How Product Managers Salvage User Habits, Part 1.
Hey there! Congratulations! you’re just one step away from utilizing user habits for your product.
You might be wondering what the relation between user habit and your product is. According to a book I read recently, the power of habit by Charles Duhigg. Habit has 3 components:
- Cue
- Routine
- Reward
A cue can be the smell of peanut butter which functions as a trigger that tells your brain to go into the automatic mode of which habit to use. The cue serves as the trigger, the prompt for the habit to occur. There seems to be a sheer amount of relationship between habit and algorithm.
For the product you’re building, you have to think, what’s the trigger? that’s the first point of identifying where to meet your customers. At what stage does using your product become a habit? This process in which the brain converts a sequence of actions into an automatic routine is called chunking. Have you ever thought of a time you found yourself mindlessly scrolling through Instagram with no prior thought of wanting to do so? a lot of us are in this boat.
Routine can either be physical, mental, or emotional. Finally, a reward that helps your brain figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future.
Before a habit is formed. A learning phase occurs, first your brain has to work at full power to make sense of all the new information. So you have to make sense of all the new information. So It’s important to make this stage as seamless as possible in order for a habit to be formed out of this activity, for this activity to be internalized.
Building products with user habits in mind is congruent with the innovation-friendly method.
The innovation-friendly method prioritizes understanding the concept of this product idea to the tiniest bit. It usually starts with scoping out clearly what we’re trying to achieve, mapping the product (solution) to the problem, and carrying out user research to better understand the need of the product before going on to build the product. Only if we confirm there is a need, do we proceed to build.
A good way to analyze user habit and recognize where a user habit is formed just like the 3 components of habit is the Nir Eyal hook framework. An innovative product manager like yourself should be concerned about users forming a habit around your product.
Nir Eyal’s hook framework:
Trigger: refers to the feelings or events that initiate use.
Action: just like the routine explained initially, this is the action that takes place for a habit to be initiated also the simplest thing the user can do to be rewarded.
Reward: The unpredictable or predictable gratification from action. As regards our peanut butter example; the peanut butter tastes good.
Investment: These are actions that increase involvement and preference. Peanut butter example; The after taste of peanut butter in your mouth, making you want more.
Steps to managing habits
- Recognize cues: spot possible cues and how to meet them at their cues. — Cue
- Remove any difficulty that makes chunking (the habit forming process) a hassle. — Routine
- Recognize possible rewards: Build product solution around a reward. make sure your product meets expected reward. — Reward
Similarities between Charles Duhigg’s components of a habit and Nir Eyal’s hook framework: If you examine both schools of thought closely, they are somewhat related. They follow the same pattern. A cue can be seen as the trigger, a routine can be seen as the action, chunking (the process of learning or developing a habit) as the investment, and reward can be seen as the same.
Either one can be used to sketch and analyze user behavior. they can also be used by side.
Understanding user habit is a crucial step in ensuring a successful product. I’m so happy, you now know the Ins and Outs of forming user habits.
successful product managers understand the power of habits — chacha
If you’d like to talk more about salvaging user habit as a product manager, I'll be your gist partner Here on LinkedIn.
