How to develop Douyin e-commerce growth strategy from 0 to 1

Growth products, as the core of corporate strategy, carry the mission of promoting business growth. This article will reveal the profound connotation and practical experience behind growth products, helping you better realize your potential in the workplace and achieve a career leap.

01 Why I make growth products

I have actually summarized my experiences over the years. What have these experiences actually brought me? I have felt it myself, and I think the first thing is the insight into product capabilities.

I have been working on products for many years. When I was working on products, I thought that product development was actually in the middle quadrant, that is, the middle product capability. There is no need to elaborate on this product capability, right? It is about communicating with everyone, and then promoting the implementation of functions, etc.

But in fact, after our product is made, whether it can survive depends more on the previous and next steps.

Product capabilities are achieved when a product is made and it actually needs to be able to be launched into the market for operation.

So I was motivated by this, and I moved from the C-end product to the growth product, and then to the upper level, which is actually the boss level, which is actually a business insight. So many times, I have to base my decision on the business insight.

So what kind of product should I make? Can this product provide enough value? When I provide this value, I need to push it to the market. How can I push it to more users? That is, how can I attract new users? How can I retain the users I attract? How can I prevent the retained users from leaving? So I think a good product should have these three capabilities.

If I look at it personally, I think my current product capabilities and market capabilities are relatively good. Then the next level is business insight, which is actually more of a boss level. I think it is a process of opening a crack and then looking inside.

So I feel that these experiences have given me a glimpse into the full picture of things. And I can also communicate with my boss more in sync, because their thinking patterns are actually very similar, and their thinking patterns on growth products are very similar to my boss's thinking patterns.

Yes, I think this is some of my experience over the years. And of course we still have to talk about today's topic. Today's topic is divided into four parts:

1. Let’s look at the nature of this growth through a case study.
2. Then I will also use the two cases I have worked for ByteDance, because these two cases are in ByteDance, and the two projects are actually a complete process from 0 to 1 to the second in the industry. So through these two cases, we can see how the 0 to 1 project was started and how it succeeded. It really does not rely on ByteDance. It is just that the people are stupid, rich, and have enough traffic.
3. The third is that everyone wants to have successful experience, so I will also introduce it to you. That is, when you choose a job, for example, how to choose a project that has a high probability of success.
4. The fourth one is that if you want to become a growing product, or want to have some such capabilities, then I will introduce this characteristic and development path to you.

02 The Nature of Business Growth

First, let’s take a look at a case and see what the nature of this growth is.

First of all, when we talk about growth, I don't know what everyone is thinking about. I have been doing this for so many years, whether I am interviewing others or doing interviews, and I found that there are actually a few people who can't escape. My boss is still very persistent until now, so he is obsessed with whether he can achieve the same growth as Pinduoduo, which is to cut a price and then achieve explosive growth across the entire network. But in fact, growth is very complicated.

Maybe many people always see a lot of things when it comes to growth, such as the introduction to DAU, what is the caliber of DAU, what is the caliber of CPA, then new user acquisition, retention and loss, then the second growth curve, and then the higher one that may have a higher level will mention the growth curve.

What should we do? Private domains are still popular now, and then there are private domains, and then there are group buying, and then there may be lower-level ones who will think of group buying, and then sign-in, subsidies, etc. In fact, these things are all growth, but they are placed in different structures and levels.

Then I sorted it out. Growth is actually a complex process, but it actually has traces to follow. If we put all the things we have just seen here, they can actually be divided into four layers. The first layer is the strategic layer, which is for the bosses to think about our growth structure, customer acquisition structure, and cost structure.

Then what stage is the current business in? Has the first growth curve reached a stagnant stage? Is it time to explore the second growth curve?

So growth actually needs to be based on the current status of the company and business. We need to determine which life cycle the problem we want to solve is in, and then decide what tactics to adopt. After deciding on the tactics, this tactic actually needs to find an indicator to measure whether the tactic is successful after I have done it.

03 Real case sharing: How to achieve growth from 0 to 1

Then let's go on to these two projects. I myself am involved in the GuaLong project and the Douyin e-commerce project. I have actually completed the process from 0 to 1. Then I actually summarized it myself and said, how should we do this project from 0 to 1?

In fact, I have summarized it into four steps. First, for the growth team, it is definitely not that I should provide subsidies after I come up, or I should cut down the price after I come up, or I should do group buying after I come up. It is not like that.

The first step is to analyze the business model from the boss's perspective, analyze the business conversion model, and find the key conversion points. This is the first step.

Then the second step is to find the right strategy after finding the key point. What is strategy? The first step is to look at your business from a strategic level. Then the second step is to think about whether to use subsidies, price cuts or hot products for this conversion point.

Then the third step is to find that after I find the method in the second step, I will start to attract new customers or acquire customers, etc. But at this time, the growth team is often the team that spends money, and you can't invest unlimited money in the team that spends money, so you must have an indicator to measure whether you are successful in this model.

So we use an indicator, ROI, to measure whether the business is successful. If it is successful, for example, ROI is greater than 1, what does it mean? It means that I can earn back one dollar for my boss and bring back 10 users. At this time, it means that the business can invest resources on a large scale.

Then, ROI actually determines whether my project is valuable and whether I can invest large amounts of resources in it.

Then the fourth step is that my MVP model is running smoothly, then at this time, supply will actually determine whether our project is successful. So in the fourth step, we will increase supply, then invest in scale, and then improve efficiency through supply to share our costs.

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04 How to choose a project with a high success rate and choose your boss

Then, in my own words, after having this successful experience, as I said just now, after having the successful experience, firstly, my personal abilities have been improved, and secondly, it really added points to my resume when I was looking for a job, and then my horizons were broadened. In addition to summarizing how we can successfully complete a project.

Then there is another very important point. If you are looking for a job, how do you find a more reliable one? First of all, the success of a project must rely on the right time, right place and right people. This is definitely the case. However, if you take the initiative to find a successful project yourself, it actually has rules to follow.

When I'm looking for a job, I usually observe a few points during the interview process. I will observe the person who is in charge of the final interview.

Then the first step is to look at the business manager who will be in the final interview. For example, even in current investment, people first look at the team and then the project. If you have a founder with successful experience, then the probability of him making a project successful is very high.

It's like if I really want to make 1 million a month, would I ask someone who makes 100,000 a month or 10,000 a month? No, right? I must ask someone who makes 1 million a month.

So we can’t say that someone who has never succeeded will not succeed in the future, but people who have had successful experience will definitely have a higher probability of success. So I will go to see the person in charge of this business.

The second question I would ask is what is the company's positioning for this project this year and why, because in fact, the company's positioning of the project is actually a reflection of the boss's determination, and he is really not false. Why? Because he will determine the resources the company will invest in the project and the degree of tolerance for success.

Because now we often see some projects, such as ByteDance's "Big Factory Half-Year Tour". If the boss does not invest too many resources in the project, or does not put it at a certain strategic level, then his tolerance for failure is very low. You may be dismissed after only three months, or be laid off during the probation period, etc. So in fact, he also looks at the tolerance for success.

Then you can look at the business. If you look at the business, you must first look at the user needs for your successful product. What is the user demand? The market space means that if the user demand is huge, then after your project is completed, the demand will also be huge, and you will be known by many people.

Then, in the third step, you will come to the fourth point. What does it mean to look at the value of this product? That is to say, users have needs, but whether this product can really solve the needs of users and how many problems it can solve for users actually determines the space and ceiling of this project.

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Then the fourth step is to look at the supply chain. If the supply chain cannot keep up with the business, then its cost will be very high. At this time, no matter how you acquire users on the front end, the cost of your back-end supply will always be very high. Then it is difficult for your business to break even, and it will basically continue to lose money. Finally, for those who are engaged in growth products, I will look at the marketing capabilities. What is this marketing capability?

That is to say, only if the first four steps are established, will I be valuable when I enter this company.

05 What capabilities do you need to become a growth product?

First of all, what kind of characteristics does a growth product have?

It means that he must be a person who looks at the overall situation. It does not mean that I am growing the product by organizing an event. Instead, I must first look at the conversion model of the entire business, and then analyze the current stage of the business based on this model to see whether the focus is on attracting new customers, losing customers, or retaining customers. Then, what resources we have, what I can do based on these resources, and then what indicators we can use to measure our performance. Therefore, it must be a global one.

It doesn’t mean that you must have growth products or be a growth product. But if you are a person, no matter what product you are working on or if you are in operation, you should think about the problem from such a global perspective. In this way, you are infinitely close to your boss, and it is easier for you to move up, and you can communicate with your boss on the same frequency.

Because your boss is definitely thinking about the problem from this perspective.

Then the second thing is this decisiveness, mission must be accomplished, in fact, I prefer the mission must be accomplished. Why? Because generally speaking, growth products actually have a very strong sense of purpose, and only look at the results. There is only the goal in mind and it must be completed. So when such a person is around this goal, he will try every possible way, find all the resources, and then do things.

The third point is to forcefully break through. Forcefully breaking through the impossible is not a vain thing, but a deeper experience I gained in the process of doing this. When I talked to my boss at that time, everyone thought that people who do growth are like lone heroes.

What does it mean? It means that no matter you are in the 0 to 1 stage of your business, whether it was GuaLong or Douyin e-commerce, we had to work on that project for 6 to 8 months at the 0 to 1 stage. In this process, you are actually spending money all the time. You have to spend money on something for 6 to 8 months but have no income, which is actually very stressful.

So the most critical point is the breaking point, right? In order to find this breaking point, you may have to experiment many times.

During the experiment, you can tell yourself that it doesn’t matter if you fail, and you will try again next time. But in fact, you often have to face pressure from your boss and doubts from your colleagues. Many times, you put forward an idea, and you keep failing during the experiment. Many people simply cannot understand what you are doing.

But you need to have a strong heart, that is, those who are not understood are the most likely to succeed. Because it is really difficult to break through when you are understood.

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Then, growth products have such characteristics, but how do we do it? I mean, the development path of growth products, I have summarized it myself, and it is actually divided into five stages.

One is the primary growth product, which is the stage I have experienced before, that is, to do an event, and then do some fission today, and invite tomorrow, and feel very accomplished, and then entangled in copywriting and so on, which is what the primary product will do. Then it may be a high-level growth product.

High-level growth products. In fact, they may be responsible for a channel. For example, in ByteDance, if you can be responsible for the channel of converting and acquiring customers from Douyin, you will be very awesome. That is a high-level growth product, and at this time, it will also have certain business plans, etc.

Then the third level up is the growth product expert, who is responsible for a certain local business. He may be responsible for attracting new customers, right? He attracts new customers through multiple channels. Then the next level up is the growth product director.

When you become a growth product director, you are actually thinking about the transition from a product expert to a growth product director. This is when you make a leap in management. Because if you can think about a local business transformation model, then when you reach the fourth step, you actually have a broader vision. He may be looking at the growth of a certain line of the entire business.

The fifth step is something that can only be achieved by chance. You may grow into a CEO or a founder. Then he will look at the overall business and no longer focus on a certain line. He will look at the overall business strategy and business model. Yes, that's about it.

06 Conclusion

That's about it. This is my sharing today. Actually, let me summarize my content today. Growth is complicated, but there are actually traces to follow. And I actually want to share it with you. That is to say, the success of a project actually depends on the product value and user needs.

On this basis, what growth products should do is not to organize an event, but to amplify according to different business goals. Amplification is leverage. Then everyone may really need to change their mindset. ByteDance has a lot of money and enough traffic, but its people are not stupid. They do a lot of things and have rules to follow. It is just that money is indeed the best effect. So money is not everything.

But if a business wants to achieve large-scale growth, including if you want to have a successful experience or a successful project, you should choose a strong company, which will have a higher chance of success than a weak company. So large-scale growth is impossible without money.

I also hope that through today’s case sharing, everyone can see the essence of business growth.