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Behavioral Design Blog

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TEDx Talk: Kristen Berman

Watch Kristen Berman’s TEDx Berlin talk: ‘Don’t Listen To Your Customers – Do This Instead.’

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Kristen Berman
Co-Founder
Kristen Berman studies how people actually act in the marketplace, as opposed to how they should or would perform if they were completely rational.

Kristen co-founded Irrational Labs, a behavioral product design company, with Dan Ariely in 2013. Irrational Labs helps companies and nonprofits understand and leverage behavioral economics to increase the health, wealth and happiness of their users. She also co-founded Common Cents Lab, a Duke University initiative dedicated to improving the financial well-being for low to middle Americans. Under Kristen’s leadership, Common Cents launched over 50 experiments with companies, touching tens of thousands of people. Kristen’s work has been featured in The Stanford Innovation Review, TechCrunch, and Scientific American.

She was on the founding team for the behavioral economics group at Google, a group that touches over 26 teams across Google, and she hosted one of the top behavioral change conferences globally, StartupOnomics. She co-authored a series of workbooks called Hacking Human Nature for Good: A practical guide to changing behavior, with Dan Ariely. These workbooks are being used at companies like Google, Intuit, Netflix, Fidelity, Lending Club for business strategy and design work.

Before designing, testing and scaling products that use behavioral economics, Kristen was a Senior Product Manager at Intuit and startup, Lytro. She built product management and marketing systems for small businesses and consumers, for domestic and international markets. The core thread throughout this all is a deep passion for understanding why people behave the way they do and then building solutions that make their lives better. And in her personal life, Kristen lives behavioral science. She’s started a communal living environment called Radish, to design life for happiness.
Evelyn Gosnell
Managing Director
Evelyn is a Managing Director at Irrational Labs and frequent speaker in behavioral economics and consumer psychology.

She is an expert in helping companies use the science of decision-making to better understand how real people think and behave, thereby creating better products and services for them.

Evelyn’s work spans a broad array of industries: she has worked with Google, Airbnb, Procter & Gamble, The World Bank, TikTok, Microsoft, Intuit, and Indeed, among others. Evelyn also led the development of Irrational Labs’ Behavioral Economics Bootcamp, and is passionate about training others in behavioral science methodologies.

Evelyn transitioned to behavioral economics from Product Management and Marketing. She started her career at Christian Dior Parfums in Paris and subsequently worked in various product management, marketing, and sales positions.

Evelyn holds a B.A. in cultural anthropology from Duke University and graduated summa cum laude. She also completed a Master’s degree in Marketing from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in France. She speaks fluent French and Russian.

Visit her website to learn more and engage her as a speaker.
Richard Mathera
Managing Director
Richard is a Managing Director at Irrational Labs and head of Irrational Labs' healthcare practice.

Richard Mathera is a Managing Director at Irrational Labs. He leads Irrational Labs’ healthcare practice and formerly led its financial decision-making work. Richard has overseen dozens of behavioral economics projects and experiments with commercial clients. A few of these include: One Medical, TytoCare, Neugen, Vouchers 4 Veggies, Steady, Beneficial State Bank, Simple, and Credit Karma.

Prior to joining Irrational Labs, Richard was a Senior Behavioral Scientist at the Common Cents Lab, a Duke University initiative which leverages behavioral economics to improve the financial well-being of low and moderate income Americans, where he designed and launched numerous behaviorally-informed products, features, initiatives, and experiments.

Formerly Richard has applied behavioral economics at ideas42 and developed randomized controlled trials at Innovations for Poverty Action in Morocco. He has also served as a Team Lead/Senior Investment Officer and a Senior Advisor at USAID’s Office of Development Credit and worked at Cornerstone Research, an economic and financial consulting firm specializing in complex commercial litigation.

Richard holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where he studied Advanced Policy and Economic Analysis and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia, where he studied economics, Spanish, and French, graduating Phi Beta Kappa.
Katie Dove
Katie Dove
Managing Director
Katie Dove is a Managing Director at Irrational Labs.

For over a decade, Katie has studied how brands create meaningful connections with their customers and deliver experiences that engage and inspire.

Katie brings deep expertise in designing, developing, and implementing transformative digital marketing programs at scale. She partners with business leaders to apply data-driven, behaviorally-informed approaches to product and marketing design. Prior to joining Irrational Labs, Katie was a Customer Data Strategy leader in Deloitte Digital’s Human Experience practice, a group focused on moving beyond CX to focus on designs that elevate human connection and relationships – with their communities and with the organizations that serve them. Katie has advised Fortune 500 clients across Tech, Healthcare, Financial Services, and Retail, as well as governmental agencies. External to her client work, she has provided pro bono consulting services in Latin America through Global Brigades, and mentored numerous startups as a Graduate Fellow at Fast Forward, a tech non-profit accelerator based in San Francisco.

Katie holds an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, where she earned a certification in Public Management and Social Innovation. She also holds a BS in Computer Science & Computer Engineering from the University of Virginia, where she focused on the intersection of Public Policy and Science, serving as a Policy Intern with the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy.
Amy Weber
Head of Business Development
Amy is the Head of Business Development at Irrational Labs.
She is passionate about being part of a small, independent firm and identifying the right opportunities for that team. Her best days are when she identifies areas that we can help clients improve their business and end users’ experiences, while bringing the Irrational Labs team projects that they are excited to get out of bed each day to complete.
Amy started her career with a dozen years working at traditional advertising agencies before discovering the field of behavioral design. She is energized at the ability to use scientific methods to improve experiences for end users, making them happier, healthier and wealthier.
Brad Goodwin
Director of Marketing
Brad Goodwin is Director of Marketing at Irrational Labs.

Brad Goodwin helps companies grow and scale through strategic branding, storytelling, and marketing.

His journey into marketing began in the Washington, D.C. punk scene, where everyone was a creator—whether that meant making music and ‘zines, photographing bands, organizing benefit shows, or inventing hair colors.

He has led marketing, brand, social media, and content teams at global companies, auction houses, in large, mid-size, and boutique agencies, and as co-founder of his own punk marketing agency. His clients have included Silicon Valley CEOs, entrepreneurs, Forbes Council members, tech companies, and behavioral scientists.

When Brad’s not learning a new language, training his two Russian Blue cats, or singing karaoke, he’s supporting Irrational Labs’s mission of bettering products and lives through behavioral science. He lives in Vienna, Austria.
Lindsay Juarez
Behavioral Scientist
Lindsay Juarez is a Director at Irrational Labs.

Lindsay is an expert in applying behavioral science insights to encourage meaningful behavior change. She is particularly interested in interventions that make taking the daily behaviors that lead to long-term goal success—such as exercising or saving for retirement—not just easier but also more enjoyable and fun. At Irrational Labs, Lindsay focuses on designing and testing interventions in the financial and health domains. Before she joined Irrational Labs, she was a Senior Behavioral Researcher at the Center for Advanced Hindsight at Duke University, a behavioral science center committed to research make people happier, healthier, and wealthier.

Prior to her work at Irrational Labs and the CAH, Lindsay worked for the federal Government Accountability Office and at New York University on a series of multi-site school interventions to reduce the racial academic achievement gap. Her research has been funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Templeton Foundation and published in top policy and psychology journals. She’s consulted for energy and sustainability non-profits and worked with clients as varied as meditation start-ups and cookbooks to international banks to incorporate behavioral science insights.

Lindsay received her BA in psychology from Reed College and her MA and PhD in social psychology from the University of Virginia. In the service of the quest for enjoyable exercise, she’s completed her 200-hour yoga teacher certification and two barre instructor certifications.
Lisa Zaval Headshot
Lisa Zaval
Behavioral Scientist
Lisa is a behavioral scientist and research consultant with broad expertise in behavioral economics, consumer behavior, and social psychology.

She holds a Ph.D. in Judgment Decision Making Psychology from Columbia University and completed her post-doctoral training at the Center for Decision Sciences at Columbia Business School. Lisa’s work has been published in an array of prestigious academic journals, including Psychological Science, PNAS and Nature: Climate Change, and has also appeared in numerous media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Scientific American.

In addition to her academic research experience, she leverages 5+ years of applied behavioral science consulting experience, working across a range of industries (health care, financial services, energy efficiency, market research) to apply her professional knowledge of behavioral science to solve practical business and policy challenges. She has worked with Facebook, CUNA Mutual, Ipsos, PG&E and the United Nations, among many others.

Lisa also holds an adjunct research scientist appointment at Columbia University, where she has taught Judgement and Decision Making courses and research methods.
Isabel Macdonald
Behavioral Scientist
Isabel Macdonald is a Behavioral Scientist with Irrational Labs.

She holds a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University, with a specialty in behavioral economics. She is passionate about how a deeper understanding of economic and psychological forces can guide the development of technology tools for social good. She has worked with financial institutions, NGOs, and government agencies to implement large scale experiments, as well as to develop tech products that help users achieve their financial and professional goals. 

Previously, Isabel was a consultant in the Talent practice for Mercer Consulting. In this role, she advised Fortune 500 companies on developing talent pipelines, HR analytics, and compensation strategies that maximize employee motivation and productivity.

Isabel also holds a postdoctoral research position at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Her current research explores how mobile apps help teachers implement remedial education and how blockchain and crypto-backed wallets advance financial inclusion globally.
Ryan Goble Headshot
Ryan Goble
Chief Learning Officer
Ryan leads the educational initiatives at Irrational Labs.

He specializes in “making curriculum pop” for learners in formal and informal settings. Ryan’s professional career began in the entertainment industry working as a field marketing representative for Virgin Records, DJing at NPR in Detroit, and doing production work at E! Entertainment Television. 

After working in Los Angeles,  Ryan transitioned into education. He started as a high school English teacher and developed into leadership positions in the New York City Public Schools, Chicago Public Schools and Glenbard Township High School District 87 in Glen Ellyn, IL. He joined the Irrational Labs team after serving as a high school and elementary school principal in Benton Harbor, Michigan. Ryan has been an adjunct professor in the education departments of Aurora, Benedictine, Roosevelt Universities (in the Chicagoland area),  a lecturer at Columbia University, and occasionally teaches graduate education courses at Madonna University. 

His consultancy Mindblue.com and social network Making Curriculum Pop led to collaborations and presentations for a wide variety of students, teachers, K-12 school districts, colleges and organizations like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Virgin Records and NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. His work has been featured in national media and he has written for publications including the Journal of Staff Development, Journal of Media Literacy, and The New York Times Learning Network. His first book on literacy and collaborative learning titled Making Curriculum Pop: Developing Literacies across All Content Areas (co-written with his mother) was co-published by the National Council Teachers of English (NCTE) and Free Spirit Press.  

Ryan holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English and a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Michigan. His doctorate is in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on adult education and cognitive science from Columbia University in New York City. He presently lives in the Chicago suburbs with his wife and daughter. 
Monica Zhang
Behavioral Scientist
Monica is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Labs.

Monica specializes in the intersection between Behavioral Science and Service Design. She enjoys blending insights from organizational, cognitive, and social psychology with human-centered design tools to change behavior both within teams and with customers. Monica has enabled product and service teams to unpack how context shapes decisions, form hypotheses, and build testable designs to help end-users flourish.

Before Irrational Labs, Monica worked as a Service Designer at a Canadian bank (CIBC) and as a Behavioral Economics consultant for a boutique firm (BEworks) across a variety of sectors. She’s helped reduce bias in hiring, increase savings and manage debt, improve energy conservation, and increase school attendance, among other real-world problems.

Monica holds an Honors Psychology degree from McGill University and an MSc in Organizational and Social Psychology from the London School of Economics. More than that, her years of practical experience have taught her how to apply theory and evidence to make a difference in this complex, messy, and wonderful world in which we behave.
Abi Warren Headshot
Abi Warren
Behavioral Scientist
Abi Warren is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Labs.

She is passionate about applying behavioral science to healthcare to improve patient outcomes, experiences, and equity. She has worked with governmental, non-profit, and commercial organizations across several industries (e.g. healthcare, finance, nutrition) including the World Bank, Planned Parenthood, the governments of Madagascar and Mexico, Kellogg, and Microsoft to understand systemic problems and design innovative solutions. In addition to Irrational Labs, Abi has worked with behavioral science organizations including ideas42 and BVA Nudge Unit. 

Abi received a BA in Economics from Cornell University with a minor in Spanish. Abi is also a Bilingual Birth Doula through which she provides informational, emotional, and physical support for pregnant people and their families before, during, and after labor. 
Karl Purcell
Karl Purcell
Behavioral Scientist
Karl is a behavioral scientist with Irrational Labs.

Karl is a passionate advocate for behavioral science having built a number of behavioral science teams throughout his career. He believes that by combining rapid experimentation with a deep understanding of human behavior, organizations can help people to become healthier, happier, and wealthier.

Karl is an entertaining and enthusiastic presenter who helps people get excited about applying behavioral science having previously lectured at Dublin City University and designing bespoke training programs for leading Irish financial institutions.

Prior to working with Irrational Labs, Karl played a key role in driving the adoption of behavioral science in Irish policymaking. Working in Ireland’s Department of Finance, he built a network of behavioral science enthusiasts, successfully secured funding for the application of behavioral science, and delivered the Irish government’s first randomized control trial to increase jobseekers’ attendance at job centres.

Following his work in the Department of Finance, Karl was headhunted to create and lead a behavioral science team at the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). During his time as program manager, he successfully delivered over 25 discrete research projects, 5 randomized controlled trials, and co-designed decision aids such as the SEAI’s electric vehicle comparison tool.

Karl has advised government leaders at the highest levels on how to apply behavioral science to improve policy outcomes. Most recently Karl provided advice to Ireland’s National Public Health and Emergency Team on how to reduce the spread of Covid-19 and maximize vaccination uptake.

Karl received his MSc in Behavioural Science for Management from the University in Stirling and his BSc in Business and Finance from Dublin City University. Karl also holds a higher diploma in science in data analytics from Dublin Business School.
Sami Horn
Behavioral Scientist
Sami is a behavioral scientist with Irrational Labs.

Sami started her behavioral science career with the Busara Center in Nairobi
over 9 years ago, where she led projects tackling a variety of challenges
from increasing uptake of iron supplements in North India to understanding
the drivers of civic participation in Uganda. Since then, her work has focused
on applying behavioral economics to health-related questions, both as a
researcher and applied behavioral scientist. Her research has been published
in Nature, PNAS, and other journals spanning a broad range of disciplines.

Sami holds a PhD in Social and Decision Sciences and, driven by an interest
in using AI to boost the impact of behavioral science interventions in
healthcare, an MSc in Machine Learning from Carnegie Mellon University. She
also holds an MA in International and Development Economics from Yale
University, and, due to a youthful desire to hang out in libraries reading Latin
poetry, a BA in Classics from King’s College London.

Before focusing on behavioral science, Sami held various roles at Cathay
Pacific Airlines across South and East Asia and started her career at a large
investment bank as a banks analyst.
Pauline Kabitsis
Behavioral Scientist
Pauline is a behavioral scientist with Irrational Labs.
Michael Daly
Behavioral Scientist
Michael is a behavioral scientist at Irrational Labs.

Michael is a behavioral scientist at Irrational Labs. He has experience applying behavioral science across numerous areas including customer experience, employee experience, financial services, and sustainability. Michael is passionate about helping individuals and organizations navigate an increasingly complex world by simplifying decision contexts.

Prior to Irrational Labs, Michael worked at Duke’s Center for Advanced Hindsight (CAH). There he helped local, state, and international government agencies make evidence-based redesigns to policies and services. His research focused on the application of behavioral science to problems such as increasing trust in elections and improving employee well-being and productivity. Project outcomes from Michael’s time at CAH have impacted over 2.5 million people in the U.S. and abroad.

Michael holds a Master’s Degree in Behavioral and Decision Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Wake Forest University. He specializes in experimental design and analysis.
Suman Gidwani
Behavioral Scientist
Suman is a behavioral scientist with Irrational Labs.

Suman is a behavioral science consultant at Irrational Labs. Suman has experience redesigning and launching behaviorally informed programs for social good. She has done work in the fields of health, sustainability, housing, and voting across the public and private sectors. Prior to working at Irrational Labs, Suman worked at the behavioral science organization ideas42, helped found the behavioral engine for voter engagement Vote Rev, and designed the inaugural behavioral voting program for low income voters at Jonathan Rose Companies. Suman received her BS in Neuroscience at Duke University and her MBA at the University of Michigan.
Eva Frishberg
Behavioral Scientist
Eva Frishberg is a behavioral scientist at Irrational Labs.

Eva Frishberg (she/her) is a behavioral scientist and community organizer who applies the science of human decision-making to improve programs, processes, and services that connect and support communities and individuals across domains. While working at ideas42, she supported city governments in incorporating behaviorally informed principles to improve the health and wellness of city employees, decrease bias in hiring and retention, improve staff relationships and work distribution for food and cash assistance, and improve Census completion for all New Yorkers. She also collaborated with Casey Family programs to reform child welfare systems and practices to be more equitable and less disproportionately harmful to BIPOC families.

Eva developed innovative approaches to reducing gun violence in Brooklyn and designed practices aimed at improving outcomes for those touched by the criminal punishment system in probation departments and diversion programs across the country. She has most recently worked with Hewlett to develop and train other behavioral scientists on tools making field research more equitable and less exploitative and extractive. By creating tools that address the socio-economic and racial gaps between researchers and the communities they work in, she hopes to mitigate negative impacts on communities of focus and create healthy, symbiotic relationships between academics, community partners, and marginalized individuals.

Eva received a BA in Psychology from Bard College, with a concentration in Social Psychology. She is also a gigging and recording musician, songwriter, and music instructor who is always working on a new album or collaborative project. In her free time, she organizes with climate organizers in her New Orleans, LA home.
Erin Mahoney headshot
Erin Mahoney
Behavioral Scientist
Erin Mahoney is a Behavioral Scientist at Irrational Labs.

Erin Mahoney (she/her) is a behavioral scientist at Irrational Labs. She specializes in the intersection of behavioral economics and product design research, putting human behavior at the center of product strategy and design decisions.

Erin has worked with organizations in the education, health, life sciences, consumer, and government sectors to design products and services based on a deeper understanding of users. She has built custom frameworks to embed behavioral science in client teams, developed interventions to drive changes in customer perception and behavior, and led research programs to understand ecosystems of user mental models.

Prior to joining Irrational Labs, Erin worked in higher education consulting (EAB) and design research and consulting (Essential Design). Throughout her career, she has developed particular interests in workplace engagement and in the visualization and communication of data.

Erin holds a B.A. in Cognitive Science from Yale University, where she focused on psycholinguistics and language acquisition. She received her M.Ed. in Mind, Brain, and Education at Harvard University, where she studied data analysis, neurodevelopment, and learning analytics.
Shea Fallick
Behavioral Scientist & Community Manager
Shea Fallick is a Behavioral Scientist & Community Manager

Shea Fallick makes web products better through evidence-based design.

He spent the first part of his career working in high-growth technology start-ups across Finance, Real Estate, and Social Impact. He used data analytics, behavioral economics, qualitative research, and the scientific method to inform crucial product and business decisions. At Irrational Labs, he leads the Behavioral Design community. He loves supporting other professionals in growing their Behavioral Science chops and becoming evangelists for the field.

Shea holds a BA in Mathematics and Economics from Emory University and is an alumnus of the Venture for America fellowship. He is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Analytics from Georgia Tech.
Sarwari Das
Data Scientist
Sarwari Das is a data scientist at Irrational Labs
Sarwari Das is a data scientist with a passion for behavioral science. As a mixed-methods researcher, she explores human-technology interactions and her expertise lies in applying advanced statistical and causal inference techniques to derive meaningful insights from complex datasets. Having worked with Morningstar, Deloitte, and Humu, Sarwari is driven by intellectual curiosity and seeks problems that allow her to build compelling narratives about data that are nuanced as well as robust in their approach.
Joanna See
Admin
Joanna is an admin of Irrational Labs and executive assistant of Kristen Berman.

Joanna is the executive assistant to the Kristen Berman and admin of Irrational Labs. With her years of experience, she excels in organization, supporting the company’s executives, and maintaining confidentiality. Her dedication to efficient communication and her passion for learning make her a valuable asset. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her family and dogs.
Aiden Miala
Admin
Aiden is an admin of Irrational Labs and EA to the managing directors.

Aiden supports all aspects of the Irrational Labs Managing Directors’ work. This includes setting and scheduling appointments to booking travel and accommodation—and everything in between.
Don't Listen to Your Customers - Do This Instead