The Psychology Hack Hiding in Great Products

Every message is a moment of influence. Make the nudge helpful and you'll create power users and build loyalty.

Nudge Theory is a framework for guiding user behavior through subtle, persuasive techniques. It is based on the idea that people are more likely to change their behavior if they are given a choice that is easy to make.

In other words, a little proactive messaging goes a long way.

There's a little bit of behavioral science at play when a product uses thoughtful nudges in its onboarding. Research in behavioral economics shows that small, well-timed cues can help people adopt new habits and tools more easily. In other words, a gentle nudge at the right moment can make all the difference.

That's exactly what we found with Blacksmith. It promised to speed up our CI workflows for less cost, something my team at Craftwork would benefit from immensely.

Our initial onboarding was smooth - the software generated a PR to swap our CI workflows onto their infrastructure. The speed boost was immediate, and life-changing for my team.

What really impressed me was what happened a day later - each day, I would receive an email with a new tip, rooted in behavioral insights, to guide us step-by-step on how to get the most value from Blacksmith.

From the first message, Blacksmith gently introduced us to one feature at a time. Each day, a new tip arrived - ensuring that the game-changing features the Blacksmith team built didn't get lost in my haste to try the product out on Day 1.

They could have spent a lot of time developing a slick, highly-interactive onboarding wizard -- which I almost certainly would have skipped. Instead, a slick little drip campaign offered even more value for my team.

You better believe I tried each one.

• The Wikipedia entry for Nudge Theory is a great primer - it may sound wishy-washy, but this is real behavioral science.
• Nudge Theory is, of course, a two-sided coin - there's a great paper on ethical concerns with nudging that is worth a read.

So, how will you turn this knowledge into action? Whether you're building a product or trying to influence people to be better neighbors, there is a whole lot of power in the way you reach people with your messaging.