behavioral-product-design
Help users apply behavioral science to product design. Use when someone is designing for habit formation, reducing friction, applying psychology to UX, increasing retention through behavioral principles, or using nudges to influence user behavior.
- Installs
- 2K
- Last 24h
- —
- Trending rank
- —
- Security
- Not audited
Install
Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.
npx skills add https://github.com/refoundai/lenny-skills --skill behavioral-product-design- 01
Install
Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.
- 02
Describe the task
Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads behavioral-product-design automatically when relevant.
- 03
Review the result
The agent follows the SKILL.md steps, scripts and references bundled with the skill.
SKILL.md
The instructions your agent reads when the skill is triggered.
Behavioral Product Design
Help the user apply behavioral science principles to product design using insights from behavioral economists and product leaders.
How to Help
When the user asks for help with behavioral design:
- Understand the target behavior - Ask what action they want users to take
- Identify behavioral barriers - Help diagnose what's preventing the desired behavior
- Suggest relevant principles - Apply behavioral economics concepts like loss aversion, present bias, or status quo effect
- Design interventions - Help create features that leverage these psychological principles
Core Principles
Loss aversion drives retention
Jackson Shuttleworth: "Once you hit seven days, loss aversion kicks in, and you retain." Design experiences that create something users feel they'd lose by leaving.
Apply psychology to real problems
Kristen Berman: "Behavioral science uses insights on psychology to apply within real world problems—biases like present bias, status quo effect, and uncertainty aversion can be designed into product features to drive specific actions."
Create pause moments
Use haptics, animations, and micro-interactions to create celebration moments that reinforce positive behavior. The "bend not break" philosophy means meeting users where they are rather than demanding perfection.
Reduce friction for desired behaviors
Every tap, every field, every decision point is friction. Behavioral design means ruthlessly removing friction from the paths you want users to take while adding appropriate friction to prevent mistakes.
Leverage defaults
Users tend to stick with default options. Set smart defaults that guide users toward successful outcomes.
Questions to Help Users
- "What specific behavior are you trying to encourage?"
- "What's preventing users from taking this action today?"
- "Where in the flow do users drop off?"
- "What would users feel they're losing if they stopped using this?"
- "Have you identified the key habit loop (cue, routine, reward)?"
Common Mistakes to Flag
- Dark patterns - Behavioral design should help users achieve their goals, not manipulate them against their interests
- Over-engineering friction - Sometimes simple solutions beat clever psychological tricks
- Ignoring context - Behavioral principles work differently across cultures and user segments
- Assuming stated preferences - What users say they'll do and what they actually do are different
Deep Dive
For all 2 insights from 2 guests, see references/guest-insights.md
Related Skills
- User Onboarding
- Retention & Engagement
- Designing Growth Loops
- Conducting User Interviews
FAQ
What does the behavioral-product-design skill do?
Help users apply behavioral science to product design. Use when someone is designing for habit formation, reducing friction, applying psychology to UX, increasing retention through behavioral principles, or using nudges to influence user behavior.
How do I install behavioral-product-design?
Run npx skills add https://github.com/refoundai/lenny-skills --skill behavioral-product-design in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/behavioral-product-design/ (personal) or .claude/skills/behavioral-product-design/ (project).
Which AI agents can use behavioral-product-design?
Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.
Is behavioral-product-design safe to install?
No partner security audit is available yet. Skills can run commands and scripts, so read the SKILL.md and any bundled files before installing.
Who maintains behavioral-product-design?
It is published by refoundai in refoundai/lenny-skills. It has 1,966 recorded installs.
More from refoundai/lenny-skills
personal-productivity
refoundai/lenny-skills
Help users manage their time and tasks more effectively. Use when someone is overwhelmed with work, struggling with focus, trying to balance multiple responsibilities, or asking how to get more done.
writing-prds
refoundai/lenny-skills
Help users transform abstract ideas into actionable project specs that align engineering and design teams on the problem and success metrics.
ai-product-strategy
refoundai/lenny-skills
Help users decide where to apply AI effectively, manage the transition from deterministic to probabilistic software, and build long-term defensibility through verticalization and proprietary data.
competitive-analysis
refoundai/lenny-skills
Help users understand and respond to competition. Use when someone is positioning against competitors, evaluating market threats, running competitive war games, or deciding how much to focus on competitors versus customers.
founder-sales
refoundai/lenny-skills
Help users master the transition from product development to active selling by leveraging their unique status as founders to bridge the trust gap and define a scalable sales motion.
analyzing-user-feedback
refoundai/lenny-skills
Help users convert massive volumes of qualitative and quantitative feedback into high-confidence product decisions through rigorous synthesis and internal immersion.
Popular frontend & design skills
setup-matt-pocock-skills
mattpocock/skills
Configure this repo for the engineering skills: set up its issue tracker, triage label vocabulary, and domain doc layout. Run once before first use of the other engineering skills.
frontend-design
anthropics/skills
Guidance for distinctive, intentional visual design when building new UI or reshaping an existing one. Helps with aesthetic direction, typography, and making choices that don't read as templated defaults.
hyperframes-animation
heygen-com/hyperframes
All animation knowledge for HyperFrames — atomic motion rules, multi-phase scene blueprints, scene transitions, broader motion-design techniques, AND the seven runtime adapters (GSAP default, plus Lottie, Three.js, Anime.js, CSS keyframes, Web Animations API, TypeGPU). Use for any motion or animation task: pick 2-4 rules and compose, or load a blueprint, or look up runtime-specific API (e.g. GSAP eases / Lottie player / Three.js mixer). Also covers auditing an existing composition's choreography (animation map) and 24 named text-animation effects. HyperFrames-native: single paused timeline, seek-safe, deterministic.
prototype
mattpocock/skills
Build a throwaway prototype to answer a design question. Use when the user wants to sanity-check whether a state model or logic feels right, or explore what a UI should look like.
hyperframes-core
heygen-com/hyperframes
The HyperFrames composition contract — build one renderable project. Use for composition structure, the data- timing attributes, class="clip", tracks, sub-compositions, variables, framework-owned media playback, deterministic-render rules, and validation. Read before writing composition HTML.
vercel-react-best-practices
vercel-labs/agent-skills
React and Next.js performance optimization guidelines from Vercel Engineering. This skill should be used when writing, reviewing, or refactoring React/Next.js code to ensure optimal performance patterns. Triggers on tasks involving React components, Next.js pages, data fetching, bundle optimization, or performance improvements.