The One-Man Behavioral Army: Advice for Practitioners and Managers
As a behavioral scientist at a tech company, I am often asked intriguing questions about how or why the company hired me, what I am expected to do, and what my day-to-day work looks like. It gets more complicated when I tell them I am the only behavioral scientist in a company with a few thousand employees. How does that work? Who do you work with? Which part of the organization do you sit in?
A recent book by the Action Design Network, titled Building Behavioural Science in an Organisation (edited by Zarak Khan and Laurel Newman), is an excellent starting point for answering some of these questions.1 In its pages, many amazing applied behavioral scientists share their experiences and learnings from working in various parts of an organization.
One crucial aspect covered by the book is the different models of operationalizing behavioral science in an organization. The 3 models they describe are:
- The Individual Contributor Model
- The Centralized Team Model
- The Integrated Model
The book has in-depth chapters on the second and the third models, and I would strongly recommend reading those for some great insights on how you can apply them. However, there’s relatively little information available about the Individual Contributor model. As a living experiment of that model, I decided to write down some of my thoughts.
One caveat: What I share here is based on my experiences and the conversations I have had with other individual behavioral science contributors in large organizations. It is entirely subject to our experiences and may not be scalable for every organization. But for what it’s worth, I believe sharing this might help those who are jumping into this type of role.
Without further ado, let’s dive in.
References
- http://www.action-design.org/buildingbehavioralscienceorgs
- https://twitter.com/preeti_please/status/1375660210098860039
About the Author
Preeti Kotamarthi
Preeti Kotamarthi has built and led Behavioral Science teams at two of the largest tech companies in Southeast Asia and India. She established the Behavioral Science practice at Grab, helping product and design teams understand customer behavior to create better user experiences. Currently, she heads Behavioral Science and User Research at Swiggy, where she continues to blend data, design, and human insights—drawing inspiration from spending a lot of time with Indian consumers. With a Masters in Behavioral Science from the London School of Economics and an MBA in Marketing from FMS Delhi, Preeti brings over 12 years of experience in consumer products, from co-founding a rural startup in India to shaping behavioral design in tech. Her passion lies in making behavioral science a core part of the product development process. When she’s not uncovering human insights at work, she’s likely busy applying behavioral lessons on her two-year-old.
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