Kristen Berman

CEO & Co-Founder at Irrational Labs

Kristen Berman is the CEO and co-founder of Irrational Labs, a behavioral science consulting firm she co-founded with Dan Ariely in 2013. Her team of 20 behavioral scientists helps companies like Google, Airbnb, PayPal, Microsoft, TikTok, and Credit Karma use behavioral design to drive engagement and behavior change.

The Growth Scientist The Scientist

Dimension Profile

Strategic Vision 50%

Execution & Craft 70%

Data & Experimentation 90%

Growth & Distribution 65%

Team & Leadership 45%

User Empathy & Research 85%

Key Themes

behavioral science applied to products present bias and social norms testing before building requested features predictable irrationality in users behavioral design for engagement reducing misinformation through nudges

Episode Summary

Kristen Berman brings behavioral science to product design, sharing how her firm Irrational Labs helped TikTok reduce misinformation sharing by 24%, increased doctor appointment setup by 20% for One Medical, and helped Credit Karma boost recurring deposits by 18%. Her core insight: people behave irrationally but predictably, so always test before building the most-requested feature — what users say they want often doesn't match what actually drives behavior change.

Leadership Principles

→ People make decisions with lots of emotion in predictable ways — once you understand the patterns, you can design to change behavior
→ Always test before building the most-requested feature — what users say they want is not always what drives the behavior you need
→ Combine the field of psychology and economics to understand why users behave the way they do

Notable Quotes

"Economics says people are rational. That's just not true. In behavioral economics, people make decisions with lots of emotion, present bias, social norms. But the good news is we do these things in predictable ways. Once you understand how people behave, you can start to change it."
— On what behavioral economics is and why it matters for product design

"A popular FinTech app's most requested feature was budgeting. It came through all the support forums and interviews. We convinced them to test it rather than just build it. The result was surprising — the budgeting variations didn't outperform simply telling people how much they spend."
— On why the most-requested feature isn't always the right thing to build

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