This is my first review about a book, funny because it’s also the first book I have ever read about building products.

Hooked is about how to build habit forming products like Facebook, Twitter or FarmVille. Its core theory is based on BJ Fogg’s Behavioural Model but focused on products and how to hook users.

Basically the The Hook Model follows this scheme: The Hook Model

The first step is an External Trigger, for example an email, a tv advert or something similar.

The previous step should trigger an Action that the user is going to make through the product/app, such as posting a tweet or checking Facebook.

From this the user will get a Variable Reward triggering dopamine in the user’s brain, who will be waiting to get more of it with the next loop.

This feeling of reward/release is going to make the user expend time on the product. This Investment will make the user increase the perception of the product’s value (like when you build IKEA furniture yourself).

Eventually this enjoyment will turn into an Internal Trigger that, of course, will be reinforced with the use of External Triggers again.

This is a massive simplification of the book, but it’ll be be a good reminder on how the system works. The author explains each quarter in detail, and he adds a nice section about principles and ethic.

As a rookie in this area, I found the book easy to understand, interesting and instructive.