AI-powered Behavioral Design Sprint

New

3 Weeks

Cohort-based Course

Master GenAI-powered human-centered design process using the Make it Toolkit for behavioral-informed product and service design.

AI-powered Behavioral Design Sprint

New

3 Weeks

Cohort-based Course

Master GenAI-powered human-centered design process using the Make it Toolkit for behavioral-informed product and service design.

Hosted by

John Gusiff and Mahnaz Hajesmaeili

Together bring extensive CX/UX experience leveraging GenAI in the Design Process

John Gusiff and Mahnaz Hajesmaeili

Together bring extensive CX/UX experience leveraging GenAI in the Design Process

Consulted at

Course overview

Apply Behavioral Science to the Design Sprint process using the Make it Toolkit

TL;DR: You'll learn the step-by-step process for conducting a Behavioral Design Sprint, leveraging the Make It Toolkit from behavioral challenge statement to visualization of a behavioral-informed solutions concept with supporting behavioral design hypotheses. All GenAI-powered + Human in the Loop!

We took the original Design Sprint process and made it more human-centered by integrating the Make It Toolkit for behavioral design into it - we call the new and improved process The Make it Toolkit Behavioral Design Sprint:

STRATEGIZE TO FORMULATE CHALLENGE

🛍️ Choose a Product or Service

📈 Define expected organization and user outcomes

🎯 Define target behaviors to encourage or discourage

💬 Formulate a behavioral challenge statement (our starting point)

MAP THE BEHAVIORAL USER JOURNEY

🔚 Start at the end — map the behavior journey

📜 Utilize the Make It Toolkit Five Laws of Behavior to analyze the journey

🚧 Identify Make It barriers to progress

💡 Identify and prioritize opportunity points (design interventions)

BRAINSTORM IDEAS & INTERVENTIONS

💡 Generate ideas using Make It Toolkit strategies & tactics

🔄 Refine ideas by evaluating combo/trade-offs across Make It strategies

🧪 Formulate a set of behavioral design hypotheses

🎨 Visualize your solution concept (sketch, storyboard, journey map, simple mock-up)

The PROTOTYPE & BUILD and TEST & VALIDATE phases are not covered in this course as we've found these to be very specific company standards, processes, and toolsets.

The entire process is taught GenAI-powered with a Human in the Loop, to help individuals and teams evaluate the fastly evolving methods of design. We've found by testing these boundaries, cohort participants gain real-life experience regarding where and where not to apply GenAI-powered methods.

The course is Case Study-based, and we've hand-picked three specific case studies (e.g., healthcare, educational services, and financial services) to guide your learning journey.

It's going to be an amazing course! We cannot wait to share with you these practical and empowering methods and tools for GenAI-powered behavioral design efforts!

Who is this course for

Design Sprint facilitators looking to better align teams on more focused customer outcomes via a behavioral challenge statement.

Product managers wanting to make sure the products and services they design are behavioral informed and more likely to succeed.

Designers wanting to have better context around the users they are designing for and the specific behaviors that need to be influenced.

Design Sprint facilitators looking to better align teams on more focused customer outcomes via a behavioral challenge statement.

Product managers wanting to make sure the products and services they design are behavioral informed and more likely to succeed.

Designers wanting to have better context around the users they are designing for and the specific behaviors that need to be influenced.

Behavioral scientists seeking to better integrate applied behavioral science into the design process.

HR or L&D professional seeking to improve employee engagement or design better employee experiences.

CX Journey Manager seeking new ways to improve overall customer journeys and experiential outcomes.

Together, aligning a team around a set of behavioral design hypothesis to influence customer decision making & progress moving forward.

What you’ll learn as part of this course:

The GenAI-powered Behavioral Design Sprint (Human in the Loop)

The step-by-step process for conducting a Behavioral Design Sprint leveraging the Make It Toolkit from behavioral challenge statement to solution concept.

Introduction to the Make it Toolkit for Behavioral Design

How we made the Design Sprint process more human-centered by integrating the makeit toolkit into it. Starting with a behavioral challenge statement.

Introduction to the Five Laws of Behavioral Science

The Five Laws of Behavior B=f(P,E) Kurt Lewin, B=f(S1,S2) Daniel Kahneman, (A->B->C) B.F. Skinner, (B=MAP) BJ Fogg, and B=f(I,E) Deci & Ryan to inform behavioral design.

Behavioral Journey Map vs. Traditional Journey Map

The core differences between a behavioral journey map and a traditional journey map (focus, design objective, orientation) and the five core components to a behavioral journey map (prompts, behavior, consequences, barriers, and opportunity points).

Conducting a Behavioral Audit of a User Journey (select 1 of 3 case studies)

Leveraging the Five Laws of behavior to perform a behavioral audit of a user journey (behavior, prompts, consequences, barriers to progress, opportunity points). Case studies for healthcare, financial services, and learning & development.

Ideating leveraging the 15 makeit Behavioral Design Strategies

As part of the case study based exercise learning how to leverage the fifteen (15) makeit behavioral design strategies and associated tactics to ideate on how to better influence customer progress and design a better experience.

Formulating a Behavioral Design Hypothesis

Formulating a behavioral design hypothesis to drive prototyping and validation with consumers or customers aligned with the original behavioral challenge statement.

Vizualizing your Solution Concept

Learn different methods (sketching, storyboarding, journey, simple mock-up) for visualizing your behavioral-informed solution concept using GenAI-powered tools.

What’s included

Live sessions

Learn directly from John Gusiff & Mahnaz Hajesmaeili in a real-time, interactive format.

Lifetime access

Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.

Community of peers

Stay accountable and share insights with like-minded professionals.

Certificate of completion

Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.

Maven Guarantee

This course is backed by the Maven Guarantee. Students are eligible for a full refund up until the halfway point of the course.

Course syllabus

5 live sessions • 41 lessons

Week 1

Sep 9—Sep 14

Sep

Session 1: The Behavioral Design Sprint (Formulating Challenge Statement)

Tue 9/96:00 PM—8:00 PM (UTC)

Make It Toolkit Behavioral Design Sprint

1 item

The Behavioral Challenge Statement

1 item

The Make it Toolkit (An Overview)

1 item

The Five Laws of Behavior

2 items

Key Differences between Traditional and Behavioral Journey Mapping

1 item

Five Core Components of a Behavioral Journey Map

1 item

Overview of Case Studies (Select One)

4 items

User Task Analysis for Behavioral Design

2 items

Group Exercise: Behavioral Journey Mapping and User Task Analysis

1 item

Identifying Prompts (Internal and External)

1 item

Group Exercise: Identifying Prompts associated with the Behavioral Journey

1 item

Sep

Session 2: Map the Behavioral User Journey (Prioritized Opportunity Points)

Thu 9/116:00 PM—8:00 PM (UTC)

Consequences of Behavior

1 item

Group Exercise: Identifying Consequences associated with the Behavioral Journey

1 item

Make it Toolkit Barriers to Progress

2 items

Group Exercise: Identifying Barriers associated with the Behavioral Journey

1 item

Opportunity Points

1 item

Group Exercise: Identify Opportunity Points for Design Interventions

1 item

RICE Prioritization of Opportunity Points

1 item

Group Exercise: RICE Prioritization of Opportunity Points

1 item

Homework Assignment: Behavioral Strategy Canvas

1 item

Week 2

Sep 15—Sep 21

Sep

Session 3: Brainstorm Ideas and Design Interventions (Behavioral Design Hypothesis)

Tue 9/166:00 PM—8:00 PM (UTC)

Make It Toolkit 15 Core Strategies

1 item

Group Exercise: Ideation leveraging the 15 core Make It Strategies

1 item

Group Discussion: Removing Layers of the Behavioral Journey Map

1 item

Combos and Tradeoffs Process for Idea Refinement

1 item

The Behavioral Design Hypothesis

1 item

Group Exercise Formulate Behavioral Design Hypothesis

1 item

Sep

Session 4: Sketch Solution Concepts and Visualize Experiences

Thu 9/186:00 PM—8:00 PM (UTC)

Overview of Design Methods and Fidelity

2 items

Solution Concept Sketching

1 item

Storyboarding and Journey Mapping

1 item

GenAI Prototyping of Solution Concepts

1 item

Reflecting on your Behavioral Design Hypothesis

1 item

Week 3

Sep 22—Sep 23

Sep

Session 5: Recap of Behavioral Journey Mapping and Group Shareouts

Tue 9/236:00 PM—8:00 PM (UTC)

Recap of Make it Toolkit Behavioral Design Solutioning

1 item

Group Shareouts of Showcase Projects from Case Studies

1 item

Additional Opportunities to Continue your Behavioral Designer Journey

1 item

What people are saying

Absolutely incredible” A fantastic tool with practical points to help you anticipate problems and design solutions based on what people are actually likely to do.

Vitaly Friedman

Founder & Editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine

As the Director of Behavioral Science at mPulse Mobile, I've found the Make It Toolkit to be an indispensable resource for our team. This toolkit has significantly enhanced our ability to design and implement effective behavioral interventions. We are eager to see what improvements in health outcomes it drives for our clients.

Eden Brownell

Director Behavioral Science, mPulse Mobile

The course provides an excellent balance of theory and practice, and the Make It Toolkit serves as a superb resource. John and Mahnaz's combined expertise makes complex topics easy to understand. If you're looking to enhance your design skills with AI and BeSci, I highly recommend it.

Ersan Temizyurek

Startup Software Executive

This course equips product managers with two powerful tools: behavioral journey mapping to pinpoint high-impact design interventions and behavioral-science informed GenAI methods to speed up ideation and behavioral design strategies/tactics evaluation. Together, they help teams work smarter and innovate faster. Highly recommended!

Don Young

Product Manager, Financial Services

This course exceeded my expectations, showing how AI and behavioral design combine to map and refine user journeys. The hands-on approach helped me move beyond intuition to create more engaging, effective experiences—skills I’m excited to apply in future projects.

Lara Rajkovic

UX Designer, Ludicrum iGaming Solutions

Highly recommend. The course blended theory and practical application perfectly, making it highly relevant to my work. John’s expertise, especially around the Make It toolkit, brought the content to life and provided actionable insights I can immediately apply as a CX practitioner.

Balakrishna Murthy, CCXP

Senior Manager, CX & Innovation, Majid Al Futtaim

The GenAi-powered Behavioral Design course leveraging The Make It Toolkit course provided invaluable insight into applying the concepts and theories of the makeit toolkit to real-world scenarios through compelling case studies and the integration of GenAI. The course is carefully crafted to create an empowering learning context.

Ching-Feng See

Principle Consultant, Design Researcher, Resonance Pte Ltd

Meet your Maven instructors

John Gusiff

John Gusiff is the Managing Partner for Customer Centric Solutions LLC.

He is a makeit toolkit Certified Instructor for Behavioral Design.

He is passionate about improving the lives of customers via human-centered design and design thinking methods. He leverages customer jobs-to-be-done (jtbd) insights research along with applied behavioral science when consulting with his clients.

He has worked directly with executives in marketing, sales, product development, customer service and support functions to help them rethink how they better service their customers and implement the processes, organization, and technology to support it.

Clients have included: American Honda, Canada Goose, Citibank, Ecobee, G Adventures, Gympass, Humana, Porch, lululemon, Royal Ambulance, Shaklee, and TransAlta.

Mahnaz Hajesmaeili

Mahnaz Hajesmaeili is a strategic AI/UX/Product Designer with a Master’s in Media Design and Human-Computer Interaction, blending empathy, curiosity, and data-driven insights to create impactful, user-centric solutions. Skilled in generative AI integration, prototyping, and inclusive design, she excels at crafting designs that deliver measurable value and operational efficiency.

As co-instructor of the Maven course on GenAI-powered Experience Design leveraging the Make It Toolkit, Mahnaz applies her expertise to teach participants how to design, prototype, and validate behavioral science-informed AI-driven solutions.

Join an upcoming cohort