DIP 022: Creatures (and creators) of habits

The ultimate goal of a habit-forming product is to solve the user’s pain by creating an association so that the user identifies the company’s product or service as the source of relief.

Habit-forming technologies are both. These services seem at first to be offering nice-to-have vitamins, but once the habit is established, they provide an ongoing pain remedy.

longer good enough. Companies increasingly find that their economic value is a function of the strength of the habits they create. In order to win the

Instead of relying on expensive marketing, habit-forming companies link their services to the users’ daily routines and emotions.

Habits are powerful, but delicate. They can emerge outside our consciousness, or can be deliberately designed. They often occur without our permission, but can be reshaped by fiddling with their parts. They shape our lives far more than we realize—they are so strong, in fact, that they cause our brains to cling to them at the exclusion of all else,