Baby come back

This is simple. You. Us. Asking habit-forming techniques questions to Nir Eyal and figuring out how to make our users come back for more. Don't know, think about it.

Except if you're a green-flag product, trying to form strong and healthy habits. Then don't think about it too much, just come 😉

Are you flirting with me, Latitud?

Yes, I am, is it working? Register now, you user experience enthusiast.

Are you hooked?

Ok, product people, let's tackle that user psychology thang. 💃

If you go into your phone's settings and check which app you spend the most time on daily, what would be the result and why is it TikTok? (It's Instagram for us, trying to get some centennial love here.)

Well, that one app that's consuming your life battery didn't just get lucky with you. It has engineered around your actions and triggers, and knows you'll use VC memes as a way to escape reality scrolling for one hour non-stop.

(What is scarier these days? 🤔 Algorithms that know what you want or AI? We're making a poll about this on Twitter just to see the world burn. Go check and vote!)

While checking TikTok for 5 hours is not the healthiest habit, as a product strategist you must understand these habit-forming techniques – which ARE incredible – and see if they're applicable to your startup.

🎯 Have you heard about The Hooked Model by Nir Eyal?

"The Hooked Model is a way of describing a user’s interactions with a product as they pass through four phases: a trigger to begin using the product, an action to satisfy the trigger, a variable reward for the action, and some type of investment that, ultimately, makes the product more valuable to the user."

As the users go through these phases, their preferences are shaped, their tastes are formed, and their habits are maintained.

To understand The Hooked model in depth there is no better resource than Nir's own book, "Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products" – and we are gonna assume you've already read it and this was just a refresher 👀.

👉 So, to the question that interests founders: which are the 2 moments when this technique is most useful in an early-stage startup? According to Nir, there are 2.

1. At the very beginning of the early stage

Nir's recommendation for early-stage founders is to sit down and walk through each step question before you've committed any code or designed any wireframe. You're going to save yourself a lot of time and money.

(Screenshot the image and go braindump, Laura)

2. When you're leaking users

At one point, you have users; then, oh sh*t, you had users.

The thing is, you can't buy engagement: it has to be designed into the product experience.

If people have used your product but haven’t stuck around, the Hook model is a great diagnostic tool to see what stage is not working properly and cure it before the disease spreads.

"This is very nice, but does my product need to form a hook?"

🧠 As Nir says, "Not every business needs to be habit-forming. But every business that needs to be habit-forming needs a hook."

TL;DR: the answer is in your heart.

Got more questions? Well, aren't you lucky.

📊 This February 20th, Nir Eyal and our co-founder Gina Gotthilf will have a chat on how to master user retention on a new edition of Latitud Night. The hot topics are:

• ​Understanding the psychology of habit-forming products
• ​Creating triggers and habit loops to increase user engagement
• ​Measuring and improving user retention rates

Interested?

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⛵ Hot News Ahoy!

(Hot for February 2023)

📣 Listen to Beek now

Mexican startup Beek closed a US$13M round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Greylock, Accel, and angel investors such as the co-founders of OpenAI, Figma, Duolingo, Rappi, and Nowports also participated in the round. Congrats to Pamela Valdes, part of our Angel community!

💊 Healthtech on the rise

CB Insights recognized 3 Brazilian startups on their annual Digital Health 150 report. Alinea Health, a startup that manages health plans for companies and that is also part of our portfolio, was included on the list. Congrats, teams!

🤕 Malga clears your headache

Malga, the Brazilian payments processing startup founded by Latitud fellows Alex Vilhena and Thiago Garuti, intends to process more than 40 million transactions and move around R$ 2B in 2023.

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-> Every time one of your friends subscribes to our Newsletter, your users get hooked ✨ So ask them to subscribe!

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