Nir Eyal & his Hooked Model
                     Online Community management 

Nir Eyal’s Hook model and Fogg’s Behavioural Model

Hook model reflects on main factors that have a power to establish the habitual product use. American author and entrepreneur, Nir Eyal[1], in his book ‘Hooked’ published in December 2013 describes the process in which success of the company solely relies on offering products that are highly engaging to users and where users typically engage other users.

Nir Eyal wrote the book Hooked as a reflection of Fogg’s Behaviour Model[2]. BJ Fogg, Director of the Persuasive Tech Lab at Stanford University created a behaviour theory for persuasive design in 2009 called Fogg’s Behaviour Model (FBM)[3]. He initiated the scientific research and experiments to show that technology can change human behaviour in a predictable way. This theory is designed to better understand human behaviour, analysis of persuasive technologies and fundamentals that drive motivation.

BJ Fogg demonstrates that human behaviour is a product of three elements: motivation, triggers and ability. If human behaviour doesn’t occur, it means that one of the elements is missing as all the three elements have to meet at the same time. This means user needs to be sufficiently motivated, has the ability and be triggered to perform an intended behaviour. The Fogg’s Behaviour Model together with Hook model might help community management to access which psychological element of the users is lacking to perform the target behaviour which is using online communities for enhancing collaborative learning. 

Factors underlying behaviour change[4]

Main influences of user’s motivational level: 1) Pain/ Pleasure, 2) Social acceptance/ Rejection, 3) Fear/ Hope, 4) Confusion/ Certainty.

Main influences of the user ability:

1) How much Time does the action take?

2) How much Money is involved?

3) Non-routine- repeated habits or practice that lead to progress or targeted goals of the user.

4) How much Physical effort is required?

5) Brain cycle- The harder something is to understand the less likely it is for that behaviour to occur.

6) Social deviance- referrals, word of mouth.

Triggers can be any form of communication that lead to informing a potential or existing user about product or service benefits and persuade them to follow call-to-action. 

Nir Eyal suggests the main two questions to be asked by any enterpreneur: What’s the habit-forming potential of the product?, and if the product has the fundamental elements- How can we improve upon those fundamental elements so the product will be even more engaging and habit-forming?

Nir describes the path where behaviours are individual actions which lead to routines, and routines lead to habits. The main goal of every company is to develop product that will be used on habitual basis. The book ‘Hooked’ demonstrates that some products provide solutions to users’ discomfort, but they shouldn’t be designed to be an addiction. Some products can profoundly change our behaviour, and the best example would be Facebook. When people feel lonely or bored, one of their solution might be logging to their Facebook accounts and chat with their virtual friends. Difference between addiction and habit is that habit is formed based on frequency and attitude change. If the firms want to reach unprompted user engagement, they should worry about process, not the outcome. This is crucial for a start-up business, as constant data evaluation might lead to the right decisions within a product development based on customer interactions. Nir in his book ‘Hooked’ introduces a new theory called Hook model which means an experience that connects user’s problem to company’s solution. A Hook consists of four elements: trigger, reward, action and investment. Trigger face is the first step of a Hook model. There are external and internal triggers. External triggers are cues of our action (e.g. Click this, Share, Tweet, word-of-mouth). In today’s ever changing consumer lifestyles and business environment, it is difficult to reach company’s target audience and that’s because of less real estate to rely on ‘call-to-action’. However, external triggers can be optimized through growth hacking tactics that are discussed under the section ‘Growth Hacking’ in my previous post. Nir demonstrates that what marketers don’t often consider is the internal triggers to be the part of their product development strategy. Only companies that are able to manage their focus will be successful in designing longer term habits/products. Internal triggers are in simple words human behaviour (e.g. emotions, routines, and lifestyle). In my understanding, internal triggers are emotions or routines associated with the user’s mind to which users respond with certain actions- habits. Nir Eyal demonstrates that emotions dictate our habits, so therefore marketers should know what is the user itch to form those habits upon their technological product. Triggers have a power to make product or service habit-forming and negative emotions are considered to be very powerful internal triggers.

Other elements of a Hook are action and reward. Nir describes action as an ‘anticipation of reward’. This simply means fulfilment of the user dissatisfaction. There is certain trigger behind every consumer using a product, either positive or negative.

The action face is simplest behaviour in anticipation of the reward- ‘call-to-action’, such as search on Google, play button on YouTube etc. Reward face is linked to the brain reward system, that is by Nir explained as stimulation of Nucleus Accumbens. Stimulation of this part of the brain is caused by various factors described as a ‘stress of a desire’ (anticipation, cravings). ‘Nucleus Accumbens becomes more active in anticipation of the reward.’ When we fulfil the object of a desire, that part of the brain will become less active. Nir therefore highlights that marketers have to identify their users’ itch in order to provide them with a product that has a power to satisfy their cravings. The unknown is fascinating therefore what usually social network notification system does is to provide the user with only part of the message that will increase their focus through the variability and complete an indented call-to-action immediately. Product with a high degree of variability, such as Facebook, might fulfil the internal triggers based on the user’s last activity/investment (e.g. how many likes have I received since the last time I logged in to my account?). There are three types of variability: 1) Tribe- social reward (empathetic joy, partnership, competition, cooperation), 2) Hunt- search for the information needed, 3) Intrinsic motivators (mastery, self-achievement). Entrepreneurs try to give users what they came for, but leave them for wanting more. The final part of a Hook model is the investment face. Investment face is about a value creation that might lead the user to perform the next action and bring them to the first face of a Hook model (Internal triggers). This is understood as, more content the user creates more likely he/she is to use the product on habitual basis. 

         5.3.1. Applying Hook model

In habit-forming technologies, the model starts with triggers, then action, rewards and investment. Internal triggers are associated with the user’s mind (e.g. misunderstanding course material and fear of failure). However, internal triggers can be considered as users’ unconscious cognition (e.g. community members are not fully aware of their existing internal triggers). Nir noted that all marketers should ask one question: ‘How do we build better products to help people knowing this information of their internal triggers?’

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[1] See Growth hacker TV, (Episode 121; 2014) https://www.growthhacker.tv/

[2] See (BJ Fogg, 2009), ‘A Behavior Model for Persuasive Design’

[3] See (BJ Fogg, 2009), ‘A Behavior Model for Persuasive Design’

[4] See (BJ Fogg, 2009), ‘A Behavior Model for Persuasive Design’