Five whys to an emotion

• Diagnostic question

  How customers pay

  revenue model question

  Finds the revenue model, which decides whether paying should wait for a habit or is itself the value event.

• Diagnostic question

  What does a great customer do?

  value event question

  Finds the value event and how often it should happen.

• Diagnostic question

  What kind of product this is

  archetype question

  Places the product in an archetype, which sets default cadences, routes and which stages get emphasis.

• Diagnostic question

  How often a devoted user should come back

  devoted cadence question

  Sets a realistic devoted-user frequency from typical loyal users, never extreme ones, which every habit metric is measured against.

• Diagnostic question

  How much better than the alternative

  perceived utility question

  Rates perceived utility against the best alternative, the second axis of the Habit Zone placement.

• Diagnostic question

  Does the business need a habit?

  business fit question

  Checks whether the business needs unprompted repeat use or grows through trust and referrals on occasional purchases.

Sources

• Hooked · Nir Eyal

  Ch.2

Source IDs: HK-Q21 · HK-T04

Book content is paraphrased, never quoted at length. Last verified October 24, 2026.