Quick pulse check — Would anyone be interested in how I used behavioral psychology to double user engagement month over month for 6 months straight on a social media product? Just testing the group’s appetite for deeper behavioral psychology insights — happy to share if there’s interest.
Hey, i dont have a product but have been thinking of building one. Sooooo would love to hear you!!
Sure Saba K. — I’ll try to keep it brief. This was a months long Behavior Systems (BX) Audit project for one of my clients: Torqn, a social media platform for mechanics in commercial mining. Goal: Uncover low-effort, high-impact ways to increase key behavior frequency (posting) and overall user engagement. The Challenge: Users were creating accounts but not posting — and becoming inactive within 2 weeks. Why? Initial Hypothesis: When users churn quickly after account creation without doing the key behavior, two system-level issues are usually present:
Missing Value: Users are not guided to the first moment of value (i.e. key behavior) during their first interaction
Missing Reinforcement: Even if the key behavior happens, it isn’t reinforced — so it doesn’t stabilize into a routine
Behavioral Research & Profile: We first researched the target audience to build a behavioral profile:
What motivates them?
What does “value” mean to them in context?
What frictions or barriers exist in their real-world usage environment?
Value Insight: We confirmed that users saw the platform as a way to get technical support from other experts when something important came up. But they weren’t experiencing that value in time. BX Audit Findings: ✅ Missing Value: Users were not guided through the key behavior during the first interaction — killing early engagement ✅ Missing Reinforcement: The posting behavior wasn’t reinforced — most posts got no replies, so users felt ignored 🆕 Time Sensitivity Insight: Support replies had to come quickly to be valuable — if they arrived too late, they lost all perceived relevance 🆕 Prompt Gap: Experts who could reply were not being prompted, so support wasn’t happening at the right time 🆕 Ability Barrier: The posting flow was too difficult in the field, especially during time-sensitive breakdowns Interventions Implemented:
Teach the Behavior: Guided users through the key behavior during onboarding so they could experience early value
Reduce Friction: Simplified the posting process to make it doable even in high-pressure, on-site situations
Timely Prompting: When a user created an “urgent” post, we triggered real-time push notifications to relevant experts with matching machine knowledge
Reinforcement: Timely replies themselves acted as reinforcement — no extra gamification needed
Results: After implementation, Torqn saw an
average 96% MoM increase in engagement over the next 6 months.
onboarding completion rate improved from ~10% to ~95%.
I hope that helps. Feel free to ask follow up questions. CC: Beth P. Mickey G.
This is good stuff. Its all about value to user… in real time and over time.. good insights here. Thanks
Thanks DeQuincy (.. Appreciate you reinforcing my posting behavior 😉 Note the importance of an aligned prompt → behavior → reinforcement sequence. Technically, it was already in the product — just not aligned properly. It’s also worth noting that the app https://www.torqn.com/ is a category leader in its industry and recently launched into a new vertical: construction. This was very much a make-or-break situation. It goes to show: a product can already contain everything it needs, but if it's misaligned with user behavior in the moment, it can still fail to gain traction.
It’s something I totally agree with in fact my whole website (almost launched!!) champions in the very tone it takes.. to me its not about pretty UX but something I call VU (Value to User) My website is live, in Beta form so don’t fill in the forms just yet… lol hopefully by Monday they will be fully integrated… But have a look at https://fnpnow.com/discovery And that is also explained in the the https://fnpnow.com/philosophy/ The fact I have an “About You” section shows its fundamental to me to understand my users rather than an about us section.. Not saying I got it completely right.. This is brave new stuff!! Would love to know points of improvement from a behavioural expert like yourself… My whole website design, down to every full stop, space and image is about deep, long lasting Value to User… my ideal user. In my humble opinion.
Sure, DeQuincy (. (FNPnow.com) — it looks minimalistic, and I love it. Thank you for not overloading me (as a potential user) with content ❤️ In the spirit of progress, let me be brutally honest with you. First of all — your website currently shows up as "dangerous", which is a critical issue. Second — I may be missing the full context of how users will arrive at your site, but looking at the header section, I’m not clear on the actual value proposition. It says:
“Start Your Discovery. This is where you see what’s really going on — and what to do next. It’s self-discovery for you, and, if needed, strategic diagnosis from us.”
But… what’s really going on with what? Self-discovery in what sense? Are you assessing my skills? My personality? Guiding my mushroom trip? 😉 Unless every user arrives already knowing what you do, they’ll likely feel uncertain about the offer. And uncertainty kills motivation very quickly. If you were to promote this via Google Ads, I’d estimate that 25–30% of users won’t even scroll down. Now, I did scroll and read through the entire site — and I still don’t fully get what the value proposition is. My guess: it’s some kind of strategy discovery process for a business, guided by quizzes. So the value I receive would be: clarity on my business or brand strategy, correct? I feel like you’re circling very close, but just need that extra push to nail it. Maybe we can work it out here in chat — or we could definitely lock it in during a quick call sometime next week, if you’re up for it.
First point first.. thanks for going over the whole site and yes as hopefully you at least picked up I liek working with people.. my sleeves rolled up.. First of all — your website currently shows up as "dangerous", which is a critical issue. I'm coding this myself.. nothing like a boot strap right!! Will figure out how to fix this but if you could help that would be great.. You are right we have to assume people come in blind and land on the page itself and I have no who we are or what we do on it.. As basic explanation we are a business development consultancy and co builder.. we don't just give you a report.. we actually look at live hands on steps to get you where you need to be. But I need to explain that on every page, in page context without over repetition. and that leads to the your point.. But… what’s really going on with what? Self-discovery in what sense? Are you assessing my skills? My personality? Guiding my mushroom trip? 😉 Unless every user arrives already knowing what you do, they’ll likely feel uncertain about the offer. And uncertainty kills motivation very quickly. Thanks for showing how people interpret this and how I need more clarity.. To explain here and fix on the website very shortly.. burning the midnight oil.. right now.. The discovery section is two mini brainstorms .. Once I explain it better founders will answer the questions. They are reflective questions which really help to understand what your vision is and a starting point of a successful business.. who are your ideal customers.. Did you look at the questions at all? The forms are live but not quite fixed on the backend.. they will be by Monday but if you look at them maybe that would give some insight in how they are helpful...? https://fnpnow.com/about-you/ and https://fnpnow.com/ideal-client/ Now once you have seen the questions maybe you can help me work backwards to an explanation .. of why they are useful.. is that ok..
To your experiance, Saba K. how oftern does that happen? Most of the time, there’s no testing. The reality is that teams often move from CEO idea → design → 6–12 months of development → release, only to see no traction — and that’s when the questions (or blame) begin. Why? Overconfidence, lack of experience, budget cuts, promises to investors... you name it. The lucky teams are the ones with a true leadership willing to put their ego aside and bring in experts to solve challenges they don’t have experience in tackling.
Testing has been always done. But you mentioned ceo, and believe me, oh, working directly with ceo can be really annoying sometimes and yes they rush to the launch, they dont even want to spend single penny on even research.
Lemme share something what happened yesterday, i had an interview for ux designer call, and i could feel that the founder was getting little annoyed that why im mentioning research alot. And to her facial expressions, i was getting more nervous and confused, because to me, research is behind everything thing, even small button changes. Yesterday I realised that most teams, that pretend to be very product focused and add so many bullet points in job description, they themselves are not really willing to follow the rules. What do you think?
Congratulations to you, Saba K. 🙂 I wish that were the case for everyone. I think that if a team is product-focused rather than target-audience-focused, that’s a yellow flag to me. It usually means they value the quantity of design and feature releases over actual end-user value — and that kind of culture often leads to failure. I understand why most teams default to being product-focused — it’s easier. Everyone understands designs and features. Not everyone understands behavioral psychology, which is what's required to be truly user-focused. For some leaders (especially less experienced ones), even suggesting research can sound like you're questioning their authority or clarity. It can also sound like cost. Personally, if a UX designer in an early-stage startup (without product-market fit) were pushing for A/B testing button changes, I would politely say “thank you” and reject the candidacy. That would show a lack of understanding of where the team is, what matters at that stage, and a disregard for limited funds that need to be invested wisely. Over time, I’ve developed preferred phrases that are more appropriate for where a team is in their journey — especially when pushing through the glass ceiling. For example:
Instead of “experiments” or “research,” I say:
→ “Let’s run a pilot for confidence — to make sure a full release delivers value to the business.”
→ “Let’s de-risk scaling, so we don’t end up burning through resources.”
Instead of “research the user,” I say:
→ “Let’s identify what users value that we can leverage.”
→ “Let’s find low-effort, high-impact moves that can unlock disproportionate value.”
Ah spot on! I learned a lot from that single interview. And talking about the phrase, Im still trying to be good at it. Because I always feel like i know what to say but my English vocabulary always comes in the way 😂 😂 😂
I get that — English is my second language too. If I were to suggest something, it would be this: Try asking more about where the company is and how do they think your work can support forward movemenet before sharing what you would do. That way, you can align more closely with their situation and show that you truly understand them. That said — I know doing this can be a challenge. I sometimes struggle with it myself. So don’t pressure yourself too much if it doesn’t work out right away. Take the lesson and move on. Practice over time will do the trick.
