improve-retention

# Behavior Design Framework

Framework for designing products that reliably change behavior. Behavior is not about willpower or motivation — it is a design problem with a predictable equation.

## Core Principle

**The Fogg Behavior Model** = B=MAP. Behavior happens when Motivation, Ability, and a Prompt converge at the same moment.

```
            HIGH ┃
                 ┃   ★ Behavior happens
                 ┃  (above the Action Line)
                 ┃
  Motivation     ┃━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ← Action Line
                 ┃
                 ┃   ✗ Behavior fails
                 ┃  (below the Action Line)
            LOW  ┃
                 ┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
                 HARD                    EASY
                        Ability
```

**The Action Line:** When motivation and ability are sufficient, a prompt causes the behavior; below the line, no prompt works. High motivation compensates for low ability and vice versa. The reliable strategy is making behaviors easier (move right), not pumping up motivation (move up).

## Scoring

**Goal: 10/10.** When reviewing or creating product behavior design, rate it 0-10 based on adherence to the principles below. A 10/10 means full alignment with all guidelines; lower scores indicate gaps to address. Always provide the current score and specific improvements needed to reach 10/10.

## The Three Elements

### 1. Motivation

**Core concept:** Motivation is the energy for action, driven by three core motivators, each with two sides: Sensation (pleasure/pain), Anticipation (hope/fear), Belonging (acceptance/rejection). It is powerful but unreliable.

**Why it works:** Motivation comes in waves — it spikes (New Year's resolutions, product launches) and crashes (day 3, week 2). Products that depend on high motivation fail when the wave recedes; the best designs work at the trough.

**Key insights:**
- "Motivation is unreliable. Ability is not." — BJ Fogg
- Design for low-motivation moments, not peak excitement
- Motivation-first tactics (inspiring videos, aspirational messaging) produce spikes, not sustained behavior
- Match required motivation to behavior difficulty — hard behaviors need high motivation

**Product applications:**

| Context | Application | Example |
|---------|-------------|---------|
| **Onboarding** | Don't count on the new-user spike lasting | First actions work even when excitement fades |
| **Re-engagement** | Assume returning users have low motivation | Show immediate value before asking for effort |
| **Messaging** | Tap the right motivator | Social fitness → belonging; financial tool → hope |

**Copy patterns:**
- "Takes 30 seconds" (signals ease, lowers motivation needed)
- "Join 50,000 teams who..." (belonging motivator)
- "Don't lose your 7-day streak" (anticipation/fear motivator)

**Ethical boundary:** Never manufacture false hope or exploit fear — motivation tactics should connect users to genuine outcomes, not anxiety-driven compulsive usage.

See: [references/motivation-waves.md](references/motivation-waves.md) for the three motivators, motivation waves, and designing for troughs.

### 2. Ability

**Core concept:** Ability is the capacity to do the behavior — a function of the scarcest resource across six factors (the Ability Chain). If any single link is too weak, the behavior breaks.

**Why it works:** Unlike motivation, ability can be systematically engineered: every removed field, eliminated step, and preset default moves the behavior right on the model, crossing the Action Line even at low motivation. The Ability Chain gives you the diagnostic — find the weakest link and fix it.

**Key insights:**
- Six factors: Time, Money, Physical Effort, Mental Effort, Social Deviance, Non-Routine
- Simplicity is a function of the scarcest resource — find the bottleneck, not the most obvious factor
- "Simplicity changes behavior" — BJ Fogg
- Starter Steps: shrink the behavior to the tiniest version (2 minutes → 30 seconds → one field)
- Defaults are the most powerful ability tool — users rarely change them

**Product applications:**

| Context | Application | Example |
|---------|-------------|---------|
| **Signup** | Cut cost across all six factors | One-click SSO removes time, mental effort, non-routine |
| **Core action** | Fix the weakest link | Mental-effort bottleneck → smart defaults and templates |
| **Enterprise adoption** | Address social deviance | "Your team already uses this" reduces social risk |

**Copy patterns:**
- "One click to get started" (time + physical effort)
- "No technical skills needed" (mental effort)
- "Works just like tools you already use" (non-routine)

**Ethical boundary:** Reduce friction only on genuinely valuable behaviors — never make it too easy to overspend, over-share, or delete important data without confirmation.

See: [references/ability-chain.md](references/ability-chain.md) for the six factors in detail, friction audit templates, and simplification strategies.

### 3. Prompt

**Core concept:** The prompt says "do it now." Without one, behavior doesn't happen regardless of motivation and ability. Three types: Person Prompts (internal reminders), Context Prompts (environmental cues), Action Prompts (designed triggers from the product).

**Why it works:** Teams assume motivation + ability is enough — it isn't, not without a well-timed prompt. But prompts only work above the Action Line: a push notification to someone lacking motivation or ability is spam.

**Key insights:**
- A prompt at the wrong moment is noise; at the right moment, magic
- Anchor moments tie new behaviors to existing routines ("After I open Slack, I will...")
- Prompt fatigue is real — every unnecessary prompt degrades the value of future ones

**Product applications:**

| Context | Application | Example |
|---------|-------------|---------|
| **Notifications** | Prompt only above the Action Line | Send digest when there's content to review, not on a schedule |
| **Re-engagement** | Tie prompts