How We 3x'd Client Impact By Ignoring User Behavior 🎯

At my last startup MotivBase (which I sold for 10X revenue), we made a counterintuitive discovery about behavior change that transformed our business. For context: we had built an AI-powered cultural intelligence platform that helped Fortune 500 companies understand emerging consumer trends and behaviors. Our challenge? Getting insights teams and consumer researchers to adopt a radically different way of conducting research.

Like most founders, I initially fell into the typical trap of obsessing over user behavior. How could we make our platform more intuitive? How could we streamline the learning curve? But something wasn't clicking.

Then I went back to my roots as an anthropologist-entrepreneur and asked myself: What really makes humans change their behavior? Not just superficially, but fundamentally?

That's when everything changed.

The problem wasn't behavior. It was expectations.

Most companies play checkers with behavior change. They look at what users do and try to make it easier, better, faster. We decided to play chess instead. I started asking a different question: What invisible expectations were forcing our potential clients to stick to their existing ways of working?

We called it the "three-wise game" (because apparently, I'm terrible at naming things). Here's how it worked:

• What did insights teams expect from our platform?

• What did executives expect from these insights teams?

• What did the market expect from these executives?

Our buyers weren't just looking for better research tools – they were desperately seeking organizational influence. These brilliant insights professionals were trapped in a system that reduced their complex understanding to bullet points and basic graphs.

They didn't need better technology. They needed a seat at the big kids' table.

This hit me like a ton of bricks during one client meeting. Sarah (not her real name) was explaining how she had to turn her profound consumer insights into "executive-friendly" PowerPoint slides. It was like watching someone translate Shakespeare into emoji. Sure, you could do it, but why would you want to?

In every organization, there's an invisible web of expectations that makes certain behaviors inevitable and others impossible. It's like gravity – you can't see it, but it shapes everything.

So we did something radical. Instead of trying to change how insights teams worked, we changed how their work was perceived. We built tools that transformed complex cultural understanding into strategic ammunition.

The results? Our clients didn't just get better data – they got better seats at the executive table. Their insights weren't just heard; they were acted upon. They became organizational leaders rather than just insights providers.

For founders struggling with adoption, here's the million-dollar question:

Because if you want to drive adoption, don't start with the behavior itself. Start with the web of expectations that make that behavior inevitable.

Think about it: How many "best practices" in your clients' industries are really just expectations in disguise? How many "that's just how we do things" are really "that's just what people expect us to do"?

Change the expectations, and you change everything.

P.S. Next time you're frustrated with slow adoption, stop looking at what your buyers do. Start looking at what they're expected to do. That's where the real magic happens. 🪄

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