Users complete the core workflow once and never return
Your product delivers value once. Add something that creates a recurring reason to visit: new data, recommendations, or updates.
When to use
Users visit your product sporadically for specific tasks but don't have a recurring reason to return.
Hypothesis template
If we add [recurring value feature] that updates [daily/weekly], return visit frequency will increase by [target]% because users have a reason to come back.
Method
The problem: Users sign up, do the thing, and leave. There's nothing pulling them back until they need to do the thing again.
How to do it:
- Ask: what changes between visits that users would care about?
- Add ONE recurring element: fresh recommendations, updated metrics, new content, community activity
- Surface it prominently on the dashboard: "3 new things since your last visit"
- Send a notification or email when there's something new to see
- Track: visit frequency before vs after adding the recurring hook
Key insight: The recurring hook doesn't need to be the core product. Gmail's core product is sending email, but the recurring hook is checking for new messages.
Success metrics
- •Visit frequency
- •Daily/weekly active users
- •Time between sessions
- •Notification engagement rate
Prerequisites
- Something that changes between visits
- A dashboard area for recurring content
- Notification capability
Common pitfalls
- •Adding a forced recurring hook that feels artificial
- •Notifying about unimportant changes
- •Making the hook more prominent than the core product
- •Sending too many notifications
Source: Pattern from Nir Eyal's Hooked model. Products with recurring value hooks have 3-5x higher DAU/MAU.
Suggested ICE scores
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