How do data people "package" themselves as industry experts?

To do data analysis, you need to understand the business, and the question is, how to quickly understand the industry and business? In this article, we systematically share ways to quickly understand the industry and business, and explain the two major scenarios of work and interview, so let's take a look.

"To do data analysis, you need to understand the business! You have to understand the industry! "This is a basic requirement, but how do you quickly understand an industry and business? Do you have to have worked in the operation and sales of this industry yourself to understand the business? Today, I will share with you the system to quickly understand the industry and business.

First of all, let's be clear: interviews and jobs are two completely different scenarios that should be treated differently.

01 Interview preparation

If it is for an interview, there are only 2 days, how can you get to know an industry and a company? The first thing to pay attention to is: what does this company do? Include:

Business model: The enterprise is toC/toB/B2B2C, and who are the main customers?

Track: What products/services does the company provide and what needs do customers meet?

Understanding these two points is mainly because different business models + tracks have different data collection, data indicators, and business concerns. If you don't understand it in advance, it's okay to meet peers, but if you encounter a different industry, it is very likely that the interviewer will say, "You don't know how to do it at all!" "Sweep the floor.

Generally speaking, the toC model is easy for businesses to understand. Because the toC model enterprise meets the needs of personal clothing, food, housing and transportation, if you find that the business of this enterprise is toC, then you can directly experience other products.

If there is an APP (such as games, social networking, short videos, e-commerce, O2O...... You can download the experience directly, and during the experience, note:

• The channels on which the ads were placed
• How was the newcomer registration process experienced?
• What information is collected when you log in for the first time?
• What products are pushed when you log in for the first time?
• What are the special offers for couples?

These are likely to be related to user analysis and product analysis, so you can pay attention to it and compare it with the same type of APP to see what features it has. These can make it easier for you to pass the interview.

If you don't have an APP, but you have a physical store, you can go directly to the physical store to visit and experience, and pay attention to observing:

• Number of physical stores in first-, second-, and third-tier cities (see on AutoNavi map)
• The location and decoration grade of the physical store in the city
• The physical store displays the main products

These are likely to be related to channel analysis and commodity analysis, so you can pay attention to them.

Some students may dislike this being too slow, and if you want to understand it quickly, there are three ways:

1. Baidu's financing information of the company, generally in the financing news, will systematically introduce the company's business model and operating situation, which can be quickly understood.
2. On platforms such as iResearch, Analysys, MoblieQuest, 36Kr, Tiger Sniff, etc., search for industry reports related to the company/industry. Note that when you look at the industry report, the focus is on looking at the industrial chain, who the upstream and downstream are, and who the main products are, so as to understand the industry situation. As for the specific figures, they can only be used as a reference.
3. Search for keywords such as the enterprise/industry + problems, difficulties, opportunities, etc., so that you can Baidu to the analysis article of the enterprise/industry, and it will also make an in-depth interpretation of the enterprise/industry.

The only thing not to do is to search directly: XX industry report. In this way, Baidu is basically a spam advertisement that sells industry reports, and there is no nutrition.

The toB business can be a bit more troublesome. Some students have no experience in toB at all, and they can't imagine what the toB class is like. At this time, you can use the above three methods to search for information to establish cognition, and then see the moves. Or stop and think: if I'm really 0 based, do I really want to switch from toC to toB?

There is also a situation where the toB business of some Internet platforms (such as Byte, Meituan, Alibaba, etc.) is also toB, but it is very different from the traditional toB. These businesses rely on the platform to develop, and students have the opportunity to get in touch with the toB backend. At the same time, there are many interpretation articles on these big platforms, you can directly search: "what does the operation of XX platform merchants do" This kind of keyword, you can also search for interview requirements and interviews for similar positions on job search websites/APP, so that you can quickly establish business awareness.

The main purpose of establishing business awareness in the interview stage is to reduce the sense of strangeness and avoid others from not knowing what the user is or what products they sell when they ask questions such as user analysis, product analysis, and channel analysis. You can also compare your previous work experience to see which project experience can be transferred to reflect your professionalism and experience.

Theoretically, job hopping in the same industry + position is the most popular. Changing jobs in different industries + different positions is the most difficult. However, data analysis has an advantage, that is, as long as you have done analysis, written code, and understood similar business scenarios, it is relatively easy to succeed in line changing.

For example, it is all user analysis, only one is an e-commerce user, and the other is a community user, so as long as you understand what functions the community product has, what behavioral indicators the user has, and the e-commerce company has also done user behavior analysis before, it is still very likely that the interview will be successful. Therefore, business preparation before the interview is quite necessary.

02 Work preparation

If you're at work, the focus of understanding the business is completely different. If you have joined a company, you can fully understand what the company does from the company's internal reporting and organizational structure. You can also find out who your partner department is from your work, and how they usually do through data.

The key points of understanding the business at work are:

• What are the specific actions of the business?
• What are the goals/practical problems that the business wants to achieve?
• Does the business have any assumptions? What is the hypothetical content?
• Does the business already see the data? What data do you see?

These four items are related to the results of data analysis.

When doing data analysis, I am most afraid of:

1. I don't know the situation, I don't know where to get the numbers
2. I got the number, but I didn't know the use, and I ran the number over and over again
3. Ran out to count, and was told "I already knew"
4. I worked hard to write a report, and I was said, "What's the use"

The root cause of these problems is a lack of understanding of the business. I don't know what they do, I don't know what they really do. Therefore, it is important to understand the business, and you can start from the following two aspects.

1. Formal communication

Include:

• Daily collection business activity announcements, product update announcements, product listing announcements
• When accepting data requests, refuse to say a word and fill in the request form
• When given an analytical task, take the initiative to communicate and understand the assumptions
• When you receive a demand for running numbers, take the initiative to understand the background
• Hold regular monthly data sharing meetings to share information
• Collect BI requirements on a monthly basis to learn about business trends

But! These actions require the careful cooperation of the business department. There are many companies where the workplace atmosphere is not so good, and the communication between departments is not smooth, so students who do data have to think of more ways to do it.

2. Informal communication

Like what:

• Each department develops at least one inside line for eating and playing games together
• Boldly refuse some unsolicited requests and force the other party to tell the reason
• Give up some departments that are difficult to cooperate with, and make good relationship needs into high-quality products
• When training new employees, develop more personal relationships
• Take the initiative to learn industry knowledge, stay in the job search status, and collect information extensively

Of course, even then, there is a possibility of setbacks. For example, in some companies, the product manager has no idea himself, so he will forward the boss's needs, and then force the data analysis to "make valuable insights". Some companies are too far apart from each other, and they just can't speak well. Some companies do not set goals before operating activities, and they are repeatedly entangled afterwards.

Columnist

Down-to-earth Mr. Chen, WeChat public account: Down-to-earth Mr. Chen, everyone is a product manager columnist. Senior consultant, with rich experience in 15 industries such as Internet, finance, FMCG, retail, durable, and beauty.

This article was originally published on Everyone is a Product Manager. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.

The title image is from Unsplash and is licensed under CC0.

The views in this article only represent the author's own, everyone is a product manager, and the platform only provides information storage space services.