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Psych Framework:
Visualize Your Customer Experience The Simple Way
Growth.Design — Product Psychology Masterclass
Module 1 · Lesson 3
Imagine two different people working at two different companies…
James has a 100% chance of signing up, while—
—Allison barely has a 5% chance of signing up.
What could explain such a difference? Well—
Let's call them James and Allison.
They are both about to sign up for a software that's new to them, but—
…his boss told him that he needs to signup to a team collaboration software called "Confluence" to see the procedure and request his time-off so…
…even though James never heard of Confluence before, he'll do pretty much anything to sign up.
(it'll lead to free money in his pockets, after all)
He's psyched!
—James is a product designer who wants to request some 💰 paid time off (PTO) and…
On the other hand…
Allison (a Chief Operations Officer) is looking for a team wiki for her whole company of 300 people.
It's a stressful decision. She doesn't want a clunky app that no one will want to use.
We could represent both situations in the Behavior M.A.P. we saw in the previous lesson.
But to represent multiple interactions in a screen or multiple steps in a journey, it's sometimes easier to use a mental shortcut called—
The Psych Framework.
Think of Psych as a precious cognitive resource. Like…
…⚡️ battery charge in a Tesla or even…
…🧪 action points in a video game.
In fact, you can think of your customers as the hero of a (very hard) video game…
…the only way to have the hero survive is to keep them psyched up because…
…if their Psych Level drops too much, they won't be able to do anything and—
—it's 💀 game over for them.
(…and for you!)
So two things to remember:
1) Every action will either
add or subtract Psych.
2) Motivating users is as important as reducing friction.
And there are psychological reasons behind them…
Psych'd Framework
Several years ago, I used to call this video game analogy applied to user experience "Action Points".
When I later heard Darius Contractor talking about "Psych Points" during a Openview Podcast1, I found it so close that I thought it'd be simpler to use his terminology to amplify the message.
So I just wanted to give our friend Darius a grateful hat tip for that clever term!
1Build Podcast, How Dropbox Reached 1B$Do you remember the BMAP Impact Levers from the last lesson? Well…
B =
M
· A
· P
Your job is to help them achieve their quest (not just your business goals).
And since your experience is filled with friction…
…experiences that align with someone's Motivations will—
—increase their Psych.
And experiences that don't—
—will lower it.
Ability
Motivation
B =
M
· A
· P
But here's where it gets interesting…
🌈 Hope
← Fear / Hope →
💚 Pleasure
← Pain / Pleasure →
🤝 Acceptance
← Rejection / Acceptance →
Friction = less Ability.
Which means…
Ability
Motivation
B =
M
· A
· P
…people have to use more Psych to take action.
Notice that you can't generate Psych through Ability.
Even smallest of actions will require energy* from your Psych Tank.
*This is similar to the Laws of Physics, where "frictionless environments" are impossible.
The best you can do is try to minimize how much Psych you burn by reducing friction.
(you'll see how in Module 2).
⏰ Time
💰 Money
💪 Physical Capacity
🧠 Mental Capacity
🤝 Practice (Routine/Habit)
Net Perceived Value
According to behavioral economics, the human brain constantly (and sometimes subconsciously) perceives value as the result of Expected Utility1 minus the Expected Interaction Cost.
In other words…
NPV = Motivation - 🔥 Friction
1Behavioral Economics, Expected UtilityBut friction isn't always bad. In fact—
—it can have a net positive impact on the user's Psych Level if that "good friction" aligns with the user's motivations.
That's why carefully adding valuable steps in a user experience can sometimes increase the overall conversion rate (despite the small extra time/effort required).
So from a behavioral psychology perspective, it's the equivalent of—
—taking the Ability axis of the Behavioral Map and…
…overlapping it with the Motivation axis to get—
—the Psych Level!
🕹 Ability
💙 Motivation
🕹 Ability
🕹 Ability
🧪 Psych Level
Psych = Motivation · Ability
M
· A
B =
M
· A
· P
Psych = M · A
Now let's apply this with a concrete example—
—oh wait! I almost forgot this is only a lesson sample.
The rest of this story is for paid students only.
But the good news is that you can freely—
…explore the Learn, Practice, and Apply sections below this presentation!