How to create habit forming products
I have always been intrigued by products, that become a part of our daily habit. These products somehow make the user come back again and again and help change user behavior. Facebook, Instagram, twitter are some great examples of habit forming products. What makes them tick? What are the other habit forming products that you have come across?
I recently read a book called — “Hooked” by Nir Eyal and he goes into details of a very compelling framework of creating habit forming products and I thought of sharing this with fellow product enthusiasts. I am also trying to use this framework, by applying it on a product that I am currently working on.
The Habit Framework
Its a simple framework, yet deep enough for us to apply to products that we are building. In general, there is a “what” of what we are trying to build and then there is a “how” , or the process to build it. This framework fits with more with the “how”, once you have figured the out the “What”. The framework consists of the following steps, by deeply understanding user motivations, barriers and needs (and unmet needs).
- Trigger
- Action
- Variable Rewards
- Investment
Trigger
A trigger can be an external trigger like a notification — example: like a tagged photograph of you, or an email informing about an update or asking the user to take an action. It could also be a paid trigger such as a Facebook / Search ad or a blog post. Usually in the early stages of adoption, products will rely heavily on external triggers for making the users to use the product. However, the holy grail of great habit forming product is, when the users start using products based on their internal triggers. Facebook is a great example of it. People may go to Facebook even if there is no notification. They may just browse through their newsfeed, when they are feeling bored.
Action
Based on the compelling trigger, user is motivated to take an action. It can be to open an app, go look at their dashboard etc. The key part of the “Action” is the users anticipation of consuming the reward.
Variable Rewards
Consuming reward is the key motivator for the user to go through the cycle, which induces habits. A reward can be looking at photo that you were tagged in, in case of Facebook, or consuming an article shared by a friend of yours, or it can be an insight specifically about your business. The quality of reward, as well as variability of reward determines, if the product will become a part of your daily habit. If the rewards are predictable, then there is no fun in consuming the reward. Think about Twitter or Facebook — the newsfeed is a great example of a variable reward. You never know what you may find while scrolling through the feed. Thats what makes it interesting. In the book, Nir goes into details of the different kinds of the rewards to hook the users, like rewards of the hunt, rewards of the tribe etc. The key to creating a great habit forming product, is to create compelling variable rewards.
Investment
After consuming the reward, users are more likely to create an investment in the product. Example: in case of Facebook, after looking at a photo that you were tagged in, you are motivated enough to make a comment ( which is an investment). This in turn, leads to a trigger for someone else. Making an investment is hard for users, thats why having a compelling reward is a good motivator for them to put in this effort. Investment can be in any form, mostly dependent upon the context of the product. What is that you want the users to do, which will initiate a trigger for others to engage with your product? Why would the users be willing to make that investment? This is where, understanding the user needs, is so important.
A real life example of an effective habit cycle from the startup — Slack
Following is an excerpt from a blog post by Nir.
“Slack isn’t just another office collaboration app. The company has been called, “the fastest-growing workplace software ever.” Recent press reports claim that “users send more than 25 million messages each week,” and that the company is, “adding $1 million to its annual billing projections every six weeks.” Smelling an opportunity, investors just plowed $120 million into the company, giving it a $1.12 billion valuation.”
“Slack understands the power of getting users to invest. In fact, whereas most enterprise tools offer limited features during free trial periods, Slack holds almost nothing back. The company wants to maximize usage and therefore opportunities to form the Slack habit. The only difference between Slack’s free and paid version is the quantity of messages that can be searched and the number of external tools which can be connected. By the time companies need this functionality, their teams are already hooked.
Habit-forming products make it as easy as possible to invest. Persuading users to pay, for example, is often a challenge for a previously free tool. However, Slack found a way to overcome some users objections to ponying-up. Pritchard said, “teams will not be charged for inactive users. This seems to significantly reduce the cognitive friction in the purchase process.” Slack’s 30 percent conversion rate from free to paid customers is one of the highest in the enterprise business. ”
Summing up
Changing habits is hard. However, if you make the user repeatedly go through an action, reward and investment cycle, the external triggers can be made to move towards internal triggers. Thereby, helping users form a habit.
