problems and optimization solutions of each key conversion step based on the key links such as user acquisition, user processes, and user value creation. At this time, another analysis tool - the AARRR model is needed.
AARRR model and application
This is an AARRR conversion funnel model drawn by the author. In fact, the conversion is not a single linear model and the complexity of the simultaneous conversion is affected by the product model. The AARRR model describes the depth and type of user participation behaviors in different stages of product development. AARRR, which is the pirate indicator, was first shared by Dave McClure. He proposed five stages for startups to win customers: Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue, and Referral. The five stages of
are not isolated linear relationships, and the relationships of different products are different. In the Acquisition stage, we mainly focus on how potential users find us and how to attract users' attention; in the Activation stage, we mainly focus on how to guide users to use the product for the first attempt; in the Retention stage, the user's first impression of the product after using the product and whether the product can bring value to users after using it for a period of time is a key issue. In the stage of realizing revenue (Revenue), focus on the profit model of the product; in the stage of recommendation (Referral), whether the product comes with its own communication function and reputation of the product is a key link for user recommendation.
Take the online live broadcast platform as an example. Online channels, including portal websites, search engines, application store rankings, etc., offline channels, such as subways, turnips, LED screen advertising, community elevators, etc., online and offline channels advertising is the main way for live broadcast platforms to acquire users. When a user comes to the website to download the app, he is attracted by the visual effects of high-value anchors, novel event live broadcasts, etc., and continues to use the products of the live broadcast platform. When you need to buy gifts for rewards or upgrade VIP services, recharge on the platform can create benefits for the platform. In addition, users click on advertisements placed on the platform can also create value for the platform.
uses the AARRR model, combines actual business, and finds out the key links in product value creation in the actual work of user research, such as registration activation, recharge, transaction, etc., and conducts research and analysis around key links. In addition, valuable research points can be explored to ensure that the output reports of research are valuable and can be implemented.
Summary Review
Business model canvas fully reflect the company's strategic positioning, operation process and profit sources. In the process of actual application, it can help colleagues in each position quickly understand the corresponding key links, and can help colleagues in each position formulate key tasks and key indicators of the product based on the development stage of the product, and at the same time, it can diagnose and predict the current development status and future development trends of the product. The AARRR model is a general conversion sorting tool. Combining the characteristics of different products, sorting out the core links of conversion and optimizing valuable key links can help the product achieve greater commercial value.
For students who want to improve their business thinking and analysis skills, they can practice the following three aspects:
- Read industry analysis reports and listed company financial reports.
- Reading professional books, such as " The Essence of Business " written by Jack Welch, and "The New Generation of Business Model" written by Osterwalder.
- learning entrepreneurship open courses, such as NetEase Open Course "Stanford University Open Course: How to Start a Business".
Today's two research methods are hoped to help you understand your business faster and more comprehensively and to give full play to your value to a greater extent.
References:
- OsterwalderA, Pigneur Y. Business model generation: a handbook for visionaries, gamechangers, and challenges[M]. John Wiley Sons, 2010.
- Cheng Wen, Wang Yingjun, Gao Jiayong, et al. Review of the evolution of business model theory [J]. Journal of Management, 2014, 11(3): 462-468.
- Zhang Yongan, Wang Xuetao. Research on profit model, profit changes and driving factors of online live broadcast platforms——An exploratory case study based on the era of huya [J]. China Science and Technology Forum, 2017 (in press)
Author: Wang Xuetao, NetEase UEDC user researcher
This article comes from the cooperative media of everyone being a product manager @NetEase UEDC, author @Wang Xuetao
The title picture is from Pexels, based on CC0 protocol
