A question to all the product managers, when you are building a new product what is more important to you –

Acquiring Users/Growth or, Engagement?

Nir Eyal in his book “Hooked – How to build habit forming products” says that if you want your product to sustain then your focus should be on Engagement.

He says – “Companies that form strong user habits enjoy several benefits to their bottom line. These companies attach their products to internal triggers. As a result, users show up without any external prompting.”

As he defines it, the Hook framework is made up of four stages as shown below –

“Through consecutive Hook cycles, successful products reach their ultimate goal of unprompted user engagement, bringing users back repeatedly, without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging.”

Think of it this way – when you are even slightly bored and you want to engage in something, any app that you open – email, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, or even the home page of your smartphone to check for notifications – has you hooked. How did it happen? Let us examine the four stages of the Hook model.

Triggers

 “They are the cues to user to take action and are the first step in the Hook Model“

Trigger is the first step of building a habit forming application. Let us say that during the pandemic you have become worried about the sedentary lifestyle that many of us have had to adopt. With the external world opening up, you want to get into some healthy habits. One late night after work, you decide to check what will make sense to you given your age, weight and ability. You google it (this is a habit). You search for exercise, running, swimming, yoga, walking etc.

While searching the web, you see a plan that promises good health and vitality with minimal time commitment. That is a trigger. If it entices you to take the action of clicking on the link then the trigger is successful. A lot of Digital Marketing is the art of perfecting this trigger – how to make it both contextual and attractive.

Triggers are of two types – external and internal.

External triggers are placed by a third party in your environment. These are broadly – 

• Paid Triggers: Advertising, paid emails, sponsored posts etc. 
• Earned Triggers: Favorable press mentions, viral videos, featured app store placements 
• Relationship Triggers: Word of mouth, product referrals etc. 
• Owned Triggers: Application’s notification, newsletters etc. 

Internal Triggers – These are triggers which rely on a need felt by you. Nir says that generally these are a way to take care of a pain that even you are not aware of. For example, you are sitting in a meeting on status updates. You are done with your update and your colleague is now giving his update. Your hand automatically reaches for your smartphone and you check your emails. This urge is an internal trigger. While reading this I had a distinct feeling of unease, do I plan for time spent on Social media apps or YouTube? Rarely, and even that for something that I had decided to watch later on YouTube. These are subconscious urges which make me check these apps again and again several times a day.

For the Product creator it is key to understand that which user emotions may be tied to internal triggers and how to leverage external triggers to drive the user to take action.

Action 

The next stage of the Hook model is Action. Nir introduces B.J. Fogg, founder of the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford, and his model which puts Behavior as equal to Motivation multiplied by Ability multiplied by Trigger (B = MAT). In the Hook model the Trigger is the first step, but the other two – Motivation and Ability are crucial for the user to take Action.

The key learning for me is removing the barriers to action. In our work life, all of us have tried to make things easier for the user. The mantra of removing friction has been a constant for all Product folks. Now I know that it is grounded in good science. Making the user motivated on the above curve is expensive, but removing steps and making the action steps easier are simply good design. Simplify – the first action of the user should be as simple as it can be.

Nir also suggest the below classic heuristics to reduce barriers to action

1. The Scarcity Effect – Appeal to users’ FOMO to prompt action
2. The Framing Effect – Create an aura around your product using Framing and prompt immediate action
3. The Anchoring Effect – Use Anchors to show how great it would be to take action now
4. The Endowment Progress Effect – Use progress bars to prompt next steps (LinkedIn uses this)

Variable Reward 

Action should lead to rewards that are not predictable. Predictability leads to boredom. Nir introduces this section with B. F. Skinner’s experiments with the pigeons. In the experiment, when the pigeons pecked on a target there was food for them. Then Skinner made the appearance of the food unpredictable and after random pecks. In response, the number of pecks from the pigeons increased substantially. This variable reward system works on us as well. When we check our Facebook wall, we don’t know what we are going to see. The reward is different at each access and this pushes us to check the wall multiple times a day.

There are three types of rewards that we are looking for:

• The Tribe Reward: This reward feels good, is uncertain and comes from other people. An example is accessing the Facebook wall. Another example is getting upvotes on Quora. The person answering a question doesn’t know how many upvotes he/she may get. But the anticipation of the reward keeps people writing answers for free. 
• The Hunt Reward: This reward is from Primal needs such as food. Now that our primal needs are all sorted, we look for this fulfilment in what will be gambling behaviour. The rewards are uncertain, but when found they feel magical. Imagine scrolling through your twitter feed and finding something really good, that is a hunt reward.
• The Self Reward: This reward is from the drive to mastery. Gaming applications use this to get you hooked. Completing levels and progressing further are rewards that keep you engaged for days.

Investment 

The final step of the Hook model is Investment. This is the stage when the user puts something in the product in anticipation of a future reward. For example, following someone on Twitter. When you follow someone, there is no instant reward – no badges of recognition. But you know that sometime in the future you will get a reward for your action. This investment also primes the next trigger. When the followed account tweets, the app notifies you generating a trigger which brings you in the Hook cycle again.

Another characteristic of the Investment phase is that it creates stickiness with your product by investing more and more of the user’s emotion. For apps such as Instagram, user is storing value in the app every time he/she posts a picture. A few months of frequent, active use of the app is enough to bind the user to the app. Now, even if a new and better product comes in the market – the investment from the user is so great that the user will not move to the new one. In case the new product is a really cool new thing, the stickiness will still give you the opportunity to build those features by the time the users decide to move on.

This completes the Hook model. As you can see we are all hooked to our favourite products and apps. Knowing that there is a model that is designed to get us hooked is disconcerting. However, the same model can be used to build products which are for the good. Nir has divided the creators in four categories on the basis of a manipulation matrix (whether you will use the product and whether you believe it will materially improve people’s lives) –

• Facilitator – Creators who use their product and believe it will improve people’s lives. They have the largest chance of success with their products.
• Peddlers – Creators who don’t use their product but believe it will improve people’s lives. They have a disconnect with their audience and the products may not work.
• Entertainers – Creators who use their product but don’t believe it will improve people’s lives. They can be successful, but as there is no intrinsic value in the product, the success may be unsustainable.
• Dealers – Neither use the product, nor believe that it will improve people’s lives. They have the lowest chance of finding long term success.

Which creator are you? And if you are not a Facilitator, what can you do to become one?

May we keep inspiring each other.