🎤 Behavioral Interview with Jennifer Clinehens

Interview with Jennifer Clinehes, Managing Director of Choice Hacking, a behavioral science and AI-led CX agency & eLearning platform.

1. Tell us about Jen and her experience.

Before I was focused on Behavioral Science, I worked in corporate innovation and customer experience in the world’s biggest telecoms company - AT&T, and then eventually moved into advertising agencies working with some amazing global brands like McDonald’s, Adidas, Starbucks, Pepsico, Lloyds Banking Group and others. And way back before my career in marketing started, I was a professional classical violist and violinist for 10+ years.

2. How did your interest in Behavioral Science begin?

The Behavioral Scientists will probably groan at this, but I picked up a copy of Freakanomics around 2007 or 2008 maybe? That gave me a glimpse into the world of “hidden drivers” so I started taking related classes in my undergrad and MBA programs and reading as much as I could get my hands on.

For me it really happened organically. I never set out to make it my focus, but along the way worked with some really amazing designers that were experimenting with these concepts (Behavioral Design, gamification, psychology and Behavioral Science), combined with my own interests… I just started applying things and experimenting with the outcomes. Learning as I went.

3. Tell us how you started Choice Hacking.

I was working with a big client in an agency in London (I’m originally from the US) and I wanted to start using these concepts in a more formal way - but there was always the issue of communicating what, why, and how we could use these principles. So I started publishing a blog on my Medium page and they caught fire - my clients loved reading them, they helped me refine my own ideas, and pretty soon people were asking where they could buy a book or take a course.

I saw the demand for some more pragmatic courses and books that were out on the market at the time, so being a marketer at heart, I created something to meet that demand!

4. What problems are companies currently facing that we can address with Behavioral Science?

I’m a big believer that Behavioral Science is a lens through which you can see (and solve) problems in a new way - to me anything from digital design, marketing comms, customer experience, decision-making, team building, to training staff in stores can be positively impacted by applying a little bit of BeSci.

That being said, the big things my clients are focused on are around creating a simple and clear customer experience, extracting ethical value from their customers (so getting free trial folks to convert to paid plans, increasing engagement and basket size, etc.), driving loyalty (aka buying habits), designing meaningful retail & digital experiences, perfecting marketing comms journeys, and ensuring that their marketing creative is as effective as possible.

5. Why is applying Behavioral Science into customer experience so important?

The biggest challenge in marketing is what’s called market orientation - as soon as you become a client you stop being the customer and seeing through the customers’ eyes. Suddenly you’ve got to rely on research, observation, and best practice, but often there’s never enough time or money to go through a lengthy process.

Understanding behavioral science and how to apply it to user research, using it to springboard creative concepting (yes, it can be done), customer journey mapping, and other frameworks can cut to the heart of how customers really think, feel and behave - not how you THINK they should behave.

Without science you're sort of stabbing in the dark, wondering why things aren’t working or giving the wrong things credit for the things that do work.

6. What would your advice be for students or specialists in marketing, innovation, communication, design, who are beginning to discover Behavioral Science? How can they learn more about the discipline?

I don’t like to give advice, but I will say if I were starting back at the beginning I’d take advantage of the free resources out there - Coursera, the Choice Hacking blog / podcast / newsletter, Ted Talks, books, etc. Many of those learning resources weren’t really around when I was coming up, so I’m very jealous!

Start trying things out, experiment. Learn about when and when not to use certain principles. But above all I would say start looking at your briefs through the eyes of a Behavioral Scientist - what are your products and campaigns trying to accomplish from a behavioral perspective, what’s the context of how folks are consuming/engaging/ignoring your products now, how can you build new habits or change old ones?

And above all, just realize it’s a learning process - you’ll try things that “should” work that don’t and some strange approaches might surprise you. Being a strong science-based marketer isn’t about being a robot - creatives and behavioral marketers have more in common than you might think.

Our work isn’t about being clever or right or selling at any cost. It’s about whether people felt, thought, or did something they didn’t before they saw our work. And if our work makes them want to engage with us for the long-term - not just a one-off sneaky sale.

Thank you so much Jen for answering the questions! I hope readers can learn from your experience and suggestions 😄

Silvia Cottone

Behavioral Science Consultant & Worldwide Speaker

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This interview is part of the "Behavioral Interviews" series. It is fully written and edited by the guest. You can read more interviews with behavioral science experts here.