How to leverage user motivation for growth?

Why do we who are engaged in growth need to pay attention to and learn about motivation theory? Because understanding user motivations can help us better design products and stimulate users to perform the behaviors we want.

"Records of the Grand Historian" records such a story: Early in the morning in the city, the streets were crowded with people, some pushing bags of grain in wheelbarrows, and some driving pigs and sheep to the market to exchange for daily necessities. The shops also opened early, with the owners and their assistants coming in and out, busy with the first wave of business. Scholars, farmers, merchants, businessmen, peddlers, and all kinds of people come and go, and the streets are very lively.

Someone asked, "Why are so many people running around so early in the morning?"

There is a very classic saying in "Records of the Grand Historian" that can explain it: The world is bustling with people, all for the sake of profit; the world is in turmoil, all for the sake of profit.

This story reveals to us the simplest truth, that is, the actions of each of us are purposeful, or in other words, there is a driving force behind the actions of each of us. In psychology, this drive is called motivation .

Why do we who are engaged in growth need to pay attention to and learn about motivation theory? Because understanding user motivations can help us better design products and stimulate users to perform the behaviors we want.

What is motivation?

Motivation is a category of psychology, and it has a scientific definition: Motivation is a process that can inspire and maintain an individual to engage in activity and leads the activity to a certain goal. It has a wide range of applications, the more mature ones include management and education. In product design, the more famous one is: gamification thinking.

When do we who work in growth usually discuss motivation? Think about what are the most common ways we motivate users?

"Reward, reward, reward" .

When it comes to motivation, we can think of this routine, "When users complete A, we give reward B", stimulating user behavior through rewards.

However, if we only know how to motivate user behavior through rewards, it will not only cost the company huge operating costs, but sometimes it may not be effective. As for our own growth, if we keep using this routine, it will easily lead to "path dependence" and limit our thinking.

So, at this time, we need to broaden our horizons and tap into more user motivations to help us grow.

Extrinsic vs Intrinsic Motivation

We are all talking about rewards, so what kind of motivation are rewards? "Reward" belongs to "extrinsic motivation" in the category of motivation. To put it in a more vivid way, it is like a bait that lures users to do something, and it creates a "pulling" force on users.

But is there a way to motivate users to do this and create an internal "push"? In fact, there is. This kind of motivation is called "intrinsic motivation" in motivation theory.

If we use a more scientific definition, it is:

• Extrinsic motivation: refers to motivation that comes from external factors, such as for a certain goal or for a certain reward. Rewards can be tangible (money, prizes, certificates, etc.) or intangible (praise, support, recognition, etc.).
• Intrinsic motivation: refers to motivation that arises from internal factors. A person who is intrinsically motivated will act even without external rewards or punishments. Behavior driven by intrinsic motivation can bring him joy, achievement, meaning and inheritance, thus making him happier.

As product makers, we of course hope that users will use our products and participate in our activities. This is all based on intrinsic motivation, and using them is their greatest enjoyment.

In order to further understand "extrinsic motivation" and "intrinsic motivation", I quoted Edward L. Deci's self-determination theory to explain it to you.

We regard the strength of motivation as a spectrum: the leftmost side is lack of motivation, which means that the user is not interested at all, and the middle is extrinsic motivation. It can be seen that if extrinsic motivation can be taken to the extreme, it can also be internalized into "integrated and regulated extrinsic motivation" which is closest to intrinsic motivation. The strongest motivation is the intrinsic motivation on the far right.

The further to the right on the spectrum, the greater the user's autonomy, the more internal their motivation, and the more enjoyment they feel. As for the extrinsic motivation on the far left, users will feel controlled, lack autonomy, and feel led by the nose.

So, when we work on growth, isn’t it because we hope that even if users cannot obtain intrinsic motivation, they can still generate stronger extrinsic motivation? Ultimately, we hope to increase his motivation through operational means and make him willing to perform the behavior we envision.

3 core elements to help you improve user motivation

What are some ways to increase user motivation? In fact, the core idea is to move the user's motivation from the left side of the spectrum to the right side.

Edward L. Deci summarized 3 points:

（1） Let users feel autonomous

If you can make the user feel that it is completely his own decision and he wants to do something from the bottom of his heart, then his motivation will be stronger. On the contrary, if the user feels that he is being controlled by you or is forced to do something, his motivation will be weaker.

For example: Ant Forest, after all, is a product designed to increase the activity of Alipay. If it tells you how many points you can get for planting a tree, this is pure reward incentive.

In fact, we all know that in Ant Forest, if you spend a lot of effort to plant a big tree, Alipay will really help you plant a tree in the desert, and it will be named after you. This kind of reward is an "intrinsic reward". It gains more recognition from you by giving tree planting the meaning of "public welfare" and makes you voluntarily plant trees.

Autonomy actually leads to further topics. The latest research result of self-determination theory is: self-consistency. If you feel that what you are doing is valuable, meaningful, and consistent with your interests and core values, then you will be more motivated.

For example: In the securities industry, how to allow users to deposit funds is a topic we have been studying. The principle is the same as above. How to convince users that "deposit now, the market is good, new IPOs are hot, and can help you make money" may gain more user recognition than "deposit now and you can get a 200 yuan reward".

（2）Enable users to complete the tasks you set

Competence is the "user's expectation", expectation = the possibility that the user feels of achieving the goal. If users feel that completing their goals is simple and they are capable of doing it, their motivation will be stronger. On the contrary, if users feel that something is difficult and troublesome to do, their expectations will be lowered and their motivation will also decrease.

For example: Take studying as an example. Under the guidance of your teacher, you are told that Olympiad mathematics can add extra points in the college entrance examination, which motivates you to study Olympiad mathematics. But in the learning process, you find that Olympiad mathematics is too difficult, it is simply not something a human can do, and you feel that you are not capable of it. Slowly, you will lose motivation.

The inspiration for our product is to make users become fools and not let them think too much about how to achieve their goals. We must ensure the smoothness of the product process and provide clear guidance. Otherwise, users may lose motivation faster than you think.

(3) Make users feel a sense of belonging

The last one is a sense of belonging, which is whether users can feel cared for, understood and supported in their surroundings. If you can feel it, the more motivated you are.

As I understand it, the reason why the old man puts "social needs" in such an important position of 1/3 is that he probably wants to tell us that social needs themselves are a very strong intrinsic motivation, which can motivate user behavior. This motivation is also the most important intrinsic motivation in gamification thinking.

For example: Recently we are studying how to enable APP users to share more of our product features. In addition to stimulating users to share product features through rewards, the most important thing is that we can give them social coins to meet their social needs. For example, in our profit and loss analysis function, if I tell users that they can get 100 points by sharing their daily income, this motivation is very weak. If I can help users demonstrate their earnings on the product, such as “50% earnings today, making a fortune every day”, to create an image of profitability for them, I think it will be difficult for them not to share it.

In fact, from this point of view, the "5 Social Currencies" summarized by Li Jiaoshou can already explain very well what the motivations of users to share are? To get topics of conversation, to express one's own ideas, to shape one's own image, to share useful information, and to compare with others. When we consider user incentives, if we can combine them with their social needs, their motivation will increase exponentially.

Focus on the two stages of motivation

In addition to improving user motivation through the above three factors, we also need to focus on the two stages of motivation generation:

1. Generate motivation to start;
2. Stay motivated to continue.

We use certain operational methods to motivate users to engage in certain behaviors. If it is a simple task, the user will probably complete it quickly. However, if the task requires a certain threshold and a certain amount of time to complete, the user's motivation is likely to be interrupted.

Let’s take a learning example: a student decided to learn Spanish. He was very excited at first, bought books, and found many tutorials. In less than a week, he learned hundreds of words and mastered the basic grammatical structure. He felt very excited. After two weeks, his progress began to slow down, his learning gains were decreasing, and he had to spend a lot of time reviewing the words he had learned instead of learning new words.

Gradually the progress slowed down, the high he felt at the beginning had disappeared, and learning had become an obstacle. After another two weeks, he began to interrupt his studies. After a week, he stopped studying altogether.

I believe this is the situation for most people. It is difficult for us to find a motivation that can keep us going for so long because there are too many temptations around us. Isn’t watching TV series fun? Isn’t the game fun? Even if you are very motivated at the beginning, it is easy to fall into a trough, which is called Dip.

So, in addition to generating motivation to start, we also need to focus on “how to keep users motivated to continue”. We all know that motivation is a psychological process. Simply generating motivation cannot help users move towards a certain goal. If it is a more complex task, we also need to find ways to help users maintain motivation.

The trick to staying motivated is simple, just two reasons: increase your reasons to continue and reduce your reasons to stop. If your reasons to continue are greater than your reasons to stop, you will move forward.

I have just mentioned three reasons for the increase, the most important of which is to increase user expectations and the value of doing this. What are the reasons for the reduction? (1) Reduce distractions; (2) Increase timely feedback.

Conclusion

Recently, I have been discussing motivation theory at work and in a book club. So I plan to summarize my understanding of this area in recent years.

Some people may ask, why are some of the more classic motivation theories not mentioned? For example, Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, Freud's psychoanalysis, Hull's drive theory, Victor Vroom's expectancy theory, gamification theory, etc. My reason is that, on the one hand, motivation theory was not really developed until the 1930s. As mentioned in organizational behavior, many motivation theories actually lack empirical evidence, and it is difficult for us to prove whether they are correct.

On the other hand, when we do growth, we mainly try to extract the essence from motivation theory, remove the dross, and enrich our ideas. Reject "pure reward thinking" and refuse to only consider superficial issues. I hope that motivation theory can help us understand users’ psychology, find inspiration for products, operations and design, and help us better achieve our growth goals. As long as this effect can be achieved, I think this article is not written in vain.

Finally, let me talk about my personal learning path. Regarding motivation theory, I got the enlightenment from Yu-kai Chou’s "Practical Gamification" and then started to study different motivation theories.

When I was writing, I found that the article was getting longer and longer, so I had to choose an angle to write "What inspiration can motivation theory give us in achieving growth?" Interested readers can discuss with me how motivation theory can help us.

Author: Wang Zhouzhou

Source: Wang Zhouzhou