Show notes
We design customer journeys as if people weigh every option, read all the copy, and pick the best deal. That's not how brains work. Kaat Declerck puts real behavioral science underneath the experiences we design, and her first lesson is a warning about how most people get it wrong.
Kaat came to behavior design the long way, from communication science into marketing, which felt too fluffy, then into conversion work where results were finally measurable, and then into behavioral science by way of Kahneman and Cialdini. The thing she had to unlearn is the thing most teams never do: you don't start with the techniques. Grabbing social proof and a countdown timer and sprinkling them across a page is the fun part, but it's backwards. Real behavior design starts with research into how people actually behave and where the friction really is, and only then reaches for a technique.
That's also what separates it from manipulation. Her test is intent: help people who already want to act by removing what's in their way, rather than pressuring people who don't. She's practical about the rest too, why friction is sometimes a good thing, why she analyzes the whole flow and the customer's context and not just the page that "tests fine," and why the smallest change, usually the copy and the jargon nobody inside the company can still see, moves the most. And on AI, she's clear: it can brief, draft, and speed you up, but it can't do your research or decide what matters. The detail that wins, like truck drivers who care about the brand of the truck and even the color of the curtain, is the thing AI will never tell you.
In this episode:
- Why behavior design starts with research, not techniques
- The line between behavior design and manipulation, and why intent decides it
- When friction is a good thing, and when removing it just creates stress
- Behavior analysis vs. validation testing: reading the touchpoint, the flow, and the context
- The ACT framework: appeal, capability, and trigger
- Why copy and jargon are the easiest wins and the hardest to see from inside
- What AI can and can't do in behavior design, and the research gold it will never hand you
"So let's help people instead of force.": Kaat Declerck