• Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

  • By: Nir Eyal, Ryan Hoover
  • Narrated by: Nir Eyal
  • Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (4,548 ratings)

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Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products  By  cover art

Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

By: Nir Eyal,Ryan Hoover
Narrated by: Nir Eyal
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Publisher's summary

Note to Audible Listeners: As of December 2019, this version of the Hooked audiobook has been revised and rerecorded to greatly improve audio quality. Please disregard any reviews mentioning poor audio quality prior to December 2019.

Why do some products capture our attention, while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of habit? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us? This audiobook introduces listeners to the "Hooked Model", a four-step process companies use to build customer habits. Through consecutive cycles through the hook, successful products reach their ultimate goal of bringing users back repeatedly - without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging.

Hooked is a guide to building products people use because they want to, not because they have to. Written for product managers, designers, marketers, startup founders, and people eager to learn more about the things that control our behaviors, this audiobook gives listeners:

  • Practical insights to create user habits that stick.
  • Actionable steps for building products people love.
  • Behavioral techniques used by Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and other habit-forming products.
  • New for second edition! An additional case study for building health habits.

Nir Eyal distilled years of research, consulting, and practical experience to write a manual for creating habit-forming products. Nir has taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. His writing on technology, psychology, and business appears in the Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, TechCrunch, and Psychology Today. He is also the author of Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life.

©2014 Nir Eyal (P)2014 Nir Eyal

What listeners love about Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book, wish the narration was a little better.

Loved the insight on this book provides. It has changed my entire outlook on how and why I use the every day products I use. Great for aspiring entrepreneurs. If you can make it through the narration, you'll definitely get your money's worth.

8 people found this helpful

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Thank you captain obvious

This book only scratch the surface by providing some very basic examples that should be known even by someone in a jr. product position. A good example of book written by the academic world that is completely disconnected from the real business/product design world. Total waste of time.

6 people found this helpful

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Will Be Putting Hooked into Action

Awesome book, with real actionable and easily understandable concepts. I am in the process of beginning a startup and Nir's guidance is invaluable. His moral compass is what every entrepreneur needs.

5 people found this helpful

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Interesting concept, boring narration

This book was recommended to me by a colleague. It provided a useful framework to identify and amplify habit forming ideas. Some of the visuals lost in audible can be found online and very helpful.
The hard part is to keep engaged with such a monotonous narration...

5 people found this helpful

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Worst reading I've heard in about 40 Audible books

I couldn't tell if this was read by a human or computer. It is the first Audible book I have read where the narration was so bad as to make listeningb difficult.

4 people found this helpful

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This was too long and torture to listen to

The performance was fine, but honestly, it could have been 50 pages long and I could’ve done everything with just the guides. Reading and listening to this is torture. Like most business books, it could have been condensed significantly. It was too long just so the author and the publisher could make money. Plus, if you have an advanced degree in business or a thorough business education, you can figure some of this out on your own because it’s intuitive. Ugh.

3 people found this helpful

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Narrators shouldn't sound like commercials

Hooked is a great book - part of the canon of product development, and a good listen even with numerous references to charts or diagrams in the printed edition that don't translate into audio. However, the narrator on this book sounds like he's narrating an ad for a time-share. He's not telling a story, and the tempo and modulation of his voice are quite distracting. That takes away from what is an otherwise good read.

3 people found this helpful

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Great content, but not a great audio-book

What made the experience of listening to Hooked the most enjoyable?

Interesting concepts.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

He fumbled with words frequently and the audio quality felt a little off. I would recommend that they re-record this book or at least fix certain sections. I found it very distracting.

3 people found this helpful

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It was missing a Chapter and end credits

The content was good. The problem was the book is missing chapters as well as end credits.

Needs to be fixed.

Hope they update this book for those that already purchased it.

2 people found this helpful

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Amazing Book! But they switched readers :-(

Have you listened to any of Dave Wright’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I listened to the version of this book read by Nir Eyal. But when I decided to download it to my computer, it had changed to being read my this guy. Nir Eyal is WAY better!!! I have no idea why they switched. Luckily I still have the Nir Eyal version downloaded on my phone.

If I were you, I would contact Audible and request the Nir Eyal version.

Any additional comments?

This book has given me so many insights into my daily behavior as well as the behavior of those around me.

2 people found this helpful

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  • Observer
  • 06-05-15

Can't listen to narrator

Narrator makes the unbearable with his almost AI voice. Better to get the printed version.

22 people found this helpful

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  • Roland Hesz
  • 08-14-15

Probably good book killed by the reading

What did you like best about Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products? What did you like least?

The reading. It was like someone fed the text to a text-to-speech programme. It made it impossible to actually listen to the content.

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Dave Wright?

Practically anyone else.

Any additional comments?

I have to get it in printed/digital format so I can actually get what the book is about.

16 people found this helpful

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  • Carey Baird
  • 03-28-17

Terrible Terrible Terrible Narration

If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?

I can't get into it because of the narration.

Has Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products put you off other books in this genre?

No

Would you be willing to try another one of Dave Wright’s performances?

Definitely not. He reads with no understanding of the subject matter. It is impossible to follow and a robot would be better.

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I am sure the subject matter is good but I can't get into it.

Any additional comments?

Quality narration is the obvious key to audiobooks

9 people found this helpful

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  • Michael Langguth
  • 09-03-16

Don't buy

This book sounds like it's read by a computer voice. It's hard to say if it's just a really bad reader or if it's just a scam and actually read by a computer voice.

8 people found this helpful

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  • Sapientum
  • 02-16-16

Interesting book, boring reader.

This was a really hard book to complete because the reader might as well have been reading entries in the phone book. There was no hint that he understood anything he was reading and so it was all delivered in a flat monotone.

8 people found this helpful

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  • Geraint Clarke
  • 03-23-17

Horrible narration.

I'm an hour in and I have to give up. The reader sounds so robotic that no information is sinking in. It's all melding into one.

7 people found this helpful

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  • Primer
  • 07-07-18

Really poor narration

Read this book and tried to give it a second "reading" via Audible. However the narrator is so bad I couldn't get through the first few chapters.

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • dr mixos
  • 05-24-21

Eye opener

This book was ahead of its time. Breaks down the processes the digital world uses. Came here after reading indistractable

1 person found this helpful

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  • Ameet Gonsai
  • 08-17-20

Very informative

I liked the way the information is broken down and how you’re taken through each stage of the hooked Model. I’ll definitely be listening to it again as it has some very useful information if you’re a UX designer wanting to understand the aspects of habit forming within products/applications.

1 person found this helpful

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  • Sam
  • 08-29-19

amazing!!!

I love this book, straight to the point with the facts and answers, I'm training to become a product markeer and I feel like I found the book for me.

1 person found this helpful

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  • James
  • 03-08-16

Awful Narration

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The narration on this book is just horrible and I can't even finish it. I read that the original version was bad too, but the current version is so dry and boring, it makes me want to cut my ears off. I even tried speeding it up to 1.25x but it does't help.

Would you ever listen to anything by Nir Eyal again?

Yes, I was put onto this book after hearing Nir give a lecture on this topic. He came a cross as a great speaker/lecturer, but this recording has destroyed any credibility the book might have.

Would you be willing to try another one of Dave Wright’s performances?

No. Never.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products?

Re-record it with someone who is experienced and enthusiastic on the topic.

7 people found this helpful

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  • james
  • 02-28-18

Good ideas...

Good book good overall ideas. Basically a summary of Robert Cialdini book influence and Charles duhigg the power of habit.
Those are much more detailed books so if you’re looking for a summary of those works this is good for that. Not sure who is reading it but it’s very annoying the way he says Pinterest and Snapchat like he’s never heard those words before. I nearly had to stop it it was annoying me sooo much.

3 people found this helpful

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  • Sabrina Toh
  • 07-29-20

Super interesting and easy to follow

Love how Nir brought the concepts to life with well known examples and made it all practical with the Do This Now sections.

1 person found this helpful

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  • Anonymous User
  • 08-12-19

Boring narrator

Such a shame as the framework of what’s discussed is fascinating.

Hope another version comes out

1 person found this helpful

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  • Guilherme Schneider
  • 06-16-17

Great content, monotonous narrative.

Love the content. Would have been more engaging if the narrator was less robotic. An audiobook on technology spoken by in a monotonous narrative can easily become boring to follow. Other than that, Nir Eyal has a great grasp of what he is talking about. Powerful stuff, full of A-ha moments!

1 person found this helpful

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  • Chris
  • 03-05-17

Excellent information for entrepreneurs

Great source of information if you have a product in mind. The narration is a little off, but not enough to warrant the other negative reviews.

I will definitely listen again.

1 person found this helpful

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  • Jonathon Britton
  • 01-28-23

Excellent audiobook

As the founder and owner for the last 12 years of an IT company I found this book excellent. Great content which we’ll incorporate into our product strategy moving forward.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 11-26-22

Great book, really well narrated and delivered!

Great read, I think a lot of the time some authors can spend far to long harping on with long whimsical stories to reinforce their ideas and concepts, this book uses great real life examples, with a nice amount of strong supportive data to reinforce each step, process and concept without tipping into it being repetitive and fluffy! Really enjoyed the deliver from the narrator/ author as well! It’s nice to see some enthusiasm when delivering something you’re genuinely passionate about! Would highly recommend! Thanks!

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  • George Campbell
  • 06-07-22

Great listen for any product / growth / startup people

Relevant for anyone growing or building a product.

Nothing ground braking, but a good framework to think through and examine how it relates to your product.

Will likely re-listen to this again in 12 months as a refresher.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 05-04-22

Powerful insights and beautifully read by the author.

Really good content and lots of valuable lessons learned in a clearly and articulately read audiobook. Love the free supplementary content 😀