Calling DIBS

Daile MacDonald, Manager, Voice of the Customer & Behavioral Insights at WorkSafeBC.

Daile MacDonald is a market researcher who added BI to her toolkit to be able to address the solution and research design questions that come out of exploratory research. Daile shares the obstacles and opportunities for behavioural insights in a big organization. In particular, she tells us about the rewards of using BI to reduce friction for internal processes, the value of collaboration and compromise, and the immense importance of scoping.

Kirstin Appelt, Research Director of UBC Decision Insights for Business & Society (UBC-DIBS).

Guest host Lindsay Miles-Pickup puts Kirstin Appelt in the hot seat to answer which BI-based superpower she would like to acquire, where she succeeds and fails in using BI in daily life, and which everyday inconvenience she would love to tackle with BI. We also tackle more traditional topics like how people can integrate BI into their work, exciting applications of BI, and why "surprising" behaviour isn't always so unexpected when you dig deeper.

Dave Hardisty, Associate Professor of Marketing and Behavioural Science at UBC Sauder School of Business.

Fraud has been a big story in the behavioural and decision sciences this summer. Dave Hardisty returns to the podcast to help us understand the incredible story of fraud in research about, well, fraud. We unpack what an accusation of data fraud means and how fraud is different from other bad practices, like p-hacking. We also explore the impacts of fraud and what we can all do about it, whether we're conducting our own research or reading/listening to others' research.

Jiaying Zhao, Associate Professor of Psychology and the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at UBC.

Jiaying Zhao (JZ) returns to the podcast to discuss the recent i-frame vs. s-frame debate, which suggests that we need to choose individual (i) or systems (s) change. JZ counters the debate with evidence that the i-frame and s-frame can be complementary: Examples of positive spillover show that one behaviour change can beget another similar behaviour or attitude change. JZ shares why the field should try to create and measure spillover within and between people.

Brittany Burrows, Behavioural & Product Designer.

In her career in behavioural and product design, Brittany Burrows draws on an understanding of human behaviour to design products and experiences that meet user needs. Brittany shares important lessons that apply to both design and BI projects: understand the problem before you create a solution, work across teams to ensure solutions are feasible, actively solicit feedback, and always know, love, and represent the user a.k.a. the population of interest. 

Vanessa Bohns, Professor of Organizational Behaviour at Cornell University.

Vanessa Bohns is a social psychologist whose research shows that we often have more influence on others than we think we do. Vanessa explains how this can be good (giving a compliment really does brighten someone's day) and bad (asking for a favour can make it hard for someone to say no). To do better, Vanessa suggests that both influencers and influencees should be mindful--mindful of how we ask and how we answer requests.

Whitney Queisser, Lifecycle Marketer.

For Whitney Queisser, UBC's Advanced Professional Certificate in Behavioural Insights introduced her to frameworks that have changed how she tackles A/B testing as a lifecycle marketer. Whitney discusses how she uses the RIDE process model to structure her projects, the EAST and MINDSPACE frameworks to brainstorm behaviour change solutions, and ethics frameworks to guide her decision-making and ensure she's nudging for good.

Shannon McDonaugh, Program Manager in Behavioural Insights at the Nova Scotia Outpost for Public Sector Innovation.

Shannon McDonaugh completed UBC's Advanced Professional Certificate in Behavioural Insights to have a methodology for how she uses BI to help improve the lives of Nova Scotians. Shannon shares some of these projects as well as advice for how individuals and organizations can start using BI ethically and thoughtfully. A key recommendation is to make space for learning during all phases of BI projects and all steps of our BI journeys.

Emily Salmon, PhD student, University of Victoria, & Member of Cowichan Tribes.

As an Indigenous student, Emily Salmon noticed that course materials rarely reflected her worldview. Together with Jordyn Hrenyk, Emily researched the worldviews implicit in course materials as well as the resulting themes, consequences, and strategies to do better. On the podcast, we discuss these in the context of course materials, BI solutions, and everyday life. Emily also helps us disentangle key terms like Reconciliation, Indigenization, and Decolonization.

Emily Cardon, Principal Advisor & Head of Research for BIT Americas, & Stephanie Wilcoxen, Senior Research Advisor, BIT.

As researchers at BIT, Emily Cardon & Stephanie Wilcoxen know their way around the collaborative puzzle that is research design. Together we talk through the who, what, why, and how of research design, with a focus on the particular challenges and opportunities of field or "real world" research. Among the many insights they share, Stephanie and Emily highlight the importance of the research questions leading the design, rather than vice versa.