Case Study: The What, Why, and How of Yuque’s Consumer Product Line

How does Yuque think about its positioning, goals, users, and scenarios among end users?

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At the beginning of 2022, Yuque conducted a definition exercise for its consumer product line (note-taking product), clarifying its business positioning, objectives, target users, and core scenarios. In this definition, Yuque clearly articulated the value it provides to individual users. This article uses this as a case study to show how to define business and product from a user-centric perspective.

Positioning and Goals

Before talking about planning, let’s first define what the consumer product line is doing: For people who hope to grow by recording knowledge, we provide tools for knowledge construction and sharing, solving problems in fragmented information recording, structured knowledge building, knowledge review, and knowledge sharing.

The What and Why of the Consumer Product Line

What is recording, why do we record, and what are the challenges of recording?

Recording refers to the process of using some tool or method to store valuable information outside the brain. The purpose is for review.

Every day, we process a large amount of information, both valuable and meaningless
This information is scattered and fragmented
Fearing forgetfulness, we record information we consider valuable
What we think is valuable is often more than what is actually valuable (greed, hoarding, need to go with the flow)
But human memory is limited
Working memory is small
Long-term memory is unreliable
The abundance of information and the limits of memory form a contradiction
Fragmented information recording is an attempt to solve the above problem, using tools to enhance memory and record what we consider valuable for later review
There are challenges in recording
Ideas can occur anytime, anywhere—how to capture them on the go
Recording comes in many forms; text is just one
After recording a lot, how to easily review it later
A good recording tool should help users overcome these challenges

What is knowledge construction, why do we build knowledge, and what are the challenges?

Knowledge construction is the process of internalizing information—it is learning: recording information, defining it clearly, organizing and categorizing, and building connections. The purpose is growth.

People are motivated to become better versions of themselves
Buying and using tools is a psychological step toward “better”
How to actually become better? By learning—internalizing information, expanding one’s knowledge system, and strengthening the ability to apply knowledge
But learning is hard
The process of learning is to clarify definitions, sort out relationships, and connect with existing knowledge. This is still difficult today
In modern society, the scale of knowledge in every field exceeds what the human brain can easily remember (the magical number 7)
Learning is also a long-term endeavor
The rewards of learning are rich, but the cycle is too long
People tend to do things with short-term rewards
Therefore, learning is hard to persist in; most learning behaviors require strong external motivation
Tools are needed to make the learning process more directly rewarding and to motivate users to keep going
We want to become better through learning, but because learning is hard and the reward cycle is long, it’s hard to persist—this forms a contradiction
Knowledge construction is an attempt to solve this problem: using hard drives so we don’t forget, using documents to help us record and think, using directories to help us categorize, using hyperlinks to help us build connections, and using visualizations (directories, knowledge networks) to provide instant positive feedback for every new piece of information (Look! My knowledge base is awesome!)
There are challenges in knowledge construction
Professional concepts are confusing for ordinary users
People don’t like to study—how to keep them going
…
A good knowledge construction tool should help users overcome these challenges

Letting knowledge spread in small circles, enabling stress-free communication and interaction. For authors, it means companionship, recognition, and learning by teaching. For readers, it satisfies curiosity and brings growth.

People need recognition, fear loneliness, and are curious

Target Users

Earlier, we mentioned our target users are “people who hope to grow by recording knowledge”—this is too abstract and broad. Focusing on the present and on groups we can easily reach and understand, we can narrow our target users to programmers and students. For these groups, knowledge construction and sharing can be concretely represented as note-taking and blogging.

In the process of knowledge construction and sharing, we can summarize some fixed actions based on user behavior, forming a flow.

Explanation of “Flow”

“Flow” is composed of user behaviors
Initially, users are inspired and have the urge to record, which they do in quick notes or documents
The purpose of recording is for later review
Recording -> Reviewing is the most basic “loop” for most ordinary users and covers the largest functional scope they encounter
As the number of notes and documents increases, reviewing becomes difficult, leading to the urge to organize, realizing the value of tags, directories, and knowledge bases, and starting to try them
Recording -> Organizing -> Reviewing is the advanced “loop” for proficient Yuque users
Recorders keep recording, and a qualitative change occurs
At first, it’s random clipping and collecting, but read it later = read it never
Then, they start annotating, trimming, and integrating their own understanding and cases
They move from passive input to active exploration
They merge various viewpoints, content, and notes around a theme, seeking structure
They complete the transformation from ordinary to expert users
Advanced recorders continuously refine content around themes, adjust structures, and regularly expand new topics, forming a habit of accumulation
Recording -> Organizing -> Accumulating -> Reviewing is the professional “loop” for expert Yuque users, whose habits may even exceed what Yuque’s features can support
Content in every stage of the flow can be shared and interacted with

Some Thoughts on the Above Behaviors and Scenarios

Recording
- Recording is the starting point of everything
- Recording is temporary and fragmented
- Recording happens anytime, anywhere
- Recording should be fast
Organizing
- People don’t like organizing
- Organizing is for easier review
Reviewing
- Frequent review of the present, occasional review of the past
- Only remember having recorded, forget all other details
Accumulation
- Ritual
Sharing & Interaction
- Sharing is for recognition (self or others)
- Enthusiastic about recording valuable information from others’ sharing

Each stage in the “flow” has its own problems. For example, in the recording stage, since inspiration can strike anytime, how can we help users capture these unexpected ideas? In the review stage, as content grows, it becomes harder to find specific information—how can we make it easier for users to search? Therefore, we need to provide a set of features, tailored to different usage scenarios, to serve users, which forms the functional positioning of the consumer product line.