Make Your Products ‘Addictive’ With ‘Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products’ What makes Facebook “addictive”? There’s a good reason why “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products” by Nir Eyal made waves in the tech scene and beyond — it’s a well-researched guide that helps readers build better products. If you want to understand how products influence our behaviors, look no further.
But first, how are habits formed?
Before we start learning about the famous “Hook Model,” you must first consider where your products are within the “Habit Zone.” To determine your product’s habit-forming potential, begin by plotting two factors: frequency (how often the behavior occurs) and perceived utility (how useful and rewarding the behavior is in the user’s mind — over alternative solutions). Once a behavior occurs with enough frequency and perceived utility, it enters the Habit Zone, becoming a default behavior. However, if either of the factors lie below the threshold, it’s more likely that the desired behavior won’t become a habit. Note that there are exceptions to this, as some behaviors provide minimal perceived benefit but become a habit simply because it occurs frequently, such as eating red M&Ms first. The Hook Model There are four phases when a customer experiences a new product or service. Each phase forms new habits, and once the phases are complete, the habits have been reinforced, and the product grows in value to the customer. These phases include: Trigger What triggers your customers to use your product? Is it external (a prominent button or paid advertisement) or internal (emotional, a pre- existing routine, or intangible)?
Action Here, companies leverage a customer’s motivation and ability to use their product or service to increase the odds of a customer taking action. Reward This is where the Hook Model is unique in its ability to create desire within customers. The “reward” is likely the most important step to this entire model. Investment Now that the user is experiencing dopamine rushes from the anticipation of rewards, it’s time to ask users for a little investment, whether it means investing time, data, effort, social capital, or money. If you want to learn the intricacies of these phases and how you can make it work for your business, give “Hooked” a try — we dare say you’ll be obsessed!
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