Humans are born behavioral scientists. From our very first cry, we begin to shape what others do by exerting pressure— bawl and they feed us, coo and they snuggle us. And we are similarly shaped by the pressures of others. We’re taught how to speak, dress, and act both explicitly and implicitly, through millions of subtle interactions with people and our environment. We change the behavior of others nat­urally and constantly, simply by being alive and part of a larger population.
This natural tendency toward behavior change manifests as our creative drive. Because we’re wired to influence what others do, we’re constantly creating to get what we want. As a consequence, nearly everything we come in contact with is constructed to shape behavior. Sidewalks tell us to walk here and not there. Movies tell us to laugh or to cry. Wearing a tie says, “Call me Mr. Tibbs!” while a Hawaiian shirt elicits a first name.

Yet we rarely connect our desire to create with the goal of behavior change. At most companies, the decision- aking process behind what we build still looks like an episode of Mad Men: people, generally white and male and lacking any expertise other than privilege, throw ideas out until one of them sounds sexy enough, and that’s what gets built. The rationalization is entirely post hoc, created simply to support an idea that a decision maker has already fallen in love with.

Hence the modern “why we make what we make” vision statement. No mention of behavior, no acceptance of the goal of creation, just a mélange of high- ef puff pieces designed to appeal to our need to both stand out and fit in. Even at com­panies that ought to know better, we have fetishized the pro­cess over its outcome and a stylish product over its intended behavior change. Then we attempt to make up for it by shout­ing as loudly as possible about how cool our products are, hoping to create a motivation where none previously existed. What an awful waste.
Advertising accounts for more than 1 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product: $220 billion of spend to compensate for a process that doesn’t consider behavior change its central aim. Instead of basic psychology, we use brute force to fuel a massive competition for attention, and our world is worse off because of it. Instead of starting at the end— clearly de­scribed behavior that is the explicit goal of creation— ur method of design has come to embrace the sexy sell and the need to sound good instead of be good. We have so deeply internalized product marketing that we make products with the advertisements in mind.

If that sounds great and you still want to live in a Mad Men world, it’s not too late to turn a blind eye. No one is forcing you to read this book and start changing behavior. Amazon has a very generous return policy. I encourage regifting— t is the ultimate environmentalism.

But if you believe this system is unsustainable and want to get busy doing something different, good news: you’ve come to the right place. Here we’ll prioritize outcome over process, while recognizing that some processes get you better out­comes. We’ll put behavior change first by starting at the end.