Academy » Behavioural Design Fundamentals

MASTER THE BEHAVIOURAL DESIGN METHOD©

Learn how to apply behavioural science in practice

In this course you learn a practical method to decode unconscious human decision-making and you will master principles from behavioural science to translate these into compelling products, services, campaigns or policies that will influence choice and shape behaviours.

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Behavioural Design Fundamentals Course

This is the perfect start for anyone who wants to catch up with the latest in behavioural science
and wants to learn how to apply this in practice right away. Our most popular training.

mindshifting know-how top-notch trainers certificate of recognition backed by science 100% practical

When join this training?

You have a brilliant new business idea, are selling a product or service, or have been working on an organisational change or policy people need to embrace? Then this is the perfect course for you. We will teach you how to use behavioural science to get people to make needed choices or engage in desired behaviours. We’ll bring you up to speed with the breakthrough insights of behavioural science, but we will turn this theory into practice right away. You’ll be learning by doing. Everybody who is interested can join, no entry-level required.

What do you get?

A two-day training taught by a senior Behavioural Designer
Six months weekly digital follow-up training
Ready-to-use tools and templates
All course materials in PDF
A goodie bag filled with cheat cards
Lifelong access to new tools and templates
Becoming part of a lively alumni community
Homemade breakfast, lunch, snacks and drinks

What is the investment?

Our Fundamentals Course is a fixed investment per participant of € 1.490,- excluding VAT. It is possible to pay in five instalments. Just ask us about the possibilities.

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”What makes us different from all other training facilities is that everything we teach you is firmly rooted in practice. We are a unique combination of a Behavioural Design Academy and Behavioural Design Consultancy. Everything we learn in our work with clients is injected into our training. That's how you can be sure that the know-how is up to date and relevant. Your trainers are also 100% practitioners.

how can we help

Maybe you recognise this

You have great ideas but cannot always convince people of them
You want to learn how to get people to act instead of saying they will
You feel you have little control over the decisions people make
You need to convince people to embrace change who are resistant
You have lost time & money on ideas people didn’t embrace
You want to help people make better decisions but don’t know how
You haven’t learnt about behavioural science and want to catch up
You need to turn your client-centred vision into meaningful action
You need people to act now to secure a better future
You feel you need to start doing things differently to stay ahead

You can choose from two editions

You can join the Fundamentals Course both at our training location in Amsterdam or as virtual training. Whatever suits you best!
(Although joining us in person can be you’re best excuse for a trip to Amsterdam).

Training on Location.

Join the Fundamentals Course (2 full days) in our fully equipped training location in Amsterdam. Get up-to-speed with the latest in Behavioural Design while enjoying views of the historical centre of Amsterdam and being pampered with homemade food.

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In Person Virtual Training.

Enjoy the Fundamentals Course (4 half days) from the comfort of your own home or office. Watch a live trainer and get real-time feedback. Interact with fellow like-minded professionals with whom you get to collaborate in virtual break-out rooms.

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What will you learn?

You will master the SUE | Behavioural Design Method© consisting of three steps. You'll learn how to decode unconscious human decision-making, how to unlock the forces that stand between the undesired and desired behaviour, and how to use behavioural science to come up with strategies and ideas that will influence choice and shape behaviour.

Understand behaviour. Be successful.

After just two days of training you will

Know how human-decision making works
Understand which forces shape behaviour
Master the art of influencing choices
Know how to unlock valuable human insights
Discover opportunities to change behaviour
Be able to create ideas that people will embrace
Learn how to prototype and validate these quickly
Get people to buy your ideas or products
Understand how to pitch ideas to win

“Going from pushing creative ideas to clients to actually listening to humans, fall in love with their problems and then come to better ideas is a mindblowing paradigm shift. “

Mathieu Hermans
Strategy Director & Partner Zuid Creatives

“By a personal approach, you gain insight into the decision-making behaviour of humans (instead of clients). The theory really comes to life by the use of practical examples and by the exercises you work on.”

Jurriaan Rang
CEO Felix Werkt

Download the free brochure

We have created a brochure that explains all the ins and outs of the Fundamentals Course. From the program to the former participants. From the investment to the people behind the Academy: it's all in there.

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Go ahead, there are no strings attached!

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Four Core Learning Modules

Foundation

You’ll understand human decision making and will grasp why people do things or why they don’t. You’ll know where to start from if you want to change or influence behaviour. We’ll bring you up to speed with the essential insights from behavioural science so that you’ll have a solid foundation to inject behavioural intelligence into your projects.

Insight

You’ll learn how to research people’s behaviour and to reveal opportunities for behavioural change by identifying your users’ pains, gains, comforts, and anxieties. We’ll teach you how to use the SUE | Influence Framework© and how to plot behavioural insights on a Behavioural Design Canvas©.

Intervention

You’ll learn how to develop ideas that will effectively shape choices or change behaviour using principles from behavioural science. This will help you develop next-generation products, services, marketing or policies that are people-centred. We’ll teach you how even if you’re not creative.

Impact

You’ll learn how to test, analyse and improve the strategies and ideas you came up with so that you will know how to tackle challenges with an evidence-based approach instead of relying on gut feeling. We’ll also teach you how to leverage behavioural science to convince others of your working ideas or strategy.

The Program Breakdown

Start: Foundation

Every genuinely transformative learning experience is built on a solid foundation. In this module, we’ll start by teaching you the fundamentals you’ll need to master to influence choice and design behaviour predictably. We’ll start by giving you some clarification of the buzzwords you’re surrounded with right now, like design thinking, human-centred thinking, and behavioural design. So, you won’t be puzzled by that anymore and will be in the know.

Next, we’ll reveal the importance of behavioural design in the world. We’ll show you the impact it can make and how you can make this impact too. We’ll illustrate this with real-life examples.

We’ll continue this module by teaching you the fundamental need-to-knows of the science of human psychology. What are the breakthrough insights in this field? What do you need to know about human decision-making? Which forces influence human behaviour? How can you reveal those forces, and how can you make them work for you? Why do people do things or don’t do something? How can you spot opportunities that help you develop ideas, products or policies that people want to embrace? You will gain a deep understanding of human psychology, and you’ll be able to spot a behavioural design problem and opportunity in every challenge you’ve to solve.

Finally, we’ll bring this together in a very hands-on tool that we’ve developed, called the Behavioural Design Canvas©, with in its heart the SUE | Influence Framework©, that will connect the dots of the acquired insights in a very logical and practical way. And you’ll learn to work with the model in an interactive work session working on a case that you’ll be working on with team-mates during the two days. So, you’ll be learning by doing right from the start.

Step 1: Insight

In this module, we’ll deep dive into the first step of the SUE | Behavioural Design Method©: Insight. There’s no strong idea that doesn’t start with solid insight, but the problem is that most research doesn’t come up with groundbreaking insights. Or even insights that are in any way meaningful. That’s because most analysis doesn’t start at behaviour or is researching the wrong behaviour. People are filled with good intentions and will tell you in interviews that they’ll do something – like using your product or complying with your policy – but they’ll end up not doing it in practice. Proper behavioural research – or we even prefer to call it behavioural analysis – can save you expensive and timely mistakes and give you real insights that will lead to predictable behaviour.

In this module, we’ll teach you how you can genuinely unlock behavioural insights. To be exact: how to research past behaviour, the only truth out there, as this happened. We’ll start by showing you which barriers people may have in interviewing; we’ll teach you interview techniques, we’ll give you tips and pointers on how to set up a useful interview script and then you’ll put it into practice in an interactive work session.

Insights are somewhat worthless if you a) analyse them wrongly and b) not use them correctly (or at all for that fact: how often are research reports not genuinely used in strategy or idea development). A vital pillar of the success of our Behavioural Design Method© is that the different phases – insight/intervention/impact – are intertwined and therefore build upon each other. That’s why we’ll end this module with a practical tool again: the SUE | Behavioural Design Canvas©. We’ll teach you how to map interview insights on the canvas and define opportunities that will lead to your desired behaviour. Again you practice with this tool in the program case, so you’ll know how to use the canvas when we’re not around anymore.

Step 2: Intervention

In the Insight module, you’ll have acquired the behavioural insights needed and now is the time we’ll teach you the behavioural design tools and techniques to come up with ideas that will change behaviour. We will introduce you to the elegant and easy-to-use SWAC Model©. We’ll teach you about capability, willingness, and sparks. We’ll also teach you a technique to make sure the best creativity comes out of a diverse group. You’ll start practising with this tool right away in a work session, creating ideas for the case you’ll be working on with your team. You’ll be amazed by the quantity and quality of the ideas you’ll come up with within the limited time available. Whether you’re already a creative or a creative newbie: we’ll rock your world on creativity can come to be.

Step 3: Impact

We now reach the final step of the SUE | Behavioural Design Method©: Impact. We’ll start by explaining how rapid prototyping beats predicting and planning and will help you minimise your risks to fail big. We’ll not only tell you about the importance of prototyping, but we’ll also show you what prototypes are and how to make them. In an interactive work session, you’ll start making prototypes for your team’s ideas that you developed in the Intervention module.

We then move into a workshop that will bring the whole Behavioural Design Method© together so that you can experience the magic of the model working as a whole. You’ll obtain the skills you acquired in the Insight module into practice. You’ll be testing your ideas via prototypes by interviewing your peers. You’ll get feedback (using your skills from the Insight module to spot new behavioural insights).

Next up in this module, we will teach you how to use behavioural psychology to convince other people of your working strategies and ideas. We’ll hand you our Behavioural Bias Overview©, which gives you a very hands-on tool to pitch your ideas to win. And we’ll teach you how to set up the ultimate 5-minute pitch. We’ll end this module – and our two-day program – with a presentation. Together with your teammates, you’ll be doing a 5-minute pitch to convince a jury and your fellow students of your solution for the behavioural design challenge you’ve been working on.

We’ll end this module with an official graduation and graduation drink. Did you know you get an official certificate of recognition, and if you’re a NIMA student, you’ll get accredited 15 NIMA points? We’re one of the highest accredited NIMA education. By the end of this module, you’re ready to take on the wicked problems of your organisation (or the world) using behavioural science.

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“This program makes you realise that there is so much untapped potential within your company. You just need to have the BDA system to unleash it fully.”

Pieter Meijer
CEO – Pervorm

“The combination of theory and practice really pulls you out of your comfort zone. Always a plus the teachers are enthusiastic and engaging. I’m going to use it for personal and work. You can do so much with what I learned!”

Kari-Anne Fygi
Journalist

How will you learn?

After the two days of live training you’ll unlock FREE access to our Continuous Learning Program with six months of weekly digital lessons. To make sure the course will get you the success you are looking for.

Masterclasses &
Work Sessions

In a combination of high-end masterclasses and interactive work sessions, you’ll learn how human decision making works and how to amplify the impact of your products, services, marketing or policies using our Behavioural Design Method©.

Continuous Learning Program

You will gain FREE access to six months of digital training. Every week you’ll receive a new lesson in your email with mini masterclasses, new tools or practical tips that will deepen and advance your skills and knowledge.

Personal Growth & Success

To apply what you’ve learned is hard when daily reality kicks in again. The success formula of the BDA is that after the two days, we guide you for six more months to help you use the method you’ve mastered.

Book a seat

Would you like to join the course? Secure your spot now. Check out available dates and seats. Only 16 spots available each edition.

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”Did you know we're an official educational institution? We're globally accredited by the Education Quality Assessment Commission based on our curriculum, our method of teaching and our general conditions.

How to convince your boss

Maybe you are already convinced that you want to join the Academy,
but you still need your manager or boss to approve.

To us, that’s just another Behavioural Design Challenge. That’s why we’ve made this free download. To help you apply seven behavioural design techniques to convince your manager or boss to let you enrol in Behavioural Design Academy. Hope to see you soon at SUE | Behavioural Design Academy; we can’t wait to meet you!

Download ‘How to convince my boss’

These books are covered in the Fundamentals Course

We’ll teach you the essential insights from the latest and best books on behavioural science.

Book a seat

Would you like to join the course? Secure your spot now. Check out available dates and seats. Only 16 spots available each edition.

Book a seat

What kind of people join the Fundamentals Course?

People who join are all experienced, like-minded professionals who have to influence people in one way or another. Still, all feel their missing link to succeed is to gain a deep understanding of human psychology and behaviour. We’ve had marketers join who want to convince clients of their products. HR managers who need people to embrace change. Entrepreneurs who have to convince investors. Governmental advisors who need people to follow policies.

40

Corporates

20

Agencies

15

Entrepreneurs

25

Government & non-profit

Want to learn how to apply behavioural science in practice?

Download the brochure

Go ahead, there are no strings attached!

Built meaningful relationships with clients
Boosted sales and conversion rates
Optimised their consumer journeys
Developed successful innovations or product introductions
Made teams more creative, agile and human-centred
Unlocked vital behavioural insights and new opportunities
Made their communication and marketing more persuasive
Installed a strong company culture with good habits
Got policies or organisational change embraced

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A final check

Some facts about the course

Taught in both Dutch and English
Suited for people in profit and non-profit organisations
Suited for people outside communication or marketing
Official educational institution
Small groups, a maximum learning curve
Two full-days breakfast, lunch, drinks, graduation drink
100% actionable skills, learning by doing
Rare chance to learn from the frontrunners in the industry
No former experience in psychology or design needed

We are accredited by the EQAC.

We’re an oﬃcial education acknowledged and globally accreditated by the Education Quality Accreditation Commission (EQAC). The EQAC is committed to promoting high standards of education, recognising professional excellence and providing an invaluable guide to education quality and recognition in the complex sector of worldwide education. To get this accreditation, we were evaluated on a quality code covering our curriculum, our method of teaching and our general conditions. All to make sure that you are guaranteed the best level of education.