What Product Managers should learn from Squid Game?
I was astonished to see the squid game and the story behind it, From Director failing multiple times before releasing the show. It is one of the highest watched Netflix TV series ever worldwide. But here’s the catch I observed some key psychological insight from the series. Some of them could be well used by product managers.
Since product managers constantly engage users, It is very important for them to understand the psychology of users. As Nir Eyal mentions “Habit-forming products often start as nice to have, but once the habit is formed, They become must-haves.”
Humans are constantly hooked to their mobile phones, from early morning to late night. Technology has taken a considerable amount of time in our lives. They act as an essential part of communication, Information, and leisure. With so many products now built every minute. How would you ensure that your product has the right hook to engage users for a longer period of time.
Many Apps now have evolved and are in constant search of attention. Below are 3 types of users
Explorator:- These types of users often tend to explore. They open the App to see what's happening or what they want to buy. They have things in mind but often like to explore more before buying. Or users who tend to stalk people on social media but do not like or comment. They are active users but tend to keep exploring various platforms. Instagram and WhatsApp stories are one example of Amazon.
Ex:- Users want to explore connections or see what's happening on Facebook.
Locator:- Users who are very specific on why they are using the app and a clear purpose behind it. The category which falls under this would be food Apps or Ridesharing apps.
Ex:- Uber, Talabat, Deliveroo
Dreamer:- Users who want to spend leisure time just by browsing around, Which creates high dopamine to the users tend to fall under this category. Dreamers spend more time on any platform they come across.
Ex:- Tiktok, Youtube/shorts, Facebook, Instagram/Reels.
Now understanding the types of users, Now let's explore types of behavior of psychological factors that could be understood well from the squid game.
Reward Brings Back Users
Users tend to return to the app if the reward given to them is consistent. It does not matter if the reward is bigger or smaller. But more the bigger reward, the higher the engagement towards the platform. Also, the frequency of reward when reduced will increase more engagement as users tend to come and check every time. No matter how harmful the consequences might be users tend to come back whenever the reward is announced.
Porn Apps like Brazzers and others have often the highest percentage of retained users. Every time a user engages with content his mind releases a higher amount of dopamine. which further excites the user. He tends to return back for the need for dopamine and spend hours browsing content.
Never before Offers like the yellow Friday sale or the Black Friday sale. Users tend to return to the platform and explore products without the intention of buying. But when they see rewards in terms of savings due to discounts they end up buying more than they presumed.
Food offers or One-off offers like Nugges and triggers based on your past ordering history bring back the users again. Your favorite burger is now 1+ 1. Your favorite Milkshake joint has no delivery fee. Users tend to engage more when prices drop OR when the reward is doubled like 1+1.
Humans stick to each other
Users tend to engage more when they are all involved together. Friends and family hold each other and create a virality factor.
Products that could engage Friends and Family better are here to stay. Many users feel a single product that could solve the problems for their family and could be used by everyone is adding value to them.
The cancellation of Netflix subscription is lower as many members of the family are engaged in it. Group pricing works best for products that are built for leisure and a longer period of time. Multiple series are being watched by everyone and sometimes single series by all. Group pricing works best for families, with each having separate logins.
Friends like to shop together, Companies like Pinduoduo and Yunji are examples of group buying. Users tend to buy in groups and save money on discounts together. This behavior trend has quickly caught up in recent times. Imagine a flash sale going on and you along with your whole group tend to buy together making the prices lower, resulting in savings and free delivery.
Clubhouse users inviting friends to join by sharing a special invite link. The clubhouse is using a velvet Rope strategy which is sending friends invites and asking him/them to join the group for the discussion. Clubhouse grew more than 50% using this strategy in the early few months.
Let users Put in the hard work
Just like the sugar melting game in the series. Let the users figure out themselves and put in the hard work. May the methods are different but hard work creates a feeling of earned happiness or earned victory. This makes them more inclined towards the product. The best example of this is IKEA users who put in the hard work to assemble the furniture and it creates a sense of ownership to the fine craft of furniture. Users feel happy and satisfied after the hard work put in.
The actual act of putting something together (even though there may be sweat, swearing, and tears involved) so that it becomes a complete object generates a much more favorable perception of that object than it would purchase it in a completed form. The phenomenon is known as the Ikea effect.
Hellochef and Gousto sell recipe boxes along with the perfect proportion of ingredients in them. Users mostly family put in the effort to go through the recipe and cook together, in the end, food is earned not bought.
This means that when we touch something the emotive part of our brain is activated so that we experience a close connection with the product. Touch creates feelings of ownership and increases the perceived value we have of items. Thus the happy assembler of the flat-pack boxes to food, once finished, feel proud of their achievement and experiencing feelings of being closely connected to the item.
Pokemon Go, Fitbit group challenge Augmented reality games all use the same possible means to attract users and grow the userbase. People tend to enjoy the process of building when hard work is put in to earn rewards.
Linkedin makes users feel that they have accomplished a challenge after completing their profile making them feel challenged each time.
Players watch others and then follow
Users tend to follow each other before buying or making decisions. Being customer-centric is very important for any product.
Google pay hit a 67 Million user base in 2020, And it's still expanding its user base amid the late entry into payments space in India. Also, the payments space was highly competitive in India likes Paytm, phone, and Mobivik already present.
Google pay has the simplest and easiest UI/UX element which made the company easily onboard users quickly than others. Users switched to google pay for any transactions compared to other payment players. This leveraged the company to built gamification tools like scratch and win. Users were completely hooked to the process created by google pay. Easy and simple transactions were the core of it.
Since many engaged in google pay as the primary means of transaction due to simple UI/UX others often had to switch to google pay aswell so as to send and receive money. Even today google pay does not focus itself to be a super app but only solves the core means of sending money or receiving money. Recently they started with utility payment services.
Remember WhatsApp updated its terms and conditions recently, There was a significant turf of users jumping to download signal. The Signal app was downloaded almost 1.3 million times on Monday, according to data from Apptopia, a tracking firm. The encrypted messaging app had been downloaded an average of 50,000 times a day prior to Musk’s tweet. The New York Times earlier reported the Apptopia data.
Well adding to the fire was also Musks tweet. Signal is funded by the nonprofit Signal Foundation. The service has no ads and is offered free of charge. Brian Acton, a co-founder of WhatsApp who left following its acquisition by Facebook, initially bankrolled the foundation with $50 million. Elon Musk is one of the early backers of the signal.
Psychology of users followed each other in herds, while some were aware of the privacy policy and while some weren't aware of the privacy policy. Millions downloaded it, while few used them continuously But having a product that is the first-mover advantage will surely get many users. Many users tend to follow the wave and explore the products.
Players have earned the Premium Dinner
Ownership is a great tool to attract users and show them that they have earned a status. Products that show ownership to the user in terms of prime users for Amazon show them a sense of ownership and premium benefits that they can get.
Zomato Gold was one of the most successful loyalty programs, It enabled users to get 1+1 or 2+2. In return, it drew a lot of attention from restaurant owners aswell.
Zomato Gold onboarded 150k users in 3 months' time, The company states that 40 percent of its total sales were referral driven and it has also found a 3x increase in Zomato traffic on Gold vis-a-vis non-Gold restaurants.
India is the third country after UAE (Dubai, Abu Dhabi) and Portugal (Lisbon and Porto) where it has introduced the Gold membership program.
Avatars many multiverse games have come up with avatars, Avatars make users feel being different. one such example is NFTs, People who buy NFTs choose to show the world with a sense of ownership by changing the profile picture of WhatsApp, zoom, Google to the avatar they have bought.
Badges and Tiers are other examples that the airline industry uses to hook users to business class. showing a different badge for business class makes users feel special and hooked to the same airline.
Pokemon Go engages the user by showing the levels he has reached by earning pokemon. It has worked very well for them to retain users for a longer period of time.
In the end, I strongly feel the Squid game has a very clear understanding of human psychology. We, humans, are programmed very differently from each and other due to culture, upbringing, country, and ethnics but they're some of the common traits which we all share. Great products are the ones that are triggered well by understanding the user personas and have created a loop. Factors that can be used to trigger small wins for users along with accomplishment will increase higher engagement.
