Today I want to talk about the product strategy behind a new feature from Tinder: Matchmaker. It lets you share potential matches with friends and family, and I love it because it shows two things:
- The Tinder team takes cues from their user to develop their product
- They’re finding new, creative ways to reward users for product engagement
I borrowed a friend’s Tinder account to explore the feature – here’s how it works and the lessons we can learn from it.
Want to learn more about product engagement? Nir Eyal’s Product Engagement Sprint closes enrollment tomorrow. Use code PRODUCT for 25% off membership.
First: how Matchmaker works
Even if you haven’t used Tinder, you probably know how it works: the app shows you potential dates and you swipe “left” or “right” on matches as they appear in your feed.
Now, when you’re exploring matches, you have the option to share a profile with a friend (note: I think they could increase feature usage by putting this button on the person’s main picture, rather than deep in their profile – but hey, I’m not on their team).
The app then opens up a text window, which allows you to send a link to a friend to check out.
When the friend clicks the link, it opens a window that allows them to X or ♥️ the person. If they ♥️ the match, it shows up as a recommendation for you. (Note: I was able to do this without creating an account on desktop, but on mobile I had to download the app. That’s definitely a barrier to usage).
Lesson 1: Understand the “off-label” uses of your product
Have you ever been at happy hour, and had a friend pull up their Tinder account? If you’re anything like me (a boring married person), you probably said, “Ooh, let me swipe for you!”
The Tinder team took this off-label behavior and made it part of the product.
The lesson: Watch your users in action, and steal their ideas. Don’t say, “Well, that’s not really what we designed it for.” See how users tweak your less-than-ideal product to meet their needs, then change the product to fit.
Lesson 2: Think of new, creative ways to reward users for coming back
When thinking about product engagement, I always go back to Nir Eyal’s hooked cycle.
The Hooked Cycle works like this:
Trigger: You feel a need – hunger, loneliness, boredom, etc.
Action: You do something that alleviates that need (swiping, scrolling, etc.)
Reward: The product gives you something for using it (a match, a new video, etc.)
Investment: You take another action that embeds you deeper in the product
You can see how the overall Tinder product uses the Hooked Cycle here:
Now, look at how the Matchmaker feature expands on the Hooked cycle by introducing another trigger. Tinder might meet the need of romantic loneliness, but once in the app, Matchmaker meets the need of validation / commiseration from a friend.
The lesson: Brainstorm how to trigger deeper engagement inside your product. You probably know which triggers motivate your users to open your product in the first place, but do you know what motivates them to keep using your product (or use it in different ways) once they’re in there? Get together with your team to brainstorm additional triggers that you can fulfill and reward as they go deeper.
Want to learn more about product engagement? Nir Eyal’s Product Engagement Sprint closes enrollment tomorrow. Use code PRODUCT for 25% off membership.
