Segment Users By Functional and Emotional Motivators

The Delight Model: Creating Emotional Connection in Product Experiences

Delight is not just about adding confetti effects or superficial joy to products—it's a strategic approach to building products that create emotional connections with users while solving functional needs. This framework helps product teams systematically create experiences that drive retention, loyalty, and growth.

What is Product Delight?

Product delight occurs when you create an experience that triggers both joy and surprise simultaneously. It's not merely about functionality, but about creating emotional connections:

• "Delight is this ability to create products that serve both emotional needs and functional needs"
• "The hard truth is that even well-functioning products may struggle getting traction and growth if they do not allow users to feel certain emotions"
• "Delight is not a luxury nowadays... it's a differentiator, a strategy to grow business, gain loyalty, word-of-mouth, and revenue"

The Three Pillars of Delightful Products

1. Removing Friction

   • Identify "valley moments" where user emotions are at their lowest (stress, anxiety)
   • Create solutions that eliminate these negative emotions
   • Example: Uber's two-click refund process when a driver cancels

2. Anticipating Needs

   • Provide solutions before users even ask for them
   • Create positive surprise by understanding deeper user contexts
   • Example: Revolut adding eSIM purchasing functionality in a banking app for international travelers

3. Exceeding Expectations

   • Go beyond what users expect from your product
   • Deliver more value than users anticipated
   • Example: Microsoft Edge automatically finding and applying discount coupons during checkout

The Four-Step Delight Model Framework

Step 1: Identify User Motivators

• Map both functional motivators (what users want to accomplish) and emotional motivators (how they want to feel)
• Functional motivators: Finding a song, booking a flight, getting work done
• Emotional motivators: Feeling secure, less lonely, productive, connected
• Consider both personal emotional motivators (how users want to feel) and social emotional motivators (how users want others to perceive them)

Step 2: Convert Motivators into Product Opportunities

• Transform identified motivators into concrete product opportunities
• Frame these as "How might we..." statements
• Focus on opportunity spaces rather than just problem spaces

Step 3: Identify Solutions and Categorize by Delight Grade

• Place potential solutions on the Delight Grade matrix based on which motivators they address
• Surface Delight (10%): Solutions that only address emotional motivators
  • Example: Spotify Wrapped, birthday animations on Apple Watch
• Low Delight (50%): Solutions that only address functional motivators
  • Example: Basic search functionality improvements
• Deep Delight (40%): Solutions that address both functional and emotional motivators
  • Example: Discover Weekly on Spotify, inactive tabs on Chrome

Step 4: Validate with the Delight Checklist

• Ensure solutions make user and business impact
• Check feasibility and familiarity
• Ensure inclusivity (consider how different users might react)
• Plan for maintaining delight over time (avoid habituation effect)

Prioritization Framework: The 50-40-10 Rule

• 50% of features should be low delight (functionality-focused)
• 40% should be deep delight (blending functionality and emotion)
• 10% should be surface delight (purely emotional features)

When to Invest in Delight

• B2C products have traditionally focused more on delight, but B2B products need it too
• Think "B2H" (Business to Human) - humans use all products and have emotional needs
• In competitive markets, delight becomes a key differentiator
• The most successful products today (Cursor, Linear, ChatGPT) all excel at delight

Getting Buy-In for Delight Initiatives

• Don't try to convince leaders directly—align with what they already value
• Connect delight to business outcomes they care about (growth, retention, word-of-mouth)
• Make delight part of the company culture through regular rituals (like "delight days")
• Highlight the overlooked benefit: increased PM motivation and team energy

Avoiding Delight Pitfalls

• Beware the "confetti effect" - adding delight without value
• Ensure inclusivity (what delights one user may upset another)
• Plan for the habituation effect (surprise diminishes over time)
• Test for unintended consequences (like Apple's gesture reactions during serious calls)