https://www.wrike.com/blog/interview-with-nir-eyal-hooked/ - Engaging products don't happen by mistake. We interviewed Nir Eyal, author of Hooked: How To Build Habit-Forming Products. His background in advertising and gaming has led him to write about consumer psychology principles that change customers' behavior. He explains how to create engaging products using the Hook model.

1. How to Hook Customers
with Habit-Forming
Products
An Interview with Hooked Author Nir Eyal

2. Engaging products don't happen
by mistake. Facebook, Instagram,
Pinterest, even spectator sports,
all have an underlying
methodology behind it making
them engaging and ultimately
habit-forming.

3. We interviewed Nir Eyal, author of Hooked:
How To Build Habit-Forming Products. His
background in advertising and gaming led
him to write about consumer psychology
principles that change customer behavior.
He explains how to create engaging
products using his Hook model.

4. A hook is a 4-step process that
connects the user's problem to a
company's solution, frequently
enough to form a lasting habit.
With successive cycles of hooks,
customer preferences are
changed, tastes are formed, and
habits take hold.
What is a Hook?

5. Because habits are big business.
Addictive products depend on
unprompted user engagement. No
advertising, no spammy messages.
If you can increase user engagement
to the point where people turn to
your product out of habit, then you've
gained customers for life.
Why are Habits
Crucial?

6. The idea is to create a mental link
with internal triggers -— most
frequently these are negative
emotions. So when we feel lonely,
what product do we reach for?
When we’ve got a question, what
app do we use?
How Does a
Product
Become a
Hook?

7. A hook has four phases: a trigger,
an action, a variable reward, and
an investment.
The 4 Phases
of a Hook

8. A trigger tells us what do next.
This can be internal ("I'm feeling
bored") or external (an email
from the company).
Trigger1

9. An action is something a user
does in anticipation of a
reward.
The less effort it takes to get
the reward, the more
frequently customers will
complete the action.
Action2

10. This is the payoff. But because
it's variable, it doesn't always
come when or how the user
expects it. Like a slot machine,
this keeps the user endlessly
searching for the next reward.
The variability of the reward
creates mystery. If the mystery
is gone and the product
becomes predictable, then the
user stops engaging.
Variable
Reward3

11. This increases the likelihood your
users will come back to your
product.
e.g. When you like or comment on
something, the system sends you
an external prompt like an email
saying “you might like these other
things,” which brings you back
into the “hook” again.
Investment4

12. User investment can take several forms such as:
A. DATA: The more a user gives the company data, the better
the service becomes over time. (e.g. Amazon, Pinterest)
B. REPUTATION: The more a user engages, the better his
reputation becomes. (e.g. Upwork, eBay, AirBNB)
C. FOLLOWERS: The more a user increases followers, the
easier it is to communicate with more people. (e.g. Twitter)
D. CONTENT: The more content a user uploads, the more it
becomes the only destination for cloud storage. (e.g.
Google Drive, Dropbox, Flickr)
E. SKILL: The more a user spends time learning a tool/
service/software, the less likely they are to switch to a
newer tool. (e.g. Photoshop)
Watch THE video
where Nir Eyal explains
his Hook model in detail.

13. What a lot of entrepreneurs sometimes fail to realize is that it's not
necessarily the best product that wins. Frequently, it's the product
that's at the top of customers' minds that succeeds. Making your
product a habit is key to its success.

14. Launching Your Startup?
Check out our infographic checklist on the 22
steps to launching your startup successfully.
Click to read!

15. Brought to you by
www.wrike.com

16. Facebook Messenger App by Kārlis Dambrāns. https://flic.kr/p/noAL4E
Untitled by Johan Larsson. https://flic.kr/p/9yBrLm
Facebook Like by Owen W. Brown. https://flic.kr/p/8pfreV
NodeXL Twitter Network Graphs- Social CRM by Marc Smith. https://flic.kr/p/7SGo1D
Brain Lobes by Allan Ajifo. https://flic.kr/p/of4Z2o
Images