Hooked

Hooked, by Nir Eyal, identifies how habits are formed and explains the process through the Hook Model. Using the four elements of the Hook Model, creators can develop products that become habitual for users. The model is a cycle that progresses through triggers, actions, variable rewards, and investment. From Instagram to Clash of Clans to Google, this formula can be identified and reveals how a company develops and solidifies its user base.

Why make a product a habit? 

Habits are shortcuts the brain makes that codify behavior. People do not consciously think through every action they take. In the morning alone, the way a person gets ready for their day- what they eat, how they dress themselves, and the direction they comb their hair- are all habits. The brain is on autopilot, so it doesn’t think twice before grabbing a Nature Valley protein bar. If a person is not consciously choosing to interact with a product, they are not taking the time to debate whether they need/want to use the product. This means that Customer Lifetime Value increases if a product is a habit.

Creating a habit is not an easy task. As the saying goes, old habits die hard. While it may be hard for users to leave a product if it has become a habit, it also means that convincing users to switch a habit is a challenging task. Eyal describes habits as LIFO- last in, first out. People are likely to revert to a previous habit even if they manage to change their behavior temporarily. This is why many people gain weight back after a diet, smoke after quitting, or scroll through TikTok after vowing to reduce screen time.

For something to be a habit, there must be a certain level of frequency. The Habit Zone graph below depicts how products' utility and frequency create habits.  For something to become a habit, there needs to be some amount of frequency but not necessarily much utility, as can be seen with the graph's horizontal asymptote.  

There are two types of habits: vitamins and painkillers. Painkillers solve some obvious needs while vitamins are tailored to handle more emotional needs. When products meet a need they are scratching an itch. Products will typically start as vitamins and then evolve into painkillers.

The Hook Model

The first step of the Hook Model is the trigger. Triggers are the actuators of a behavior. Triggers can be both external and internal. External triggers, which are explicit instructions to the user, include paid triggers, earned triggers, relationship triggers, and owned triggers. Paid triggers are typically advertisements for acquisition or reminder. Earned triggers are triggers that cannot be bought like public image. Relationship triggers are word of mouth and are responsible for a product's viral time cycle which is the amount of time it takes a user to invite another user. Relationship triggers can stimulate rapid exponential growth. Owned triggers are triggers in a user's everyday life that the company does not have to pay for. Like when a user signs up for a newsletter or places an app on their home screen. Owned triggers prompt repeat engagement the most. Internal triggers are triggers for a product that comes from a consumer’s thoughts or emotions. These are the most powerful triggers and are what products should be built around. To know what emotion or thought is driving a user to a solution offered by a product, there needs to be an understanding of their situation. Twitter utilizes user narratives and Toyota uses the Five Whys to identify users' internal triggers. External triggers are converted to internal triggers, as shown in the Hook Model visual.

As mentioned earlier, behaviors simplify actions by letting the brain be on autopilot. For an action to become a behavior, it must be easy enough to complete with minimal cognitive effort. Dr. B. J. Fogg developed the Fogg Behavioral Model to represent how actions become behaviors. Behaviors = Motivation, Action, and Trigger (B=MAT). Motivation is the “energy for action” according to Dr. Edward Deci. Fogg identifies three core motivators: seek pleasure and avoid pain, seek hope and avoid fear, and seek social acceptance and avoid rejection. Motivation can be affected by scarcity, framing, anchoring, and the endowed-progress effect. A trigger will prompt an action based on one of these motivators. If the user is motivated enough to act, they develop a behavior. Simplifying the action lowers the level of motivation required to create a behavior. Fogg’s six elements of simplicity are time, money, physical effort, brain cycles, social deviance, and non-routine.

Eyal proposes that there are three types of variable rewards: the tribe, the hunt, and the self. The rewards of the tribe are driven by a user's need to be connected to others. Getting a like on a post or a new follower are rewards of the tribe. The rewards of the hunt are the rewards gained through knowledge and can be both physical and mental. Think of the way a user of YouTube hunts down the perfect video to watch. Rewards of the self are rewards fueled by intrinsic motivation. Leveling up in single-player games or learning a new skill because of a personal desire.

Investment is the last stage of the Hook Model before it repeats itself. A product becomes more valuable to a user the more they invest in it. This can be observed through the IKEA effect. It was observed in a 2011 study by Dan Ariely, Michael Norton, and Daniel Mochon that a person’s perception of value increases in something whenever they put personal effort into it. Because IKEA makes customers assemble their furniture, their perceived value of it after building it is most likely going to be greater than it would be towards a comparable preassembled chair. Eyal points out that consumers also tend to be consistent with past actions and avoid cognitive dissonance. These three elements help users put more weight into a product and increase the chance of developing a behavior change. Value is stored in a product over time in data, reputation, and skill. These are accrued through repeat uses of a product or service and encourage a user to develop a habit and discourage a user from quitting.

Ethical Considerations

Habits are not addictions, but some users will become addicted. The point is to create a naturally occurring itch that drives a user to use a product. Manipulating people even for a good reason is still manipulation. It is up to the creators of a product to decide if their offering and approach are morally justified. Below is the manipulation matrix which categorizes products based on whether the creators would use the product and if the product benefits the users' lives.

Implementing Strategy into Product Development Processes

Like every other part of product development, making a habit-forming product is an iterative process. No company has released an MVP that perfectly captures its audience and creates mindless zombies with no other purpose than to use said product. Even giants like Facebook and YouTube are continually updating their UI/UX and algorithms to get increased viewership and interaction. Identifying the intended habit of a product and identifying how to ethically employ the Hook Model is how to start. After that, improvements are made based on results.