Hooked Flashcards
Trigger
How does the loop initiate? A trigger is the actuator of behavior— the spark plug in the engine. the beginning this may be through external triggers, but through successive loops the user eventually creates internal triggers where a particular thought or emotion will send them back to your product.
By cycling through successive hooks, users begin to form associations with internal triggers, which attach to existing behaviors and emotions. When users start to automatically cue their next behavior, the new habit becomes part of their everyday routine.
Action
Once the user is aware they need to use your product (through the trigger), what it the simplest action they can perform to get some kind of reward. For example a Facebook Like..
Following the trigger comes the action: the behavior done in anticipation of a Companies leverage two basic pulleys of human behavior to increase the likelihood of an action occurring: the ease of performing an action and the psychological motivation to do it. Once Barbra completes the simple action of clicking on the photo, she is dazzled by what she sees next.
Variable reward
How are they rewarded for this behavior? This could be social validation (e.g. “my friends approve!”), collection of material resources (e.g. add a photo to a collection) or personal gratification (e.g. inbox zero). The “variable” part is important - rewards should not always be predictable, encouraging users to repeat the cycle.
Investment
Investment: Finally, the user needs to put something back in to increase the chance of repeating the loop. This could be:
* content (e.g. a book in your Kindle),
* user entered data (e.g. profile information or linked accounts),
* reputation (e.g. something to gain a 5 star seller review), or
* a learned skill (e.g. I’m now really good at this software program).
The investment also sets up the trigger to for the next cycle of the loop.
Hook model
Four-stage loop:
Trigger
Action
Variable Reward
Investment
External trigger
Email Notification Icon badge Phone call etc.
Internal trigger
Thought or emotion
Rewards of the tribe
…
Customer Lifetime Value
The ammount of money made from “a customer, before he or she switches to a competitor, or dies”. User habits impact CLTV.
Why innovations fail
… because consumers irrationally overvalue the old, while companies irrationaly overvsluer the new”. John Gourville from Harvard Business School
Emotional trigger examples
When people are lonely, they open Facebook.
When they are feeling downtrodden and unimportant, they open Twitter to see how many re-tweets and favourites they’ve scored today.
When they’re bored, they infinitely scroll pretty pictures on Pintrest.
The power of variable rewards
Variable rewards are one of the most powerful tools companies implement to hook users; chapter 4 explains them in further detail. Research shows that levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine surge when the brain is expecting a reward. 11 Introducing variability multiplies the effect, creating a focused state, which suppresses the areas of the brain associated with judgment and reason while activating the parts associated with wanting and desire. 12 Although classic examples include slot machines and lotteries, variable rewards are prevalent in many other habit- forming products.
Variable rewards of Pinterest
The exciting juxtaposition of relevant and irrelevant, tantalizing and plain, beautiful and common, sets her brain’s dopamine system aflutter with the promise of reward. Now she’s spending more time on Pinterest, hunting for the next wonderful thing to find. Before she knows it, she’s spent forty- five minutes scrolling.
Investment 2
The last phase of the Hook Model is where the user does a bit of work. The investment phase increases the odds that the user will make another pass through the Hook cycle in the future. The investment occurs when the user puts something into the product of service such as time, data, effort, social capital, or money. the investment implies an action that improves the service for the next go- around. Inviting friends, stating preferences, building virtual assets, and learning to use new features are all investments users make to improve their experience. These commitments can be leveraged to make the trigger more engaging, the action easier, and the reward more exciting with every pass through the Hook cycle.
Investment: Pinterest example
As Barbra enjoys endlessly scrolling through the Pinterest cornucopia, she builds a desire to keep the things that delight her. By collecting items, she gives the site data about her preferences. Soon she will follow, pin, repin, and make other investments, which serve to increase her ties to the site and prime her for future loops through the Hook.
