Editor's Guide: Expressing action ideas clearly and coherently is by no means an easy task and requires painstaking thinking. From the perspective of a product manager, this article analyzes how to complete a "well-organized report", I hope it will be helpful to you.
Scenario - Little A Bumpy Project Report:
Many years later, in the face of PowerPoint software, Product Manager Little A will recall the sleepy afternoon when she first reported to the group.
At that time, Little A had been in charge of the project for some time, and in the middle of the year, the team decided to make an upward report on its own to show that it was up and down.
Little A thought: The more detailed the description, the more it can show that our team thinks clearly, and the more it can represent that we can be competent for the job. Xiao A laid out the mental journey of nearly half a year, writing out bits and pieces. Close to thirty pages. How are they formed?
- Pages 1 to 3: Project background
- Pages 4 to 7: Dissecting the problems at that time and explaining the mental journey
- Pages 8-12: What the team did under the above line of thinking
- Pages 13 to 22: Show what will be done in detail and show the corresponding results
- Pages 23 to 24: These results are added up to produce the total results, summarize the results of the first half of the year, and whether the target has been completed
- Pages 25-27: Leads to what you want to do in the second half of the year
- Page 28: Targets for the second half of the year
However, Master A, who had worked hard for a week, touched a nail when he tried to speak with his colleagues: the audience was almost out of focus. In the past forty minutes, some colleagues have been dozing off frequently, some have looked at their watches from time to time, some have relaxed their bodies on the back of their chairs, and some colleagues have simply handled their work, and the keyboard has crackled.
Little A does not understand.
Xiao B, an experienced product manager, said: "Xiao A, your report is too lengthy and unfocused, and it is difficult for project colleagues to have the patience to listen to it, let alone the leader of the day? ”
Little A saw that the week's work had been denied, and his heart was not very happy, and he muttered: "Unless you do better, don't criticize." ”
Little B smiled and immediately asked 3 sharp questions, fist to flesh.
Little A Mao Suddenly opened and shouted, "I still think too little!" ”
After making changes according to the suggestions given by Xiao B, Xiao A made a small public report. The leader expressed satisfaction after listening, and colleagues in other groups all said that they were very rewarding. After the meeting, they also surrounded Xiao A and begged Xiao A to share the manuscript of her speech. They said Little A's report was impressive.
So, the question is, what question did Little B ask? And, what did Little A finally change to?
Question 1: Do you treat reporting as a product?
Little B asked: "For the product people, everything can be a product." Do you treat debriefing as a product? ”
Little A said: "This... I heard about it for the first time! ”
Xiao B asked again: "When making a report with the idea of "product", the first step is to analyze who the core audience is and what their core demands (the most concerned points) are. ”
Little A: "Isn't the core audience for reporting the boss?" But his core appeal... It's hard to guess! ”
Little B: "The eight-character motto of the top concern is well remembered: "Problems, opportunities, costs, benefits." ”
As a PM, it is not only the time to do functions and strategies. "Product" is a kind of consciousness, but also a kind of professionalism. As small as an email, a requirements document, a report can be used as a product.
Even in the career of PM, their frequency and importance are no less than the function.
Then, when we make a report with a "product" idea, the first step is very clear:
- Who is your core audience? - High-level
- What is their core appeal (the most concerned point)? - Problems, opportunities, costs, benefits
Their core appeal determines the focus of our report:
- Problems and opportunities: Try to render with scenario-based descriptions and pictures, so that the audience enters our field at once. For example: "At present, customers complain about business overtime, accounting for 50% of the overall complaint type." Here are excerpts from the voices of some of our customers who have expressed great disappointment with us. "Emotionally draw each other closer and awaken his emotional memories of certain dilemmas."
- Costs and benefits: If it is a program communication report, it is necessary to emphasize the costs and benefits of each program; if it is a project report, the cost has been paid, focus on the benefits that have been achieved and the benefits (goals) that are wanted to be achieved in the future. In this way, the top can give advice from his point of view.
- Abstract the operational level as much as possible, and avoid piling up operational details on the trunk. But to prevent the audience from suddenly asking questions and you are inconvenient to describe verbally, it is included in the appendix. It does not affect the expression of the trunk, but also reflects your full preparation.
In addition to the case of small A, there is also a high-frequency report, that is, a competitor analysis report.
The audience of the competitive analysis report is mainly product managers, and their core need is to "gain from it and use it for my product work". The key is to "learn."
We have seen a lot of heap-style competitive product analysis, often only emphasizing the "shape" of competitors, rather than delving into the "god" of competitors. If it is a small B who has stepped on countless pits, he will often tell you this: in addition to seeing the surface of things, you must also see the invisible parts.
- Why competitors do this: from the visual design (designed this rather than that), the scope of function (do/do not do) to determine the core users and what core values are satisfied; from the profit model to judge its basic business logic as a commercial company
- How competitors do it: Analyze the company's strategy and the results achieved by the strategy from the content strategy, functional iteration record, marketing activities, various data change nodes, financing nodes, and external policy changes
- What competitors will do next: watch the user's discussion on various social platforms and app markets, understand the real users and actual gameplay, supplemented by the above analysis, and predict their future direction
Competitor analysis should not only collect and analyze information, but more importantly, draw valuable conclusions. ——"Analysis of Effective Competitors" Zhang Zaiwang
Don't pile up subjective experiences and details that will lose focus on your audience.
Second, the second question: Do you do PPT first erect the skeleton, or do you pile up the material first?
Xiao B asked: "Do you do PPT first erect the skeleton or pile up the material first?" ”
Xiao A said: "I will first put all the things I have done on the PPT, plug as much as I can, and then organize and refine a demonstration logic..."
Xiao B: "This practice of piling up the materials first and then sorting them out will produce a lot of waste materials, which will make people feel devastated." ”
Little A: "Yeah, you said no, I'll have to reorganize, so depressed." ”
Little B: "Because your thinking at the beginning is not coherent enough, the things you write are naturally incoherent." I have a way to say goodbye to the motionless rewriting.
The method is "decoupling of skeleton and flesh and blood." Try to use a mind map to erect a skeleton first, and pair it with the interior several times. After the skeleton is fine, you will be full of confidence. Isn't it more efficient to find something to fill your flesh and blood? ”
The problem of small A, in fact, most people have encountered.
A major consulting firm once estimated that up to 60 percent of data collection and analysis efforts are futile. Consultants pile up countless "interesting" facts and forms, but very few are really relevant to the client's problem. In many cases, because of incomplete information and little or no data to support the main recommendations, consultants are looking for more data until the last minute, a process that can be a really costly process.
—The Pyramid Principle, Barbara Minto
How did they solve it later?
Simply put, it is to force yourself to conduct a structured analysis before collecting data. Specifically, the hypothesis is put forward first, and when the cause of the problem has been found, then collect information to prove whether the hypothesis is true. The "frame first, details" approach makes them more efficient and has a lot less scrap.
Question 3: How do you get your audience to follow you?
Little B asked, "How did you get the audience to follow you?" ”
Little A said: "I will say what I think." Let them have a feeling of 'mountains and rivers are doubtful and there is no way, willows are dark and flowers are bright and another village'. ”
Little B smirked and said, "You described it pretty well." Little A, remember the first question I asked? ”
Little A: "Treat reporting as a product?" ”
Little B: "To make a product, you need to understand human nature." For the "debriefing" product, do you understand the basic characteristics of the audience? I'll tell you two stories, and you'll see which one is more comfortable to hear. ”
The first story: deduction
Little B: "I have a friend who met a group of people in the same city on a social platform, and when she went down to the bar to meet, she found that there were everyone. Someone took the initiative to add her WeChat, and was very proactive in the follow-up contact..."
Little A's brain desperately connects according to the keywords "a social platform" and "everyone has it": Little B may say that this social platform may not be very reliable, or he wants to tell the story of a girl falling in love with a scumbag. Or maybe he wanted to express that the girl wasn't moved by the scumbag.
Little B: Add these men to her, some are doctors, with a wide range of interests and hobbies; some are unemployed little, who drink every day. It's a mixture of dragons and snakes. ”
Little A thought again, then he might want to express the story of this girl and the doctor who had a love affair.
Little B: "But she doesn't like it." ”
Little A thinks, so still say that the online running is not reliable?
Little B said: "Only a man who did not take the initiative to add her WeChat attracted her attention." He drinks juice at the bar yay! Because he quit drinking! Never drink alcohol even when you go to a bar. Isn't that fun? In the end, the man became her husband. ”
Little A: "It's very exciting... But what you said earlier made me mistakenly think that the network is unreliable! ”
The second story: induction
Little B: "Don't say you can't find a good object on the Internet, my friend found one!" ”
Little A's eyes lit up: "My mother has been solo for more than twenty years, tell me!" ”
Little B: "I have a friend who met a group of people in the same city on a social platform, and when she ran to the party offline... Isn't that fun? In the end, the man became her husband. ”
Little A shouted and constantly recalled this story, unfolding a beautiful imagination.
The story ends.
Little B said: "So what kind of way do you feel that you are more receptive?" ”
Xiao A pondered carefully and said, "It seems that you first told me the conclusion you wanted to express directly, and I could follow your train of thought more!" ”
People tend to express their thoughts in the order in which their minds develop, and the order in which they develop is usually in the order of deduction. Little A is one of them, hoping that the audience will follow her rhythm, from bottom to top, step by step to unfold her thinking picture.
However, ideas that develop in deductive order do not necessarily have to be expressed in deductive order. In most cases, you can express ideas developed by deductive methods in the form of induction. The easiest order for the listener and reader to understand is to understand the primary, abstract ideas first, and then to understand the secondary ideas that support the main ideas.
The more fun technique is suspense. Human beings seem to have an instinct to figure out what is really going on:
Cause the audience to have some kind of question about the expressionist's point of view, and then answer those questions. By engaging in constant question-answer dialogue, the audience can understand the entire idea in the article.
—The Pyramid Principle [U.S.] Barbara Minto
You might as well apply this formula directly:
- Explain the background, point out the dilemma, and raise questions (how exactly do you solve this dilemma?). ）
- Give the answer, explain the above question, but do not give the reason, continue to raise the question
- Give the reason and explain the above doubts
According to this idea, Xiao A adjusted the overall PPT framework and shortened it to 20 minutes.
- Page 1: Project Background and Dilemmas (Raises Questions: How to Solve the Dilemma?) ）
- Pages 2 to 3: What directions of improvement and project results have we made (answer the previous question, and then ask a question: Why do we do these directions?). ）
- Pages 4 to 8: Expand the cause, benefit, and specific path in turn (answer the previous question, and make a small expansion in each page in the form of a question-answer)
- Pages 9-10: Review the problems encountered, and what remains of the dilemma (raising questions: how to solve these dilemmas?). ）
- Pages 11-13: How to solve it and summarize the methodology (answer the previous question and summarize it gracefully)
- Page 14: Goals for the second half of the year (quantitative) and ideal (qualitative) (begs the question: what can be done to achieve this goal?) ）
- Pages 15-17: What should we do around this goal
- Page 18: A small outlook as an elegant end
One more thing: Don't use a title without thought
Little B: "Your chart titles are "Daily Active Users" and "Length of Stay per Capita", missing out on a good opportunity to express logical thinking. ”
Little A was distressed: "Then what should I use?" ”
Little B: "It is better to replace these "thoughtless" words with the words "more thoughts." Replace "daily active users" with "xx% increase in daily active users" and "per capita dwell time increased by xx seconds year-on-year" with "per capita dwell time increased by xx seconds year-on-year". ”
Little A: "Wow, that's really more self-explanatory." ”
Xiao B: "So, can your PPT subtitle also refer to this idea?" ”
Small A: "I can replace "we have organizational problems" with "major problems - insufficient authorization" and "background - business overtime accounts for 50% of the overall complaint type" with "background" with "background" ”
Little B: "Crooked Ragood." ”
So the 3 suggestions for Little B are:
- Identify core audiences and core demands, and adjust the focus of reporting
- Frame first and detail later
- Suspenseful reports: explain the background, point out the dilemma, raise questions, give answers, raise questions, explain the answers
Wonder if my article looks like a suspenseful report?
Hope you enjoy it.
Barbara Minto said: "Expressing the idea of action in a coherent and clear way is never an easy task and requires hard thinking. ”
Maybe after we have worked hard, there are still flaws. But every hard thinking has left a brilliant trace.
Thinking is cool in itself, isn't it?
This article was originally published by @White DeerBit Book No Flower everyone is a product manager, and reprinting without the author's permission is prohibited.
The title image is from Unsplash and is based on the CC0 protocol