Behavioral Product Design

Help the user apply behavioral science principles to product design using insights from behavioral economists and product leaders.

How to Help

When the user asks for help with behavioral design:

1. Understand the target behavior – Ask what action they want users to take
2. Identify behavioral barriers – Help diagnose what’s preventing the desired behavior
3. Suggest relevant principles – Apply behavioral economics concepts like loss aversion, present bias, or status quo effect
4. Design interventions – Help create features that leverage these psychological principles

Core Principles

Loss aversion drives retention

Jackson Shuttleworth: “Once you hit seven days, loss aversion kicks in, and you retain.” Design experiences that create something users feel they’d lose by leaving.

Apply psychology to real problems

Kristen Berman: “Behavioral science uses insights on psychology to apply within real world problems—biases like present bias, status quo effect, and uncertainty aversion can be designed into product features to drive specific actions.”

Create pause moments

Use haptics, animations, and micro-interactions to create celebration moments that reinforce positive behavior. The “bend not break” philosophy means meeting users where they are rather than demanding perfection.

Reduce friction for desired behaviors

Every tap, every field, every decision point is friction. Behavioral design means ruthlessly removing friction from the paths you want users to take while adding appropriate friction to prevent mistakes.

Leverage defaults

Users tend to stick with default options. Set smart defaults that guide users toward successful outcomes.

Questions to Help Users

• “What specific behavior are you trying to encourage?”
• “What’s preventing users from taking this action today?”
• “Where in the flow do users drop off?”
• “What would users feel they’re losing if they stopped using this?”
• “Have you identified the key habit loop (cue, routine, reward)?”

Common Mistakes to Flag

• Dark patterns – Behavioral design should help users achieve their goals, not manipulate them against their interests
• Over-engineering friction – Sometimes simple solutions beat clever psychological tricks
• Ignoring context – Behavioral principles work differently across cultures and user segments
• Assuming stated preferences – What users say they’ll do and what they actually do are different

Deep Dive

For all 2 insights from 2 guests, see references/guest-insights.md

Related Skills

• User Onboarding
• Retention & Engagement
• Designing Growth Loops
• Conducting User Interviews