Book Review of Hooked by Nir Eyal

Ever wondered what makes you want to go refresh your email inbox or check WhatsApp once in a while, though no new notification popped up? Any guesses?! Okay, the answer is that you have been set on an autopilot mode, just like how you brush your teeth after you wake up in the morning, "unprompted." The interesting part is that these apps are designed in such a manner that our brains have been manipulated to form habits or associations with the apps! The book Hooked by Nir Eyal talks about the techniques and frameworks companies that have succeeded in hooking users to their products have followed or applied to build their apps.

The book revolves around the Hooked Model, which has been formulated by Nir Eyal based on his years of experience and research, teaching applied consumer psychology at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. The Hooked Model has four phases — Trigger, Action, Variable Rewards, and Investment. Nir uses examples drawn from top companies such as Google, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. to explain how the hooked cycle works. Each phase has a dedicated chapter in the book, with a clear takeaway and exercises that one could use and adopt to try the model framework firsthand.

For someone like me who has been on the selling side, with little to no exposure around product building, this book gave a good inside view into what ingredients go into making a customer come back to the product time and again, integrating it into their daily routine. When customers didn’t use the product after one or two months of usage or dropped out after the first year without renewing it, I would scratch my head to figure out why a customer would not use a product despite the series of discussions where the prospective customer would finally agree and sign off that their requirements were met by the product. I have my answers now, thanks to Nir. He says it all starts with understanding the trigger that will make the customer use the product — which the customers themselves wouldn’t know — a point he illustrates through the difference between declared (what they say they want) vs. revealed preferences (what they actually do). Any product is built to solve a pain point of the customer, and the product designer has to understand what moves the customer from a state of inertia to actually using the product. I liked the analogy where habits are compared to pearls, as both require time and persistence for the sediment/routine to cement over.

Once sufficient triggers exist, next comes the Action phase, where the author introduces us to the Fogg Behaviour Model, which is represented as B = MAT, where B stands for Behaviour, M - Motivation, A - Ability, T - Trigger. This formula, perhaps, is the secret sauce to understanding ways to influence a user’s behaviour, which is a combination of a motivated user with the ability to complete the desired action, with an appropriate trigger. On reading this, one may feel that it seems pretty obvious — but those who have done it would vouch that pulling this off is no easy task! Another key takeaway from this chapter is the element of “simplicity,” which again was formulated by Dr. Fogg, that influences a task’s difficulty. According to him, the designer should focus on influencing the behaviour of a user by designing the product as a function of the scarcest among these factors: time, money, brain cycles, physical effort, social deviance, and non-routine for the user at that moment. Profound and very relatable — yet one may wonder if there are ways to do less work here. Nir says yes and explains various psychological tricks or heuristics such as the Scarcity Effect, Endowed Progress Effect, etc., that can be employed to prompt the user to act without thinking too much.

Why would a user return to a product if there are no rewards? Most of us who are exposed to gaming, edtech, or fitness apps would be familiar with the concept of rewards — badges, star ratings, streak scores, etc. — giving you a sense of accomplishment and pulling you back to the product again and again. Nir says it’s important to understand that, to keep users constantly hooked, one must employ an infinitely variable reward technique, as the moment the reward becomes predictable, users may no longer feel enticed or enthused to come back. Now that the user has moved through the hooked model’s cycle — passing the phases of Trigger, Action, and Variable Rewards — the time has come to anchor the user by making them invest in the product. Nir talks at length about what would constitute an investment — which could be content, data, reputation, skill, etc. It is these investments that increase the likelihood of bringing users back to the product, as they pass through the hook again by loading the next trigger to restart the cycle.

What stood out for me in this book is that Nir touches upon a touchy topic — the morality and ethics behind employing the model — as this could manipulate users into getting addicted to the product, impacting one’s life negatively. Nir offers a Manipulation Matrix framework, which he recommends designers, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders consider to decide whether they should attempt to hook users. For creators using the matrix, he suggests questioning whether they — or their younger or older selves — would use the product, and whether the product would materially improve the user’s life. This is an interesting take on product design, and Nir presents it thoughtfully, without taking any moral high ground. For someone who follows one’s conscience, this matrix would be a blessing in disguise, as sometimes our unintended actions — with no malice — can lead to lifelong regret.

In the end, the author gives a roadmap on how to implement Habit Testing for an already rolled-out product with active users. This exercise helps gauge which features are habit-forming and what should be changed to better hook the user. Do this before a competitor identifies and fills those gaps, taking away your customers! Nir also leaves the readers with concise ideas on where to look for habit-forming opportunities and how to approach them.

Overall, this book is quite insightful, emphasizing the importance of understanding customer psychology — what drives and motivates users. This resonated well with me, as I’ve always believed that any product should be built not to prove the maker’s skill, but to solve a user’s pain point. To build and sustain habitual users for a product is extremely tough in today’s overly distracted world. The Hooked Model gives readers a well-tested framework that has stood the test of time to achieve loyal customers. If you are a curious customer who wishes to understand your behaviour with a product, a product seller, or a product maker, this book is for you. Of course, it could have been a bit shorter, avoiding repetitions, and there were places where I felt a little lost due to missing transitional context. But setting aside these minor flaws, I enjoyed reading this book, which gave me a valuable inside view of what goes into building a habit-forming product.