Hooked Framework - Building Habit Forming Products
The Hook Framework helps you connect your solution to the user’s problem with enough frequency to form a habit. The Hook framework has four components: Trigger, Action, Variable Reward, and Investment.
Have you ever wondered why some products are so addictive that you can’t stop using them? How do they make you check your email, scroll through social media, or play games every day? The answer lies in the Hooked Framework, a powerful model for creating products that form habits in users.
The Hooked Framework was developed by Nir Eyal, a behavioral designer and author of the book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. He studied the psychology of habits and discovered a four-step process that can make any product or service more engaging and sticky.
The Hooked Framework consists of four steps: Trigger, Action, Variable Reward, and Investment. These steps form a loop that hooks users to your product and makes them come back for more. Let’s look at each step in detail.
Trigger
A trigger is something that prompts the user to take action. It can be external or internal.
The goal of a trigger is to activate the user’s motivation and ability to perform the desired action. To create effective triggers, you need to understand your users’ needs, problems, and emotions, and how your product can solve them.
Action
Action is the simplest behavior that the user can do in anticipation of a reward. It can be clicking a button, typing a keyword, swiping a screen, or anything else that requires minimal effort and time.
The goal of an action is to deliver the user’s reward as quickly and smoothly as possible. To create practical actions, you need to reduce friction and increase the convenience of using your product.
Variable Reward
A variable reward is something that satisfies the user’s need and reinforces their action. It can be social, material, or personal. A social reward is something that boosts the user’s status, belonging, or recognition. A material reward is something that gives the user tangible benefits or resources. A personal reward is something that fulfills the user’s curiosity, mastery, or self-expression.
The goal of a variable reward is to keep the user hooked and curious about what’s next. To create effective rewards, you need to vary them in type, frequency, and intensity.
Investment
An investment is something that the user does to improve their future experience with the product. It can be giving feedback, inviting friends, creating content, or anything else that adds value to the product or service.
The goal of an investment is to increase the user’s commitment and loyalty to the product. To create effective investments, you need to make them meaningful and rewarding for the user.
Fitbit is one of the most successful fitness apps and wearable devices in the market. It has over 28 million active users and dominates 72% of the US fitness tracker market. Let’s see how Fitbit used Hooked Framework to become a leader in wearable technology.
Trigger
Fitbit uses both external and internal triggers to prompt users to take action. Fitbit’s external triggers included its sleek and stylish design, its catchy name and logo, its social media presence, its word-of-mouth referrals, and its gamified features such as badges, challenges, and leaderboards. Fitbit’s internal triggers included users’ emotions, needs, and problems related to their health, fitness, and well-being. For example, users who wanted to lose weight, improve their sleep quality, or reduce their stress levels were motivated to use Fitbit to track their progress and achieve their goals.
Action
Fitbit made the action of using its products and services as simple and convenient as possible. Users only had to wear the device on their wrist, sync it with their smartphone or computer, and check their dashboard or app to see their data and insights. Fitbit also provided users with personalized guidance and feedback based on their activity level, goals, and preferences. Fitbit made the action of using its products and services fun and rewarding by adding elements of gamification, socialization, and personalization.
Variable Reward
Fitbit provided users with variable rewards that satisfied their needs and reinforced their actions. Fitbit’s variable rewards included social rewards (such as likes, comments, cheers, or taunts from friends or strangers), material rewards (such as badges, trophies, or discounts), and personal rewards (such as insights, tips, or achievements). Fitbit also leveraged the power of curiosity and mystery by showing users how they compared to others, how they performed over time, or how they could improve their results.
Investment
Fitbit encouraged users to invest in their future experiences with its products and services by asking them to do something that added value to the product or service. Fitbit’s investments included setting goals, logging food or water intake, joining communities or groups, inviting friends or family members, sharing results or stories, or upgrading to premium features or devices. Fitbit also rewarded users for their investments by giving them more data, insights, feedback, or recognition.
The Hooked Framework is a powerful model for creating products that form habits in users. By following its four steps: Trigger, Action, Variable Reward, and Investment, you can design products that solve users’ problems and satisfy their needs in a way that makes them come back for more.
The purpose of AIDA is to model the cognitive stages that a customer goes through in purchasing a product.
The AIDA model is used in business to plan and execute effective marketing campaigns. By using the AIDA model, companies can tailor and target their communication strategies according to the different stages of the customer journey.
The AIDA model can be used whenever a business wants to launch a new product or service, promote an existing one, or reposition it in the market. It can also be used when a company wants to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or boost sales. The AIDA model can be applied to various marketing channels such as websites, social media, email, blogs, videos, etc.
AIDA is important in product marketing because it helps businesses create effective marketing campaigns to reach and influence their target audience. It also helps businesses to measure and optimize their marketing performance by tracking how customers move through the different stages of AIDA. AIDA is a simple but powerful framework that can help product marketers achieve their goals.
AIDA helps product marketers understand their customers' needs and wants and how to communicate the value proposition of their products.
