How to Build Habit-Forming Products

Businesses need to form habit-forming products or they will go out of business

A habit is an impulse to execute a behavior with little or no conscious thought. It's not an addiction, we are not making addictive products.

Many companies use the HOOK model to build habit-forming products, it is an experience designed to connect the user’s problem to your product. It involves users going through certain interactive phases whenever they interact with our product and services. Those phases are :

TRIGGER, ACTION, REWARD, and INVESTMENT

TRIGGER

External Trigger: It tells us what to do when there is some kind of information in our environment

But what is important from a habit-forming perspective is Internal Trigger. It is information for what to do next through an association in the user’s memory. Whenever we are influenced and by People, Places, Emotions, Situations, or Routines prompt us to do the next actions or behavior out of habit.

The most powerful Internal Trigger is Negative Emotion

According to studies, People who are clinically depressed check their emails more frequently. They experience a negative mental state more often and to get out of that emotional discomfort, they check emails or other apps more often. Even we usually practice such behavior to modulate our mood and discomfort. Like whenever we feel lonely, we tend to open Facebook; Whenever we feel bored, we open up Youtube and whenever we are unsure of anything, we Google it up.

For any Company to stay relevant, it’s important that they know their Customer’s Internal Trigger. The Psychological Itch of the customer so that they can build the solution for it. Other than Doctors, Folks in Products are the only ones who solve People’s Pains.

ACTION

It is the simplest behavior in anticipation of a reward. According to B.J. Fogg, for any behavior to occur, we need motivation, ability, and trigger

b= m+ a +t

Motivation is all about the Energy required for action. Six factors that can increase Motivation are

Seeking Pleasure, Avoiding Pain, Seeking Hope, Avoiding Fear, Seeking Acceptance, Avoiding Rejection

Ability is the capability to do a particular action. Factors that influence your character for your ability to do anything are

TIME, MONEY, PHYSICAL EFFORT, BRAIN CYCLE, SOCIAL DEVIANCE, NON-ROUTINE

The more we do it, the easier it becomes. The level of motivation and ability determines if action will occur

REWARD

The way to supercharge desire is to increase the variability for uncertainty. The unknown is fascinating and increases behavior. If our customers are hungry or have an internal trigger then they will take action to relieve that internal trigger

The Nucleus Accumbens(part of the brain) is stimulated by variability. There are three types of variable rewards

The Reward of Tribe: It is the search for social rewards like empathetic joy, partnerships, and competition.

The Reward for Hunt: It is the search for resources like Material Possession and in the context of modern society, information.

Now every social media platform has Feed these days; While scrolling and searching the feed, we hunt for the next variable information rewards

The Reward of self: It is the search for self-achievement. Whenever anyone is trying to play any online game, they are not exactly competing against anyone always rather they are trying to reach their next accomplishments, the next level. Leveling up reflects mastery and competitiveness.

Email is the mother of habit-forming technology. An inbox or task management reflects consistency and completion.

We need to build Variable rewards that satisfy users’ itch but leave them wanting more. If the internal trigger is loneliness, then we need to connect people together. If the internal trigger is workplace stress then the variable reward has to give certainty

INVESTMENT

It increases the likelihood of the next phase through the HOOK model in two ways:

Investments load the next trigger of the HOOK model to bring the user back. E.g. We use WhatsApp to send messages but there is no reward but you will get a reply which is an external trigger that will prompt you through the HOOK once again

Investments Store Value and improve the product we use. The stuff we use regularly loses its value with time but habit-forming products don't depreciate with time. They get better and better with the more we use because of the principle of store value. The more we use, the more data we give them, and the better the service becomes.

Having great technology is not enough. The companies that win are those who capture the monopoly of the mind