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Irrational Labs/Behavioral Design for Finance
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Behavioral Design for Finance

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Build, design, and market products that change behavior.

  • Understand why your customers (and you!) make decisions
  • Find out how to change behavior (for good) with easy-to-learn tactics
  • Learn the proven frameworks we’ve taught to Google, Uber, Indeed and more.
  • Bring this discipline to your organization in a scalable and ethical way

Hear it from someone else

According to people who took our course, behavioral science changes how you approach almost every problem. 
Email [email protected] if you have questions about registering. 

Contents

1. Welcome to the Course

You'll start to think like a behavioral scientist. This first section is all about what that means. 
🚀 Kickoff Call - Join a Live Event to Boost Your Learning Experience!
Hello! Welcome message from Kristen (2 min video)
Who Should Take This Course and Why it's Critical (6 min read)
Trivia Questions! (1 min read)
Thinking like a Behavioral Scientist (2 min read)
The Evolution of Economics to Behavioral Economics
Behavioral Science for Retirement Savings
End of Welcome Section

2. Foundational Concepts

Congrats on starting this journey. By the end, you'll be thinking like a behavioral scientist. 

In this first lesson, you'll learn three fundamental principles of behavioral economics. 
Getting Tangible (6 min read)
Foundational Concepts (4 min video)
The Foundational Concepts of Behavioral Economics (4 min read)
Dan Ariely on What the Typical Approach to Behavior Change Gets Wrong (6 min video)
Preview
Why Financial Education Doesn't Work to Change Behavior (Podcast, tune in minutes 0:00-5:00)
End of Foundational Concepts Section

3. Behavioral Design

Let's dive right in! Behavioral scientists use a specific method to assess problems and come up with solutions called Behavioral Design. In this lesson we go over what it is, why it's important, and give you an example of how powerful it can be!
Example of Behavioral Design (3:30 min video)
What is Behavioral Design? (4 min read)
Small Nudges Can Improve How Students Apply to College.pdf (6 min read)
Don't Listen To Your Customers - Do This Instead (15:30 min video)
Exercises: What to Expect (1 min read)
✓ Attention Check Quiz!
End of Behavioral Design Section
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4. Key Behavior

The first step in changing behavior is understanding which behavior we want to change. Sounds obvious right? This is behavioral economics. But in fact, this is the step where most teams trip up.

You'll learn the 3Bs - a simple framework for assessing the psychological forces at play in our decision making. 
The 3B Framework Explainer (2 min read)
What's in store: Key Behavior and Behavioral Diagnosis. (3 min video)
3B Framework Overview (3 min video)
The 3B Framework Guide (3 min read)
The 1st B! Picking the Right Key Behavior (2 min read)
Systematic Safety: The Principles Behind Vision Zero (8 min video)
Vision Zero – Implementing a policy for traffic safety (optional: 17 min read)
🧠 Exercise 1: Key Behavior (3 min read + exercise)
🧠 Exercise 2: Key Behavior Quiz
🧠 Answers to Exercise 2: Key Behavior Quiz
End of Key Behavior Section

5. Behavioral Diagnosis

You'll learn the 3Bs - a simple framework for assessing the psychological forces at play in our decision making. 

You’ll also learn about the Behavioral Diagnosis : a comprehensive, step-by-step diagnosis of each step of the user journey through the lens of behavioral science.
Behavioral Diagnosis Explainer (3 min read)
Behavioral Diagnosis Overview (1:40 min video)
Example: Behavioral Map of Budgeting (3 min read)
How to Make a Behavioral Map (2 min read)
Exercise: Behavioral Map (1 min read + exercise)
Exercise Sample for Behavioral Map (1:30 min read)
End of Behavioral Diagnosis Section

6. Identifying Barriers

Barriers is the 2nd "B" of the 3B Framework. In this section you'll learn to identify barriers in your customer journey and how to solve for them.
⭐️ Exercise 3: Interactive Behavioral Diagnosis Homework (1 min read + exercise)
Template: Behavioral Diagnosis Deck
Dan Ariely: How to change your behavior for the better (watch minutes 3:30 to 6:50)
The 2nd “B” - Barriers (4 min read)
Easier isn't always better: When to make your sign up flow harder (7 min read)
Auto-Renewing Your Health Plan May Be Bad for You, and for Competition (4:30 min read)
🧠 Exercise 4: Identify Barriers (1 min read + exercise)
End of Identifying Barriers Section
✓ Attention Check Quiz!

7. Solving for Barriers

Now that you've identified the Barriers within a system, you’ll walk through a few different strategies and examples for how to remove them! 
Taking a Microscope to your Flow (1 min video)
Solving for Barriers (5 min read)
Case Study: College Admissions (3 min read)
Defaults Are Not the Same by Default (7 min read)
🧠 Exercise 5: Reducing Barriers (3 min read + exercise)
End of Solving for Barriers Section
✓ Attention Check Quiz!

8. Barrier: Attention

The world is busy and overloaded with stimuli. So if you want to change someone’s behavior, the first thing you have to do is to get their Attention! 

Attention is a scarce resource - now more than ever. In this lesson we dive into how to help people focus it in a way that helps them achieve their goals. 
Optional: Summary of the most famous attention experiment (12 min read)
Attention (5 min read)
Person Swap (4:47 min video)
The Attention Toolkit (5 min read)
The Deadline Made Me Do It (6 min read)
Account for the Irrational (24 min video)
🧠 Exercise 6: Apply the Attention Toolkit (1 min read + exercise)
End of Barrier: Attention Section
✓Attention Check Quiz!

9. Barriers: Endowment & Loss

We tend to overvalue what we own or have created. This section will dive into how this irrational tendency can influence our decision making and purchase behavior! 
Let's go! (30 sec read)
What's in store: Endowment and Loss Aversion (2 min video)
Anomalies The Endowment Effect, Loss Aversion, and Status Quo Bias (26 min read)
The “IKEA Effect”: When Labor Leads to Love (27 min read)
The Latest on Loss Aversion (3 min read)
Endowment and Loss Aversion (3:52 min video)
Podcast: Take that Deal! (43 min podcast)
🧠 Exercise 7: Applying Endowment (4 min read + exercise)
End of Barrier: Endowment & Loss Section
✓ Attention Check Quiz!

10. Amplifying Benefits

The third "B" of the 3B Framework is Amplifying Benefits. In this section, we'll learn about present bias and reward substitution: getting people to do the right thing for the wrong reasons.
Seinfeld - Night Guy, Morning Guy, Day Guy (1:19 min video)
How Seinfeld teaches us the 3rd "B" - Benefits (3 min read)
Doing the Right Thing for the Wrong Reasons (3 min read)
Article: How Prizes Motivate Savings (8 minute read)
Book Summary: Influence (24 min read)
🧠 Exercise 8: Where in the Matrix? (30 sec read + exercise)
Answers to Exercise 1 (1 min read)
🧠 Exercise 9: Start Amplifying Benefits! (30 sec read + exercise)
End of Amplifying Benefits Section

11. Benefit: Concreteness

Which is more appealing? 

Option A:  This lesson will teach you how to be a behavioral scientist! 

Option B: You’ll learn stuff like how graffiti is prevented, how to increase charitable donations, and a strategy to increase land conservation. 

You likely said Option B. This lesson explains why. 
What's in store: Concreteness and Social Proof (4:30 min video)
Concreteness: Word Choice, Images, Emotions (5 min read)
The Intention-Action Gap (1:30 min read)
Beyond good intentions: Prompting people to make plans improves follow-through on important tasks (20 min read)
🧠 Exercise 10: Intent Language (3 min read)
🧠 Exercise 11: Applying Concreteness (3 min read + exercise)
End of Benefit: Concreteness Section
✓ Attention Check Quiz!

12. Benefit: Social Norms

“Everyone else loves this lesson” “Join the majority in completing this section!”  Social norms drive much of our behavior. This lesson explains how powerful it can be.  
Social Norms (5 min read)
Social Proof, Authority, and the Mona Lisa (6 min read)
Everybody's Doing It (2:30 min video)
Case Study: Social Norms to Increase Tax Compliance (30 sec read)
Rules of Thumb for Social Proof (1 min read)
🧠 Exercise 12: Social Proof (2:30 min read + exercise)
End of Benefit: Social Norms Section

13. Benefit: Incentives

We often think of money as the biggest motivator, but it has a lot of worthy competitors. In this section, learn what you can use to incentivize behavior and where it will backfire. 
What's in Store: Pricing and Incentives (3:10 min video)
When to Use Money (and When Not To) (3:25 min video)
4 Types of Incentives (2 min read)
The Power of Non-Monetary Incentives (3 min read)
How to Drive Savings with Non-Monetary Incentives (3:43 min video)
Top Incentive Mistakes, and How to Avoid Them (6 min read)
Podcast: Mixed Signals - How Incentives Really Work (54 min podcast)
🧠 Exercise 13: Applying Incentives (30 sec read)
🧠 Exercise 14: Incentives Quiz
Explanations for Exercise 2 Answers (2 min read)
End of Benefit: Incentives Section

14. The Psychology of Pricing

This lesson evaluates pricing, the pain of paying, and the special value of free.
Introduction to Pricing (1 min read)
Context is Everything (5 min read)
Dan Ariely on Relativity (17 min read)
Pricing: Relativity (4 min read)
Pricing: Fairness (6 min read)
Pricing: Pain of Paying (3:30 min read)
Pricing: Emotion (1:40 min read)
Behavioral Science Tricks that Companies Use to Get you to Buy More (3:30 min read)
The Anchoring Experiment (3:30 min read)
Conclusion: Back to JCPenny... (1:30 min read)
🧠 Exercise 15: Psychology of Pricing (1:30 min read)
End of Psychology of Pricing Section

15. Special Topics in Behavioral Finance

What's in store: Special Topics in Consumer Finance (30 second read)
Mental Accounting (3 min read)
Why Budgeting Doesn't Work (3 min read)
Behavioral Lit Review: Savings (10 min read)
Opportunity Cost (2 min video)
Pre-Commitment and Commitment Devices (4 min read)
Investment Behavior (3 min read)
Behavioral Economics for Financial Markets & Regulation (20 min read)

16. Experimentation

To actually know whether behavioral science interventions have an impact, we need to design and run effective experiments. Here's how.
What's in store: Experimentation and closing (2:40 sec video)
Top 3 Experimental Mistakes (1:30 min read)
The 8 Steps to Designing an Experiment (3:30 min read)
Hear from Others! Common Experiment Mistakes from Top Behavioral Scientists (3:42 sec video)
Which Experiment to Start First? (3 min read)
Get Stakeholder Buy-in for Experiments (4:41 min video)
Guide to Designing Experiments
Building a Culture of Experimentation (optional: 20 min read)
🧠 Exercise 16: Design an Experiment (Template linked) (30 sec read + 18 min video + exercise)
2 Research Tools You Can Use in Your Work (1 min read)
MTurk Guide.pdf (5 min read)
Mechanical Turk: The New Face of Behavioral Science? (14 min read)
Survey Writing 101.pdf (4 min read)
Lit Review Guide.pdf (5 min read)
End of Experimentation Section

17. Becoming a Behavioral Designer

This section pulls it all together. See how to expand skill set even farther and take this back to your team. 
Move Over Product Manager, Introducing the Behavioral Product Manager (10 min read)
In Conclusion (2 min read)
The Nudge Debate (4 min read)
More to Behavioral Economics Than Biases and Fallacies (16 min read)
Knowledge Test
Behavioral Economics Principles List.pdf
Behavioral Economics Cheat Sheet.pdf
BE Reading List
Summing it all Up
How to Advance your Behavioral Science Knowledge Without a PhD (7 min read)
Exercise: Reflections & Next Steps
End of Course Survey, a Gift & Next Steps!
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