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 o...

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...

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 p...

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 spil...

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 feasib...

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 suggest...

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 fra...

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 sta...

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 o...

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 fi...

Vince Hopkins, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan. Vince Hopkins returns to the podcast to chat about the continuum of research design from lab studies to field studies. We discuss the opportunities and challenges of different research designs as well as how to deal with different constraints prospectively in design or retrospectively in analysis. We also discus...

Sharilynn Wardrop, Protected Areas Ecologist with BC Parks. Sharilynn Wardrop returns to the podcast to share how she is using Behavioural Insights in a role and organization where BI is not the primary toolkit people reach for. We discuss challenges, successes, and strategies for weaving BI into projects in this context. We also reflect on the need to turn a BI lens onto BI itself to make it easy...

Cecilia Sluga, Behaviour Change Senior Lead at Delterra. At Delterra , Cecilia Sluga works with a wide array of partners to create “Real Change, At Scale”. In part two of this two-episode series, Cecilia shares strategies for partnering with individuals and organizations. She also shares her advice for scaling, which involves finding the right mix of standardization and customization. Lastly, Ceci...

Cecilia Sluga, Behaviour Change Senior Lead at Delterra. At environmental non-governmental organization Delterra , Cecilia Sluga brings her wide-ranging expertise to bear in encouraging behaviour change for the good of people and the planet. In part one of this two-episode series, Cecilia shares her journey to working on behaviour change in the non-profit sector. She also talks about how important...

Rhiannon Mosher, Human-Centred Design Researcher with the Behavioural Science Office within the Public Health Agency of Canada. As an anthropologist by training, Rhiannon Mosher brings a unique perspective to her work in Behavioural Insights. She shares the challenges and opportunities of coming to BI from another field. Rhiannon also shares advice for how to turn a BI lens onto your career to ide...

Marika Smith, Sustainability Specialist with the City of Victoria. Marika Smith completed UBC's Advanced Professional Certificate in Behavioural Insights to learn how she could be intentional in how she shapes behaviour toward sustainability. Marika weaves behavioural insights into her discussion of the barriers and opportunities around a reusable lifestyle. She also shares how local governme...

Heather Devine, Senior Lead of the Behavioural Science Office at the Public Health Agency of Canada. After founding the BC Behavioural Insights Group , Heather Devine has crossed Canada to help co-found the Behavioural Science Office at the Public Health Agency of Canada . Heather shares a look at how she is seeing BI spread across the "federal government family" of ministries, branches,...

Dana Hubackova, Project Manager with the BC Ministry of Children & Family Development. Dana Hubackova completed UBC's Advanced Professional Certificate in Behavioural Insights to continue building her innovation toolkit, which already included tools like project management, change management, and lean. Dana shares insights about the art and science of project management and her advice for...

Anna Burrowes, Methods Specialist with the BC Behavioural Insights Group (BC BIG). Since graduating from UBC's Advanced Professional Certificate in Behavioural Insights, Anna Burrowes has transitioned into a role that enables her to both use BI and indulge her passion for continual learning. Anna shares details about the Methods Specialist role as well as ways to use BI in a variety of roles...

Melinda Deines, Director of Marketing & Communications at SLD. By completing UBC's Advanced Professional Certificate in Behavioural Insights, Melinda Deines has been able to apply BI to her work in brand strategy, marketing, and design. She shares how the intention-action gap was an aha moment in her BI journey and how she uses BI to tackle everything from reducing sludge to smoothing org...

Stephanie Kuhn, Senior Business Analyst with the BC Ministry of Advanced Education & Skills Training. With her extensive User Experience background and her BI training from UBC's Advanced Professional Certificate in Behavioural Insights, Stephanie Kuhn is the right person for a discussion of the similarities, differences, and opportunities between BI and UX. We also talk about how integra...

Amalia Colussi, UX Writer and Researcher at AlayaCare. Amalia Colussi is a graduate of UBC’s Advanced Professional Certificate in Behavioural Insights and our first guest from the Class of 2022! Amalia discusses how she combines communications, user experience, and behavioural insights in her work. She also shares her program highlights, challenges, and advice. The biggest takeaway? Create communi...

Dale Griffin, Professor of Marketing and Behavioural Science at UBC Sauder School of Business. Dale Griffin, a co-founder of UBC Decision Insights for Business & Society (UBC-DIBS), joins us for the final episode of season 2 to talk about the theoretical foundations of Behavioural Insights and to share stories about working with both Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. Dale also discusses his re...

Kerri Buschel, Director of Experience, Marketing and Insights at WorkSafeBC. Kerri Buschel returns to the podcast to talk about the value of BI for employees, employers, organizations, and other choice architects. We talk about how the Advanced Professional Certificate in Behavioural Insights enables folks to hone their BI knowledge and skills and apply them directly to their capstone projects. We...

Mikayla Ford, Head of the BC Behavioural Insights Group (BC BIG). As the new Head of BC BIG, Mikayla Ford is perfectly positioned to look backwards and forwards at BC BIG’s ongoing evolution. We discuss how BIG’s project intake and scoping process have matured, including how BIG decides which projects to pursue with which methods. Mikayla also shares recent BIG work, current topics on BI units’ ra...