Businesses need to understand consumers better than they understand themselves: Nir Eyal

Creating customer habits around products is a constant challenge for businesses, both big and small. In his book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, Nir Eyal talked about creating products compelling enough to "hook' their users. The part-time academic, entrepreneur, angel investor and author will look at the the psychology behind what drives user behaviour and how to build products to cater to core human needs at a VCCircle Training workshop on May 20 at Singapore. In this interview with Techcircle.in, Eyal talks about the most neglected step in building a habit-forming product, his mantra for investing in a startup and insights into psychological attributes for winning businesses. Edited excerpts:

What are the attributes you look at while assessing an angel investment opportunity? I look for GEMs. GEM stands for growth, engagement and monetisation. Each of these three elements are necessary but not sufficient. Before I invest, I want to understand how the company will grow its user base, how the product uses consumer psychology to keep people engaged, and how it will ultimately monetise.

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