Using behavioral science to improve your product

Kristen Berman, CEO and co-founder of Irrational Labs, explains how behavioral science and behavioral economics can be applied to product design to change user behavior. The conversation covers her firm's work with companies like Google, TikTok, and One Medical, along with a framework for diagnosing barriers and benefits in user flows.

01Key learnings

• Pick an uncomfortably specific behavior to change rather than a vague outcome like 'engagement'; teams should align on the exact action users must take.
• Map every step required to perform the target behavior (a behavioral diagnosis) and attach the psychological barriers at each step before brainstorming interventions.
• Reduce logistical and cognitive barriers to make desired behaviors easier, since people default to the path of least resistance and the status quo.
• Be skeptical of features that add work for users, like budgeting tools, and test whether users actually perform the behavior before investing heavily.
• Asking a simple, easy multiple-choice question during signup can make users think about benefits and increase conversion, but avoid hard open-text questions.
• Make benefits immediate, since people are present-biased; show the reward today, such as completion checkmarks or social recognition, rather than only long-term gains.
• Add friction to slow users down when you want fewer of a behavior, as with the TikTok share prompt that reduced misinformation shares by 24%.
• Set incentives on customer-aligned behaviors and longer durations, since teams become what they measure, and short-term KPIs can push products toward harmful outcomes.

02Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.