Why Becoming a Full‑Value‑Chain Researcher Is Essential for Modern Product Professionals

Product, interaction, visual, user research, and branding professionals face ever‑increasing expectations; without evolution they risk being left behind.

Recent news shows designers fearing unemployment as AI tools like Alibaba LuBan can deliver designs for a fraction of the cost, making purely graphic‑level designers vulnerable.

Future designers will lead design thinking, analyze user behavior data, guide AI deployment, and create full‑link design solutions that span user consumption habits, time, and scenario dimensions.

This is the “full‑link designer” concept, which emphasizes mindset and methods over exhaustive skill sets. By analogy, the author proposes a new role: the full‑value‑chain researcher .

The full‑value‑chain researcher focuses on value creation across the entire value chain, not on mastering every tool.

Why this concept arose? User research ("用研") traditionally involves conducting studies, writing reports, and presenting findings to guide or improve products, but often suffers from low‑impact reports, misaligned timing, and poor implementation.

Adopting a full‑value‑chain perspective can address these issues.

The value chain consists of four universal stages: value proposition, value creation, value delivery, and value capture. Every commercial activity revolves around these steps.

At the macro level, companies’ departments (including seemingly non‑value‑adding ones like HR or logistics) ultimately serve value creation. For example, NetEase Yanxuan aligns product selection, packaging, logistics, customer service, app design, marketing, and operations around value creation.

At the micro level, an individual’s salary reflects the amount of value they generate; discrepancies arise due to surplus value or overvaluation.

Becoming a full‑value‑chain researcher is crucial because hiring demands now require broader competencies. Recruiters look for industry research, brand research, and multi‑dimensional analytical skills.

Personal growth also depends on shifting from skill‑based competition to mindset‑based competition; the full‑value‑chain view expands thinking toward value‑centric research.

Three core competencies are needed: knowledge, skills, and health.

Knowledge means information that guides better decisions over the long term—general knowledge such as logic, probability, and statistics that can generate new insights.

Skills are the “weapons” used to persuade, present, and communicate findings effectively.

Physical health is essential for sustained performance, especially as careers extend into later life.

Practical methods include continuous learning during low‑demand periods (monitoring industry trends, competitor moves, user needs) and, when demand arises, clearly defining the research problem, collaborating with stakeholders, framing the study, delivering reports, and driving implementation.

The common denominator of research work is summarized as “1 foundation + 1 key”: the foundation is creating value for the user, and the key is sales thinking—selling the research outcomes to decision‑makers.

Sales thinking involves four steps: uncovering needs, proposing solutions, solving problems, and closing the deal (ensuring implementation).

Applying this to a churn‑user study, the researcher identifies the need (high churn), proposes a predictive model, solves the problem with a retention plan, and secures stakeholder buy‑in to execute.

Overall, the full‑value‑chain researcher integrates macro‑economic, industry, company, product, and user research to deliver actionable, value‑driven insights.

References:

Osterwalder, A., & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business Model Generation.

王学涛. (2017). 网络直播平台盈利模式、利润变化及驱动因素——基于欢聚时代的探索性案例研究.