Overwhelmed by demands? A feature that took a long time to build that turned out not to be what the demand side wanted? The boss and the operation don’t buy the hard work? You may need to use a few requirements tools to help you lighten your load, clear your mind and find the right path.

1, an overview of the

In a typical complete product development process, the proportion of parts is about 50% requirements, 30% development, and 20% testing. Why is the proportion of requirements so high? Here’s why:

  1. It is necessary to understand that the requirement here is not in the narrow sense, but includes all aspects from requirement proposal, requirement analysis to requirement solution.
  2. Demand determines whether the direction of future products is correct;
  3. Finally, demand determines whether the product can be completed more quickly and cost-effectively.

Since the requirement is so important, it means that it is not simple, since it is not simple, it must be two or three words can not be said, so today, only from the demand analysis stage to intercept the requirement screening part of the demand how to judge the authenticity of the demand to share.

(It is a little vague. The figure above shows the position of requirement authenticity in requirement analysis.)

2. Definition of requirement authenticity

Demand authenticity is the authenticity of demand, as the name implies, demand is also false, like the recent hot paragraph: Let the boyfriend to buy MAC, girls want is a MAC lipstick, boyfriend but to buy a MAC laptop, not sure what the demand is not to mention boyfriend, not even the girl want to buy the lipstick is true judgment, if girls just like to buy a new lipstick, you buy the next new YSL she estimates more like oh, so here, Buy MAC lipstick is fake demand, buy YSL or more better new lipstick is real demand.

It can be seen that the determination of the authenticity of demand is very important for determining the correct product direction and making more satisfying products for users.

3. Tools to determine the authenticity of requirements

3.1 entirely

Radar chart is mainly based on two-dimensional images to show multidimensional data graphics, radar chart can be intuitive to see the gap between the dimensions of data, generally used in the financial field, but how can we waste such a good tool, quickly use a wave of ~

(1) Determine the dimensions, which are usually considered as follows:

  • Frequency, whether the user often uses the corresponding function of the demand, whether the demand is an important part of other high-frequency functions, etc. For example, the picture editing function of wechat moments is not commonly used, but it is an important part of the picture uploading function;
  • Influence, whether the demand is also the demand of a large number of target users, whether the demand is an important part of the company’s strategy, how many other functions or business departments will be affected by the launch of the demand, etc. For example, QQ Cm Show may not be the demand of QQ users, but it is an important part of QQ’s flagship youth strategy. The launch of cm show will also affect departments such as design.
  • Persistence, whether the demand only works in a short time or a long time, whether the demand has a long tail effect on other functions, such as the need to check the annual bill, which is low frequency and has a short time effect, but it may affect some people’s living consumption;
  • Reusability, how many other scenarios this requirement can be ported to, for example, the comment requirement of a page can be ported to many scenarios that need to be commented on;
  • Effect, this requirement can solve the problem of target users how many, how much revenue the demand can bring to the company (virtual + entity), such as how much demand can improve the user experience, such as a target user of electricity retailers for large quantities of replenish onr’s stock, but retailers purchase may be directly sent to municipal agents, and temporarily can not meet the requirements of this platform, Therefore, developing a multi-address shipping function will not only meet the needs of retailers, but also make it more convenient for customer service to process orders.

The above are some common dimensions, you can increase or decrease according to the actual situation.

(2) Set points for requirements, generally 1~10 points for scoring;

(3) Set the weight of each dimension, calculate the final score of each dimension, and make radar map according to the score;

(4) Set the average value of dimension and work out the threshold value, that is, how much area of radar map can be considered as true demand, otherwise it is false demand;

(5) To calculate the area of the radar map, the radar map can not be calculated, need to be decomposed into a number of small triangles to calculate, using

Sine theta over cosine theta over tan theta is OK;

(6) Use the radar diagram to compare the area threshold value to judge the true and false demand.

Examples (the following platforms are nonsense, if any, talk to us) :

Background: an education platform, in the development, the target users for grade three students, business is to be a variety of tests/the entrance examination of students paid/free sprint courses through the course fees and platform advertising revenue, course by with teacher/upload education institutions or other people who want to share free upload.

Need: To encourage more people to upload free instructional videos, the company wants to set up a feature that rewards course authors.

Dimensions: frequency, influence, persistence, reusability, effect

(1) Scoring:

  • Frequency: 5 points, users do not often use the tipping function;
  • Influence: 8 points, will affect a large number of freely uploaded course authors, for the company to cultivate users more knowledge payment habits;
  • Persistence: 7 points, this demand is long-term and will also make users have a more positive understanding of course payment;
  • Reusability: 4 points, the reusability is not high, temporarily reusable to the scene only rewards to the course, rewards to the review, to the top few
  • The condition of reward;
  • Effect: 9 points. This requirement makes the course uploader feel valued, improves the company’s reputation, and lays the foundation for more paid programs in the future.

(2) Set the weight:

  • Frequency: 30%. The company is in the development stage, and many functions need to be improved. Frequently used functions are more important for target users.
  • Influence: 25%. Demands with high influence are generally important but not urgent and should be taken seriously.
  • Sustainability: 10%, not a demand can be durable, but can step by step to adapt to market changes;
  • Reusability: 5%, fast iteration, no need to pay attention to whether it will be used next time;
  • Effect: 30%. The company values the effect at the stage, hoping to bring more benefits to the company.

(3) Set the average of each dimension to 6 points, then

 

Average dimension score:

  • Frequency = 6 * 30% = 1.8
  • Influence =6*25%=1.5 points
  • Persistence =6*10%=0.6 points
  • Reusability =6*5%=0.3 points
  • Result = 6 * 30% = 1.8

Final dimension score:

  • Frequency = 5 * 30% = 1.5
  • Influence =8*25%=2 points
  • Persistence =7*10%=0.7 points
  • Reusability =4*5%=0.2 points
  • Result = 9 * 30% = 2.7

(4) Draw radar chart, in which the average dimension score is used to make threshold radar chart, and the final dimension score is used to make requirement radar chart;

(5) Since the area of the demand value is obviously greater than the threshold area, it is not calculated. It can be seen that the demand, namely the demand for setting the tipping function, is the real demand.

Friendly tips: Radar map above just to introduce process simple, for example, the real dimension according to oneself circumstance and calm, and wouldn’t be so arbitrary dimension and weight of the average set, often need to pass a large amount of data and research to determine the small value, finally, in demand analysis, using radar map can not only determine the authenticity of a demand, also can carry on the scheduling of true demand, Rank the larger radar map first, but don’t think the bigger the better. If your dimension is risk, cost, etc., the smaller the better.

3.2 formula method

Yes, you read that correctly, it is the formula method, using the formula to calculate whether your needs are reliable or not:

Judgment of authenticity of demand results:

If 0< requirement authenticity value < 1, it is a false requirement; if requirement authenticity value >1, it is a true requirement.

Noun explanation:

  • Internal emotion: It is said that the product is the child of PM, but in fact, it is not only the child of PM, but also the child of all relevant personnel. Therefore, sometimes the development of a product can stimulate the enthusiasm of everyone, so the demand can bring some positive internal emotion;
  • User praise: refers to the public reputation caused by the signal sent to the public before the development. For example, Taobao’s Buy + makes a sound before it is launched, which arouses users’ curiosity and makes them trust the fashion avant-garde of the platform more.
  • User satisfaction: refers to the expected user praise rate, user fluency and the number of users’ problems solved after the launch;
  • Strategic contribution: how much the requirement contributes to the company’s major business or the development of the company;
  • Money: pass, you know.
  • Reputation: Pass +1;
  • Business efficiency: How efficiently this requirement can improve the efficiency of the business department or the user to complete an operation;
  • Time: the time it may take to do the requirement;
  • 2. The amount of labor that may be expended to fulfill the requirement;
  • Opportunity cost: if you do not do this requirement, what is the cost of doing other requirements;
  • Maintenance: how much manpower and material resources are needed after the demand goes online;
  • Burden: will this requirement affect other requirements after it goes online, leading to increased difficulty in realizing other requirements?
  • System load: whether the demand will increase the system load and whether the database needs to be expanded.
  • User cost: The cost of learning to use, the cost of completing an operation in more steps.

Friendly tips: Index can increase or decrease according to actual condition, various index score of caution, such as user cost index, in a video platform every pause can appear advertising, the focus is on only turn off ads began again, very affect the user experience, at this point the user cost index can be set too high, and annual playlists music platform such as shrimp, Generally, many people forward to moments of friends, but can only send a screenshot is more troublesome, if you can generate a long graph when forwarding, although the user’s operation steps are added here, but the impact is not big, so the user cost index can be set lower.

3.3 fishbone diagram

Although fishbone diagram analysis is mainly used for causal analysis, it can also be used to distinguish truth from falsehood.

  1. Place the demand on the fish head;
  2. The problem that the demand can solve and the reason to do the demand are placed at both ends of the fishbone as the backbone of the fishbone;
  3. Step by step, peel the backbone like an onion, break the backbone into several small parts, and you will find a lot of unexpected places;
  4. According to the multi-level analysis, identify the authenticity of the requirements.

Tips: Fishbone diagram analysis focuses on asking yourself more why and thinking more. In addition to thinking, we should learn more about relevant departments and conduct necessary research and data analysis. Origin requirements are not fixed and need to be revised according to the analysis; Actually, layer upon layer analysis is like solving a crime. It’s fun, so stick with it once you start.

summary

  1. Tools are just a means to simplify and clarify the process, but also has a certain scope of application, not too deep poisoning, have to explore;
  2. From the actual situation, this sentence does not know how many sentences, a thousand needs a thousand aspects, choose the truly appropriate indicators;
  3. Don’t be too quick to get rid of bogus requirements, who knows if they are real requirements in another scenario.

The above is some small summary of the individual, self-knowledge skill is shallow, welcome everyone to make fun of communication!

 

This article is originally published by @Pipi. Renren is a product manager. Reprint is prohibited without permission.

Photo from PEXELS, based on CC0 protocol