Start at the End: How to Build Products That Create Change

limitations exist precisely because we are explicitly choosing not to target interventions at them.

Brands are forced to continually spend resources on new content to make sure that the promoting pressures are relevant given changes in population and identity.

It is also important to be careful not to include limitations that you intend to modify through behavior change.

lowest-fidelity version of an intervention that will still result in behavior change.

Double down on continuous monitoring for any unstable intervention.

having selected what interventions we intend to pilot, we need to stop and do an ethical check based on two factors: what behavior we are changing and how we are changing behavior. And these ethical problems are mapped to the two fundamental behavioral gaps: the intention-action gap and the intention-goal gap.

Beyond the cognitive preferences and habits of your population, you should also consider the cognitive environment in which your desired behavior occurs, as it can change the pressures and thus the interventions.

But what are the three emails you regularly get from Uber? “It is now cheaper than it was before” (lowered inhibiting cost), “There are now more drivers on the road” (lowered inhibiting wait time), and “We can now go somewhere we couldn’t before” (lowered inhibiting range). Uber’s entire business is based on reducing inhibiting pressure.

if your outcome behavior is not the result of any of the population’s motivations or the benefit of that behavior does not outweigh the cost to an alternative motivation, it is unethical.