Building Habit-Forming products: The Why
Every time I wake up from sleep, there is always a routine I follow, for me, it has become a habit that I do without thinking much about it,
An example of such would be
- check my phone
- Take my bathe
- Say my morning prayers and
- Set off to work.
So the thing is, if I do something a couple of times it registers in my subconscious and becomes a habit,
When it comes to the digital products that we use, it is the products we use daily that form our digital habit, some people can not imagine a day without Twitter, Netflix or any other social network for that matter.
What all these products have in common is simple, they have helped people build habits around the usage of their products. and on a less serious note, I can imagine the number of people who would have a panic attack if twitter or Instagram shuts down for 24 hours.
So why are Habit-forming products important?
- Makes the product easier to use
- Increases customer lifetime value
- Helps drive Growth
- Product has a MOAT
Makes the product easier to use:
When you design a habit-forming product it becomes very easy to use without stress over time as the users spend more time with the product and it, in turn, drives heavy engagement and product adoption.
Increase Customer lifetime value:
Every business hopes to maximise the amount of time a user spends on their product. cos normally the more a user spends using a product the more the business gains tons of value of the customer, it could be in cash or in other revenue-generating methods.
Helps drive growth:
What separates great products and mediocre ones are how fast they grow and how much they satisfy their users to the point that their users become their evangelists.
Having a product that keeps user engage is one of the key levers to rapid growth, cos its mainly when users become highly engaged in a product that they can share it with friends and this, in turn, increase the viral coefficient of the app, think Tiktok for example and notice how fast it grew because of its high addictive app.
Product has a MOAT:
products that have a moat have built up very good defensive systems against new entries and it would be difficult for any new entry to easily displace them from the market.
Like, imagine someone comes up as a twitter challenger, except it is targeting a different use case it would be very difficult to knock twitter off the market.
I believe the designing products should be intentional if your product is to solve a very important problem, take your time to design it properly so people would build habits around it thereby making the product more successful.
I would talk about how to design habit-forming products in my next article, you can follow me on twitter with @harrric_edwin or on Instagram @edwinchiebuka
