Skip to main content

Book review - Hooked How to Build Habit-Forming Products

Hooked How to Build Habit-Forming Products 

by Nir Eyal with Ryan Hoover


 A quick, simple, and decent read. If you are a marketer, designer, product manager, or entrepreneur, looking to build a product that customer love to engage, this is your book. 


 Can you think of any of the apps you open frequently? I would say mine are Email, Youtube, Bible app, Netflix, Words with Friends, Skimm, and Camera. This book shares the secrets into why you are hooked to those apps. I really like this short succinct book (only 200 pages). He gives very clear frameworks and examples without going too deep into psychological theory. This book could have been a one-sitting reading, as long as time permits. Very engaging and interesting book. 

 Nir Eyal started this book by introducing Hook Model. Based on Hook Model, Habit Zone is reached when users access the app with enough frequency and its perceived utility is also high enough. He then moved onto the four stages to create habitual products: Trigger, Action, Variable Reward, and Investment. Users should have external and internal Trigger. With enough motivation, users then can make an Action. When they engage with the product, it provides Variable Reward. Once user experience the reward, they will Invest their time with the product, which then companies can accumulate Storing Value to further enhance the feature.  

 The first five chapters and the Bible app example were really worth reading, however the part I feel could be better is the last chapter. The author tried to guide the entrepreneurs with frameworks ( Identify, Codify, Modify) on how to build habit-forming products in one chapter. However I think he can do a far better job if he gives more in dept analysis and guidance via multiple chapters at least. 

 One key takeaway for me is the discovery on the importance of the product usage when it comes to building a truly successful products. My work scope has been to drive customers' purchase on the web. It ended there. However, true customer success starts after they pay. Our job as a true marketers should look above and beyond Conversion. How to remind me to think entire customer journey and find an optimization opportunity & success metrics for the customer success (after paying us money!)?

 This is the first book in the series of marketing books. The next books are Contagious, Made to Stick and Tipping points. Please stay tuned. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

History of Nike, the Swoosh, the sweat of Phil Knights and Nike's early members are described in this fun, genuine, riveting book. Such a great story teller, Phil Knight, takes us the early days of his journey to build Blue Ribbon, and eventually Nike till its IPO in 1979. This book will make you want to finish the book in one seating.  This book was chosen as a part of our book club meeting (ABBA - Adobe Business Book Association), I created late last year. I would not have chosen such book without this external influence. For that, I would say I was lucky!  In Shoe Dog, Phil narrates monumental events for each year chronologically. Phil's life is full of adventure from his traveling around the world at the age of 26 to the journey of building Nike that you know now. What a journey! He believes in product. He is a risk-driven. He manages his business in a way that any odd will put him under easily ('live on the float' was the term). He is eccentric. He i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bad Blood Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

It is the most entertaining and nerve-breaking book I have ever read in my entire life. Every chapter is full of evil acts. After reading this, you will still feel overwhelmed by the chills you had while you were reading. Elizabeth Holms, with her company Theranos valued at $9B in 2015, is the most audacious liar in the Silicon Valley startup history. By early 2017, the value of Theranos became zero, and in June 2018, she was indicted on federal wire fraud charges. Pulizer prize -winning investigative reporter, John Carreyrou's narration completes suspense to readers and the severity of the truth.   Evil 1: Elizabeth Holms Needless to say, or should I say needleless to say, the first person and the biggest culprit is the CEO of of Theranos. She is the world most talented salesperson. To start with, her board of directors are all-star board - Larry Ellizon, Tim Draper, Don Lucas, Henry Kissinger, William Perry, George P. Shultz to name a few. Her ability to re...
Post a Comment
Read more