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The "Xiaohongshu Disease" on Xiaohongshu: From Data to Feeling, Lost in the Anxiety of "Xiaohongshu Flavor"

Tech 2024-08-28 08:41:44 Source: Network

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The "Xiaohongshu Disease" on Xiaohongshu: From Data to Feeling, Lost in the Anxiety of "Xiaohongshu Flavor"In the early 2023, at a small internal meeting, Xiaohongshu's mid- to high-level executives gathered to discuss risks that might affect the following year's e-commerce performance. Everyone agreed that if Cai Lin (user name on Xiaohongshu), the head of fashion and trendy brands, resigned, it would be the biggest risk for their e-commerce business

The "Xiaohongshu Disease" on Xiaohongshu: From Data to Feeling, Lost in the Anxiety of "Xiaohongshu Flavor"

In the early 2023, at a small internal meeting, Xiaohongshu's mid- to high-level executives gathered to discuss risks that might affect the following year's e-commerce performance. Everyone agreed that if Cai Lin (user name on Xiaohongshu), the head of fashion and trendy brands, resigned, it would be the biggest risk for their e-commerce business. Since 2022, the fashion industry's contribution to Xiaohongshu's e-commerce GMV had been steadily increasing, and by early last year, it had reached almost 50%, surpassing beauty and personal care to become the top contributor.

The "Xiaohongshu Disease" on Xiaohongshu: From Data to Feeling, Lost in the Anxiety of "Xiaohongshu Flavor"

However, Conan (user name on Xiaohongshu), Xiaohongshu's COO who also oversaw the trading department, was not satisfied with the fashion industry's results. Multiple former e-commerce and backend employees said that Conan had criticized Cai Lin in various meetings for not "understanding Xiaohongshu" and lacking strategy. This evaluation seemed illogical. In other internet companies, data is the most important and direct universal standard: the direction that brings growth is the right direction, and employees are accustomed to using data to prove themselves. Whoever has better data is more deserving of promotion. But on Xiaohongshu, this standard became ineffective in certain situations.

The "Xiaohongshu Disease" on Xiaohongshu: From Data to Feeling, Lost in the Anxiety of "Xiaohongshu Flavor"

In a subsequent organizational restructuring, McQueen (user name on Xiaohongshu), the head of home furnishing operations for nine years, was promoted to the overall head of e-commerce merchants. Cai Lin, whose data performance was outstanding, along with other heads of other industries, shifted from reporting directly to Conan to reporting to McQueen. Cai Lin's potential departure, which everyone considered the biggest risk factor affecting e-commerce performance, became the Damocles sword hanging over the e-commerce department.

The "Xiaohongshu Disease" on Xiaohongshu: From Data to Feeling, Lost in the Anxiety of "Xiaohongshu Flavor"

Finally, CEO Mao Wenchao stepped in. At the bi-monthly review meeting, Mao Wenchao had Cai Lin and Conan sit on his left and right, respectively, and praised the former's performance. This signaled a new direction. A subtle new balance emerged in the e-commerce department: McQueen remained the nominal head of the industry, but Cai Lin's decision-making power was enhanced, almost free from McQueen's interference.

The "Xiaohongshu Disease" on Xiaohongshu: From Data to Feeling, Lost in the Anxiety of "Xiaohongshu Flavor"

In the eyes of more employees, this convoluted managerial change was just a snapshot of Xiaohongshu's many management issues. They could point out countless cases of reassignments, promotions, and layoffs that they couldn't understand. They often struggled to figure out Xiaohongshu's standards, leading to a lingering sense of insecurity and making them tread lightly at work. Even Mao Wenchao himself realized that Xiaohongshu was experiencing "big company disease." In an internal letter released on its 11th anniversary, he and co-founder Qu Fang mentioned that many frontline employees were already feeling the bloating and entropy brought by the complexity of the business and the organization's growth, feeling "unable to use their strength" and finding "the challenges not so much the challenges themselves but the meaningless consumption."

The "Xiaohongshu Disease" on Xiaohongshu: From Data to Feeling, Lost in the Anxiety of "Xiaohongshu Flavor"

Looking back, 2022 might have been a turning point. That year, Xiaohongshu, with its rapidly growing user base, began to push for commercial monetization, with major changes in e-commerce, advertising, and internationalization: In January, e-commerce head Jess (user name on Xiaohongshu) resigned, and the e-commerce department, previously a first-level department, was placed under the community department, overseen by Conan. In March, strategy head Er Ya (user name on Xiaohongshu) was transferred to head internationalization, and Xiaohongshu began testing the waters of Southeast Asian expansion. In September, CMO Zhi Heng (user name on Xiaohongshu) led the business department to implement industry divisions, initiating multiple rounds of organizational restructuring, splitting and merging. The growth of the business was accompanied by an increase in personnel. Xiaohongshu offered higher salaries and broader responsibilities to attract executives with 3 to 5 years of frontline experience and mid- to high-level leaders with managerial experience from other large companies, hoping to bring in reusable success experiences.

The "Xiaohongshu Disease" on Xiaohongshu: From Data to Feeling, Lost in the Anxiety of "Xiaohongshu Flavor"

In early last year, when it was still possible to check the total number of employees internally, the system showed that Xiaohongshu had a total of 12,000 employees, including interns. These continuous new employees, with their experience recognized by Xiaohongshu, were also well-versed in the survival rules of large companies. They joined Xiaohongshu with expectations, hoping to make a mark in this one of the few internet companies still on an upward trajectory. However, they found that their stay was much shorter than expected, and they struggled to settle in, unable to even survive the probationary period. A former backend employee said that he observed a "not insignificant" proportion of employees leaving voluntarily or involuntarily before completing their probationary period. An employee in the business department said that in the past year, the business department alone saw more than 10 employees at R6 level and above leave. In Xiaohongshu's job hierarchy, if the company founder and CEO is the first tier, R6 is equivalent to the CEO minus 3, usually a team leader in a business line. He participated in a training session organized by HR, where HR asked those present who had been with the company for more than half a year and who had been with the company for more than a year, and asked them to raise their hands. "There were very few people who had been with the company for more than half a year, mostly new employees.

Amid the high frequency of employee turnover and frequent shifts in business direction, Xiaohongshu's organizational communication mechanisms often failed, decisions were delayed, and implementation was difficult. However, this was not just the "big company disease" shared by all large companies. Some of Xiaohongshu's unique "Xiaohongshu disease" lurked deeper, constantly impacting the fate of thousands of employees and this popular internet company.

Not Data-Driven

Gao Ning, a mid-level manager, still remembers the shock she experienced when she attended her first bi-monthly summary meeting after joining Xiaohongshu. The entire presentation lacked a single data point. The operations manager's summary resembled an essay, 90% of which was dedicated to narrating their journey in conducting business. Mao Wenchao even circled and commented in the document, "This is hilarious." Another product manager also didn't mention any product data. This was completely different from her work experience at another large company, where she had to use facts and data to prove her direction was right. "Xiaohongshu seems to disregard facts, data, and real information."

This was the first lesson that people like Gao Ning, who came from large companies, had to learn when joining Xiaohongshu: accepting a non-data-driven approach.

Lai Ke (user name on Xiaohongshu), the project manager for the Xiaohongshu Spring Festival Gala, mentioned in the internal podcast program "Someone Plants Potatoes" that he was very wary of whether new hires truly believed in something during interviews or onboarding. "If they believe in their own judgment and true insights, they will abandon all those stereotyped execution methods, instead of being data-driven, ROI-driven, or relying on benchmarks to compare what is good or bad. Those are two different mindsets, not saying that one is wrong. Xiaohongshu has developed to this stage, and it may need some more scientific management approaches for evaluation and management, but at this stage, creation is paramount."

Chen Si, a former e-commerce employee, once completely looked down upon this line of reasoning. She was accustomed to using data as an evaluation standard. She participated in the planning of an e-commerce event, and although the transaction volume was good, Conan only recognized one product design in the entire event: when users opened the note, they would see two butterflies flying out. "At that time, I didn't really understand, what kind of evaluation standard is that? What's so good about it? What does it have to do with e-commerce?" It wasn't until she left Xiaohongshu and joined another large company that Chen Si gradually understood the logic: when creating content, other large companies were solving a math problem, with fixed formulas, like using red envelopes to attract new creators, which naturally created more content, and the number of new users brought in by the content and their retention rate became the answer. However, cultivating the community on Xiaohongshu was akin to solving a language problem, where there was no formula or standard answer for what kind of content users would like. It could only rely on the employees' feeling. But she still believed that this logic was only valid when creating a community, "E-commerce is a math problem."

The monthly operational meeting of the trading department was often the most obvious and intense clash between feeling and data logic. When the heads of various industries gave their reports, Conan placed more emphasis on the "mindful" examples they mentioned, such as the niche designer brand branch RedLabel. In the fashion and trendy industry, which primarily focuses on clothing e-commerce, RedLabel only accounts for less than 20% of GMV. Conan would only ask about RedLabel's strategy and wouldn't inquire about the remaining 80% of GMV in other clothing categories. Gradually, the heads of industries learned to highlight

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