Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

by Nir Eyal

Ryan Hoover (Editor)

Revised and Updated, Featuring a New Case Study

How do successful companies create products people can’t put down?

Why do some products capture widespread attention while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of sheer habit? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us?

Nir Eyal answers these questions (and many more) by explaining the Hook Model—a four-step process embedded into the products of many successful companies to subtly encourage customer behavior. Through consecutive “hook cycles,” these products reach their ultimate goal of bringing users back again and again without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging.

Hooked is based on Eyal’s years of research, consulting, and practical experience. He wrote the book he wished had been available to him as a start-up founder—not abstract theory, but a how-to guide for building better products. Hooked is written for product managers, designers, marketers, start-up founders, and anyone who seeks to understand how products influence our behavior.

Eyal provides readers with:

• Practical insights to create user habits that stick.
• Actionable steps for building products people love.

• Fascinating examples from the iPhone to Twitter, Pinterest to the Bible App, and many other habit-forming products.

• ISBN10: 1591847788
• ISBN13: 9781591847786
• Publish Date: 4 November 2014 (first published 1 December 2013)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Portfolio
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 256
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781591847786

Reviews

[adamfortuna]

After hearing Nir give a local talk at a user group, I knew I had to check out his book. It's been on my list to read for far too long. The concepts from the book a 10/10. They're a great dive into user behavior and what triggers change in people. I feel like I learned a lot, even if the book is rather short.

The downsides though - the audiobook narrator feels like he's reading a technical manual. It's just not a good listen. Looking at the Audible reviews it's non-stop 1 star reviews for performance. The other side is that this book requites a good deal of reflection time. That's not a good fit for the audio format. I felt like I learned more from hearing Nir talk live for an hour than from the book, but I still look forward to referencing it later in products I'm building.