Why understanding the core behaviour of the user matters?

With every product usage behaviour there is the nature of the user. The key is to tap into this nature and nurture it. This will help with the habit formation of the user around the product.

If nature is not aligned properly with nurture, either users will think the product is spamming them or they will forget all about it. The nature component has to be aligned with nurture in order to create a successful usage habit pattern.

The first step here is to define the nature of the user. In order to understand nature, we should step into the user’s shoes and map out their usage map. A typical usage map consists of following attributes

***Problem → Persona → Why → Alternatives → Frequency

Let’s take an example of Pinterest in order to understand the usage map.

1. The problem could be something like this “I want to look at something interesting to pass the time”
2. The second step is to define who might be facing the above problem. Let’s assume the target audience here are females from 25 to 40 years who might not be working competitive jobs and have some time to kill.
3. Third step is to understand why the target audience will use your product to solve their problem. For interest it could be, the users can find relevant pictures and tutorials easily.
4. Then the next step is to understand what are the alternatives available today for the user. In this case it could be magazines, google etc. Alternatives do not have to be the direct competitors.
5. The last step is we should find out what is the frequency in which targeted users face this problem. In the case of Pinterest, frequency of use could be weekly.