A behavioral design workshop helps a team understand why people act as they do in a product or service, identify barriers and motivations, and explore ways to improve the experience. A useful session starts with evidence about real users and ends with specific hypotheses and a plan to test them.
This guide covers how to prepare the session, structure the discussion, choose relevant exercises, consider ethical consequences, and decide what to test next. It draws on established behavioral design and facilitation practices, as well as Learning Loopโs workshop library. You can use the process without buying any tools or materials.
Materials for an internal behavioral design training workshop
For a small product or UX team, you can facilitate a practical session using existing product evidence, a shared workspace and the free exercises below. You do not need to buy a deck or hire a consultant. A specialist can still be valuable for high-stakes behavior change, complex research design or independent review.
| Bring | Why it matters | Output |
|---|---|---|
| One real user journey and observations, such as anonymized interviews or funnel data | Ground the session in a specific behavior rather than presumed biases | Agreed target behavior and evidence gaps |
| A behavior-framing worksheet and a whiteboard or shared document | Agree who needs to do what, where and when | Specific behavioral challenge |
| Research-based barrier notes; optionally COM-B or the Fogg Behavior Model | Separate capability, opportunity, motivation and friction questions before ideation | Prioritized barriers and assumptions |
| Free Persuasive Patterns reference and Ideas First, Patterns Later | Generate independent ideas, then explore additional behavioral pattern prompts | Distinct intervention hypotheses |
| Sticky notes, markers and a timer, or FigJam/Miro for remote groups | Support individual thinking, clustering and time-boxed discussion | Grouped alternatives and team feedback |
| Hypothesis and experiment worksheet | Specify expected user benefit, measurable outcome, possible harms and next test | Named owner and validation plan |
Optional paid materials: Persuasive Patterns: Conversions & Decisions can provide shared ideation prompts for onboarding, checkout and choice problems. Habits & Engagement is more relevant when exploring continued use that benefits users. The Persuasive Patterns Workshop Playbook offers further structured facilitation material. Check current product details before purchasing.
One example: If users abandon setup at a permissions screen, first check research for confusion or perceived risk. Ask each participant to generate two alternatives without cards. Then introduce a few relevant decision patterns to expand the options, record what each idea assumes, and choose a prototype or usability test. Avoid adding persuasion when the actual issue is missing information or unnecessary friction.
For background on the interface-pattern tradition behind these activities, see Anders Toxboe's Beyond usability: Designing with persuasive patterns on UI-Patterns.com. UI-Patterns.com and the Learning Loop educational and card resources are operated by Learning Loop ApS; the historic article provides context, while this guide focuses on facilitating a workshop.
Choose a structure for your behavioral design workshop
One practical approach combines the Double Diamond's four phases โ Discover, Define, Develop, Deliver โ with the Facilitation Canvas for planning the people, inputs, agenda, environment, outcomes, outputs, and pitfalls. The workshop needs both: a way to move the problem forward and a way to plan the session itself.
For selecting exercises, the book introduces a complementary Workshop Design System with six categories: Purpose, Understand, Define, Ideas, Decide, Commit. If the team cannot agree on the target behavior, return to Purpose. If the problem is not understood, return to Understand. Do not jump straight into card-based ideation.
Prepare for a decision, not just a discussion
Before inviting people, write down the behavioral outcome you're trying to influence: who should do what, in which context, and why it matters to them. Bring actual observations or research rather than relying only on assumptions. Then sketch your facilitation plan.
- Purpose: What concrete decision or behavioral question should this session resolve?
- People: Who understands the users, who can act on the output, and who will facilitate?
- Inputs: What research, journey insights, product metrics, or prototypes should everyone see?
- Agenda and environment: Which exercises fit the available time, group size, and setting?
- Outcomes and outputs: What decisions and artifacts will exist at the end?
- Pitfalls: What could derail participation, ethics, focus, or follow-through?
Prepare sticky notes, markers, voting dots, a visible timer, and a shared place to capture decisions. Cards are optional during early diagnosis; introduce them deliberately when they help exploration.
Example: a 90-minute behavioral design workshop
This is an illustrative short-form agenda adapted from the book's stages, not a verbatim recipe from the book. A complex challenge or deep research synthesis will require a longer session.
| Time | Activity | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 0โ10 min | Open / Purpose: Agree on the audience, target behavior, and desired outcome. | Shared behavioral goal |
| 10โ30 min | Discover / Understand: Surface research, map barriers and enablers, and flag unanswered questions. | Visible evidence and behavior map |
| 30โ40 min | Define: Select one important barrier or opportunity to address. | Focused problem statement |
| 40โ65 min | Develop / Ideas: Generate ideas independently first, then use psychological patterns as prompts. | Several intervention hypotheses |
| 65โ80 min | Decide: Discuss impact, feasibility, user value, and potential harm; select candidates to test. | Prioritized test ideas |
| 80โ90 min | Deliver / Commit: Assign an owner, next action, and review date for each selected test. | Named commitments |
Example: A team discovers that new users intend to complete onboarding but hesitate when asked for information they don't yet have. Rather than immediately choosing a persuasion tactic, the group examines the barrier, creates alternative ways to complete the step, and decides what to prototype and validate.
Select exercises based on where the team is stuck
The book contains full exercises and ready-made recipes for intervention design, habit creation, habit change, persuasive experiences, and ethical design. You can also combine individual exercises. These examples illustrate the categories without replacing the full facilitation instructions. Each linked exercise has its own page in the Workshop Patterns library.
| Need | Exercise from the book |
|---|---|
| Clarify the objective | Define Target Behaviors |
| Understand friction and motivation | Behavioral Journey Mapping or Drag & Drive Mapping |
| Focus the challenge | Behavior Focus Mapping |
| Translate barriers and enablers into ideas | Painkillers and Vitamins |
| Go beyond the obvious card selection | Forced Fit or Ideas first, Patterns later |
| Choose where to invest | Priority Mapping or PIE Scoring |
| Make accountability visible | Who / What / When Matrix |
For a broader comparison of frameworks, card decks, and methods, see the behavioral design tools guide.
Use Persuasive Patterns cards at the right moment
Psychology cards turn abstract principles into tangible prompts for discussion, but the book also warns that cards can narrow thinking. Participants may overvalue the apparent authority of a card, gravitate toward familiar patterns, or spend too long choosing from a large deck.
Start with evidence and unguided ideas. Once the team understands the problem, introduce a small selection of Persuasive Patterns cards to challenge or extend its thinking. Consider the book's Forced Fit exercise to explore patterns that do not seem immediately relevant. Treat every card-inspired idea as a hypothesis to evaluate and test, not a proven solution for your users.
Build in ethical checkpoints
The workshop should help users as well as the business. The book emphasizes transparency, user autonomy, manageable cognitive load, and the need to question negative consequences. Before selecting an intervention, ask:
- Does this solve a real user problem, or merely pressure someone into an action?
- Can people understand and reject the proposed choice?
- Who might be disadvantaged or excluded?
- Could it create unwanted habits, anxiety, or long-term harm?
The book includes Dark Reality and Evil by Design exercises for deliberate ethical reflection.
Where this workshop fits: Use product psychology examples when the team needs to diagnose a particular user choice before facilitating. If the main uncertainty is whether a proposed solution works, continue with the validation workshop instead.
After the workshop: make it real
End with a visible record of the target behavior, key evidence, the chosen intervention hypotheses, their risks, the experiment or prototype to run, and the person responsible. Set a date to review what was learned. For example, a team investigating stalled onboarding could record: observed hesitation when connecting an account; two competing explanations about permissions and perceived effort; a prototype explaining access; an owner for moderated task testing; and a review date. This is an illustrative output, not research evidence. A good workshop isn't measured by the number of sticky notes it produces; its usefulness depends on what the team learns and improves.
Go deeper: The Persuasive Patterns Workshop Playbook
Anders Toxboe's PDF book explains the Persuasive Workshop Framework and Facilitation Canvas in detail, with workshop recipes, exercise instructions, facilitation techniques, and practical guidance for using Persuasive Patterns cards.
Explore the PDF workshop book โ