Behavioral Science for Designing Incentives & Rewards

Companies use incentives and rewards to stimulate and support people to perform a wide array of behaviors ranging from signing up for a service to sticking to a diet. For example, meal delivery services give monetary incentives to encourage the first purchase; activity tracking apps provide users with a complex feedback system to encourage physical activity and social media platforms stimulate habitual use by providing users with variable rewards based on social validation.

For designers, the challenge is to create incentives and rewards that are effective in achieving their goals which, most often, means influencing behavior. A very common mistake in designing incentives and rewards is the designers’ focus on the “tool” and not on the behavior that is targeted.

The talk is a modified version of Nick Naumof’s half-a- day workshop on behavioral design for incentives and rewards. (http://www.naumof.com/behavioral-design-incentives-reward)

The talk will focus on the distinctions between incentives and rewards used in “one time” behaviors and “recurring behaviors” and will cover the following topics:

• A critical look at reframing outcomes

• Onboarding and referral incentives

• Positive Feedback (non-monetary rewards)

• Critics on The Fun Theory

• The importance of variable rewards

Nick Naumof Bio

Nick Naumof has studied people from different scientific perspectives ranging from economics to consumer behavior, behavioral economics, and evolutionary psychology. Author of It Makes (No) Sense–Between the Joy of Gaining and the Fear of Losing, Naumof has a unique mix of skills that allows him to translate academic insights of behavioral science into practical applications in business and service design.

Nick Naumof gave trainings, workshops and conference talks on four continents (North America, Europe, Australia and Afrika). You can learn more about Nick at http://www.naumof.com

Eastbanc Technologies is located on the ground level of the Georgetown Post Office. Our main entrance is on the right-hand side of the building, at the end of a long sidewalk.

There is a Colonial parking lot with an entrance off of M Street, or the street meter parking along 31st street is available. Additionally if you are traveling by public transportation, hop on Circulator or 38B/ 31/33/30N buses to Georgetown.