The objective of this guide is to provide a practical, step-by-step outline on how to run a simple behavioural insights (BI) project. Since it is impossible to capture all that there is to know about applying BI in one document, this guide has deliberately been kept simple: more complex behavioural challenges will require more complex methods.

The guide also does not go into all the details of every method introduced, for example, a randomised controlled trial (RCT). Instead, it is intended to serve as a toolkit that introduces useful methods at each phase of a BI project. You and your project team will then be able to find additional information online and elsewhere on each specific method, or to bring in people within your organisation that have the specific technical skills and experience for the related tasks.

Before you start your project, we suggest you read through the whole guide to get an idea of the purpose, activities, and output from each phase. 

The guide will take you through the five phases of our TESTS methodology. Each of the chapters of this guide presents one of the five phases: Target, Explore, Solution, Trial, Scale.

These phases are presented in the order shown above. In practice, however, you will often find yourself going back and forth between the steps. For example, you might identify a suitable target behaviour but realise during the Explore phase that other behaviours are more feasible to change, so you need to go back to the Target phase.

A more in depth guide on the Explore phase is also available.