An excellent product is the product of continuous demand collisions, trade-offs, and choices made by the product manager. If you want to add a new feature to the product, even a very simple feature has to be thought through hard. Adding a function is a technical activity, and if you want to delete a function, it is also a technical activity. How to delete an unnecessary function? Let’s stroke it.
What is the reason for a feature to be deleted?
I often hear friends or family members complaining that a product is not easy to use, and that some functions have suddenly changed after the product is updated. For example, the cancellation of the QQ and email registration function after WeChat 5.0 has caused a lot of headaches for many users. The closure of the 360 network disk has also affected the online storage habits of a large number of users… The product managers of WeChat and 360 must have considered the function changes. It will bring troubles to some users, but they still do it, and there must be a reason.
So, what is the reason for a feature to be deleted? I think we should think from two perspectives:
1. From the user’s perspective
From the user’s point of view, a feature has been deleted for four main reasons:
- The user does not need it , indicating that this function is a tasteless function. For example, the function of buying train tickets/air tickets on social apps.
- If the user is disturbed , it means that it has caused trouble to the user. Many apps have pushed too much, which is just the chatter in the app.
- The low usage rate indicates that this feature is not welcomed by most users. Taking into account the maintenance and operation costs and other factors, finally choose to delete. However, if it is a product with a large number of users, such as WeChat and Alipay, even if the usage rate is 0.01%, it may be used by tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of users. If so, you can take measures other than direct deletion, which will be mentioned below.
- The function is not perfect . The function is not yet perfect, which is the reason why it can be deleted. It is foreseeable that with the improvement of voice functions, more apps will use voice input as the main input method in the future.
2. From a business perspective
From a commercial point of view, if you want to delete a feature, there are three factors:
- In line with the company’s strategic development direction . A function will be added because it conforms to the company’s strategic direction, and it will also be deleted because it conforms to the company’s strategic direction. In the early days, WeChat supported simultaneous registration and login of QQ and email, but later deleted this feature and only allowed new users to register with their mobile phone number.
- Product business transformation . Momo’s “whitewashing” road has been going on. Before Momo 6.0, the homepage was the most sexually suggestive page. After 6.0, the homepage has become a message board, similar to Moments messages. These messages are customized and pushed based on your personal information. There are neighbors, fellow villagers, peers, and people with the same interests. This social scene is not only for big breasted beauties. Up.
- There is no profit or even loss . It is easy to understand that 360 SkyDrive announced the closure of personal cloud storage services and the transformation of enterprise cloud services due to high maintenance and operating costs.
How to delete an unnecessary function?
Through the above, we already know what kind of function needs to be deleted, so how to delete an unnecessary function? Or some people will say that since it has been decided to delete, then delete it directly.
It’s actually not that simple.
When I was a child at home, my mother always piled up all kinds of unnecessary clothes and objects in the utility room and was reluctant to throw them away. For a function “to be slaughtered”, it may be able to play a greater role after being improved, weakened, or hidden.
1. Improvement
In the era of 2G, the communication function of QQ is still relatively cumbersome. With the reform of network technology, the message function is gradually becoming stronger. No longer have to use the slow 2G network to refresh the page again and again to view messages, but to achieve real instant messaging.
2. Weaken
The functions originally placed on the first-level page can be placed on the second-level and third-level pages. The function still exists, but it is weakened and a few users can continue to use it.
3. Hide
Weakened to a certain degree, in fact, it is hidden. You can also set a turn-on button, users who need it can turn it on by themselves, and users who don’t need it can turn a blind eye. For example, the [Function] switch of WeChat can enable QQ offline messaging, Tencent News and other functions, or choose to disable it.
4. Delete
When no better way is found, the data shows that the function has no user base, so just delete it.
