Behavioral Researcher at the Center for Advanced Hindsight

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This is the map we'll use to take us through the first section of this case study. Let's get to the first checkpoint!

From chefs👩‍🍳 to architects 🏢, nearly every discipline has its own unique method for organizing information.

Making sense of information

Unfortunately, we often miss out on opportunities to improve our own methods by learning from other disciplines.

Making sense of information

Maps are an exceptional way to visualize information 👀.

They have the potential to break down siloed thinking, allow their viewers to grasp interlocking relationships, and mobilize teams towards a shared purpose.

If there's a map there's a way

Within applied behavioral science, some organizations use a method called “behavior mapping”.

If there's a map there's a way

We've made our ways to my office at the Center for Advanced Hindsight. Let's see how behavior mapping fits into our process!

A behavior map is typically created during the first phase of a project - often called a behavioral diagnosis or behavioral audit.

Identify barriers to positive behaviors and the challenges that make decision-making difficult.

Behavioral Diagnosis

Intervention Design

Implement the interventions in ways that allow for rigorously evaluating their impact

Testing

Multiply impact by sharing lessons learned form the partnership with the broader community

Sharing

Center for Advanced Hindsight Process Model

Design or modify products and services that leverage behavioral science to improve behaviors

Before we design a solution, we need to identify the root of the problem - and the diagnosis phase is dedicated to doing exactly that.

Identify barriers to positive behaviors and the challenges that make decision-making difficult.

Behavioral Diagnosis

Intervention Design

Implement the interventions in ways that allow for rigorously evaluating their impact

Testing

Multiply impact by sharing lessons learned form the partnership with the broader community

Sharing

Center for Advanced Hindsight Process Model

Design or modify products and services that leverage behavioral science to improve behaviors

Ideas42 describes behavior mapping as as “a systematic approach to identifying candidate bottlenecks… each of which is a possible intervention point.”

The goal is to reveal “behavioral stress points,” and each of these stress points could be a promising place to design an intervention.

But if you Google the term “behavior mapping”, you’ll likely have a hard time finding much information about how to create one 🤔 🤷🏼‍♀️

So - I’m going to teach you how to make a behavior map, and also how we can make them even better by borrowing some ideas from service design 🙌🏼 (which I’ll tell you about later).

Different organizations follow slightly different steps when creating behavior maps.

But I’m going to walk you through the ones the Center for Advanced Hindsight typically use.

Before we get into the details, let's get a quick overview of all of the steps.

First, define the target behavior. This is the specific behavior you want your customers or users to perform.

Define the target behavior

Second, establish the starting point. This is the spot in the customer or user journey where you want to begin your behavior map.

Define the target behavior

Establish the starting point

Then, write down every discrete behavioral step between your starting point and your target behavior.

Write discrete behavioral steps

Define the target behavior

Establish the starting point

Next, for each step in your behavior map, state all the potential barriers your customers or users might face when trying to complete it.

Define the target behavior

State all potential barriers

Write discrete behavioral steps

Establish the starting point

And lastly, for each step, identify and brainstorm potential opportunities to reduce friciton and  increase motivation of the behavior.

Define the target behavior

State all potential barriers

Write discrete behavioral steps

Establish the starting point

The first step is to define a target behavior 🎯- this is a specific and measurable action you want a user or customer to perform.

Let's take "I want customers to be healthier" as an example.

The first common mistake people make is being too outcome focused, rather than translating it into an actionable behavior.

Step 1: Define the target behavior

"I want my customers to be healthier."

"I want my customers to be healthier" is a noble goal, but there are many ways to be healthier, and even more behaviors on the path to get there. So let's choose one particular behavior.

Step 1: Define the target behavior

"I want my customers to be healthier."

A better diet can lead to better health outcomes. So let's refine our outcome down to something like "I want my customers to eat more vegetables." It's a good start, but we can do even better!

Step 1: Define the target behavior

"I want my customers to be healthier"

"I want my customers to eat more vegetables"

👉

Step 1: Define the target behavior

"I want my customers to eat more vegetables"

This leads to the second common mistake in establishing a target behavior 🎯, leaving it too broadly defined.

Step 1: Define the target behavior

"I want my customers to eat more vegetables"

It needs to be specific enough to meaningfully measure 📏.

Step 1: Define the target behavior

"I want my customers to eat more vegetables"

Although "eating more vegetables" is technically measurable, it isn't meaningfully so if we don't know our customers' baseline consumption and how much more they are or aren't eating.

Step 1: Define the target behavior

"I want my customers to eat more vegetables"

"I want my customers to eat two servings of vegetables every day"

👉

So instead of this vague behavior, let's refine it further. We know that this specific behavior results in positive health outcomes and it is relatively easy to measure.

Step 1: Define the target behavior

"I want my customers to eat two servings of vegetables every day"

And now we know how to define a meaningfully measurable target behavior 🎯!

Once you have a target behavior 🎯, which is the end point of your map, it’s time to pick the starting point.

Step 2: Establish the starting point

Let's change gears to a financial target behavior 🎯, "A credit union member rounds up their loan payment into a savings account."

Step 2: Establish the starting point

Credit union member rounds up their loan payment into a savings account.

Pick a starting point that’s far enough upstream in the process that you don’t miss barriers that could affect downstream choices.

TARGET BEHAVIOR

Step 2: Establish the starting point

But not one that is so far back that you’re mapping steps outside of your scope of influence.

STARTING POINT

Credit union member inquires about qualifying for a loan.

Credit union member rounds up their loan payment into a savings account.

TARGET BEHAVIOR

Step 2: Establish the starting point

In this case, if your starting point includes something like "person signs up to be a credit union member", you've probably gone too far back. This behavior may warrant its own entire behavior map.

STARTING POINT

Credit union member inquires about qualifying for a loan.

Credit union member rounds up their loan payment into a savings account.

TARGET BEHAVIOR

Step 2: Establish the starting point

Now let's get a little more specific about our target customer segment.

STARTING POINT

Credit union member inquires about qualifying for a loan.

Credit union member rounds up their loan payment into a savings account.

TARGET BEHAVIOR

Step 2: Establish the starting point

Users or customers can be segmented according to many different characteristics.

STARTING POINT

Credit union member inquires about qualifying for a loan.

Credit union member rounds up their loan payment into a savings account.

TARGET BEHAVIOR

Step 2: Establish the starting point

But what’s most important for a behavior map is to segment users on dimensions that affect how they behave when interacting with your product or service.

STARTING POINT

Credit union member inquires about qualifying for a loan.

Credit union member rounds up their loan payment into a savings account.

TARGET BEHAVIOR

Step 2: Establish the starting point

In my case, I’m only concerned about members who are applying for an auto loan - not those applying for other types of loans.

Step 2: Establish the starting point

This is because I think the loan term and regular payment amounts are optimal for trying out round-ups.

Step 2: Establish the starting point

Now that we have a target behavior and a starting point for our map we can move on to the next step, writing all the discrete behavioral steps between them.

Map the end-to-end behavioral steps that an individual in your customer segment would need to perform to reach this target behavior.

Step 3: Write discrete behavioral steps

At this stage it can be helpful to bring in stakeholders at different levels of the process (like loan officers) to help bridge any knowledge gaps you might have. If you are an outside consultant, you may not have necessary domain-specific knowledge to accurately represent the entire behavior map.

Learn about loan requirements

Step 3: Write discrete behavioral steps

Also, If you have any useful data about the current state of this behavioral process, it can be helpful to represent that information on your map as well.

Learn about loan requirements

Step 3: Write discrete behavioral steps

This could be data about how the process works, or engagement metrics for a more digital experience.

Learn about loan requirements

Step 4: State all potential barriers

At this point you can begin to state all the potential barriers to each behavioral step in your map.

Learn about loan requirements

Behavioral science typically buckets improvement hypotheses into two categories: (1) barriers, and (2) benefits - which I prefer to call opportunities.

Step 4: State all potential barriers

Learn about loan requirements

Barriers are the real or potential friction points that could be keeping a customer from performing the target behavior.

Step 4: State all potential barriers

Learn about loan requirements

These can be further broken down into two types of barriers.

Step 4: State all potential barriers

Learn about loan requirements

First, structural barriers 🚧 have to do with how the decision-making environment is structured; barriers that are external to the customer or user's cognition, like the way a form is designed, or the user's social environment.

Step 4: State all potential barriers

Learn about loan requirements

Learn about loan requirements

Second, psychological barriers 🧠 are part of the customer or user's internal cognition. Psychological barriers are best identified through a review of the academic literature. These can be things like self-efficacy or identity, but here are a few examples based on cognitive biases.

Step 4: State all potential barriers

For organizations without a behavioral scientist to help with this piece, lists of biases like this one can serve as a helpful starting point.

Step 4: State all potential barriers

Learn about loan requirements

Once we’ve mapped all the barriers (structural + psychological), it’s time to add the opportunities 💡.

Step 4: State all potential barriers

Learn about loan requirements

What opportunities exist to increase the customer’s motivation to perform the target behavior? Here are a few examples also based on cognitive biases.

Step 4: State all potential barriers

Learn about loan requirements

Step 4: State all potential barriers

With the behavior map finished, the team relies on research – most commonly surveys – to try to identify the most important barriers to remove, or opportunities to increase motivation.

Learn about loan requirements