Product Theory: The Complete Table of Contents

The complete chapter list for Product Theory: The Hidden Forces That Shape User Behavior — 37 short chapters on why users behave the way they do.

Want all of it? 13 of these chapters are published free as essays below — the rest are in the book. If you want the whole argument in order, with the research, the applications, and the limits of each principle, buy Product Theory on Kindle →

Each chapter opens with a story, then the application, the research behind it, and finally the limits — because no principle is universal. Linked chapters are free to read here.

Part 1 — Pricing & Value

• Anchoring: The First Number Wins
• Charm Pricing: The Last Digit
• The Decoy Effect
• Mental Accounting — in the book
• The Utility Paradox

Part 2 — Retention & Inertia

• The Sunk Cost Fallacy
• The Endowment Effect — in the book
• Status Quo Bias — in the book
• The IKEA Effect
• Commitment & Consistency — in the book
• Hedonic Adaptation — in the book
• Reciprocity — in the book
• Attachment Theory for Products — in the book
• Emotional Loss Aversion — in the book
• Hedonic Stockholm Syndrome

Part 3 — Choice & Decision

• The Paradox of Choice — in the book
• Loss Aversion — in the book
• The Mere Exposure Effect — in the book
• Social Proof — in the book
• The Shrinking Set — in the book
• The Laws of Attraction — in the book

Part 4 — Perception & Positioning

• Positioning — in the book
• Jobs To Be Done
• Veblen Goods — in the book
• The Peak-End Rule — in the book
• The Pratfall Effect — in the book
• Broken Windows — in the book
• Affordances — in the book
• The MAYA Principle — in the book
• Lenses — in the book

Part 5 — Metrics & Systems

• Goodhart's Law
• The Cobra Effect
• Survivorship Bias
• The Hawthorne Effect — in the book
• Regression to the Mean — in the book
• Conway's Law
• Metric Theater

Related essays

• Pricing Psychology: Rules That Change What People Buy
• Mental Models for Product Managers

Get the book

Product Theory collects all 37 chapters in the order they were meant to be read — the mental models that separate products that win from the ones that don't, drawn from psychology, behavioral economics, design, and building products used by millions. Buy it on Kindle →

Its companion, Words, collects the short wisdom stories that show up throughout this blog.