A products’ goal is to solve users’ problems & eliminate the users’ pain ,,scratch the itch”. This requires Triggers to cue the users to take action and tell them what to do, to solve their problems & fulfill their needs. They are the first step in the Hooked-Model and come in two types, external and internal triggers.

External Triggers appear in the form of ads, push messages, newsletters etc.. They hold information which resonate with the user in terms of providing a fitting solution (e.g. Feature, Service) for an existing pain at the right time.

The repeated use of External Triggers gradually creates a habit by establishing Internal Triggers that automatically/unconsciously cue users to use a product to fulfill their desire. New habits are sparked by external triggers, but associations with internal triggers are what keeps users hooked.

External Trigger

Understanding External Triggers

• External Triggers tell the user what to do next, by placing one simple & clear call to action within the user’s environment (e.g. subscribe to newsletter to receive 10% off).
• This includes information placed in other products, which the user already uses (e.g. Google, Social Networks, Magazines, Websites, Billboards etc.).
• External Triggers are required to resonate with the users’ pain/emotion in terms of providing a fitting solution (e.g. Feature) for an existing pain at the right time

The four types of External Triggers

• Paid Triggers (Acquisition phase): These are money-driven and involve paid advertising channels.
• Earned Triggers (Acquisition phase): These are non-paid PR efforts, AppStore rankings, or viral content, requiring time investment, ****drive acquisition only for a limited amount of time and are rarely reproducible
• Relationship Triggers (Acquisition phase): Key component for scalability / viral hypergrowth (e.g. Product referrals from peers/other people). To properly leverage this trigger, an engaged userbase needs to be built, that is hyped to share the products’ benefits / their positive product experience.
• Owned Triggers (Retention phase): These occur post-acquisition phase when a user actively agrees to receive product information (e.g., subscribed to a newsletter, downloaded an app, signed into an account). Owned Triggers are cues like e.g. E-Mails or Push-Messages that own a share of the users’ daily attention to drive user retention.

The Objective of External Triggers:

• External triggers aim to engage users in the hooked model, eventually creating internal triggers and reducing dependency on external ones.

Building External Triggers

• Avoid using Paid Triggers for user retention or user acquisition in the longterm -> to costly
• Avoid using Dark patterns in Relationship Triggers, tricking users to invite their peers or abuse their reach on social platforms. This leads to short term growth & even higher longterm churn.
• Reduce the amount of information in the CTA to increase the possibility of the user to execute expected behavior unconsciously