Chapter 2 - Triggers
Habits are not created, they are built upon. Nir uses the oyster analogy - a hair or particle gets in the oyster, and it starts spinning a giant pearl around it.
2 Types of Triggers: External and Internal
External Triggers
The first step.
Embedded with information, tells the user what to do next. Cue users with a call to action.
Can come in many forms - a man holding out a coke to you in a Coke ad, a "Log in to Mint" prompt in email from Mint.com.
Reduce thinking - too many choices or irrelevant options cause hesitation, confusion, or abandonment.
Can still contain implicit info (a link means click, an app icon means app store - user knows this)
1) Paid Triggers
These are advertising, search engine marketing, paid channels.
Can pay once to acquire users, then use other means to get them back.
Example: Marketing ads .
2) Earned Triggers
Press mentions, viral videos, featured app store placement, influencer, etc.
Free, but requires other forms of investment like time etc.
Awareness generated by earned triggers can be short lived.
Example: FB App - learned about from blogger or media, or featured placement on Apple App Store.
3) Relationship triggers
People telling people - this could be through Facebook "like", word of mouth, invitations, product referrals, etc.
Example: FB App - Sharing photos with friends on Facebook.
Can create viral hyper-growth entrepreneurs and investors lust after
Do NOT trick users into inviting friends - this has negative effects (dark pattern).
4) Owned triggers
Real estate in the user's environment - app icon on user's phone screen, email newsletter that user subscribes, app update notification.
User has to AGREE to see the trigger, company owns share of user's attention.
Example: FB app - Push notifications about friends' postings, app icon on users' phone, etc.
Prompts REPEAT engagement until habit is formed. IWhtout owned, difficult to cue users frequently enough to habit.
Internal Triggers
Manifest automatically in your mind. Connecting internal triggers with a product is the brass ring of habit-forming technology.
When a product becomes tightly coupled with a thought, an emotion, or a preexisting routine - it leverages an internal trigger.
Negative emotions (boredom, loneliness, frustration, confusion, indecisiveness) are powerful internal triggers and greatly influence our daily routines. Example: Someone using Instagram to capture a photo because they feare the moment will be lost forever.
If your product scratches an "itch" (cures bordom, etc), gradually bonds cement into a habit as users turn to your product when experiencing certain internal triggers.
Information about what to do next is encoded as a learned association in the user's memory.
Building for Triggers
Product designers must know their user's internal triggers.
Ultimate goal of habit-forming product - 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.
Preferences - Figuring out user/player's preferences:
* Declared preferences - What they say they want.
* Revealed preferences - What they actually want (you have to discern this).
-> Nir discusses Twitter's model where they create a user narrative to understand their user - this is modified and shared with all levels of engineering and is much better to build the product with than just a set of requirements.
"5 Whys Method"
Taiichi Ohno when working at Toyota Production System.
Ask successive "Why" when starting with the user/player's wants. (same as 7 levels of why)
Example Nir gives - starts with Julie wanting to use email - Why she want to do that? ... why ... why ... down to her actual 5th answer - "She fears being out of the loop" - Fear is a powerful internal trigger and we can design our solution to help calm Julie's fear.
The why helps give you discover the trigger!
Remember and Share Section
* Triggers cue the user to take action and are the first step in the Hooked Model.
* Triggers come in two types - external and internal.
* External triggers tell the user what to do next by placing information within the user's environment.
* Internal triggers tell the user what to do next through associations stored in the user's memory.
* Negative emotions frequently serve as internal triggers.
* 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.
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