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.

This course is popular

4 people enrolled last week.

Consulted at

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ModeSens

Course overview

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

✨ Course Overview


Apply Behavioral Science to Your Design Sprints with the Make It Toolkit


Most design sprints focus on features. This course goes deeper 🔍.


You’ll learn a proven step-by-step process for running a Behavioral Design Sprint—combining behavioral science 🧠 with the Make It Toolkit 🛠️ and GenAI-powered methods 🤖 (always with Human in the Loop 👤).


By the end, you’ll know how to:

🎯 Translate business challenges into behavioral challenge statements

🗺️ Map user journeys through the lens of the Five Laws of Behavior

🧩 Spot and prioritize hidden barriers to progress

💡 Generate behavioral design interventions that actually change behavior

📐 Prototype solution concepts through sketches, storyboards, journey maps, and simple mockups — turning ideas into tangible, testable outputs


You’ll work on real case studies (🏥 healthcare, 🎓 education, 💰 financial services) so you can practice applying these tools in contexts that matter.


⚡ This isn’t theory. It’s a hands-on, case study–driven experience designed to help you uncover hidden barriers, generate stronger solutions, and leave with validated hypotheses ready for prototyping.


👉 Reserve Your Spot Today – Limited Seats Available

Who is this course for

01

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

02

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

03

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

04

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

05

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

06

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

07

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:

Frame Behavioral Challenges Clearly

📝 Turn vague business problems into sharp behavioral challenge statements

🎯 Define target behaviors to encourage or discourage with precision

Map & Diagnose the Behavioral Journey

🗺️ Apply the Five Laws of Behavior to uncover friction and hidden barriers

🔎 Use journey mapping to see where users struggle—and where they succeed

Generate Evidence-Based Interventions

💡 Apply 15 proven Make It strategies and 300+ tactics to brainstorm ideas

⚖️ Evaluate and refine interventions by spotting trade-offs and combinations

Formulate Behavioral Design Hypotheses

📊 Craft hypotheses that link design decisions to measurable outcomes

Prototype Solution Concepts

📐 Visualize your ideas with sketches, storyboards, journey maps, or simple mockups

🎨 Turn abstract ideas into tangible, testable outputs ready for iteration

Apply GenAI-Powered Methods with Human Oversight

🤖 Learn where GenAI accelerates ideation—and where human judgment matters

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Gain confidence in applying AI responsibly in design workflows

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

    9

    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

    11

    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

    15

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

    Mon 9/156:00 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

    17

    Session 4: Sketch Solution Concepts and Visualize Experiences

    Wed 9/176:00 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

    23

    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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ching-Feng See

Principle Consultant, Design Researcher, Resonance Pte Ltd

Meet your Maven instructors

John Gusiff

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

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.

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Join an upcoming cohort

AI-powered Behavioral Design Sprint

Cohort 1

$950

Dates

Sep 9—23, 2025

Payment Deadline

Sep 10, 2025

Don't miss out! Enrollment closes in 2 days

Get reimbursed

Course schedule

4-6 hours per week

  • July 15th to 29th, 2025


  • Tuesdays & Thursdays

    10 am - 12 pm PST

    LIVE Cohort sessions with hands-on exercises. All sessions recorded.


    LIVE Sessions on 7/15, 7/17, 7/22, 7/24, and 7/29

  • Showcase Project

    A single Showcase Project to share with fellow participants during Final Session (7/29) to highlight the Make it Toolkit behavioral-informed solution concept you've created as part of your case study.

Learning is better with cohorts

Learning is better with cohorts

Active hands-on learning

This course builds on live workshops and hands-on projects

Interactive and project-based

You’ll be interacting with other learners through breakout rooms and project teams

Learn with a cohort of peers

Join a community of like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you

Frequently Asked Questions

A pattern of wavy dots

Join an upcoming cohort

AI-powered Behavioral Design Sprint

Cohort 1

$950

Dates

Sep 9—23, 2025

Payment Deadline

Sep 10, 2025

Don't miss out! Enrollment closes in 2 days

Get reimbursed

$950

USD

2 days left to enroll

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