Hooked

Highlights

79 percent of smartphone owners check their device within 15 minutes of waking up every morning.

“Users who continually find value in a product are more likely to tell their friends about it.”

“Gourville claims that for new entrants to stand a chance, they can’t just be better, they must be nine times better. Why such a high bar? Because old habits die hard and new products or services need to offer dramatic improvements to shake users out of old routines. Gourville writes that products that require a high degree of behavior change are doomed to fail even if the benefits of using the new product are clear and substantial.”

“All humans are motivated to seek pleasure and avoid pain, to seek hope and avoid fear, and finally, to seek social acceptance and avoid rejection.”

“One method is to try asking the question "why" as many times as it takes to get to an emotion. Usually this will happen by the fifth “why.” This is a technique adapted from the Toyota Production System described by Taiichi Ohno as the “5 Whys Method.” Ohno wrote that it was "the basis of Toyota's scientific approach ... by repeating ‘why?’ five times, the nature of the problem as well as its solution becomes clear.”

“Buffett and his partner, Charlie Munger, realized that as customers form routines around a product, they come to depend upon it and become less sensitive to price.”

Many innovations fail because consumers irrationally overvalue the old while companies irrationally overvalue the new.

To change behavior, products must ensure the user feels in control. People must want to use the service, not feel they have to.

Products that require a high degree of behavior change are doomed to fail

The study demonstrated that people suffering from symptoms of depression used the Internet more. Why is that? One hypothesis is that those with depression experience negative emotions more frequently than the general population and seek relief by turning to technology to lift their mood.

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

If it can’t be used for evil, it’s not a superpower.

A habit is when not doing an action causes a bit of pain.

There are three ingredients required to initiate any and all behaviors:
(1) The user must have sufficient motivation
(2) The user must have the ability to complete the desired action
(3) A trigger must be present to activate the behavior.

Instead of relying on expensive marketing, habit-forming companies link their services to the users’ daily routines and emotions.