Ask a Behavioral Scientist with Irrational Labs Cofounder and CEO Kristen Berman

Kristen Berman is the cofounder and CEO of Irrational Labs and one of the people behind Google’s Behavioral Economics group. In addition to being an Enrich member, she joined us for a deep dive and AMA on what behavioral science is and how you can use it to (you guessed it) change behavior. Rather than focusing what users say they want, Kristen walked through real-world case studies (TikTok, OneMedical and more) showing how small changes to context, friction, and motivation can drive behavior change.

If you’d been there, here’s what you’d still be thinking about:

People don’t do what they say they want, they do what’s easiest in the moment.

The environment matters more than attitudes. Kristen kicked us off with a real-world example. If you ask people if they like apples, they’ll say “yes”… and then not eat an apple even if you put it in front of them. Particularly if you also offer french fries, which are more delicious. And, they may say they want apples, but then balk at chomping on one at work. But put cut up apples out, and hide the cookies — you’ll start to see apples being consumed. Behavior is driven by context, friction, and cues, not stated preferences.

To make a change, start with a single, painfully specific behavior.

We’ve all been coached on defining KPIs and what the larger goal is. To get there, teams need to definine the exact behavior that leads there. High-performing products (like Netflix) align everything around one clear action — and fight internally until they agree on it. She compared their home screen to YouTube’s, where you can see different teams’ KPI priorities playing out in real time. On YouTube you can see options to create, watch, search and more. Netflix meanwhile is all about getting you to click “play”.

Reduce friction, both logistical and psychological.

It’s easy to think “remove friction means removing choice,” but Kristen says it goes deeper. It’s not just about removing form fields or popups. Uncertainty, waiting, and cognitive overload are friction, too. Example: Uber didn’t just reduce wait time — it reduced the anxiety of not knowing how long the wait would be.

For the complete event recording and our full event notes, apply to join Enrich.