TEI 030: How Product Managers Create Products that Hook Customers

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you episode
030 of... The Everyday Innovator with host Chad
McAllister, PhD. The podcast is all about helping people involved
in developing and managing products become more successful, grow
their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers. Our Guest: Nir
Eyal has been a startup co-founder, a CEO, and now helps product
teams build habit-forming products. He is also the author of the
book “Hooked,” which tells you how to create products that capture
the attention of consumers and create engagement. Highlights from
the discussion include… The “Hooked” model applies best to products
that require repeat engagement. This is clearly appropriate for
many software applications (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Google) but
can also be incorporated in the service aspects of
other products.The 4-step hook model is: Trigger: a cue to
action  that tells the user what to do next (e.g., “You got to
see this video!”). A trigger leads to an action.Action: the
simplest behavior done in anticipation of the reward (e.g.,
clicking on the link to see the video).Variable Reward: satisfies
the customer’s curiosity or need for taking action. Adding a bit of
variability creates surprise and enhances anticipation that keeps
customers returning (e.g., mailing video updates weekly but varying
the day they are mailed).Investment: for customers to be truly
hooked, they must have some investment in the product themselves –
some work they perform that helps create attachment to the
product (e.g., enhancing or completing their customer profile).