Title: Hooked

Author: Nir Eyal

Year Published 2014

Kind of Book Sales/Psychology

Personal Rating: 4/10

My Impressions Everything in here is said much better and in more in depth in books like "Influence" by Robert Cialdini and "Don't Shoot the Dog". This is perhaps a good spark notes version of the literature though for people in a hurry.

Date Read circa 2021

Practical Takeaways

  • After asking for a request say "but you are free to accept or refuse" (or let them know that they are free to say know. "totally cool if that answer is no, but…)

  • Create a product that people engage with often

  • Identify a particular frustration or pain point your customer has in emotional terms (eg. Sadness, boredom etc.)

  • Make your product the source of relief for a negative emotion (ie. Internal trigger) that your customer has

  • To figure out why your customer may want to use your product ask why 5xs (eg. Why would they want to learn about ideas? Because they like to know about a lot of stuff? Why do they like to know about a lot of stuff? Because they are afraid of being unprepared and looking dumb.)

When making a product Ask yourself

  • Who is your product's intended user?

  • What does your user do right before you want them to engage with your product?

  • Would I use this product myself?

  • will this product help users improve their lives?

  • How often do I want the customers to engage with my product?

 

  • When thinking of an invention ask yourself "what would make my life easier?"

  • Make using your product easier than thinking when the user experiences the internal trigger

  • Take a human desire, particularly one that has been around for a really long time…Identify that desire and use modern technology to take out steps-Evan Williams (cofounder of Blogger)

  • Ways your product can make someone's life easier

1)Time-saves them time

2)Money- saves them money

3)Physical effort-saves them physical effort

4)Mental effort- saves them mental effort

 

  • Start by increasing your product's ease of use

  • Make your product so simple that users already know how to use it

  • Brainstorm three ways to make the user's intended task easier to complete

  • Ask your customers in an open-ended way what they find enjoyable or satisfying about using your product

  • Don't ask users to invest putting effort into your product until after they have received variable reward, not before

  • Think of an external trigger that brings users to your product

Big Ideas

  • Habits you've most recently acquired are also the ones most likely to go soonest.

  • Habit-forming products often start as nice-to-haves (vitamins) but once the habit is formed, they become must-haves (painkillers)

Negative emotions act as powerful internal triggers to make people engage with products

Boredom =candy crush

Loneliness = social media

Awkwardness=check text

 anxiety = meditation app

  • Once users have invested the effort to acquire a skill, they are less likely to switch to a competing product. (eg. Once I've learned to use final cut pro I will not switch to a competitor even if it is a little better the FCPX)

Surprising Facts

  • The higher a companies CLTV is for a product, the more money they will be willing to invent in recruiting new customers

  • 66% of alcoholics who complete rehab will drink again within a year

  • 79% of smart-phone owners check their device within 15mins of waking up every morning

  • Instagram was purchased by Facebook in 2012 for $1 billion

  • A study found that People suffering from depression use the internet more

  • Google ranked pages based on how often other sites linked to them

  • The nucleus accombens activates in anticipation of receiving a reward not during it

  • Americans spend over $1billion a day on slot machines in American Casinos

 

Unknown Terms

Trigger: the actuator of a behavior (eg. Feeling anxious which makes you want to stress eat)

Action: the behavior done in anticipation of a reward (eg. Eating ice cream after feeling anxious)

Reward: the positive thing that is gained by doing an action (eg. Forgetting about anxiety after eating ice cream)

CLTV (Customer Life Time Value): the amount of money made from a customer before that person switches to a competitors, stops using the product, or dies

Viral Cycle Time: the amount of time it takes a user to invite another user to use the product or "check out…"

Internal Trigger: When a product becomes tightly coupled with a thought, an emotion, or a preexisting routine.. (eg. Feeling lonely and opening Facebook without thinking)

Endowed Progress Effect: a cognitive bias where a person's motivation increases as they believe they are nearing a goal (eg. Running faster in the last mile of a marathon)

Percolate: to cause (a liquid) to pass through a porous body; filter.

Persistence hunting: a style of hunting among pre-agrarian societies where a group of hunters would separate an animal from a heard and then take turns chasing after an animal until it eventually collapses or gives up and is caught. This happens because other primates are covered with fur and cannot dissipate heat like the human's skin can

Gamification: using game-like elements in nongame environments (eg. Making a game out of getting your kids to clean their room)

Experience-taking: when a person reading/watching a story feels what the protagonist feels or even senses their motivations.

Escalation of Commitment: The psychological phenomenon whereby someone becomes more committed or agreeable to proposals after they have agreed to smaller proposals in the past. sim. To foot in the door technique

 

Dates/Timeline

  • Tinder comes out 2013

  • Apples app store comes out 2008

  • September 2006 Facebook is open to the world