Skip to main content

< Back to XM Institute

Research

Human Biases: Design Worksheet

Although recent advances in behavioral science have shown that human beings make almost all of our decisions using Intuitive Thinking – which is fast, automatic, and emotional – rather than Rational Thinking – which is slow, effortful and logical – organizations still tend to design experiences based on the premise that people are rational decision-makers. In reality, individuals – including customers, employees, and partners – rely on heuristics (mental rules of thumb) and cognitive biases to reach conclusions, not reason and logic. Use this worksheet to help you identify opportunities to design more compelling experiences by tapping into people’s Intuitive Thinking. To help you brainstorm ideas, we have provided a list of common heuristics and biases along with examples for each one.