Behavioural Problem Framing Canvas

It's not just about identifying problems, but understanding the behaviours causing them.

Useful for:

Outlining strategy, planning.

Project stage:

Define

The Behavioural Problem Framing Canvas is less about pin-pointing product or business problems and more about discovering the behaviours orchestrating them. By rooting every challenge, goal, and solution in behavioural nuances, it promises a level of depth previously uncharted in project management and design thinking.

It is a holistic tool that enables designers, change makers, and business leaders to proactively predict and address behavioural challenges.

It’s useful for:

• Unearthing behavioural intricacies in project targets.

• Seamlessly melding behavioural insights with design strategies.

• Constructing a robust foundation for projects rooted in behavioural understanding.

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Applications:

Project Inception: Laying the behavioural groundwork right at the outset.

Stakeholder Meetings: Bringing behavioural nuance to the forefront, aligning projects with genuine user needs.

Design Strategy Development: Ensuring that each design move is rooted in actual behavioural insights.

Important reminders:

Premortem Lens: BPF acts as a premortem, allowing teams to foresee behavioural patterns that might hinder business objectives and intervene proactively.

Multi-Perspective Approach: The canvas integrates multiple vantage points, ensuring a thorough understanding of behaviours, their roots, and their impact on business challenges.

Iterative Nature: Emphasizes ongoing review and adaptation based on insights, ensuring that behavioural interventions remain relevant and effective.

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STEPS

Business Context: Start with the Why

1. Core Needs: Begin by identifying the most pressing needs.
   Ask:
   - What are your top three challenges today?
   - How have these evolved over time?
   

2. Project Aims: Dive into what you want to achieve with this project.
   Ask:
   - What do you hope to achieve?
   - How will this project benefit your audience and you?
   

3. Experience: Reflect on the past. It’s time to understand what you have done in the past to start to reveal behavioural patterns in your audience and projects.
   Ask:
   - What have you tried in the past?
   - What worked / didn’t work?
   
   

Behavioural Opportunities: Spot the Change Potential

1. Observations: Look at past behaviours and their outcomes in the context of the experiences above.
   Ask:
   - What behaviours were observed when we tried X?
   - What were their impacts on you and your audience?
   

2. Forecasting: Predict potential hiccups. Reflect on your insights so far. Use them to foresee potential things that may go wrong.
   Ask:
   - What are potential causes of failure in this project?
   - What caused failure in the past that might still have an impact?
   

3. Behavioural Levers: Pinpoint behaviours that, when altered, can make a difference.
   Ask:
   - Which specific behaviours, if changed, could mitigate threats?
   

Behaviour Profiling: Dive Deep into Behaviour

1. Who's Involved: Identify the main and secondary players.
   Ask:
   - Who are the individuals displaying the behaviour?
   - Who are the individuals with influence on the behaviour?
   

2. Actions Taken: Map out the behavioural journey.
   Ask:
   - What, where, when, and what is the behaviour identified above?
   

3. Behaviour Traits: Describe the behaviour in detail.

   a. Frequency of Behaviour: How often does the behaviour occur?
   Ask:
   How many times does the individual exhibit this behaviour in a given period?
   
   b. Consistency of Behaviour: Does the behaviour remain the same regardless of the situation, or are there noticeable differences?
   Ask:
   Does it change at different times.
   
   c. Complexity of Behaviour: Is the behaviour straightforward or multifaceted?
   Ask:
   Are there multiple steps or elements involved in the behaviour?
   
   d. Readiness to Change: Are individuals open to altering their behaviour?
   Ask:
   How willing are individuals to adapt or evolve their current behaviours?
   

Craft Behavioural Statement: Sum It Up

1. Behaviour Summary: After gathering insights, can you articulate the core behavioural problem?
   TIP:
   See below for the structure of the behavioural statement.
   

Predict & Plan: Look Ahead

1. Predicted Outcomes: Visualise the impact of behaviour changes.
   Ask:
   - How will modifying the behaviour benefit the business and project goals?
   - How will adapting the behaviour benefit the audience?
   
   

2. Needed Steps: Identify the resources required by your project to adapt the behaviour.

   Ask:
   - What business resources (provisions, personnel) are required to influence this behaviour?
   
   TIP:
   Be mindful not to create solutions at this stage. We are just preparing the field so we know what we’ll need, who to involve and where to start.

Crafting a behavioural Problem statement

Your Behavioural Problem Statement serves as a succinct summary of your insights from the BPF Canvas, weaving together the main behavioural aspects into a coherent narrative. One that can be turned into a HMW statement for brainstorming.

Crafting a Behavioural Statement:

Order the insights as follows:

Audience-Challenge-Behaviour-Aim

1. Audience Identification: "User/group..."
   (E.g., "Our primary bank customers...")

2. Identified Discord or Challenge: "encounter challenges like..."
   (E.g., "encounter challenges like the current queuing system...")

3. Behavioural Drivers: "due to behaviours driven by..."
   (E.g., "due to behaviours driven by peak hour congestion and too many messages in the bank...")

4. Project Aim or Objective: "which affects our objective of..."
   (E.g., "which affects our objective of providing streamlined operations and efficient service.")

Example:

Challenge:

Customers at a bank branch are frustrated by long wait times and the unclear queuing system for different banking services.

Statement Example:

Our primary bank customers struggle with our queuing system, often due to urgency, trust in face-to-face interactions, and peak hour congestion. This moves us away from our goal of smooth operations and top-notch service.

Turning Behavioural Problem statements into HWMs

How might we tailor our queuing system to better serve customers influenced by urgency and the preference for in-person interactions, especially during peak hours?

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Derived from:

While problem framing has always been a cornerstone of design, the evolution towards a behavioural lens was inevitable. Recognising the need for this depth, the 'Behavioural Problem Framing' emerged as the answer. Crafted by behav. this approach is taught to design and change teams.

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