{"id":382,"date":"2016-09-23T16:23:10","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T16:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/muthu.co\/?p=382"},"modified":"2021-01-02T14:05:48","modified_gmt":"2021-01-02T14:05:48","slug":"how-to-build-products-that-hooks-your-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/write.muthu.co\/how-to-build-products-that-hooks-your-users\/","title":{"rendered":"How to build products that Hooks your users"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently I read a\u00a0book called “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products<\/a>” written by Nir Eyal. It changed the way I used to look at product design and development. The basic principles explained\u00a0in the\u00a0book were at the core of\u00a0almost all successful\u00a0consumer applications I\u00a0use daily. I understood why Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram was such an important part of my daily routine.<\/p>\n

Why am I\u00a0so hooked to Facebook that its hard\u00a0to give up? Facebook is a place I waste my\u00a0time and the company makes money by showing me\u00a0advertisements. Not a huge value add\u00a0but still its something I open at least once or twice a day and spend around 5 mins every\u00a0time.<\/p>\n

Reading the book made me understand why I am hooked.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. All my\u00a0friends, old and new are on Facebook. I\u00a0may not know a lot\u00a0of them and in touch with hardly a few but I\u00a0still\u00a0come back when I\u00a0get notified about their activities. I\u00a0can’t ignore them can I?<\/li>\n
  2. All my\u00a0memories are on Facebook and I\u00a0cannot simply delete my\u00a0account and move on. There is\u00a0a lot to\u00a0lose.<\/li>\n
  3. When I am\u00a0bored I go to Facebook and read interesting content\u00a0on my\u00a0feeds. Facebook is my favourite\u00a0procrastination app.<\/li>\n
  4. When I have\u00a0experienced a share worthy moment, I\u00a0upload it on\u00a0Facebook for my friends to see. I come back\u00a0to\u00a0check the Likes count and comments. I\u00a0feel a sense of being rewarded in the form of Likes and I get to talk to my friends over comments.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The above points are only a few reasons but are more than enough for us to understand the\u00a0concept of Hooked Canvas.<\/p>\n

    “Hooked” by Nir Eyal presents a modal called the “The Hook Canvas” which is used by\u00a0Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Quora, Whatsapp and many other major consumer applications. The below image shows the high level overview.<\/p>\n

    \"hookcanvas\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"hooked-how-to-build-habitforming-technologies-nir-eyal-nirandfarcom-16-638\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    The four steps in the cycle are:<\/p>\n

    Trigger (External and Internal)- How do you\u00a0get someone\u00a0to your\u00a0product either first time or next time.<\/strong>
    \nExternal triggers<\/em> usually come from friends, invite emails, newspaper ads, TV ads, Google search, word of mouth recommendations etc. Usually gets\u00a0new signups.
    \nInternal triggers<\/em> are what keeps your users coming back to the product. These triggers are more of an emotional trigger like boredom or a desire\u00a0to share something with friends.<\/p>\n

    Action –\u00a0What the user must do next after the trigger, the core action of your produc<\/strong>t.
    \nIts important to have a clearly defined core action because this is what the user will do every time he comes back to the platform. It need not be one singular action but each and every\u00a0action must\u00a0be easy to do. Facebook’s core actions are\u00a0Liking, Commenting, Sharing and Posting.<\/p>\n

    Reward –\u00a0What the user\u00a0gets immediately after performing the core action.\u00a0<\/strong>
    \nOur brains are hard wired to seek rewards that make us feel accepted, attractive, important and included. Every time we login<\/em> (Action)<\/em> <\/span>to Facebook we get to see\u00a0the number of Likes (reward)<\/em> <\/span>on our posts or we get to see things\u00a0that help us get over our boredom (reward)<\/span>.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0We keep scrolling down our Facebook feeds looking for interesting content and every time we find something like-worthy we feel a sense of accomplishment (reward).\u00a0<\/em>Feed in Twitter, Linkedin and Quora is designed to keep the user scrolling down forever seeking rewards.<\/p>\n

    Investment – What the user is\u00a0giving to the platform.
    \n<\/strong>No matter how brilliant, beautiful or useful your product is, if you mess up this last step the likelihood of a user abandoning your product\u00a0becomes high. This step is about making your user spend enough time and eventually even\u00a0make a transaction.
    \nThe more images he\u00a0stores, the more followers or friends he\u00a0has, the more likely he\u00a0is to get hooked to the platform. There is a reason why its hard to\u00a0give up your gmail account because it already has thousands of your emails. You cannot simply move on to another platform and start afresh.<\/p>\n

    The Next Trigger – Getting the user\u00a0back again
    \n<\/strong>After you post an image on Facebook you come to see how many people have liked it (Seeking reward). You are bored and you know you will find interesting content to read on Facebook or Twitter so you\u00a0come back and probably add more posts, like or comment. Then come back again to see the responses to your actions, thus getting into the Habit Loop. There has be a way\u00a0to get the user back to the platform using triggers like Unread Notifications, Fresh content, Latest news etc.<\/p>\n

    Some\u00a0Hook cycles of famous consumer applications.<\/p>\n

    \"screenshot-from-2016-09-23-20-25-33\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"qq\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    \"screenshot-from-2016-09-23-20-28-10\"<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    What if you core action is not something the user will do everyday or even once weekly or monthly?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Digital0cean sells servers and is not something a user is likely to buy every day, then how do you get your users engaged or hooked to your company. They solved it by not just being a Cloud\u00a0provider but also a solution provider for\u00a0almost all\u00a0server problems. They\u00a0have 1000s of articles on various subjects related to\u00a0configurations, installations, solutions to common server issues and they even are\u00a0a community where people\u00a0ask questions, like posts, upvote answers and add comments. The created a mini network\u00a0of developers who eventually will buy servers from digitalocean or have already bought one from them like me.\"screenshot-from-2016-09-23-20-36-30\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Most startups\u00a0fail to understand that building a product is not enough but building a product that\u00a0engages their users is what builds trust.\u00a0Trust is what pulls money out of the pocket.\u00a0Getting a user hooked to a platform is no rocket science. You need to create a\u00a0cycle which\u00a0makes them perform your core actions again and again.<\/p>\n

    Summary of\u00a0steps to\u00a0develop\u00a0a habit forming product<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Action :<\/strong> Identify your core action. What is it your user will do on your platform everyday. If your core action\u00a0is something a user will do only once or twice a year then find another action which he can do\u00a0often which will eventually lead him to your core action.<\/li>\n
    2. Reward :<\/strong> Identify\u00a0rewards you would give your users for\u00a0performing your\u00a0core actions.<\/li>\n
    3. Investment :<\/strong> Find a way to get your users friends on board, let him have followers,\u00a0make him consume interesting information, give him tools to contribute to your\u00a0platform.<\/li>\n
    4. Trigger :\u00a0<\/strong>Get your users attention\u00a0and\u00a0find ways to get him back to the platform.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Here is a talk by Nir on how to build Habit Forming Products<\/p>\n