How We Work

All of our solutions are bespoke and designed for unique contexts, but our work can include:

Audit: Apply a rapid, thorough assessment for common behavioral barriers and corresponding solutions.

Identify Behavioral Barriers: Primary and secondary research to analyze specific behavioral barriers driving poor outcomes.

Design & Implement: Build science-based solutions, from prototypes and user testing to engineering at large scale, for a specific problem or whole processes, programs, and products.

Learn: Measure what works with impact evaluation, rapid A/B tests, and machine learning.

Build Capacity: Lead collaborative “on the job training” and interactive masterclasses, coach and advise, and create tailored plans for senior leaders on setting up behavioral science teams.

We apply this approach to the full range of our core areas of focus, but a small sampling of our work includes:

• Helping Mexican citizens save for a secure retirement
• Encouraging water conservation in Costa Rica
• Reframing HIV risks for South African teens
• Keeping people out of jail in New York
• Increasing access to and uptake of long-term contraception in Nepal
• Helping more students in San Francisco stay in college

Our Core Values

• We live and breathe what we do. We look at everything through a BEHAVIORAL LENS.
• We take OWNERSHIP. We don’t just work at ideas42, we take shared responsibility for it.
• We DO GOOD. We use our expertise to improve millions of lives and create a better world for all.
• We have fun. We let PLAYFULNESS inform the way we work and our approach to the world, helping to drive our creativity and improve our solutions.
• We live with a SPIRIT OF GENEROSITY. We approach our team, partners and people whose lives we seek to improve with an attitude of selflessness and cooperation.
• We are TENACIOUS. We never take the easy route, but push to stretch the limits of what’s possible.
• We are RIGOROUS in how we think and how we tackle problems.

Our Commitments to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

As behavioral scientists focused on improving lives, we know that creating social impact includes combating the many forms of bias built into our societies. In our work, we intentionally adopt a race- and gender-conscious lens so we can design equitable and effective changes to contexts and systems, programs, policies, products, and services.

We know that behavioral science can fight injustice the world over by empowering people, challenging oppression, and helping combat racism, sexism and all other forms of discrimination. With a deep knowledge of human choice and action at our disposal, as well as a deep sense of humility and determination, we commit to working toward racial justice. Click here to read our statement on fighting racial injustice.

In our work, we always co-design with partners on the ground. In addition to gaining the crucial perspectives of those with lived experience in the contexts we are designing for, we deploy extensive user testing and field testing to ensure our designs actually work for their intended audience.

We also put a high value on hiring people with diverse experiences, backgrounds, and skills because we know that when it comes to solving hard problems with uncertain solutions, heterogeneous teams produce better work. In order to ask the right questions, we must engage in robust debate, empathetic inquiry, and rigorous analysis. These practices depend on a culturally competent team with a wide array of knowledge, built through both formal training and a diversity of lived experiences. In constructing our team, we look for talented and hard-working individuals who share our mission and core values, and who can expand the arsenal of skills and perspectives that ideas42 brings to our work.

Looking for more? You can read more about our projects or get in touch at info@ideas42.org to find out how we can work together to solve tough problems.