Photo by Vishal Jadhav on Unsplash
Habit Forming Cycle:
If a product can take the user through the 5 steps mentioned below consistently then you have successfully built a habit-forming product.
Internal Trigger: Identify the implicit triggers that make a user open your app (boredom, frustration, confusion, indecisiveness, fear, fomo)
External Trigger: Push explicit triggers that remind users to open your app (paid advertising, notification, email reminders, word of mouth, etc)
Action: Once a trigger makes the user open your app, make it easy and simple to do an action in the app. The smaller the learning curve, the more motivated users will be to take an action (twitter share button, facebook login, google search, iPhone camera)
Reward: Reward users for opening your app and taking an action. Three rewards that users strive for:
Rewards of the Tribe: Rewards that make users feel accepted socially, attractive, important, and included (E.g., Facebook likes, Stack Overflow ratings)
Rewards of the Hunt: The need to acquire objects/information that is key to our survival or growth (twitter news, google search)
Reward of the Self: Desire to gain a sense of competency (E.g., course progress bars/certificates, video game levels)
Note: The rewards should have infinite variability like Facebook, Twitter where users will always find something new. Users will easily get bored with finite rewards (e.g., Zynga).
Investment: Have users subtly invest in your app by making them create content, store data/preferences, spend time learning skills, etc. The more investment users make in your product, the less likely they will switch to competing products
Content: Storing experiences and memories into the product
Data: Capturing users’ data, preferences, and interests helps the product better serve the user.
Followers: Invest time in following the right people in the product to get more relevant and interesting content
Reputation: Users invested to gain reputation on the products (scores, stars)
Skill: Users invested time to acquire knowledge to get the best out of your product.
5 Questions to validate a habit-forming product:
Does your user’s internal trigger frequently prompt them to action?
Is your external trigger cueing them when they are most likely to open your app?
Is your design simple enough to make taking the action easy?
Does your reward satisfy your user’s needs while leaving them wanting more?
Does your users invest a bit of work in the product, storing value to improve the experience with each use?