Hooked Book Summary - Hooked Book explained in key points

Listen to the Intro

00:00

Hooked summary

Name: Hooked
Rating: 4.6 (489 reviews)
Author: Nir Eyal

Nir Eyal

How to Build Habit-Forming Products

4.6 (489 ratings)

21 mins

Topics

Marketing Strategy Routines & Habits Personality Mental Health

Table of Contents

Hooked
Summary of 10 key ideas

Audio & text in the Blinkist app

Key idea 1 of 10

What’s in it for me: Find out how you can get people addicted to your products… in a good way.

Think about all the products you use on an everyday basis: your smartphone, your must-check apps and favorite websites. How did these products succeed in getting you to adopt them in your daily routines?

Hooked not only explains the psychological processes that go into forming habits, it also shows how companies can build products to take advantage of this tendency.

You’ll find out why designing a habit-forming product is the best sales boost your company could ever hope for.

You’ll also discover why the scrolling Twitter feed is so addictive. (Hint: it’s no coincidence).

Finally, you’ll also come to understand the ethical implications of habit-forming products, which will help you avoid becoming a glorified drug dealer.

It’s difficult to change or replace established habits.

Every New Year’s eve, people make resolutions to quit drinking, eat more healthily or get more exercise. When midnight strikes, we really are fully committed to making these changes.

So why is it that on January fifth most of us find ourselves sitting on the couch munching chips and guzzling beer?

Well, the short answer is that it’s due to our habits: activities we’ve become so accustomed to doing that we engage in them without much conscious thought.

Habits emerge because our brain is eager to save time, so in most situations it will make us do whatever it was that worked last. For example, a habit of biting your nails when nervous probably emerged because your brain remembers that nail-biting once helped you release stress, so now you do it unconsciously.

The trouble with habits is, it’s very difficult to permanently change them. In fact, research has shown that even if we change our routines, the neural pathways of the old habit remain intact in our brains and are very easily reactivated. This is illustrated by the fact that two thirds of alcoholics who finish a detox program start drinking again within a year.

No wonder we have such trouble with a simple New Year’s resolution. So how can you possibly succeed in adopting a new habit?

The easiest way is to repeat it frequently. One study showed that students who wanted to get into the habit of flossing their teeth regularly were more successful the more frequently they engaged in flossing.

If it can’t be repeated often, the new habit has to be very useful to still be adopted successfully. Consider online retailer Amazon: Most people don’t use Amazon everyday, but shopping there still constitutes a habit for many of us, despite countless other online stores to choose from.

Why?

Amazon’s direct price comparison between other retailers is so handy, that users make a habit out of shopping there even if it is only infrequently.

Habit-forming products generate high revenues and are hard to compete with.

Looking at the most successful businesses and products available today, especially online, we find that many of them share one common trait: they are habit-forming. Habit-forming products are the ones that gradually find their way into our daily routines, like a smartphone that we have gotten used to checking automatically each morning for new messages.

There are many advantages to selling habit-forming products.

Habit-forming products require users to go through the four stages of the Hook Model repeatedly.

Due to their many advantages, many companies strive to deliberately make their products habit-forming. But how can this be done successfully?

They should try to adhere to the so-called Hook model. The Hook model is a cycle consisting of four steps that, when repeated often enough, will lead the user to form a habit around the product in question.

To start the process of habit-building, products need an external trigger.

People do not acquire habits spontaneously. People didn’t wake up one morning and suddenly decide that they would become faithful and frequent users of an app that gives their pictures a retro-look. Rather, it’s a process, and the first step requires an external trigger. In the case of the app, it was probably a friend who mentioned it or an advertisement that compelled people to try it.

The external trigger is necessary, because initially the product is not yet part of the potential customers’ habits.

Once we develop internal triggers that make us use a product, we’re hooked.

As you’ve seen, frequency is a key part of building habits. If we use a product very frequently, we’ll likely form a long-term habit around it.

But of course companies can’t rely solely on external triggers to get us to use their products, as frequent triggers are usually too costly, like advertisements, and depend too much on chance, like whether a potential customer happens to see an advertisement or not.

Every product needs to motivate and, most importantly, enable potential users to use it.

Have you ever seen a hypnotist hypnotize a volunteer from the crowd so that once a trigger word is said out loud, the “victim” does whatever the hypnotist has told them to?

For good or bad, with habit-forming products, the trigger alone is insufficient to generate action.

Variable rewards are key in making users dependent on a product in the long term.

While motivation is important to get us to try a product, we won’t be able to sustain it unless the product actually produces the results we wanted.

For users to want to use a product frequently, it must reliably deliver on what it promises. In other words, it must give us a reward for our actions and create the outcome we were expecting.

If users have invested something, be it time, money or effort, into a product, a habit will likely follow.

Now you’ve seen how a trigger leads to action and provides the user with a reward. So what is the final step in the Hook model that leads them back to the trigger and another cycle?

In short: investment. When users have invested something into the product, be it time, effort, money or even their personal data, they are more likely to use it again.

Companies should use the power of habit-building products responsibly.

When we speak of getting users “hooked” on a product, the first association that springs to mind is addiction. Indeed, because the Hook-model helps companies change people’s behavior, it is crucial they use it responsibly. Otherwise they are merely engaging in unethical manipulation. For example, if a fast food company were to inject their food with some addictive substance, we would deem that unethical.

Sometimes though, even manipulative products are considered acceptable, as long as they enhance their users’ lives. So for example companies like Weight Watchers have technically “manipulated” thousands of their customers into losing weight, but we probably would not deem their actions wrong, because their product enhances their customers’ lives.

To use the Hook model effectively, you have to know your product and what your customer wants.

Every entrepreneur and product designer wants to create a successful product that people use and rely on frequently. The Hook model can help achieve this, but it’s practical application requires you to know your product and your customers intimately.

First of all, it’s important to understand that not all products need to be habit-forming. Whether you’re creating a new product or enhancing an existing one, you should ask yourself if product should really be habit-forming.

Want to see all full key ideas from Hooked?

Key ideas in Hooked

More knowledge in less time

Read or listen

Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.

Find your next read

Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.

Shortcasts ^New

We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

What is Hooked about?

Hooked (2014) explains, through anecdotes and scientific studies, how and why we integrate certain products into our daily routines, and why such products are the Holy Grail for any consumer-oriented company. Hooked gives concrete advice on how companies can make their products habit-forming, while simultaneously exploring the moral issues that entails.

Who should read Hooked?

Anyone who wants to understand how habits are formed
Anyone who wants to design a hugely successful product or enhance an existing one
Anyone who wants to understand how some products take advantage of our tendency to form habits

About the Author

Nir Eyal is a writer, teacher and consultant who has long advised start-ups and other businesses on designing successful products. He is the founder of two start-ups, both of which have since been acquired, and he contributes regularly to magazines like Forbes, TechCrunch and Psychology Today.

Categories with Hooked

Entrepreneurship Marketing & Sales

Books like Hooked

The Antidote

Oliver Burkeman

Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking

How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life

Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers

How To Create Products Customers Love

How to Build Products That Create Change

26 min

4.3

Empowered

Marty Cagan with Chris Jones

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products

The Psychology of Persuasion

33 min

4.6

Made to Stick

Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

17 min

4.6

Reinventing the Product

Eric Schaeffer and David Sovie

How to Transform your Business and Create Value in the Digital Age

The Four Types of Human Behavior and How to Effectively Communicate with Each in Business (and in Life)

23 min

4.3

The Four Steps to the Epiphany

Steve Blank

Successful Strategies for Products that Win

17 min

4.1

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

Susan M. Weinschenk

The essential guide for every designer from a behavioral psychologist

16 min

4.4

That Little Voice in Your Head

Mo Gawdat

Adjust the Code That Runs Your Brain

Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable

The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked

19 min

4.3

Predictably Irrational

Dan Ariely

The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

21 min

4.5

The Ultimate Guide to Great Mentorship

Scott Jeffrey Miller

13 Roles to Making a True Impact

Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience

15 min

4.3

Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself

Joe Dispenza

How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One

16 min

4.6

The Miracle of Mindfulness

Thich Nhat Hanh

An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation

20 min

4.7

13 Things Mentally Strong Parents Don’t Do

Amy Morin

Raising Self-Assured Children and Training Their Brains for a Life of Happiness, Meaning, and Success

23 min

4.6

The Design of Everyday Things

Donald A. Norman

The cognitive psychology of good design

An examination of the amoral game and techniques of seducers

The Small Changes That Change Everything

22 min

4.6

How to Talk to Anyone

Leil Lowndes

92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships

25 min

4.2

Value Proposition Design

Alexander Osterwalder

How to Create Products and Services Customers Want

15 min

4.3

The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding

Al Ries and Laura Ries

Bite-sized branding tips from a dynamic marketing duo

25 min

4.6

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

Eric Jorgenson

A Guide to Wealth and Happiness

Create a Life You Really Love with Less Stress and More Flow

Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success

The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions

The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking

16 min

4.3

Start With Why (New Version)

Simon Sinek

How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

A Magical Fable About Following Your Dreams

21 min

4.6

Emotional Intelligence

Matthew Dixon and Ted McKenna

How High Performers Overcome Customer Indecision

16 min

4.6

Rewire Your Ocd Brain

Catherine M. Pittman

Powerful Neuroscience-Based Skills to Break Free from Obsessive Thoughts and Fears

A Brief History of Humankind

Creative Leadership Lessons from a Lifetime at Nike

18 min

4.0

How to Grow Your Small Business

Donald Miller

A 6-Part Strategy to Help Your Business Take Off

16 min

4.7

A Handbook for New Stoics

Massimo Pigliucci and Gregory Lopez

How to Thrive in a World Out of Your Control

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in 7 Weeks

18 min

4.3

My Morning Routine

Benjamin Spall and Michael Xander

How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired

27 min

4.1

Start-up of You

Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha

Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career

14 min

4.4

The Art of War (New Version)

Sun Tzu

Classic military strategy for politics, business, and everyday life

11 min

4.1

Positioning

Al Ries and Jack Trout

The Battle for your Mind: How to be seen and heard in the overcrowded marketplace

12 min

4.1

The Fifth Agreement

Don Miguel Ruiz and Don Jose Ruiz

A Practical Guide to Self-Mastery

14 min

4.5

Emotional Blackmail

Susan Forward with Donna Frazier

When the People in Your Life Use Fear, Obligation, and Guilt to Manipulate You

16 min

4.5

People ❤️ Blinkist

Sven O.

It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

Thi Viet Quynh N.

Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

Jonathan A.

Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

Renee D.

Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.