"Keep Them Coming Back: Insights for Product-Minded Founders on Building Habit-Making Products and Ensuring User Engagement"

"Keep Them Coming Back: Insights for Product-Minded Founders on Building Habit-Making Products and Ensuring User Engagement"

In the world of startups, it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of creating a product and focusing solely on its features, functionality, and performance. However, what truly matters is how users feel when they use your product. Users want to feel a connection, to be entertained, and to belong somewhere. If your product fails to provide these emotional experiences, it won't matter how great its features are.

So, how can you ensure that your product motivates and rewards users, keeping them coming back for more? Let's explore some key insights for product-minded founders:

1. Understand the Emotional Value of Your Product: Many successful products take off because of how they make users feel. Consider the emotions your product elicits and how they contribute to user engagement. Aim to be cool, hip, or creative to appeal to your target audience.

2. Design for Habit Formation: Habit is a competitive moat that can keep users hooked to your product. Think about how your product can become a part of users' daily routines and form habits. Incorporate playful exploration, moments of surprise, and the ability to satisfy user needs into your product design.

3. Create a Wow Moment: Identify the "Wow" moment of your product, the emotional experience that makes users say, "Wow," and share it with their friends. Having clarity on this moment allows you to engineer, build, and plan for it. Underpromise in your product's story and overdeliver in the user experience. Give your customers a new superpower that solves their pain points and makes them feel like your product is important in their lives.

To ensure user engagement and habit formation, it's important to consider the psychology behind human behavior. Users are more likely to engage with a product that is easy to use and satisfies their needs. Prompting users through cues and reminders can also trigger desired behaviors. Additionally, consider the Law of Least Effort, where people tend to choose the easiest path to accomplish a task. Simplify your product and make it the simplest, easiest, and most satisfying solution for users.

Another aspect to consider is the social aspect of your product. People often find value in the social feeling of community that comes from synchronous interactions. Acknowledge that some users may enjoy joining in with the mob and create opportunities for social engagement within your product.

When it comes to key employees, determining how much equity to give them is crucial. The general rule of thumb is to allocate around 10% to 12% of the equity pool for key employees after a seed round. Different roles and levels within the company may warrant different equity percentages. For example, a senior engineer may receive around 1% of the company, while a junior designer or marketer may receive 0.05%. Longer vesting schedules are becoming more common to retain employees and ensure their commitment to building a successful company.

In conclusion, building habit-making products and ensuring user engagement requires a deep understanding of human psychology and emotions. By creating products that elicit positive emotions, designing for habit formation, and considering the social aspects of user interaction, founders can increase the chances of creating products that keep users coming back for more. Additionally, determining appropriate equity allocation for key employees is essential for attracting and retaining talent. Remember, it's not just about what your product does, but how it makes users feel.

Actionable Advice:

1. Conduct user research to understand the emotional value your product provides and incorporate these insights into your design.

2. Define and engineer a "Wow" moment for your product that makes users want to share it with their friends.

3. Simplify your product and make it the easiest and most satisfying solution for users, considering the Law of Least Effort and the social aspects of user engagement.

By following these actionable advice and incorporating the insights mentioned, founders can create habit-making products and cultivate user engagement that keeps users coming back for more.