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Fogg Behavior Model

behaviormodel.org

73 pointsvitabenes16 comments

One of my previous teams paid to have Fogg come in and train us on both his behavior model, and also on how to do feature planning.

The lesson on feature planning was revolutionary for my team. We went from shouting and arguing during planning meetings to everyone walking out happy with all the decisions that were made. He teaches a truly amazing process.

The behavior model itself is super useful for user journeys. My biggest take away is that when someone first downloads an application (or signs up on a website) they do so because they have a problem they want to solve, and at that moment there is a level of motivational energy that they are willing to spend. Be it adding pictures to a dating app or going through an onboarding process. If that first use is too complex, the user's motivation is exhausted and they'll drop out.

Reminds me of http://bokardo.com/talks/designing-for-social-traction.pdf

How's the process of getting him to present go? I'm interested in doing the same!

I actually have no idea, but I know he does it regularly! He discussed doing it at other companies so I know we weren't a one off!

Interesting. Can you describe what your (previous) team worked on? Was it an engineering team? I have experienced many good engineering teams who discuss calmly and with little friction, but when the big business stakeholders (and egos) come in, it's a different story.

It was an engineering team but we had a mix on the room of engineering, PMs, and senior leadership.

It was a very stressful project, we only had a tiny % of the resources we needed, and everyone had their belief as to the best way to navigate the maelstrom and come out the other side.

We were also all very invested in the product space (fitness) but in different aspects of it (e.g. running vs weight training) and we had no budget for market research. So for a long time (until BJ Fogg came along!) feature planning was "who is arguing the loudest for their point of view".

Then again this was classic Microsoft for the longest time, after all this is the company that had weekly "war room" meetings.

That this kind of basic understanding of human behavior and interaction is no longer considered common sense, at least within the business domains he's targeting, is pretty sad. How it lost its place in the basic toolkit of dealing with people isn't clear to me, but in mentoring startups over the last several years I've certainly noticed its absence and also that some are actually resistant to such ideas (although I suspect that's due more to vanity and wish-based thinking than any intellectual reasoning).

The above is in no way intended to denigrate or disagree with Fogg's work or its usefulness. In fact I applaud him for providing such work and hope that it is successful enough that it restores such knowledge of human behavior back in the expected canon of common sense.

I don't understand who you are saying thinks that people doing what they want to do if they can do it when they remember/are prompted isn't common sense. I have only read the page that is posted here about Fogg's behavioral model, but I don't see how it is useful. Obviously you need ability and motivation and a prompt to do something. Do you also need a bunch of Foggy jargon to do what you _really_ want to do?

Can you explain what you mean or maybe specific examples where you "noticed its absence"? Maybe then I'd get it.

You're limiting it to "I want to do something, I need reminders" but it also applies when you're trying to convince people to do something as well, such as sales or particular behavior in apps. I can't begin to count the number of times that someone ignores the level of motivation and requisite "ability," in most cases mental/time costs, in something like account creation on a site. A barrage of fields irrelevant to the actual necessities of account creation get shoved in because "we want marketing data" or some other idiocy because either they discount the barriers they're erecting or wildly overestimating the motivation.

Here is a review/summary of Dr. Fogg's 2020 book: Tiny Habits. http://muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2020/02/tiny-habits-2020.ht...

I've read Atomic Habits. Are these habits even smaller?

Probably. One simple habit is just getting out of the bed and saying "Today is going to be a great day!"

I haven't read the book but I posted mainly because I found the behavior model useful.

Much of the basis for James Clear’s Atomic Habits is based on and references BJ Fogg’s research at Stanford.

As I see it, James forked Tiny Habits to make it more marketable and has had great success selling books and courses under the Atomic Habits brand.

BJ opted to provide his Tiny Habits materials and 5 day course for free as it generated more data points to support his research.

Having now read both books, I certainly appreciate the plain spoken / matter of fact style of Tiny Habits compared to Atomic Habits which felt more hyped.

Atomic Habits is interesting.

Tiny Habits is great. It is deep while being approachable. BJ Fogg is not only a serious researcher, but also a superb teacher.

Tiny Habits is a book to buy, to read, and to apply to your life (both personal and professional).

If you are serious about improvement, it is essential.

Related comment from a couple months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21920556

BJ's models are breathtakingly simple and universally applicable. Highly recommended reading

Reply on news.ycombinator.com