Exploration.Anchor

12009

Overview

Anchoring refers to defining outcome target indicators. It involves collecting information related to the problem, analyzing it, filtering out irrelevant information, identifying problem hypotheses, and deriving appropriate measurement indicators to describe the current situation, while also discussing and defining the expected outcomes of our subsequent actions.

We should strive to avoid vague goals, as they can hinder communication among team members. Clearly describing goals helps us understand our current position and how far we are from the target. Only in this way can we start with the end in mind, integrate with the real environment, and choose and formulate relatively reasonable solutions.

Goal Measurement

Vision and Objectives

Clear goals are usually specific, measurable, and time-bound. Without a time constraint, it is likely to become a corporate vision, which cannot directly guide the specific activities of daily production management. The best approach is to make the goals objectively measurable.

Examples:

Current state: Serving 100,000 users
Two months later: Serving 200,000 users
Vision: Serving 10 million users

Measurable Indicators

Sometimes, it is difficult to immediately come up with a measurable standard. However, we can seek objectively measurable target outcomes by describing the target state and the potential results that may arise from this target state.

We can think this way: If a product meets user needs, then users will be very satisfied, and user satisfaction will lead to repeat purchases, as well as better brand recognition, resulting in more users. Therefore, can we set user count and revenue as the indicator dimensions for the product? The characteristics of these two indicators are: they are easy to collect and easy to quantify, which helps reduce the cost of collecting measurement indicators.

For example, for a mobile application product that provides news information services, the company hopes to "make users like the information services it provides." However, "liking" is a difficult goal to quantify and substantiate, which requires further anchoring. We can infer that if users like this product, then:

Users will read more content and spend more time.
Users will recommend the product to friends, who will also like it and become users of the product.

From the above example, we can define three easily collected and measurable indicators: the number of friends recommended, the number of users within a unit time, and the average usage duration per user. These three indicators can serve as the indicator dimensions for corporate goals. The choice of which indicators to use as targets needs to be determined through comprehensive judgment based on the current state of the enterprise, the lifecycle stage of the product, and the external market environment.

Key Points

The overall goal of an enterprise should be a goal that spans the entire organization, rather than just a goal for a specific team within the enterprise. Once the overall goal is established, every team within the enterprise should align with it as a direction, formulate their respective goals based on their responsibilities and nature, and brainstorm collectively to achieve it.

When selecting goals, two points should be followed: first, identify value indicators rather than vanity indicators; second, the indicators should be measurable and accessible, making objective comparisons easy.

Vanity indicators refer to those metrics that make your product's performance look good, such as the number of registered users or the highest website traffic. Although these indicators reflect the product's status to some extent, they are not the most valuable measurement indicators. In comparison, daily active users, monthly active users, daily retention rate, monthly retention rate, and effective purchase rate may be better value measurement indicators.

## Overview

Anchoring refers to defining outcome target indicators. It involves collecting information related to the problem, analyzing it, filtering out irrelevant information, identifying problem hypotheses, and deriving appropriate measurement indicators to describe the current situation, while also discussing and defining the expected outcomes of our subsequent actions.

We should strive to avoid vague goals, as they can hinder communication among team members. Clearly describing goals helps us understand our current position and how far we are from the target. Only in this way can we start with the end in mind, integrate with the real environment, and choose and formulate relatively reasonable solutions.

## Goal Measurement

### Vision and Objectives

Clear goals are usually specific, measurable, and time-bound. Without a time constraint, it is likely to become a corporate vision, which cannot directly guide the specific activities of daily production management. The best approach is to make the goals objectively measurable.

Examples:

1. Current state: Serving 100,000 users  
2. Two months later: Serving 200,000 users  
3. Vision: Serving 10 million users

### Measurable Indicators

Sometimes, it is difficult to immediately come up with a measurable standard. However, we can seek objectively measurable target outcomes by describing the target state and the potential results that may arise from this target state.

We can think this way: If a product meets user needs, then users will be very satisfied, and user satisfaction will lead to repeat purchases, as well as better brand recognition, resulting in more users. Therefore, can we set user count and revenue as the indicator dimensions for the product? The characteristics of these two indicators are: they are easy to collect and easy to quantify, which helps reduce the cost of collecting measurement indicators.

For example, for a mobile application product that provides news information services, the company hopes to "make users like the information services it provides." However, "liking" is a difficult goal to quantify and substantiate, which requires further anchoring. We can infer that if users like this product, then:

1. Users will read more content and spend more time.  
2. Users will recommend the product to friends, who will also like it and become users of the product.

From the above example, we can define three easily collected and measurable indicators: the number of friends recommended, the number of users within a unit time, and the average usage duration per user. These three indicators can serve as the indicator dimensions for corporate goals. The choice of which indicators to use as targets needs to be determined through comprehensive judgment based on the current state of the enterprise, the lifecycle stage of the product, and the external market environment.

## Key Points

The overall goal of an enterprise should be a goal that spans the entire organization, rather than just a goal for a specific team within the enterprise. Once the overall goal is established, every team within the enterprise should align with it as a direction, formulate their respective goals based on their responsibilities and nature, and brainstorm collectively to achieve it.

When selecting goals, two points should be followed: first, identify value indicators rather than vanity indicators; second, the indicators should be measurable and accessible, making objective comparisons easy.

Vanity indicators refer to those metrics that make your product's performance look good, such as the number of registered users or the highest website traffic. Although these indicators reflect the product's status to some extent, they are not the most valuable measurement indicators. In comparison, daily active users, monthly active users, daily retention rate, monthly retention rate, and effective purchase rate may be better value measurement indicators.