While we believe in the power of these methods, we have an equally strong belief in the importance of context in any decision-making situation. Rather than assuming that various behavioral science principles are universally true and always applicable, we put context front and center in our work. For our practice, this means always conducting in-context research into what truly drives behavior.

 

This brought us to our first big barrier – and an eventual breakthrough. Researching behavior effectively has always been challenging. Interviews, surveys, and focus groups rely on the subjects’ self-reports, which means these approaches have a limited ability to explain past behavior and predict future behavior. In response, we innovated, using games, context simulations and scenario-based research models.