Kristen Berman is a renowned expert in behavioural economics, consumer psychology and financial wellbeing. She has made significant contributions to understanding how people actually behave in the marketplace, challenging the traditional notion of purely rational consumer behaviour. Kristen’s work is pivotal in helping organisations design products and strategies that align with real human behaviour, thereby enhancing engagement and outcomes.
In 2013, Kristen co-founded Irrational Labs with Dan Ariely. This behavioural product design company collaborates with businesses and nonprofits to apply insights from behavioural economics to improve the health, wealth and happiness of their users. Through her leadership, Irrational Labs has become a key player in the field, guiding organisations to leverage behavioural science for better decision-making and product design. Kristen also co-founded the Common Cents Lab, an initiative at Duke University focused on enhancing the financial well-being of low- to middle-income Americans. Under her stewardship, Common Cents Lab has conducted over 50 experiments with various companies, impacting hundreds of thousands of people. This work demonstrates Kristen’s commitment to using behavioural science to tackle real-world problems, particularly those related to financial security.
At Google, Kristen was a founding member of the behavioural economics group, which influences over 26 teams within the company. She played a crucial role in organising StartupOnomics, one of the leading conferences on behavioural change. Her efforts at Google underscore her ability to integrate behavioural insights into large-scale corporate environments, driving innovation and effective change. Kristen’s expertise is further recognised through her advisory roles with Loop Commerce, Code For America Accelerator and the Genr8tor Incubator. She has consulted with top global companies, ran over 70 experiments has and trained more than 1,000 people in applying behavioural science principles. Her contributions include co-authoring the workbook "Hacking Human Nature for Good" with Dan Ariely, which is used by major companies like Google, Intuit, Netflix, Fidelity and Lending Club to inform business strategy and design.
As a keynote speaker, Kristen has delivered insights at prestigious venues including Google, Facebook, Fidelity, Equifax, Stanford, and the Bay Area Computer Human Interaction seminar, having also delivered the TEDx Talk Don't Listen To Your Customers - Do This Instead. Her talks often focus on increasing customer engagement through small changes, the main components of a behaviour change system, scientific processes for innovation, and critical customer psychologies to consider in design. Kristen Berman’s work exemplifies the application of behavioural economics to improve consumer experiences and financial wellbeing, making her a sought-after expert and speaker in the field.
How to hire Kristen Berman
Contact the Champions Speakers Agency to provisionally enquire about hiring Kristen Berman for your next event, today. To get in touch, simply call an official booking agent on 0207 1010 553 or email us at [email protected] for more information.
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Kristen Berman's official speaking topics are listed below:
Psychology of Money
Strategies & Perspectives on How to Combat Our Biases:
Money is a constant part of life — for everyone. Yet despite its importance, more often than not, we end up making decisions that aren’t optimal. This talk will reveal how and why people are irrational with their money and how companies can design products and services that help people be smarter. Kristen will go over surprising experiments that her team has done and highlight just how easy it is to change behaviour.
Psychology of Decision Making (Behavioural Economics 102)
How Your Customers Are Making (& Not Making) Decisions:
Too often, we assume that consumers make rational decisions. We take them at their word when we ask them about their behavior — they say they want this feature and we assume they will actually use the feature once we build it. But there’s a gap between what consumers say they’ll do and what they actually do. How do we bridge this gap and design products based on actual consumer decision-making and behaviour? This talk will get to the core of irrational decision-making. Kristen will share funny stories about how we are irrational, while also providing novel and insightful ways to design products and services that align with these irrationalities.
How to Use Behavioural Economics to Increase Engagement & Retention
Today’s product leaders often rely on the word of their customers when building their product road maps; whether it’s a customer survey or a phone interview, loads of qualitative data through these methods is being collected and used to dictate how to design and develop products. Seems like a foolproof plan, right? Actually, no — a reliance on customer input and feedback is built on an antiquated model of human decision-making that assumes humans are rational. Kristen will go over her compelling research that highlights just how misleading customer research is. She’ll take us through step by step the process that behavioural economists go through to understand behaviour and then change it.
How to Increase Trust in Your AI
What the Research is Saying & What People Are Actually Doing:
In an era where AI is pervasive, trust is paramount. This talk, aimed at tech leaders and AI developers, examines how to cultivate trust in AI systems. We’ll dissect the latest academic research and real-world case studies for how AI can create OR destroy trust. Drawing from behavioural economics and psychology, the discussion will highlight the role of human biases in AI perception and use. We will provide practical strategies for enhancing AI’s credibility, how to manage transparency, and balance giving users control and agency with ease of use. Expect a blend of theoretical insights and real-world applications, empowering attendees to build more trusted and effective AI solutions.
Adopting AI Tools
Do's & Don't of Behaviour Change
This session targets business leaders and managers grappling with AI tool adoption in their organizations. We’ll explore the behavioural dynamics influencing employee engagement with AI and the psychological barriers to adoption (“Will my job get taken?!” “This AI is not as good as I am!”.)
The talk will offer a blend of dos and don’ts, focusing on how to combat the status quo, how to instil social norms throughout the org and behavioural incentives for effective change management. We’ll look at lateral categories to get inspired on how to think differently about change and reference academic studies that have shown real effects. The session will leave attendees equipped with actionable strategies for fostering a culture that embraces AI tools as part of their operational fabric.
Official Feedback from In-Person & Virtual Events
Feedback from In-Person Events:
"Have you ever wanted a glimpse of the future? Have you ever wanted to have a conversation with someone who thinks as if they are inside a human brain? Have you ever wanted to end a phone call and receive an email with about 37 helpful resources? If yes to any of the above, just call Kristen. I was fortunate to meet Kristen and ever since have found our brainstorming so inspiring and direction-changing for my work. Behavioural economics is the most important set of social science discoveries in the last 50 years. Product design is the core function that enables technology companies to scale to billions. Therefore, bringing behavioural economics to bear on product design is an activity that will surely impact billions of people... and Kristen is making that happen. If you are even tangentially involved in building companies and designing products, you have got to spend some time with Kristen." - Evan, Managing Partner, Learn Capital
"I have been going to NorCal for four years and you were probably the best speaker I have seen. Complete package; very professional, funny, and insightful." - Thomas, Norcal Board Member
"Bringing behavioural economics to bear on product design is an activity that will surely impact billions of people…and Kristen is making that happen." - Ethan, Founder & CEO
"Maybe the best session I’ve been to in my 2 years at Facebook. [Kristen Berman] is super immersed in the topic and able to relate to our workstreams so easily, which makes this super relevant!" - Judy, Marketing Manager, Facebook
- 2019 - Delivered the TEDx Talk "Don't Listen to Your Customers - Do This Instead"
- 2015 - Co-Founder & Principal of Common Cents Lab
- 2014 - Author of "Hackinh Human Nature for Good: A Practical Guide to Changing Human Behaviour"
- 2013 - Advisor of gener8tor
- 2013 - Advisor of Code for America
- 2012 - Advisor of Loop Commerce
- 2011 - Co-Founder & CEO of Irrational Labs
- 2011 - Senior International Product Marketer for Lytro Inc.
- 2011 - Product Manager for Lytro Inc.
- 2011 - Product Manager for QuickBooks Online, Intuit
- 2009 - Associate Product Manager of QuickBooks Online, Intuit
- 2007 - Rotational Development Associate for Intuit
- 2004 - Founder of netNerds
