Habit-Forming Product Case Study

Shuttl — Habit-Forming Product Case Study

Founded in April 2015, Shuttl is a technology-enabled, seat-based bus mobility solution. It aims to solve unsustainable levels of pollution and congestion in India’s cities by shifting people away from cars and towards buses for their daily commuting needs.

The Shuttl app enables consumers to discover relevant routes and stops, choose travel times, purchase monthly and quarterly passes, reserve a seat, navigate to a stop and track the bus for a seamless boarding experience.

Shuttl is a Privately Held mobile application based minibus services intended to make daily commutes more convenient. The company’s application offers bus booking services at affordable flat prices with seat reservation features and air conditioning, enabling travelers to reach their destinations comfortably without standing in long lines.

Having raised a total of $119.4M in funding over 12 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Jan 13, 2020 from a Series C round and is funded by 20 investors with Moving Capital and SPARX Group being the most recent investors.

“Shared Transport System is a new but a necessary solution for Tech-parks and companies alike. However, not all conventional employee transportation companies can enable this. This model requires high expertise in managing the scale of operations ensuring that the services are reliable, efficient and safe.”

Last month while reading the book Hooked: How to develop habit-forming products, the only recent product that came to my mind was Shuttl. Having used Delhi Metro for years, I was reluctant to switch to a different mode of travel, given how quick and efficient Delhi Metro is as compared to other modes of travel.

Being aware of the fact that people fall into a routine and switching to a different mode of travel involves switching routes, changing timings, etc. Shuttl offers a trial pass of five days using which one can experiment on the overall experience without investing a dime, this is where the inflection point lies.

Example, for me the time taken by both modes of travel was same — except that for metro I would have to stand throughout the commute and switch metro lines then take an auto to get to the destination but via Shuttl it was convenient because I could get to the stop and board your Shuttl. Your seat is pre-booked in an AC bus and it drops you at a walking distance from the drop point.

Starting with a small intro about each one of the steps mentioned in the Hook model —

Trigger

• The actuator of behavior which can be external or internal

Action

• The behavior done in anticipation of the reward
• Two things make the action more likely: 1) Ease of doing it 2) Motivation to do it

Variable Reward

• The variable quality of a reward makes us come back and want more of the thing

Investment

• The investment phase increases the odds that the user will make another pass through the Hook cycle in the future.
• The investment occurs when the user puts something into the product or service such as time, data, effort, social capital, or money.
• The investment implies an action that improves the service for the next go-around

Trigger: was external = My colleague pushing me to try it out as she loved their service and was convinced that I would find it comfortable too.

Action: The action initiator here for me was the reward of not having to spend on the trial pass and experience this new mode of travel.

Variable Reward: Now the cost of the commute was same, the time taken was also the same but the variable reward here for me was that I was guaranteed a seat in the AC bus and I could use the commute time to read or peacefully listen to a podcast, which was difficult when you’re traveling in a packed metro, standing and having to switch metros and what not!

Investment: I decided to purchase a monthly pass basis my trial experience and which put me through the hook cycle once again and thus increasing the odds of me making it a part of my daily routine and making it even more difficult to switch to some other mode of commute.

This was my experience of illustrating a Product which became a part of my routine so effortlessly. I would love to hear which product had a similar habit-forming effect on you?

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