The Behavioural Design Process to Follow

1. Focus on the behaviour

Start by getting clear on what you’re trying to change.
Most projects begin with goals like increase engagement or reduce churn.
Those aren’t behaviours, they’re outcomes.

You need to find the action.
What’s the thing a person actually does that tells you this change has happened?

Use:

• Actions to Take: write short, practical action statements:
  When I… I invest… so that…

• Action Sorter: separate what people do from what they feel or believe.

• KISS Ladder: turn complex goals into a single, observable behaviour.

Output: One clear behaviour that can be seen, measured, and changed.

2. Understand the system

Behaviour doesn’t happen in isolation.
It’s shaped by the systems, tools, and people around it.
Before you can change behaviour, you need to see what’s influencing it.

Use:

• REACTS Analysis: identify the rules, environments, and social forces shaping what people do.

• REACTS + COM-B: link environmental and individual factors together.

Output: A picture of how the system shapes behaviour and where you can intervene.

3. Diagnose what’s really happening

Once you understand the system, look closer at what helps or hinders behaviour.
This is where you work out why the behaviour does or doesn’t happen.

Use:

• COM-B Canvas: explore whether people have the Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation to act.

• COM-B Diagnose: ask structured questions to pinpoint the real barriers.

Output: A clear diagnosis of what needs to change for the behaviour to shift.

4. Design for motivation and meaning

Change only sticks when people see a reason for it.
You can’t design motivation directly, but you can design the conditions that build it: goals, values, and a sense of ownership.

Use:

• Motivation Funnel: understand how goals, values, and needs drive motivation.

Output: A motivation map that aligns your intervention with people’s real drivers.

5. Shape the intervention

Now you know what’s happening and why.
It’s time to design the change.
Behavioural interventions are small, specific, and practical, built to remove friction and make good behaviour easy.

Use:

• Intervention Design: turn insights into practical actions using Behaviour Change Techniques (BCTs).
  Match the right function to the barrier you want to address.
  

Output: A set of design ideas ready to test.

6. Define what success looks like

Designing for behaviour isn’t enough, you need to know whether it worked.
Define what change looks like, how it shows up, and how you’ll measure it.

Use:

• Outcome Mapping: connect what you designed to how people respond and what changes.
  Write clear indicators for short, medium, and long-term outcomes.

Output: A plan to measure and monitor behaviour change.

7. Test and learn

Good behavioural design is never finished.
Testing helps you see what works and why before scaling or investing further.

Use:

• RCTs (Randomised Controlled Trials): test your interventions with control and experimental groups.

• Measure what happens, learn from it, and refine your design.

Output: Evidence that your design works or clear direction on what to change next.

Putting it all together

You don’t need to use every step every time.
The process is flexible. Use it as a guide for how to think and work.

If you’re short on time:

1. Focus

2. Understand

3. Diagnose

4. Shape

5. Define

If you’re doing a full project:

1. Focus

2. Understand

3. Diagnose

4. Design for motivation

5. Shape

6. Define

7. Test and learn
   
   

Behavioural Design isn’t about changing people.
It’s about changing the world around them so they can change themselves.