Technique · Hooked
Ask for investment right after the reward
Move asks for effort (save, rate, add your role, connect a tool) from before the first result to right after it, when users have just received something and are most willing to give back.
Plain label: ask for effort after valueAlso known as: reciprocity, ask after value, profile completion timing, help first then ask, preference capture
How it works
People tend to return favors, even to software that helped them. An ask that follows a useful result reads as a fair exchange; the same ask before any value is a toll, and users drop out at it.
What the research says
People did almost twice as much work for a computer that had helped them as for one that hadn't.
Fogg & Nass (Stanford), as cited in Hooked Ch.5, 1997
Before you start
- The value event is tracked.
How to build it
- Web
- Move profile questions from the sign-up wall to the first success screen ('Add your role to tailor the next report').
- Mobile
- After a good result, offer to save it to a collection or rate it.
- B2B
- After the first automatic fix, ask the admin to confirm a setting that improves the next run.
- E-commerce
- After delivery, ask for size or style preferences that improve future picks.
What can go wrong
- Using gratitude to extract contacts or payment details.
- An ask so big it outweighs the reward.
Pairs well with
- Stage asks from easy to hard.
- Make each ask set up the next trigger.
In practice
Where it shows up
Limits
What we don’t claim
- The Hook Model is a practical design tool, not a validated or complete theory of behavior.Hooked, Introduction
- Left Brain and Right Brain are a metaphor for extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, not a claim about neuroscience.Actionable Gamification Ch.13, pp.342-343
Sources
Hooked · Nir Eyal
Ch.5 · Intro
Source IDs: HK-INV01HK-INV02HK-INV33
Book content is paraphrased, never quoted at length. Last verified October 24, 2026.
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