Hooked Conference

By Nir Eyal
Author, Consultant Speaker
Contributer to Tech crunch, Forbes,
Psychology today

Addiction vs. Habit

Addiction

Habit

A persistent
compulsive
dependence on a
behavior or
substance

A behavior that
occurs nearly or
completely
without cognition

How habits are good for

business
Higher Life time value stay longer
Greater price inelasticity can charge
more
Lower Marketing Costs unprompted
engagement
Word of mouth

= Higher ROI

Activity 1 Definition
Does your business model actually require
habits? Why?
How frequently do you expect users to
engage?
What problem are they coming to solve?
How do they currently solve the problem
and why does it need a new solution?

The Hook
For big businesses, user psychology is a
good place to look for secrets about how
users behave.
Habits generate an unprompted
engagement (similar to an itch)
New habits cannot form unless a behavior
fulfills a user need and occurs frequently
Repeatedly connecting your solution to the
users problem is called a Hook

Hook Model

Triggers: External and

Internal
First Step: Connect a solution to the users problem

External Trigger:

Internal Trigger:

What to do next is in
the trigger

What to do next is in
the users head

Icons, email,
notifications
SEO, Ads, PR, Free
Media
Word of mouth,
affinity groups

Internal triggers are

emotions:
Lonely, Hungry,
Unsure, Anxious,
Lost, Mental
Fatigued

Example for External

Trigger

Examples of Internal
Triggers
When I feel

I use

Lonely

Facebook

Hungry

Yelp, GrubHub

Unsure
Anxious
Lost
Mentally
Fatigued

Google
Email
GPS
ESPN, Glam

Know your User

Narrative
Find Internal Trigger to attach solution to.
Every time you (Internal Trigger) use
(Product).

Narrative Gone Bad

Betty Crocker introduced Instant Cake Mix
in 1952
Assuming the Trigger was hunger, the
narrative included making a complete meal
quickly
It turned out to be a marketing disaster
What customers really wanted was to feel
and show love. Instant did not cut it.
The narrative was then changed to Add an
Egg (for no functional reason) and the
sales rocketed

Instagram Triggers
External

Internal

Facebook,
Twitter

Fear of losing the

moment

App
Notifications

Bored

App Icon

Lonesome
Fear of missing out

Summary For Triggers

Answers the question What does the user
really want?
The designer informs what to do next with
external triggers
The user informs what to do next through
internal triggers
Emotions provide frequent internal triggers

Activity 2 Internal and

External Triggers
Refer to your problem and come up with 3 Internal Triggers
(emotions, routines, situations)
(Hint: If stuck ask why? until you get to an emotion.)

Build a Narrative using the most frequent internal trigger (Who is

the user? What are they doing just before they use your product?)
Set External Triggers
Where can you place external triggers?
How can you be in front of the user when he feels internal trigger?
What is the right place and time?
Come up with 3 rational and 3 crazy ideas.

Hypotheses check:
Is your narrative really happening?
Test your biggest assumptions first and cheaply

Hook Model

Fogg Behavior Model

Product Design

Motivation
Seek:
Pleasure
Hope
Acceptance

Avoid
Pain
Fear
Rejection

Examples for
motivation (marketing)

Ability
How to increase the capacity to do something?
Focus on ability first, then motivation
Factors of ability
Time
Money
Physical effort
Brain-Cycles
Social Deviance
Non-routine

Examples: Simple
online actions before
reward
Log In Facebook, Wordpress
Search Google, Expedia, Yelp
Open Twitter, SMS, Email
Scroll Pinterest, Instagram
Play YouTube, Online Games

Focus on Simplicity Twitter Home page

Example

Quora Mobile App

Example
Internal Trigger Bored + Curious
Action
Click App Icon
Sign-In (if not already)
Scroll

Am I bored anymore? (If not, then thats

the reward) Reward = See interesting
questions

Biases
Scarcity
Value Attribution
Halo effect
Anchoring
Completion
Sequencing

Hidden ways to
increase action
Choice Architecture, Nudges, Biases,
Heuristics
Social Proof, Framing, Reciprocity,
Relevance, Status Quo, Loss Aversion,
Familiarity Bias, Regret aversion, Peak-end
effect, Money proxy, Authority Bias
The user cannot articulate the effect, but
they make the action much more likely

Summary For Action

Action is the simplest behavior in
anticipation of the reward
To increase Behavior:
Ensure a clear trigger is present
Increase ability by making it easier to do
Align with the right motivator

Activity 3 Action
Map the steps users take to solve their problem
with your product
Start with off-line internal triggerthrough your
interfaceto the reward, the point where the
pain is alleviated a bit

Review the flow:

Where is the action most difficult?
Which resource is lacking (time, money, too
confusing, too new, too outside the norm)
Brainstorm 3 testable ways to make this action
easier

Hook Model

Variable rewards
The unknown is fascinating
Our brains are prediction machines
Variability increases focus and
engagement
Variability is also habit forming

Variable Rewards

Tribe

Hunt

Self

Search for Social

Rewards
Social rewards come from
people, not machines.
Tribe

Cooperation
Competition
Recognition
Acceptance
Empathetic Joy

Examples of Social
Rewards

Search for Resources

Food
Hunt

Money
Information

Examples of the Hunt

Pinterest Example

Search for sensation

Mastery
Self

Consistency
Competency
Completion

Examples

Summary of Variable
Rewards
You still need to give the user what they
came for
Maintain the feeling of autonomy
Keep the rewards highly variable, Alleviate
user pain
Finite Variability
Infinite Variability
Single-player Games

Multi-player games

Consumption of
media

Creation of content

Running a race to
finish it

Communities
Running for pleasure
or competition

Activity 4 Variable
Rewards
Look at the user flow. Is the reward
fulfilling, yet leaves the user wanting
more?
Brainstorm 3 ways you could add
variability to the reward. Consider the
search for rewards of the:
Tribe (social rewards)
Hunt (resource rewards)
Self (personal mastery, consistency,
completion)

Hook Model

Investment increases
likelihood of next pass
Done in anticipation of future rewards
Investment makes the next pass through
hook more likely by:
Loading the Next Trigger
Storing Value
Creating preferences

Loading the Next

Trigger, WhatsApp

Pinterest (Consumer)

Pinterest (Curator)

Storing Value

Content

Data

Storing Value

Followers

Reputation

Creating Preferences
Investments make us value things more
We change our tastes accordingly
Find ways to get the user to invest often,
no matter how small

Activity 5 - Investment
In your user flow, what is the bit of work
done to increase the likelihood of a user
returning?
Brainstorm 3 ways you could add small
investments into the user experience:
loading the next trigger
store value
create preference

Subsequent Hook
Cycles

Suggestion for
Wolfram|Alpha
Killer feature of step by step but people
not aware of this capability
The broad range of areas in home page is
cognitive overload
Create a separate student focused website
channel

Thank You