It's not just about building a great product. It's about building a habit.
I recently took a deep dive into an incredible Think School podcast featuring Nir Eyal, author of Hooked.
This wasn't your standard interview — it felt like a raw look into the playbook the world's biggest tech giants use to crack user engagement.
The secret engine behind their success? Uncertainty.
Think about your own daily habits. You open an app, tap a notification, and start scrolling. One reel motivates you to conquer the world. The next makes you instantly hungry. The one after that leaves you feeling a little drained.
You never know what the next swipe will bring. Will the perfect video be the 2nd, the 10th, or the nth reel?
That element of mystery — what Nir Eyal calls the "Variable Reward" — is the ultimate hook. Combine it with the sheer simplicity of the action (just flicking your thumb) and you get an endless loop of engagement.
As a vibe coder and accountech student, this completely shifted how I view product design. It's not just about building a functional tool to get a job done. The real challenge and the real magic — is creating a service that seamlessly fits into the user's daily routine.
We have to look beyond utility and start designing for the human psychology of habit.
Have you noticed this uncertainty loop in the apps you use every day? Let me know in the comments 👇
🔗 Catch the full masterclass here: https://youtu.be/Ft45pH3fYok