Top people to follow in Behavioral Design 🚀
The perfect list to kick off your behavioral design journey
Behavioral design as a field is complex — not only for the number of different theories and concepts involved, but also the fact that influencing human behaviors is highly context-dependent and messy when applied ‘in the wild’. To become more effective behavioral designers, we need to be constantly learning — from the latest academic research to lessons in the field.
What better way to do that than by following the footsteps of practitioners already doing this day-to-day? Learning from what they are reading, what events they are attending, and what discussions are happening in their circle is a great way for you to start immersing yourself in the field!
Aside from the authors and creators behind our favorite books, podcasts, and organizations* doing a great job at disseminating accessible content — here is also a short list of educators and opinion leaders to follow on Twitter and LinkedIn! 👉
Expect to…
- Learn more about behavioral design, one concept at a time
- Keep up to date with the latest research and debate in the field
- Stay in the loop for the latest events, job openings, and good reads
- Get practitioner tips for becoming a more effective behavioral designer
This is by no means an exhaustive list but could serve as a good starting point to branch out your knowledge network. So let’s get started! 🤓
Follow our Twitter List here! ⭐
For learning behavioral concepts 🔎
A mix of practitioners from around the world sharing valuable behavioral insights, fundamental concepts and tips for getting started in the field.
Pete Judo (LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube)
Pete works as a behavioral science consultant at Oglivy and creates engaging content on Youtube to explain different behavioral concepts, review books, and dissect how famous brands use behavioral science.
Merle van den Akker (LinkedIn, Twitter)
Merle writes the newsletter Money on the Mind at the intersection of personal finance and behavioral science, and regularly shares insights on the subject and interviews with practitioners in the field.
Carlos Hoyos (LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube)
Carlos is the winner of Habit Weekly Content Creator award in 2022, leading the charge in creating Spanish language content on all things behavioural science with his YouTube, podcast, and curated reads and case studies on social media.
Evelyn Gosnell (LinkedIn, Twitter)
Evelyn is the managing director at Irrational Lab, often featuring in webinars and sharing nuggets of insights at the intersection of digital product experiences and behavioural science.
Roos van Duijnhoven (LinkedIn)
Roos is a behavioural scientist with a background in behaviour change and neuropsychology. She often shares good reads from the field and translates research insights into accessible content.
For practitioners’ tips & opinions 💡
Leading practitioners in the field sharing opinions, best practices, and perspectives on real-world applications.
Peter Slattery (Linkedin, Twitter)
Besides being a Behavioral Researcher at BehaviourWorks Australia, Peter is also an experienced communicator and writes a newsletter on the topic of behavioral science in effective altruism. He also regularly shares summarized research insights on the topic and tips on the BehaviourWorks’ design process.
Michael Hallsworth (LinkedIn, Twitter)
As the Managing Director for the Behavioral Insights Team (BIT) Americas, Michael shares learnings from his team as well as case studies and research at the intersection of behavioral science and public policy. Besides, he is also a thought leader in the field, most recently helping practitioners make sense of the nudge debate through his article on the Behavioral Scientist.
Steven Johnson (Linkedin)
With over a decade of experience applying behavioral science across sectors, Steven works at the intersection of behavioral insights, data science, and human centered design. He regularly shares thought provoking views on the behavioral design process and examples in the wild that capture the nuances of working as a practitioner in the field.
Elina Halonen (LinkedIn, Twitter)
Elina runs her own consultancy Square Peg Insight to help organizations influence behaviors and is writing a book to help practitioners expand their toolbox on behavioral challenges. You might spot her talking about her favorite behavior change framework COM-B, creating Miro boards, or sharing her thoughts on the field.
Aline Holzwarth (Linkedin, Twitter)
Aline is currently the Behavioral Science Lead at Apple Health, and has previously worked with Dan Ariely at the Centre of Advanced Hindsight and co-hosted the Behavioral Design podcast with our Samuel Salzer. She regularly shares health related research papers and good reads that piqued her interest.
Connor Joyce (Linkedin, Twitter)
As a mixed-method researcher and applied behavioral scientist, Connor regularly shares interesting reads at the intersection of data, behavioral design, and digital product experiences. He creates bitesize introductions for behavioral concepts and shares his reflections as a practitioner in the field in accessible Q&A formats.
Matt Wallaert (LinkedIn, Twitter)
The author of Start at the End, Matt has an impressive track record of senior leadership as the Head of Behavioral Science or Chief Behavioural Officer for a range of organizations including Microsoft, Clover Health, and Frog. Besides founding the first consultancy to help build organizational capabilities in applied behavioral science, Matt also runs a great training course and often talks about organisation, leadership, and mentorship.
Samuel Salzer (Linkedin, Twitter)
This is a biased pick given that Sam is the founder of Habit Weekly, but a great person to follow since he’s also an active senior behavioural science advisor in tech. Sam has a wealth of experience in the field of behavioral design, and has increasingly begun to share helpful insights on the intersection of AI and behavioral science.
For latest academic research 📄
Leading academics helping us stay up-to-date and informed on the latest developments in the research side of behavioral science.
Jay Van Bavel (Linkedin, Twitter)
Professor at the New York University and author of The Power of Us, Jay regularly shares research insights and good reads related to social psychology, group dynamics, and organization cultures. He also has a newsletter that explores these topics in further depth.
Katy Milkman (Linkedin, Twitter)
The author of How to Change and host of the Choiceology podcast, Katy is also a professor and co-founder of the Behaviour Change for Good Initiative. Aside from her regular newsletter and podcast, she also shares interesting research papers and conference insights on her social media accounts.
Laurie Santos (Twitter)
The professor behind the popular Yale lecture series ‘The Science of Wellbeing’, Laurie is also the host of The Happiness Lab podcast sharing science-backed advice on happiness and well-being. She also regularly shares interesting research papers on the topic.
Cass Sunstein (Twitter)
The author of Nudge, Sludge, and many other books, Cass is a professor at Havard, former administrator at the White House, and really needs no further introductions. Cass also regularly shares interesting papers and books on Twitter.
For tips on career transition 💼
Lastly, content on the topic of building a career in behavioral design tends to be produced on a more ad-hoc basis. For example,
- Irrational Lab did a series of career-related content (here, here, here)
- Nir Eyal outlined the important skills of a behavioral designer here
- Pete Judo discussed career paths and day in the life of a behavioral consultant (here, here, here, here)
- Zarak Khan and Action Design Network curate useful resources on his website
- Connor Joyce shared his experience studying a behavioral science master, role of behavioural practitioners, and industry specialisation
- And don’t forget our very own job board, graduate guide and list of online courses on the Behavioral Design Hub
The Habit Weekly team is working to pull together all these disparate career resources into a central hub so you can navigate your career in behavioral design more easily — subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn to watch this space!
Want to give a special shoutout to someone you have learnt a lot from but is not featured on this short list? Comment below or tag them on Twitter and LinkedIn, we would love to hear from you!
*Organisations doing great work in this area — Decision Lab, Irrational Lab, Growth.Design, Make It Toolkit, Applied Behavioural Science Academy
