The Surprisingly Simple Formula for Building Habit-Forming Products
October 17, 2014
Want to hook your users? Nir Eyal, author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, shares a simple framework for building a product users love and can’t put down.
Editor’s note: In the Boston area? Come meet Nir in person. He’s hosting a workshop on building habit-forming products on Wednesday, October 22nd. Use the discount code “OpenView” for 30% off the event.
If the ghosts of failed startups could talk here’s one thing many would tell you: It’s not just about getting users to sign up, it’s about getting them to keep coming back.
The best companies — whether B2C or B2B — have triggers that encourage repeat, habit-forming usage built directly into their products. How you can do the same is the topic entrepreneur and author Nir Eyal tackles in his new book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products.
“The reason I wrote this book is that I’m a two-time entrepreneur, and looking back, ‘what should we build’ was hardest question we had to answer,” Eyal says. “There are so many things that you can build, but it’s very hard to determine exactly what it is you should build.”
“I knew I wanted to build something that people were going to use. I wanted it to be a habit-forming product. I looked around, but there were no guides on how to do that. So I dived in and started doing research.”
What he found lead to a new understanding of how companies can determine what products to build and what features to prioritize.
“Often, it’s decided by whatever the HiPPO (highest paid person’s opinion) says,” Eyal explains. “More thoughtful companies will use customer development, but there is a deeper option: listening to customers, but also striving to understand their psychology. Not only does that help us understand their behaviors, it can help us engage with them more meaningfully and provide them with products and services they love.”
Want to Build a Stickier Product? Let These 5 Key Questions Guide You
How can B2B companies translate a better understanding of user psychology into a better product roadmap?
Essentially, it boils down to five basic questions that, if entrepreneurs can ask themselves and answer, there is a very good chance that they can build a sticky, habit-forming product that users love.
1) What internal trigger is the product addressing?
Ex: Imagine a salesperson who is feeling anxious because he’s unsure if he’s doing the right thing or whether he’s focusing on best activities that will have the biggest impact on his success.
2) What external trigger gets the user to the product?
This is how you notify/remind the user of your solution.
The key is to close the gap between the internal and external triggers as much as possible, so that as soon as the user feels the pain point (internal trigger) they are reminded of your solution (via your external trigger).
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— Nir Eyal, author of Hooked |
That’s why it’s incredibly important to “meet the user where they are,” Eyal explains. Whether that means optimizing your product for mobile or integrating it into users’ email or CRM, the more seamlessly you are able to incorporate using your solution into your users’ natural workflow or environment, the more likely you will be able to close that gap between internal and external triggers.
3) What is the simplest behavior in anticipation of reward?
The easier you can make it for your users to achieve quick wins and realize value with your product, the more likely they are to use it again and again.
4) Is the reward fulfilling, yet leaves the user wanting more?
The best, most habit-forming products not only live up to their promise by addressing a specific problem or delivering value, they also actively point to ways users can achieve more.
5) What “bit of work” can be done to increase the likelihood of returning?
This last question is one that goes overlooked far too often, but it should be an obvious one to ask. After all, you’ve spent so much time and effort on user acquisition, why wouldn’t you spend just a little more to make sure they come back?
According to Eyal, one of the best approaches is to give users a reason to come back by asking them to make a small investment in the product.
“One of the reasons people don’t renew is that companies don’t ask that users invest,” Eyal says. “It’s beyond me why companies don’t do this.”
If you really want to close the loop and transform your product into a habit-forming product you have to get people to make a personal investment, and Eyal suggests you can do that in two ways:
- Get users to store value in the product (ex: personal information, data, contacts, etc.).
- Make sure the investment loads the next trigger.
Small things like that can make it easy to return and hard to leave.
“Communication platforms are great at this,” Eyal says. “To use them, users store data in the system (contacts lists, etc.). Plus, every time they send a message it loads the next trigger, because you’re likely to get a reply to that message. Then that reply loads the next trigger, because you’re likely to respond. The more we use these platforms, the more invested we are, the more difficult it is for us to leave — and the more difficult to start over on something else.”
Product Development Focused on Supporting Hooks, Not Guesses
By allowing these five questions to guide their product development, startups can create more engaging solutions with built-in hooks that increase usage and ultimately, renewals.
“This model keeps us honest,” Eyal argues. “Customer feedback can sometimes lead you in conflicting or unclear directions. Customers may want something, but if it doesn’t support the hook you shouldn’t prioritize it.”
More from Nir Eyal
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How to Win Customers from Entrenched Competitors Going head-to-head with an incumbent solution? Eyal provides a three-step playbook for coming out on top. Read more. |
Photo by: Will Scullin