Hooked by Nir Eyal offers a very interesting model on how to hook consumers to a product by diving into what triggers them to use the product, what makes them keep coming back and inculcate the product into their lives as a habit. Not only that but the book also offers interesting insights into consumer psychology and even talks about the ethics of building habit forming and addicting products.

HOOKED MODEL

The book deep dives into what exactly makes the user come back to a product repeatedly as much as that the product can be labelled as a habit the customer has incorporated into their lifestyle.

NEED FOR HABIT FORMATION AND HABIT ZONE

The HOOKED Model is divided into 4 phases namely TRIGGER , ACTION , VARIABLE REWARD, INVESTMENT

A trigger prompts the user to use the product and can be internal or external. Initially external triggers are used to bring them to the product through emails, push notifications, etc.

Once the user starts using the product , the next step that follows is to make them perform an action in anticipation of a reward. However the user experience should be simple and there should be a psychological motivation attached to it.

The reward that the user gets after performing the action should be kept variable. If the reward becomes predictable, they lose the incentive to use the product and are eventually driven away. However when they do not know what reward will follow, it creates a sense of mystery around it which motivates them to use the product.

Once the user invests resources like time, money, data into the product , they also attach a sense of value to it which makes them use the product more often.

The repeated cycle through the above mentioned phases forms an association with internal triggers of the user and brings them to the product without the need of an external trigger to prompt them to use the product.

Triggers

Triggers are what brings the users to the product and motivates them to use it.

External triggers are embedded with information which makes the user perform the desired action.

Paid Triggers — These are costly but very effective. They are used to bring the product to the attention of the users. Once they are brought to the product other triggers can be used to bring them back. Some examples of paid triggers are advertisements on various digital mediums like google, youtube, etc or physical mediums like magazines, billboards, etc.

Earned Triggers — These triggers are not bought directly but require investment in terms of media marketing. Some examples include being a part of a viral video or blog post, featured app, promoting the product through an interview, etc. However this form of trigger does not have a long term effect on the customer.

Relationship Triggers — Another form of trigger is when people who already use the product promote it to other people. However to utilise this trigger, there must be a an engaged user base who can recommend the product to others.

Owned Triggers — Once the user has started using the product, these triggers can be used to keep the them engaged with the product in form of newsletters, email notifications about the product. Opting in for these triggers is a choice.

Using the above mentioned external triggers, users are drawn to the product repeatedly and after successive cycles of engagement with the product, external triggers are replaced by internal triggers.

Once the product becomes tightly coupled with the thoughts, emotions or routine of a user, internal triggers come into play.

Emotions play a very important role as internal triggers. Any kind of negative emotion makes the user resort to actions which alleviates their pain. If the product successfully manages to distract them from the negative emotion, they resort to the product any time a negative emotion be it boredom , irritation, etc arises. Positive emotions like being part of a community; sharing news, knowledge ,etc can also act as great triggers and the users start forming associations with the product over a period of time.

Once a product is attached to an emotion, any time we experience that emotion we turn to the product. For example any time we click new photos, we have the urge to share them on Instagram for our friends and family to see.

Habit forming products are focussed on pain points that need to be solved for the user. If the product solves a particular problem , the user comes to identify the product as a source of relief.

Action

Triggers bring the user to the product to perform an action. However if the user does not perform the intended action, the trigger is of no use. Therefore the action must be easy to perform and should not require a lot of effort on the part of user.

User must have the motivation to do the action, the ability to complete the action and a trigger to inform the user about the action.

Motivation defines the desire to take an action.

Some core motivators are seeking pleasure to avoid pain, seeking hope to avoid fear, seeking social acceptance to avoid rejection. Successfully identifying what motivates the target audience can play a huge role in them finally carrying out the intended action.

Ability defines how easily an action can be performed. If the action is simple and easy to perform, the user is more likely to perform the action.

Elements which should be taken into account while designing the product to increase usability are

• Time — Will the user spend a lot of time performing the action?
• Money — Does the user need to spend money to perform the action?
• Physical Effort and Mental Effort — Does the user need to carry out any physical task or - spend a lot of energy thinking about how to carry out the desired task?
• Social Deviance — Will the action be socially acceptable?
• Non Routine — Will the action disrupt the routine of the user?

Variable Reward

Once the user has performed the desired action, they are rewarded with a problem being solved which in turn reinforces their motivation.

Rewards of the Tribe are social rewards which makes the user feel accepted in the society. This type of reward works well with the target audience who seek social acceptance. For example — on uploading a picture on Instagram (which is an Action), variable reward would be gaining followers or followers liking the uploaded picture which would make the users feel accepted, creating a positive motivation cycle for them to use the product.

Rewards of the Hunt — Hunting is a primal instinct in humans and where hunting for food and other resources is not as common nowadays, the same logic can be applied to the need of users to be on the constant lookout for new deals on E-Commerce stores, new posts on social media platforms like Pinterest, Twitter , etc. In such scenarios the user gets hooked onto the experience of not knowing what they will come across and the anticipation motivates them to use the product.

Rewards of the Self are the ones which we seek for personal gratification. These rewards are fueled by intrinsic motivation and the driving factors may involve gaining a sense of competency. Adding rewards that the user might not expect would hook them onto the product. Games are a good example of products which cater to the needs of the user to seek pleasure.

• Rewards must be in alignment with the pain points the product intends to solve and must improve the user’s life.
• Users must feel they are in control while using the product and not made to feel like they have to perform actions they aren't willing to do.
• Element of mystery is important to keep the user engaged in the product. If the rewards become predictable, the user loses motivation to keep using the product. However it is important to realise, not every product requires variability and the decision to include variability depends on the type of product.

Investment

Investment is a key factor in the user being hooked to the product. Users value the products in which they invest time and effort.

Investments are done in anticipation of long term rewards — not instant gratification. Users should be asked to invest a resource after the variable reward phase or else it causes friction in the user experience. Once they receive a reward, they might be willing to do some work.

Investment can be done in the form of

Content — When the user invests time to perform the action of putting up content (like photos on Instagram) on the product, it becomes harder to leave the product.

Data — When a user has data stored in a product, it becomes difficult for them to switch to some other product as they might end up losing the data or would have to make great efforts to migrate that data.

Followers — Once the user starts gaining followers on a product, it becomes harder for them to stop using the product.

Reputation — In some products users invest their effort to maintain a good reputation score and it becomes unlikely for them to switch to some other product where they would have to start from point zero.

Skill — Once the user has spent time and effort to acquire skills to use a product, they are less likely to switch to some other product.

Investment phase should include future triggers to bring back the user to the product.

When user A buys clothes from an online retailer, they could get a cashback coupon for the next time they shop. This would encourage the user to come back to the product and shop again.

A lot of time users lose interest in the product after once cycle. In such situations external triggers should be used here to bring back the user to the product. For example, if a user adds items to the cart but never comes back to the product to buy those items, a mail informing them about items waiting in the cart could bring them back to the product.Once the user goes through the above cycle a few times, the triggers get internalized and the user does not need external motivation or triggers to use the product.

All in all, HOOKED is a must read for anyone who wants to know how to build habit forming products. It offers great insights into what motivates the customer and what brings them back time and again to the product.