User pain points: How to make users want to buy?

Accurately grasping the user's pain points is a key link in making a hit product. So how do you find the user's pain points and how do you filter out the core links that users care about? This article details the four-step method for finding user pain points, and provides practical suggestions for finding key links, helping you hit the user's pain points faster and more accurately. I hope it will be inspiring to you.

Finding user pain points and determining their priority is a critical step in creating a hit product. If you fail to find the pain points correctly, all subsequent work will be in vain and sales will naturally not be very good.

For example.

Before 2010, Xiao Ming drank tap water.

In 2012, water purification equipment was installed in the community, and the purified water was more hygienic. Xiao Ming stopped drinking tap water and started spending money to buy purified water.

You see here, purified water gives Xiao Ming a reason to buy it, which is that it is more hygienic.

In 2014, a company launched a household water purifier. After installing it at home, you can directly drink purified water by turning on the tap. Xiao Ming decisively gave up buying water in the community and installed a water purifier at home.

The water purifier gives Xiao Ming a reason to buy it, which is that it is more hygienic and convenient.

In 2016, a company launched a household water purifier with both purification and heating. After installation, you can press a switch to get hot water of any degree you want, which saves the process of boiling water and is more convenient. Xiao Ming decided to replace it with a new one.

The heated water purifier also gives Xiao Ming a reason to buy it, which is that it can get the job done in one go.

The reason why you have to buy it is the user's pain point. Users have endured this pain point for a long time in their lives. Suddenly, there is a product that solves this pain point, so users will have to buy it.

For example, the Dyson hair dryer is very expensive, more than ten times the price of ordinary hair dryers, but many users still buy it. It solves the pain point that ordinary hair dryers cannot maintain a constant temperature, which makes hair drier and damages hair quality.

Solving user pain points means a steady stream of sales and profits.

So how do you find user pain points? This article introduces three methods.

1. Find key pain points along the user journey map

What are the key pain points? In simple terms, it means "one move to defeat the enemy, every move is fatal", which immediately hits the heart of the user.

For example, if you drive an electric car, there are charging piles in the company parking lot and in the community. This can only alleviate your anxiety about charging. The key pain point is that you can fully charge the battery anytime and anywhere.

Here I would like to introduce a method to quickly find the key pain points. This method is very simple and stupid but also very practical. Basically everyone can use it. That is to find the key pain points along the user journey map.

What is the user journey?

As the name suggests, the user journey is the process from selecting a product, searching for product information, purchasing, shipping, unpacking and using the product, and finally after-sales maintenance. We call the entire process from purchase to use the user journey.

For example, if you want to buy a computer, what are your needs? Do you want to use it for daily office work, or do you want to edit videos and play games? Then you should choose the corresponding configuration based on your needs. What are the prices of different brands with the same configuration? Should you buy it online or offline? What kind of courier should be used for online purchases? How long will it take to deliver? What problems may arise during use? How to get after-sales service if there are any problems?

You need to check each link of the user journey one by one to see what pain points the users have in each link.

Let me show you a case, which is also a real project incubated by the Barn.

This project specializes in pet supplies. Through data analysis, we found that most people who keep pets are highly educated young women.

We found some users and communicated with them to understand the pain points they encountered in the process of raising pets. We looked for pain points one by one according to their usage journey, that is, purchase, delivery, unpacking, use, maintenance, disposal and other links.

After communication, we found that there are still many pain points in the process of raising pets.

For example, when you first buy ordinary cat food, a novice cannot tell the quality of cat food, but the pet will give feedback that the cat urine and feces smell very strong. Later, you will change to a better cat food and it will not smell so bad.

For example, if you pour the water a cat drinks into a bowl, the cat will rarely drink the water in the bowl and will often go to the toilet to drink water. A "spiritual" cat will open the faucet to drink water, which often drives the pet owner crazy.

For example, most cats will suffer from kidney stones. Taking pets to the doctor takes time and money, making pet owners worried and tired.

Following the user journey map, we discovered these user pain points. Since we were going to make hardware products, we carefully studied the key pain point of drinking water.

Why do cats drink tap water instead of the water in the bowl? Because cats like to drink running water, that is, flowing water, and do not like to drink stagnant water. Pouring water in a bowl will cause cats to drink less water, and their hair will fall into the water and be drunk into their stomachs. These reasons may lead to kidney stones.

Based on this key pain point, we made a pet water dispenser that can recycle and filter hair, and crowdfunded it on Xiaomi Youpin. In 35 hours, the number of crowdfunded units exceeded 10,000.

China has such a large market, but many products are still imperfect. If you discover pain points along the user journey map, you will find that there is still a lot of room for improvement or innovation.

2. Three methods to screen key pain points

We have found many pain points along the user journey map. Sometimes there are too many pain points and you cannot determine which one is the key pain point. So how do you select the key pain points from the numerous pain points?

For example, everyone uses their mobile phones for several hours every day, and everyone has many pain points, such as system fluency, battery standby time, game fluency, photo clarity, privacy protection, and so on.

If the key pain points cannot be found, mobile phone manufacturers will have no idea where to start. Only by finding the key pain points can they proceed in an orderly manner.

Here I will introduce three sieves to you, which can filter out the key pain points layer by layer.

The first sieve is the pain points that 80% of core users have.

Each user has different usage habits, which leads to different pain points for each user. At this time, we need to see which pain points are shared by 80% of the core users.

Everyone who makes products knows that your product may not satisfy everyone, but it must at least satisfy 80% of people, and the sales of such a product will not be bad.

The second sieve is whether users are willing to spend money to solve their pain points.

The 80% method has been used to screen out the key pain points. Now it depends on whether these users will pay to solve this pain point. If you make a product based on this pain point, but users are unwilling to buy it or do not have the ability to pay, then this pain point cannot be considered a key pain point.

Therefore, before making a product, you must do a good research and don’t regret it when the product cannot be sold.

The third sieve first provides timely assistance and then adds icing on the cake.

There is a sequence for solving pain points. First, provide timely assistance, and then add icing on the cake.

The above picture is a simple tool for pain point priority screening. The horizontal axis is the frequency of pain points and the vertical axis is the degree of pain points.

Pain points that are high frequency and painful are the pain points that users really care about and need to be solved in a timely manner. We call them pain points that provide timely help.

Low-frequency and high-pain pain points, although also very painful, have a low frequency and a slightly lower priority. We call them icing on the cake pain points.

Taking the pet water dispenser just mentioned as an example, let’s take a look at the pain point distribution map.

The pain points of running water, clean water and quietness are timely assistance and have the highest priority.

The pain points of remote monitoring are icing on the cake and are the second highest priority pain points.

Appearance is a pain point with low severity and low frequency, so it can be considered last.

Three and four methods to find the pain points in each link

Following the user journey map, we found the key pain points. If we want users to be very satisfied, we need to solve the pain points in every aspect of the user journey.

Here are four commonly used user research methods.

First, the discussion method is to have face-to-face discussions with core users.

Find 5-10 core users, heavy users are best. This user group is also called a briefing group. Have face-to-face discussions with them, ask them what problems they will encounter in the shopping process, and then summarize and organize their answers.

The advantage of this method is that it is a direct conversation, can dig very deep, and the data obtained is more accurate.

Second, the observation method, "observe" like a paparazzi.

Follow your core users, into their usage scenarios, and see how they use the product, like a police officer solving a case or a documentary, to find the problems in the usage process.

The advantage of this method is that you can get first-hand information and immerse yourself in the experience at the scene.

Third, the interview method allows users to express their opinions freely.

After discussions and observations, you will collect a lot of pain points. At this time, you can find some core users for one-on-one interviews and get to the bottom of the problems you find.

At this time, you should pay attention not to deliberately guide users, but let users express their dissatisfaction with the product during use. The results obtained naturally will be more real.

Also, we cannot limit ourselves to our own products, but must consider the overall situation, what problems users will encounter when using other brands, and how they hope the products can better meet their needs.

Fourth, the questionnaire method, which is pain point verification.

Through the previous three methods, you have already understood the pain points of your core users from shopping to use. Now you need to expand the scale of the survey to verify whether these pain points are common pain points for most users.

Based on your own financial and human resources, you can find hundreds or thousands of people to complete the survey. The final result will also be the final pain point. Based on this result, you can define the product.

IV. Conclusion

Finding user pain points and determining their priority is a critical step in creating a hit product. If you fail to find the pain points correctly, all subsequent work will be in vain and sales will naturally not be very good.

Many companies have not yet formed the awareness of finding pain points, and they make products according to the boss's preferences. This is not in line with market rules and is disrespectful to users.

Author: Granary New Chinese Products Research Institute

Source: Gucang New Domestic Products Research Institute (ID: gucangchanpinjia)