Execution is also a controversial term, with various viewpoints holding different opinions: some say poor execution is a problem of the executor's ability, while others say it is caused by unclear goals from management. The reason I bring up this topic is that I am directly facing the troubling issue of my own weakening execution. I used to be a person with strong execution, so why have I become so restless after working for five or six years? I tossed and turned all night, analyzing the causes and seeking solutions. In fact, the process of solving the problem of "weakening execution" is also a test of one's own execution. When completing a single goal through a single path, execution is explosive Looking back at the periods when my execution was strongest: when I first graduated, I rotated through several positions in a company. Initially, I worked as an editor, and my task was clear—write articles. Three articles a day, submit them to the supervisor for review, and some would be sent back for revision. Then I moved to marketing, and the goal was also simple—sign contracts. I walked the streets under the scorching sun, cold-calling merchants one by one, explaining resources, getting discounts, leaving contracts, and closing deals. Back then, there was no group buying, no LBS, no O2O, and merchants were easier to deal with. It wasn't hard to sweep a street in an afternoon and get half of them to sign. I worked while having fun. Then I executed offline events, large-scale golf tournaments, celebrities and charity, tycoons and sponsors. I was busy for a month coordinating relationships and handling every detail, even what the host would eat for dinner. I was completely feeling my way forward, but the goal was clear: complete the event without any mistakes. When I worked on online campaigns at a telecom operator, my superiors arranged the project, budget, and general approach. I wrote proposals, coordinated partners for design and web development, handled technical development, and then summarized the campaign. This cycle repeated for a year. From the initial chaos and frequent late nights to being so proficient before leaving that I basically said goodbye to overtime. The goal was: launch and close the campaign on time, strive for more internal and external promotional resources, and make the data look good if possible, but it didn't matter if it wasn't great. During these jobs, I picked up a bunch of miscellaneous skills. I could write copy, lead a self-driving tour, open PS to do simple design when pushed, and even host events or be a ceremony girl—like a jack-of-all-trades, filling in wherever needed. Although I occasionally had creative ideas and skills in dealing with people, most of the time I was single-mindedly following a process either set by others or discovered by myself: writing proposals, coordinating internal and external parties, solving problems on my own or finding the right person to ask for help. Those three years of a lot of trivial or repetitive execution work made me a strong executor. The reasons can be summarized as:

  1. Single goal: complete an event, launch a page, sign a contract, write an article.
  2. Clear execution path: each company has its own processes; follow internal rules, handle external emergencies, and stay on track. With care, there's basically no problem.
  3. Work with your brain: communication skills and problem-solving techniques are key to whether a person has the ability to grow. Grinding away isn't always effective; sometimes it's better to hit a wall and take another path. Finding the right person to give you a pointer is more useful than racking your brains.
  4. Clear instructions from leaders: answers are only yes or no, what's wrong, and how to fix it. Right or wrong, what's wrong, and why. There was never any "I know it's not good, but I just feel it's not good enough" kind of talk. The more responsibilities, the weaker the execution Later, I had the opportunity to join a startup team, juggling multiple functions. I told stories to the media for PR, built relationships with channels for resources, negotiated with peers for cooperation, and also managed social media operations, investor relations, customer service, and other trivial matters. By standard logic, each of these could be a department on its own. One would think that with so many responsibilities, I would be very busy, but the reality was: my mind was busy, but my hands were idle. The tasks were so numerous that I couldn't settle down to write a piece of copy or make a plan. The QQ icon in the bottom right corner kept flashing with new conversations, I checked Weibo every three minutes to see if there were interactions, and I was invited to various dinners and salons to exchange business cards and make small talk. After a year like this, my execution was eaten up, leaving not even a trace. Yes, for a long time I felt very incompetent. I seemed to do a lot, but I didn't go deep into any field. I didn't have strong media relationships, I didn't fully understand channel policies, I only had a reputation for having a wide network among peers, and my social media operations were sporadic and never sustained. This has a lot to do with personality. I'm someone who loves novelty, has difficulty concentrating, and didn't realize how important it is to go deep into one field for my career. There were also various external factors, and so on. These are all excuses, and I won't list them all. When you want to solve a problem, no excuse can stop you. Of course, realizing the problem exists and wanting to solve it is the motivation for writing this article. I like writing; the process of typing helps me think more deeply and analyze more rationally. Once I finish an article, at least my thoughts are clear. The root cause: thinking too much, doing too little I don't strongly believe in "heaven rewards the diligent," nor am I superstitious about talent, but I firmly believe that laziness is a common human ailment. Weak execution can also be explained as a form of laziness. At work, I wanted to use PR to create momentum for social writing, attract comments from self-media with both positive and negative views, introduce foreign benchmark products, and then launch our own product; I wanted to consistently publish content of the same nature through social media to gather a group of target users; I wanted to cooperate with channels to get resources and increase client installations; I wanted to bring all the people with stories around me into Tangyuan; I wanted to infuse the feelings rooted in my heart into this brand... For myself, I wanted to write a book that weaves my past travel experiences into a complete story to convey values and attitudes towards life; I wanted to become proficient in English and speak eloquently; I wanted to be thinner, prettier, and more elegant; I wanted to read many, many books; I wanted to spread positive energy to friends around me and become better together... I had so many things in my head, but my personal goals were relatively single and the paths clear—just reading, exercising, sleeping early, maintaining a good attitude, and sticking to writing. As for work, a kind of Virgo-like perfectionism made me repeatedly hesitate and lack persistence. In short, I was afraid, afraid of failure. Looking again at these work goals, each one is huge, vague, and seems to have no quantifiable indicators. But I know clearly that the ultimate quantifiable indicators are just three: registered users, activity, and retention. If I simply want to increase registered users, the fastest way is to aggressively pursue channels, which requires a crazy budget. I wanted both low-cost operations and target users, so I gambled on a different path. I might win once in a hundred bets, or I might lose all my chips before the winning side is revealed. Now, let's find a way to solve the problem Facing the weakening execution, two types of people gave me two kinds of advice:
  5. Fill your weaknesses and go deep;
  6. Continue to leverage your strength of active thinking and find someone with strong execution to realize your ideas. Combining both suggestions and evaluating the current situation, the way to solve the problem is still to start from the path I most recognize. I began to reorganize the relatively complex projects I had completed before. They were broken down layer by layer into small goals, even down to a copywriting goal, arranged in a timeline with priorities, working backward from the deadline to the start time, evaluating sub-goals that require cooperation from various departments, and leaving buffer time. Everything seemed to become simpler. Social media operations:
  7. Choose platforms
  8. Determine content direction and platform goals (provide services OR provide content)
  9. Persist in publishing quality content OR providing quality services day after day
  10. On the basis of 3, identify opportunities for promotion Social media, especially WeChat official account operations, is not a one-step process. Persistence in content, control of tone, and whether luck arrives at the right time can all be life-or-death factors. At this moment, what I can do is choose the platform and content positioning, and find someone who is patient, persistent, and slightly sensitive to content to do it. Reduce the desire for control, just steer the direction, and don't throw yourself into the transactional work of screening content that consumes a lot of time. PR momentum:
  11. Choose the main topic
  12. Set several sub-topics around the main topic
  13. Choose the official media you want to publish in
  14. Choose the self-media you want to invite to participate in discussions
  15. Write drafts (as backup; if the media is willing to write themselves, that's great)
  16. Develop a publishing schedule
  17. Pitch to each media outlet
  18. Publish according to plan; if there are emergencies, adapt In the era where everyone is self-media, the direction of PR is hard to control, and predictions of results are not so accurate. For a small team, what can cause a loss of control is a good PR campaign. Being praised or criticized is fine; the worst is being unknown. Build momentum. Accumulate media relationships and regularly publish some articles as groundwork. PR is a field that others think I'm good at, but I know I'm not familiar with. I've received no fewer than ten job offers related to PR. When asked why, a friend said: You are our ideal PR image. I can only say, I'm really not familiar. Market channels:
  19. Basic listing work
  20. Based on existing data, select the best channels for our product
  21. Research the rules of channel operation cooperation activities and make plans
  22. Follow up on business, strive to use content operations as an entry point for deeper cooperation
  23. Optimize copy, images, and activity cooperation based on data
  24. Rankings and keywords can basically be done monthly
  25. Make channel data and comment monitoring a daily routine There aren't many shortcuts in channels now. Exchanging favors for resources still exists, but you'll find that building relationships from scratch is less efficient than exchanging interests. The most cost-effective way to build relationships is to help them meet their KPIs and let them know they can make money with you. There's another article that details channels, so I won't go into it here. Today I chatted with a girl who also works in channels. She said: Only those in charge of spending can understand the feeling of holding a budget in your hands, trembling and not daring to act. But if you don't spend, you'll never feel it. Spend a few hundred thousand and you'll know. Women should enjoy the thrill of spending money. Many people think that marketing is great—just throw money around. I can only say, heh. Do you know that spending money is sometimes harder than making money? You have to predict the return on the money spent. Have you seen the story about the Tmall operator who spent 200,000 on direct traffic and didn't make a single sale, and was beaten by the boss and sent to the hospital? Brand operations:
  26. Clarify positioning. After much deliberation, we positioned our product as a "story community," hoping it can carry the heavy responsibility of connecting readers and authors. I never want it to just be a mobile extension of PC web fiction.
  27. Hold the bottom line. Don't do evil, don't use violent or pornographic content to attract users.
  28. Value proposition: People with stories. You, me, him, in all walks of life, as long as you live in this world and have thoughts, you must have your own story.
  29. Continuously push this brand proposition at every brand touchpoint and in every dialogue with the outside world. Brand is also worth a separate article. The process of building a brand requires enduring loneliness and criticism. If you survive, there's unlimited premium space. As for the web fiction market, I actually know nothing about it. Time-travel, fantasy, and BL content—besides making some people rich and killing time for others, what value does it contribute to society? And a large number of readers are teenagers who chase novels and games like addicts, and are subtly implanted with fantasies. Is that really good? This article is already long, and today's goal is to finish it, so I won't diverge further. By now, I've basically clarified what I need to focus on in the next phase. Today I told my boss seriously: I've decided to focus only on channels in July, specifically paid channel promotion. If I can figure out which channels suit us and the cost per user in a month, that's a gain.