In the SaaS (Software as a Service) industry, secondary customization development is a common but challenging process. Although in theory, SaaS products should try to avoid secondary development, the diverse needs of customers in actual business often make secondary customized development unavoidable. From the perspective of SaaS product managers, this paper delves into the common problems in secondary customization development, such as information asymmetry, conceptual cognition differences, and confusion between requirements and rules, and proposes targeted solutions.
In theory, SaaS products should avoid secondary customization development, but in practical applications, secondary customization development is often difficult to avoid due to the diversity of customer needs.
As a SaaS product manager, actively looking for solutions is key in the face of inevitable problems.
Today we will talk about it: How to do a good job in the customized needs of the second opening?
Five frequently asked questions
First, let’s take a look at a few common two-opening requirements.
FAQ 1: The customer doesn’t know you don’t know, and you don’t know the customer doesn’t know。
This kind of problem is most likely to arise between people – not knowing the other person and not knowing it.
Its essence is a state of information asymmetry, in which one party does not realize that the other person lacks some kind of information or background knowledge, and the other party is completely unaware that they need it.
Psychologists Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham proposed a psychological model in 1955, the Johari Window, which vividly described this phenomenon.
What does a product manager need to do?
In the process of a product from scratch, it is not easy to do a good job in the role of product manager, in addition to the well-known writing requirements, writing requirements, writing requirements, there are many things to do. The product manager is not what you think, but will only ask you for trouble, make a request:
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The model divides individual consciousness into different areas through four quadrants, namely: Open Area, Blind Spot, Hidden Area, and Unknown Area.
- Open area: It is an area that you and the other person are open to and know;
- Blind spot area: is the area you don’t know, but the other party knows;
- Hidden area: is an area that you know but the other party doesn’t know;
- Unknown Zone: An area that neither of you knows.
Johari Window
For example.
Customer A wants to connect the abnormal attendance data of employees to their mini program through an open interface, and the display form is consistent with our App, and our preliminary assessment takes 4 people and days to complete.
However, in the research and development, the customer found that the number of abnormal employees displayed on the homepage of our App is divided into two types: the current natural month and the attendance month, and they don’t know, and we don’t know that they don’t know.
For example, today is April 25, 2025, and the natural month is April, but the customer’s attendance and salary calculations may still be stuck in March, so employees need to be able to handle abnormal data for both months at the same time.
Frequently Asked Question 2: The same concept and different cognitions cause very different understandings of needs.
The Chinese language is broad and profound, and the meanings of the same words in different contexts or cognitions will be very different.
For example.
Client B wanted us to provide a fixed/adjusted payroll interface to automatically process employee compensation after the third-party system completed the recruitment. Our initial assessment required 4 interfaces (5 man-days to complete), but during the development process, we found that there was a significant difference in the definition of fixed salary between the two parties:
- Our system is for current employees, while customers need to target new employees.
- Customers don’t want to get fixed payroll items first, nor do they use custom payroll items, and standard system capabilities are required;
- Clients need fixed salary items that include additional subsidies that are not within the scope of the existing fixed salary in our system.
It is also a fixed salary, because of the difference between the two sides in the understanding of the system and the business, the result will be a completely new demand, and the estimated man-day will double (i.e. 10 man-day).
FAQ 3: You think it’s a demand problem, and customers think it’s a product rule problem.
Sometimes you think it’s a demand problem and need to communicate with the customer to confirm, but the customer thinks it’s a product rule problem and shouldn’t ask him.
For example.
Customer C put forward a secondary request and expected to customize a report to show the employee’s daily attendance hours, overtime hours, leave working hours, etc., and when you ask her: What kind of style do we expect? For example, if an employee has multiple rows, it is still one more row
She might say, “Isn’t that your rule?” Our need is to confirm whether employees have been present for more than 6 consecutive days and to see their working hours. ”
It may even be because of the poor communication in the early stage, she will teasing: “You have to give full play to your professional ability, you can’t ask us everything.” ”
FAQ 4: Customers don’t agree with the results of your assessment.
A complete secondary opening result contains at least a list of requirements, estimated person-day, quotation, solution, expected launch time, etc., and customers often disagree with the estimator-day, which affects the quotation.
For example, if you estimate 30 man-days, the customer will challenge your construction period with a “professional” perspective, thinking that it can be completed by up to 15 man-days.
For example, customers do not agree with the online time and feel that they have paid for it, why is it so slow?
Even customers don’t agree: why don’t you accept its payment demand, feel that you have paid for it, why can’t you do it?
FAQ 5: You deliver results that don’t meet customer expectations.
When you complete the onboarding and customer acceptance, there may be situations that do not match expectations.
For example, a customer will say, “Why do the results of the report have 2 decimal places, we only need 1 decimal place, and we need to make a trade-off of 0.5?” ”
Or “Why do we still need to manually synchronize and calculate, not automatically?” ”
Sometimes customers may be reluctant to pay the final payment, claiming that promises have not been fulfilled and demanding refunds, which may even trigger legal action.
Sometimes it may lead to customers being reluctant to pay the final payment and saying, “This is what we mentioned and promised in the demand communication, and you haven’t done it now, I want a refund.” ”
It even ended up to the level of Bo Gongtang.
When we define common problems, how to effectively avoid them will come naturally.
We can optimize from three aspects to ensure that the second opening demand meets customer expectations without repeated rework due to demand problems and waste production and research resources.
Solution: From product principles to process mechanisms
The first is the product principle. Build and improve product principles and seek certainty in uncertainty。
I have always believed that product managers are challenging jobs that require dealing with and dealing with uncertainty. The most effective solution is to rely on product methodologies and principles that provide certainty in the midst of uncertainty.
Taking the customized needs of the second opening as an example, we can formulate the following product principles:
Principle 1 is the principle of resource allocation: ensure that the proportion of secondary development demand does not exceed 30%, so as to ensure that the construction of standardized products is not affected as much as possible。
Principle 2 is the principle of demand acceptance: priority acceptance of requirements that are universal (including potential universality) and that customers are willing to pay for without adding additional operating costs. Secondly, it is also acceptable to accept the needs of old customers or new customers who have signed a contract for two years or more, if it can be realized through plug-ins without affecting other customers。
Otherwise, if the demand does not meet these conditions, the second opening will not be accepted.
Principle 3 is the principle of prioritizing requirements: paid 2 (general) > paid 2 (potential universal) > Standardized requirements (general/high frequency/blocking) > Free 2 (plug-in) > Free 2 (function) > Other requirements (low frequency/small experience)。
The second is the process. Build a requirements confirmation process to ensure consistency between both parties on concepts, requirements, solutions, quotations, and expected results。
The key process of demand confirmation adopts a “handshake mechanism” of dual communication and confirmation. It is a synchronous communication mechanism in the Internet that is used to confirm the readiness of both parties before data transmission, thereby ensuring the reliability and synchronization of data transmission.
For example, the sender first sends a request signal saying, “The data is ready”, and after the other party receives the request, it replies to the confirmation signal saying: “Ready to receive”, and the two parties will start transmitting data.
In the same way, this “handshake mechanism” should also be adopted when communicating with customers to confirm their needs and solutions.
That is, the use of meeting screen recording + email, etc., the graphic content such as requirements, rules, and solutions is in the form of a round of video explanation (complex requirements) + email body (or attachment) to complete the final confirmation with the customer, and require the customer to reply to the “confirmed” signal before officially advancing to the research and development stage.
Note:
1. Key content:Be sure to send confirmation of key contents such as requirements, concept definitions, rules, and plans in the form of text, and mark key points to ensure the consistency of the understanding of key information by both parties；
2. Key price:It is necessary to adopt the principle of minimum granularity of the evaluated workload (i.e., man-day), clearly split and label, increase customer credibility, and facilitate customers to achieve “downgrade” by cutting demand。
The third is the mechanism. Through the construction and practice of the second opening demand mechanism, ensure the efficient implementation of demand。
Demand confirmation is only the “pioneer” of the second opening process, including pricing, agreement signing, order processing, research and development, delivery and other links. In order to ensure the smooth implementation of the project, it is necessary to establish a set of processes and mechanisms that are in line with the company’s situation, and strictly bind all parties to implement the agreed content.
They include, but are not limited to:
- 1) Communication mechanism: Adopt a dual information transparency communication mechanism of document recording and synchronization in the group;
- 2) Program evaluation mechanism: The product manager adopts a 24-hour working system to complete the evaluation (i.e., the demand before 14:00, complete the preliminary assessment on the same day; after 14:00, no later than the next day), and formal evaluation within 3 working days (that is, after completing the intention evaluation and confirmation, the solution and person-day quotation must be officially given);
- 3) Pricing/discount mechanism: Within 2 working days, the internal requester must complete the application and evaluation of internal pricing or discount, and complete the quotation to the customer;
- 4) Signing agreement mechanism: Within 3 working days, the internal requester must complete the internal agreement signing, stamping, and sending it to the customer;Second, open the order process: Within 2 working days, the internal demand person must complete the confirmation and approval of the second order process;
- 5) Payment mechanism: After completing the process internally, the internal requester must urge the customer to complete the payment within 7 working days (no less than 60% of the advance payment can be paid);
- 6) R&D mechanism: Starting from the payment time, the workload is 15 man-days, and the delivery is completed within 1-1.5 months; 15-30 man-day needs, delivery within 3 months; demand of more than 30 person-days (generally not more than 60 person-days), delivery within 3-6 months;
- 7) Project synchronization mechanism: When the project enters the R&D stage, the project progress is synchronized at least once a week, which can be carried out by email or group weekly report until it is officially delivered;
- 8) Project delivery mechanism: After the project is launched, the customer must be formally notified and the corresponding user manual must be provided so that the customer can complete the acceptance within 7 working days. If the acceptance fails, the difference will be re-evaluated, and if it is reasonable and the construction period is within 3 person-days, it will be iteratively optimized normally, otherwise the second evaluation will be re-evaluated according to the new demand.
