Building companies

Hooked

Nir Eyal (2014)

How products build habits through the Hook Model.

Key concepts

  • Hook Model: trigger, action, variable reward, investment
  • External triggers give way to internal triggers (emotions)
  • Make the action easy
  • Variable rewards keep users coming back
  • User investment loads the next trigger

How I use it

I haven’t built a product around the hook model. I value the book for the opposite reason: it explains how the products I use every day are designed to hold my attention.

Once you understand triggers, variable rewards and investment, you see them everywhere: in social feeds, in LinkedIn, in apps and recommendation engines. Knowing how the loop works helps me navigate it, and it has genuinely helped my mental health.

Connected books

  • Start with Why Simon Sinek

  • How to Win Friends and Influence People Dale Carnegie

  • Zero to One Peter Thiel