Hooked Nir Eyal: Operation Value Creation
Hooked Nir Eyal: Operation Value Creation
Hooked Nir Eyal: Operation Value Creation
Nir Eyal
Don’t feel like reading? Click here for our FREE book summaries!
“A habit is at work when users feel a tad bored and instantly open Twitter. They feel
a pang of loneliness and before rational thought occurs, they are scrolling through
their Facebook feed”
It’s no coincidence, it’s the product of a tested model used by habit forming companies. The model is
based off Nir Eyal’s book “Hooked”, which dives deep into the psychology of these habits and how to
attach them to your product. Understanding how your products can be habit forming is a must.
2. What problem are users turning to your product to solve? 2. What is the user doing right before your intended habit?
3. How do users currently solve that problem and why does it 3. Come up with 3 internal triggers that could cue your user to
need a solution? action?
4. How frequently do you expect users to engage w/ your 4. Which internal trigger does your user experience most likely?
product?
5. Form this narrative through above, “Every time the user
5. What user behavior do you want to make into a habit? (internal trigger), he/ she (first action of intended habit)
4 3
Chapter 4: Variable Reward Chapter 3: Action
1. Speak with 5 of your customers in an open ended interview to 1. Create a user narrative. How many steps does it take to obtain
identify what they find enjoyable or encouraging about using your the reward? Compare this to competitors, then SIMPLIFY.
product.
2. Now analyze the 6 elements of simplicity:
- Are there any moments of delight or surprise?
- Time, Brain Cycles, Money, Social Deviance, Physical Effort,
- Is there anything they find particularly satisfying about using Non-Routineness
the product?
3: Brainstorm 3 testable ways to make intended tasks easier to
2. Brainstorm 3 ways your product might heighten users search for complete.
variable rewards using the tribe, hunt, and self.
4. Apply heuristics.
5
Chapter 5: Investment
Using Past Answers:
1. Review your flow. What “bit of work” are your users doing to
increase the likelihood of returning?
1: Habits are behaviors with little to no conscious thought. If business can identify and hook
themselves to habits they create a competitive advantage through their Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV).
2: All great innovations solve problems. The trick is identifying your type of problem. Are you a vitamin
or a painkiller? Most products nowadays start as vitamins, and after enough hook cycles end up being a
painkiller.
3: One your problem is identified, you must start the hook cycle through triggers (Internal/External). At
first these call to actions come externally (ads), but the goal is to attach your solution with internal
triggers (emotions).
4: Once your user is triggered, they go through the action phase in anticipation of a reward. This
action is driven by 3 ingredients:
1: Motivation
5: Your users are activated, time to use variable reward to get them excited and wanting more. This
excitement is the product of 3 ingredients:
6: You’ve made it all the way through trigger action variable reward, now time to affirm your
users iteration through material or emotional investment. Think of LinkedIn, the more effort you put
into your profile, the more you value it and the less likely you are to convert somewhere else.
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
back to guide
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj Matthew R Mottola Proprietary 3 | 15
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
Where To? Click for Direct Reference
Henry Ford
Chapter 3: Action Blogger to Twitter
Human Behavior Model B.Good App
Motivation
Ability
Trigger
How to Apply
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
back to guide
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj Matthew R Mottola Proprietary 4 | 15
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
In Depth Summary
So how do these habits form? Through knowing your market, specifically your buckets, and guiding
them from problem to solution through the hook model below as your roadmap with consecutive hook
cycles until unprompted user engagement.
Phase 1: Trigger- Actuator of behavior, think the spark plug in the engine.
Two Types: Internal & External
External: Getting them there at first E-mail, targeted marketing, web site link, etc.
Phase 2: Action- Behavior done in anticipation of a reward. The behavior is a product of two forces:
1- Ease of use
2- Psychological motivation to do it
Phase 3: Variable Reward- Think a buzz feed article, it’s the excitement of variability. For example,
imagine opening the fridge and seeing a nice cake versus just the light going on.
Phase 4: Investment- Here the user performs some work, monetary or emotional, to make your
product a vested interest. Think about LinkedIn, after all the effort of making a nice profile, would it be
easy to switch? Of course not. Also Twitter, after following the right audience and “investing” in posting
and liking, switching would be a burden.
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
back to guide Matthew R Mottola Proprietary 5 | 15
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
Why Are Habits A Necessity?
I spoke in an earlier post about how we’re evolving into a trust economy. Along with this, we’re
transforming into a habit based economy. Why?
Access
Access, Data, and Speed are converging to make the
world a habit forming place. Just think of how easy it is
to get addicted to Facebook, or social media. These 3
factors are able to exploit our subconscious and attach
them to yourself in a way never seen before.
Data Speed
This means products must attach themselves to internal triggers in order to remain sustainable. Internal
triggers are those emotions like loneliness, boredom, confusion, etc. If mastered, sustainability is a side
effect.
Nir Eyal focuses on Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV), the amount of money made from a customer
before they switch or stop using the product, to prove this. Warren Buffet even said, “You can
determine the strength of a business over time by the amount of agony they go through in raising
prices” (ironic because he is heavily invested in AMEX).
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
back to guide
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj Matthew R Mottola Proprietary 6 | 15
Chapter 1: The Habit Zone
Habit: Automatic behaviors triggered by situational cues.
Habits evolved to allow our brain to focus on other, more important things. They form when our brain
takes a shortcut and stops actively deliberating what to do next. Side Note: Understanding our brain is
essential for entrepreneurs, I’ve linked important posts to further your knowledge on how the brain
affects startups. The more you dig deep into the brain, the more you understand how much we’re wired
to find the easy, simplest way. Habits are just that, they’re a way for us to save conscious capacity and
throw harmless behaviors into our subconscious.
His example: Nir uses the example of his morning run. Every morning he goes for a run and tells his
neighbors “Good Morning”. One day he has to do this run at night, and without thinking says good
morning to his neighbors. After they give him a weird look he understands what he said, then does it
again with the next neighbor. These were subconscious impulses that attached themselves to his run.
My Example: I have two for you guys. 1: Who here has played sports? If yes, remember the word
“muscle memory”? This is when your muscles remember actions even when your conscious doesn’t. I
played college baseball, which meant I took around 200 swings a day. Every swing was an attempt to
mold the perfect form as my muscle memory, so that when facing a 94 mph fastball your subconscious
can take over. 2: Imagine if for April Fools the women’s and men’s rooms were switched at places you
frequent. I can honestly say I would walk into a women’s room at least 5 times.
“Many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of building products that are only marginally better than existing
solutions”
- Nir Eyal
“Many innovations fail because consumers irrationally overvalue the old while companies irrationally
view the new”
Our brain processes habits in a LIFO manner. This means last in, first out. Case in point, New Year’s
Resolutions. 80 % of the New Year’s Resolution crowd drops off by the second week of February. Why?
Because these habits were first in, meaning they’re the first to get thrown out. As Nir puts it, “even
when we change our routines, neural pathways remain etched in our brains, ready to be reactivated
when we lose focus”.
For you, this means establishing habits are ten times more important than the actual features. Do you
think Twitter has the best features amongst their competitors? Hell no. But they were first.
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
back to guide
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj Matthew R Mottola Proprietary 7 | 15
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
Case Study: Amazon
Amazon runs competitors ads directly on their site. If their competitor has a cheaper price, their users
see it. However, Amazon knows that by being the go to platform, their gaining a user’s habit. So even
though competitor’s prices might occasionally be cheaper, they trust Amazon as the go to for shopping.
The genius: they use the competitors marketing dollars to form a habit in the shoppers mind.
Vitamin or Painkiller
Successful innovations solve problems. Thus, you must understand the nature of the problem.
These emotional needs become functional needs when they’re correctly triggered with internal cues.
For example, my brain would actually hurt if I couldn’t go on Facebook. Crazy I know, but my brain now
needs the 2 minutes of variable rewards from scrolling down my newsfeed.
So which is better? Obviously a painkiller fills an immediate need, but as entrepreneurs we’re creative
and can turn our vitamins into a painkiller.
Chapter 2: Trigger
Trigger: Actuator of behavior
Habits are never changed, they are adjusted. It’s just like in a relationship, people don’t change, but they
absolutely adjust. Triggers are the catalyst for this change. Thus, they must be directed at the right
“buckets”. This buckets analogy comes from Ryan Levesque in ASK. I use the example of fitness.
External Triggers
These are embedded with information to tell the reader what to do next.
1: Paid Ads, targeted marketing (Be careful to not get caught up in vanity metrics)
- Ex. This blog is built largely off the works of influential people like Eric Reis/ Ash Maurya, by
using their experience to directly teach you I’m indirectly advertising for them
4: (product of 1-3) Owned Triggers Believe it or not guys, having your icon on a users phone is
“owning” a share of attention. Other ways can be an email list.
Internal Triggers
Here you are telling the user what to do next through associations stored in the users memory. Your
goal is understanding which emotions are tied to internal triggers.
User Narrative
This is an awesome way to understand your problems. Your using your own story to understand all
these internal triggers. For example, when I wake up in the middle of the night and have to pee, my
internal trigger is my bladder. I associate that with toilet and have to walk downstairs like a zombie. Your
product needs to be laid out in story form before you get bogged down by the details.
3. Come up with 3 internal triggers that could cue your user to action?
5. Form this narrative through above, “Every time the user (internal trigger), he/ she (first action of
intended habit)
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
back to guide Matthew R Mottola Proprietary 10 | 15
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
Chapter 3: Action
Human Behavior Model
Since our brain is wired for shortcuts, initiating action must be easier than thinking. To do this we must
understand how and what drives human behavior. Dr. B.J. Fogg, Director of the Persuasive Technology
Lab at Stanford University, has a model to understand what drives our actions. It follows the following
equation:
B= MAT
Motivation
Motivation is driven by 3 core factors. It’s extremely important because your product must be aligned
with these factors. Think of how “social” Facebook is. Noone wants to feel like Kip Drordy.
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
back to guide
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj Matthew R Mottola Proprietary 11 | 15
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
Ability
Ability is your capacity to do a particular behavior, meaning how difficult or how many steps does it
take. Your goal is to make it as simple as possible. Think Apple, do they have the “best” software? Not
enough to win the cake, but boy are they simple. Fogg breaks simplicity down into 6 elements:
4: Brain cycles- level of mental effort and focus required to take action. Facebook is a master at
this. Scrolling the news feed is actually a brain “break”. I take my two minute news feed scroll and I’m
back at it.
5: Social Deviance- how accepted the behavior is by others. Remember the first stages of
Facebook? Or even better Myspace? I remember I was in middle school for Myspace, and there was a
small amount of obscurity for those on the site. Want an even better example? Tinder. At first that site
was for the weirdest of weird.
6: Non-Routineness- how much the action matches or disrupts existing routines. My planner
app is a perfect example. I would install/uninstall planner apps daily. Why? I couldn’t find one that fit
into my routine. I eventually found one that synced with my calendar and have been using it ever since.
Another example,
Trigger
How to Apply
Walk through your own user narrative, beginning from the time they feel their internal trigger to the
point where they receive their expected outcome. How many steps does it take before users obtain the
reward they came for? How does this process compare with the simplicity of some of the examples
described in this chapter? How does it compare with competing products and services?
Which resources are limiting your users ability to accomplish the tasks that will become habits?
- Time
- Money
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
back to guide
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj Matthew R Mottola Proprietary 12 | 15
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
- Social deviance (outside the norm)
- Physical effort
Consider how you might apply heuristics to make habit forming actions more likely.
When taking advantage of variable rewards, there are psychological 3 forces you must understand.
The Tribe: The search for social rewards, fueled by connectedness with other people.
The Self: The search for intrinsic rewards of mastery, competence, completion
Example: Farmville
The hunt: The thrill of getting different objects and increasing your farm. I know these
“resources and information” aren’t technically material, but to users they sure were.
The self: People treated Farmville like a law degree. If people put half the effort into life as they
did Farmville our society would be the Jetsons.
How to Apply
Speak with 5 of your customers in an open ended interview to identify what they find enjoyable or
encouraging about using your product. Are there any moments of delight or surprise? Is there anything
they find particularly satisfying about using the product?
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj Matthew R Mottola Proprietary 13 | 15
back to guide
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
Brainstorm 3 ways your product might heighten users search for variable rewards using the tribe, hunt,
and self.
Chapter 5: Investment
So by now your users are excited from your variable reward and ready to keep the motivation going.
This is when you get them to “invest”, which can be both material and emotional. Materially obviously
with money, but the power of emotional investment can at times be stronger. For Twitter, emotional
investment is something like a “follow” or posting. Following someone attaches that product to your
relationship with that person or news, while posting builds your personal profile. This does two things:
1- If you’ve devoted serious time to content (tweets), switching would have serious opportunity cost.
Facebook, the more friends you have, the harder it is to switch as well. 2- It’s common sense, the more
effort we put into something, the more we value it.
Investment also increase the likelihood of Hook Cycle repetition by loading the next trigger to iterate the
cycle. I like to think of it as layering, with the example of putting clothes on when its cold. The more
“layers” you have on, the warmer you are, thus increasing your chances to go outside.
1. Review your flow. What “bit of work” are your users doing to increase the likelihood of returning?
3. Identify how long it takes for a “loaded trigger” to reengage your users. How can your reduce the
delay to shorten time spent cycling through the hook?
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
back to guide
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
Matthew R Mottola Proprietary 14 | 15
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
Want More Awesome Content!?
Visit Me Here!