Ideas

Framework

Behavioral Strategy

Most organizations bolt behavioral science onto products after they're built. By then, it's too late.

Behavioral Strategy is an approach I developed to incorporate behavioral research from the strategic planning phase, before a single line of code is written or a single process is designed. It treats human behavior as a first-class constraint, not an afterthought.

This is the approach we used to build Walmart's behavioral science practice, and it's how I advise organizations today.

Framework

The Six Systems

Personality psychology has a prediction problem. The standard models (Big Five, MBTI) explain some variance in behavior, but not enough to be useful in high-stakes applications.

The Six Systems is a personality model I developed that identifies six fundamental traits, each viewed as a core cognitive and behavioral system in the brain. Unlike traditional trait-based approaches, it shows how each trait emerges from specific neural networks and neurochemicals, shaping stable patterns in how people think, feel, and act.

By framing traits as distinct biological systems, each with its own evolutionary function, the model offers a deeper explanation of why individuals differ in personality and behavior.

Framework

Real Change

The habit literature has a problem: most of it doesn't work. The interventions are too weak, the models too simple, and the promises too easy.

Real Change is my attempt to fix this. It's a framework for behavior change that goes beyond habit hacking to address the deeper structures that sustain behavior. The core insight: choosing the right activity matters more than optimizing how you do the wrong one.

I wrote a book about this: Real Change: Moving Beyond Habits to Achieve Lasting Transformation.

Origins

Behavior Design

In the early 2010s, I was part of the team at Stanford that helped create Behavior Design: the application of behavioral science principles to product and technology development.

This work laid the foundation for my later focus on what makes products engaging, habit-forming, and effective. It's where I first learned that small design decisions have enormous behavioral consequences.