Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

REMEMBER & SHARE

How do users currently solve that problem and why does it need a solution?

What habits does your business model require?

Once a product is built, Habit Testing helps uncover product devotees, discover which product elements (if any) are habit forming, and why those aspects of your product change user behavior. Habit Testing includes three steps: identify, codify, and modify. First, dig into the data to identify how people are using the product. Next, codify these fin

Keen observation of one’s own behavior can lead to new insights and habit-forming product opportunities.

DO THIS NOW

4. Owned Triggers Owned triggers consume a piece of real estate in the user’s environment. They consistently show up in daily life and it is ultimately up to the user to opt in to allowing these triggers to appear. For example, an app icon on the user’s phone screen, an e-mail newsletter to which the user subscribes, or an app update notification only

1. Paid Triggers Advertising, search engine marketing, and other paid channels are commonly used to get users’ attention and prompt them to act. Paid triggers can be effective but costly ways to keep users coming back. Habit-forming companies tend not to rely on paid triggers for very long, if at all. Imagine if YouTube, Slack, or Instagram needed to

To build a habit-forming product, makers need to attach the use of their solution to a frequently felt internal trigger and know how to leverage external triggers to drive the user to action.

External triggers tell the user what to do next by placing information within the user’s environment.