Gamefying your product

Sean Pan
Sean Pan
Jul 30, 2017 · 2 min read

One of the most interesting books about product development and product management is ‘Hooked’ by Nir Eyal.

The premise of the book is to teach you how to create an excellent product. It goes into the psychology of a user and how they interact with apps. The cycles are Trigger, Action, Reward, and Investment.

When you focus on those four aspects of your product, you create a habit for your customers. Send them a Trigger with a notification or email alerting them that something happened: “your friend just liked your picture, log in and say thanks!”.

Next is the action. Make them do something that will make your social network even stronger. Encourage them to post, like, or share.

Give them a reward for performing the action like giving them in-app credits or giving their self-esteem a boost by featuring their posts. They feel the reward every time they’re using your product and a habit forms.

Finally they will experience an investment like time or money. Because they have invested so much time and money in your product already, they’ll be unlikely to switch to a competitor’s product.

These concepts were taken by observing how players get hooked on a game. By incorporating these features into your product, you’ll have people coming back to it everyday! Engagement drives growth, and growth drives revenue.

Looking forward to the future, the possibilities are endless.

Sean Pan

Written by

Sean is a real estate investor in the Silicon Valley, Bay Area. He is the host of the Everything Real Estate Investing Show. See more at EverythingREI.com

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