What is the Hook Model?
The Hook Model is a 4 step approach to habit-forming product development. The model is about curating user behavior with enough frequency to create day-to-day habits. It is from the book Hooked by behavioral economist Nir Eyal, a top product management book.
As the user goes through the 4 phases of the Hook Model, they build habits in the process.
- A trigger to begin using the product. The user is alerted with an external trigger such as an email, link, app icon etc. which over time forms associations with powerful internal triggers. Eventually, the user is internally triggered every time they feel a certain way.
- An action to satisfy the trigger. This should be as easy as possible to execute and thereby boosting user motivation.
- A variable reward for the action. The anticipation of a reward causes a dopamine surge in the brain and adding variability to it multiplies the effect.
- An investment that will improves the product in the future and generally involves asking the user to provide their time, data, effort, social capital or money. ie commitments that improves the product for the user and which can be leveraged to amplify each phase of the Hook.
