#17 The Netflix Paradox: How Choice Architecture Can Supercharge Your Product?
The Art (and Science) of Keeping Users Hooked!
I always spend at least 5 minutes to choose what to watch on Netflix.
I watch their teasers, clips that play for seconds when we hover on them, and I also read short (2-3 lines) summary of what the story is about.
Then after doing this for minutes then I finally feel I found what I wanted to watch.
I have been thinking about my behavior and at the same time as a long-time fan of Netflix, I thought why can’t Netflix improve this experience?
So I researched a bit about it and the results are shocking!
It turns out this hunt for finding right movie/tv show on Netflix is by DESIGN!
The average Netflix user spends 15-20 minutes browsing, but is this good for us?
The Problem: The Paradox of Choice
Every day we make numerous choices from what we wear to what we eat.
Think about it, when you have 20+ different ways, it’s hard for you to choose and make a decision:
When you went for grocery shopping and want to buy a bread… (5 types)
Open Amazon to shop, reading 100s of reviews and choosing items….
Which song do you want to listen on Spotify….
When you do a simple search on Google… (you are loaded with 1000s of links)
You went to a restaurant to eat and saw the menu….
But what if you have just 1 choice or may be 2, your cognitive load reduces suddenly and feel like a feather and make the decision faster and also more effectively.
This is what exactly explained by Barry Schwartz.
Barry Schwartz is an American psychologist known for his work at Swarthmore College and the University of California, Berkeley.
But this exact “choice paradox” boosted user engagement for Netflix
when Netlflix started, within an year of it’s launch there are 1000 online movies catalog and it instantly became a treasure hunt (Hick’s Law) for users.
Hick's Law, also known as the Hick-Hyman Law, is a psychological principle that states the more options available to a person, the longer it will take for them to make a decision about which option is best.
instead of watching more on Netflix, users started browsing more time and thereby creating a stickiness to the platform by making it a difficult experience to find the content you would like to watch.
Netflix identified this problem in early stages and chose to go with it because it’s the one who put it in first place and make users feel they are going through tough time to find the right movie/TV show.
Netflix's Solution: Curated Content
Glen Davis, product designer at Netflix shares that they understand the challenge of finding the right movie to watch so that’s where Netflix becomes your buddy.
Netflix wants you to feel the problem of not knowing what to watch and once you are lost in decision-fatigue and feel like giving up that’s where Netflix will give you a hand to save you and help you find the one you want.
How?
Netflix's curated lists and shuffle modes as a solution to choice overload, imprinting loyalty from users because if it’s saving you from drowning.
(it’s the one who pushed you into the ocean 🌊 or you might also have jumped yourself to watch something)
Deeper Engagement: Zeigarnik Effect
The FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is a straightforward hack with those short clips you watch if you bring your cursor (hover) on shows, this creates a psychological image of that particular scene or movie name and FOMO gets registered for that content and you might come back to it later.
The chance % of you coming back increases every time you watch those short clips.
Not only those short clips, it also creates “Continue Watching” list showing as incomplete progress bar.
This behavior is also called The Zeigarnik Effect
Zeigarnik Effect is a psychological phenomenon that describes the tendency to remember interrupted or incomplete tasks more easily than completed ones.
The Big Takeaway: Engagement vs. Satisfaction?
Netflix leverages psychological principles to keep users engaged, but is this at the cost of user satisfaction?
These principles are double edged sword and might backfire if not played correctly.
Should we start watching out for these principles applied platforms?
It highly depends on an individual choice from the eyes of user but as product person, it’s on us to balance both of them.
Most of the products solves at least one problem by making it’s customer as their Hero by giving them a chocolate and ask their feedback on the taste.
Whereas Netflix created a Binge-Worthy platform by creating a choice architecture inherently so that at first you get lost in a box of chocolates (I mean choices) and
then comes a sunshine and a helping angel to save you in the form of Netflix’s features, and start helping you to get your reward (hit the play button)
Bonus Tip
Next time you feel overwhelmed in finding the right content, skip the browsing and head straight to your saved list!
Since you read until the end, here is a secret idea for Netflix 🤫
As a Product Manager for Netflix’s @ Content Consumption Experience, I would like to propose a short form video at the start of every movie, that explains full plot of the story (like the one’s we see on Instagram reels who explains complete story on high-level with in a minute)
If I like that story and itches me to watch full movie then I hit continue, but this might directly not applicable for TV Shows because if you start the show, you might watch all episodes.
however, this could still stand as a huge opportunity for Netflix to play this at every start of the movie — which in turn increases more browsing time and finally it could also create “Most Liked Shorts-to-Shows” 🍿 (a new short-streaming capability)
It reduces the problem of users disliking a movie after watching it completely, they wasted 2 hours spending time on something they disliked at the end of it.
Latest Episode of My Podcast: The Hustle Chapters
I invited Ameya Joshi, a Product Leader at Netflix with 15 years of amazing insights, we discussed on several aspects of PM careers and particularly, why everyone is trying to get into Product Management career and why exactly it’s happening right now.
I just realized while adding this, coincidentally this week’s newsletter topic is on Netflix 😅 and even my podcast guest is from Netflix.
Spotify:
Apple Podcast:
What I Enjoyed Watching This Week?
I have been using Perplexity a lot to get the correct and quick answers instead of visiting 4-5 links and figuring out whether I got enough information.
That’s a wrap to this week’s edition, if you would like to share your thoughts, leave a comment or discuss with me more on this, please feel free to ping me on my LinkedIn