Scarcity and Thursday

So what that you know about mental models or decision-making or levers of influence? How do you apply them?

This is the classic ‘so what?’ question. And it’s a legit one. Let me try and answer it.

There’s this dating app. Thursday. You may have heard of it, or used it. ‘Every Thursday the app comes to life with people near you who also want to meet that day.’ What! Why would you want to stop people from using your app when you have been told the best apps are habit-forming and Daily Active Users are your North Star metric?

One, because of the 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲. We tend to want more of that which is scarcely available. I call it the Forbidden Fruit effect.

The app also rides on exclusivity–only admin-approved profiles go up–which is another form of scarcity.

Third, the app vets all profiles–no fake ones. This builds 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲–people see themselves as legit users and try and be consistent with the image that the app has cast them in. It’s the same reason you’re better behaved at a black-tie event.

And finally, Thursday announces itself with:

𝘎𝘰𝘵 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘱𝘱 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘦?

𝘠𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦. 𝘞𝘦’𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵.

That sounds upside down, right? And it is. Every time you solve a problem one way, you create both problems and opportunities for the future. A good question to ask is ‘And then what?’ Thursday is the answer to that question that came out of Tinder or Bumble or Hinge. Thursday seems to cash in on daters’ frustrations around fake profiles, incomplete profiles, questionable date quality. This is 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝-𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠–answering ‘and then what?’ And then what will happen on Tinder if there are lots of profiles? First movers are great at first-order thinking but unless they integrate second-order thinking their incumbency will be short-lived and a later mover may fill in the gap that they have created.

My point is simple. Being curious about persuasion and mental models allows me (or you) to look at an app/product with a Swiss knife of tools and try and unpick what makes a product tick or not.

Maybe that’s good for LinkedIn posts, you’ll say 😀 What is the practical value? The practical value is that a switch has been turned on. You cannot not think about a business problem, something you read in the newspaper, or something bugging you personally without taking out your toolkit. (Warning: It may sometimes annoy your family or those closest to you.)

But the best part is: it feels like play.

I’m no expert on dating so please correct any inaccuracies in the comments.