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.
What this skill does
# 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: 1. **Understand the target behavior** - Ask what action they want users to take 2. **Identify behavioral barriers** - Help diagnose what's preventing the desired behavior 3. **Suggest relevant principles** - Apply behavioral economics concepts like loss aversion, present bias, or status quo effect 4. **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
Related in Design
contribute
IncludedLocal-only OSS contribution command center. Auto-refreshes the user's in-flight PR and issue state on invoke so conversations start with full context — no need to brief Claude on what's in flight. Helps the user find issues to contribute to on GitHub, builds per-repo dossiers of what each upstream expects (CLA, DCO, branch convention, AI policy, draft-first, review bots, issue templates), runs deterministic gates before any external action so AI-assisted contributions don't reach maintainers as slop. State is markdown-only: candidate files at ~/.contribute-system/candidates/, repo dossiers at ~/.contribute-system/research/, append-only event log at ~/.contribute-system/log.jsonl. No database, no cloud calls. Use when the user asks about their PRs / issues / contributions, wants to find new work to take on, claim an issue, build/refresh a repo's dossier, or draft a Design Issue or PR. Trigger with "/contribute", "what's my PR status", "find a contribution", "claim issue X", "draft a Design Issue for Y", "refresh dossier for Z".
architectural-analysis
IncludedUser-triggered deep architectural analysis of a codebase or scoped subtree across eight modes — information architecture, data flow, integration points, UI surfaces, interaction patterns, data model, control flow, and failure modes. This skill should be used when the user asks to "diagram this codebase," "map the architecture," "show the data flow," "give me an ERD," "trace control flow," "find the integration points," "verify the layout pattern," "audit the UX architecture," or any similar request whose primary deliverable is mermaid diagrams plus cited reports under docs/architecture/. Dispatches haiku/sonnet sub-agents in parallel for per-mode exploration, then verifies every citation mechanically before any node lands in a diagram. Not for one-off prose explanations of code (use code-explanation) or for high-level system design from scratch (use system-design).
mcp
IncludedModel Context Protocol (MCP) server development and tool management. Languages: Python, TypeScript. Capabilities: build MCP servers, integrate external APIs, discover/execute MCP tools, manage multi-server configs, design agent-centric tools. Actions: create, build, integrate, discover, execute, configure MCP servers/tools. Keywords: MCP, Model Context Protocol, MCP server, MCP tool, stdio transport, SSE transport, tool discovery, resource provider, prompt template, external API integration, Gemini CLI MCP, Claude MCP, agent tools, tool execution, server config. Use when: building MCP servers, integrating external APIs as MCP tools, discovering available MCP tools, executing MCP capabilities, configuring multi-server setups, designing tools for AI agents.
react-native-skia
IncludedDesign, build, debug, and optimise high-polish animated graphics in React Native or Expo using @shopify/react-native-skia, Reanimated, and Gesture Handler. Use when the user wants canvas-driven UI, shaders, paths, rich text, image filters, sprite fields, Skottie, video frames, snapshots, web CanvasKit setup, or performance tuning for custom motion-heavy elements such as loaders, hero art, cards, charts, progress indicators, particle systems, or gesture-driven surfaces. Also use when the user asks for fluid, glow, glass, blob, parallax, 60fps/120fps, or GPU-friendly animated effects in React Native, even if they do not explicitly say "Skia". Do not use for ordinary form/layout work with standard views.
plaid
IncludedProduct Led AI Development — guides founders from idea to launched product. Six capabilities: Idea (discover a product idea), Validate (pressure-test the idea against fatal flaws, problem reality, competition, and 2-week MVP feasibility), Plan (vision intake + document generation), Design (translate image references into a design.md spec), Launch (go-to-market strategy), and Build (roadmap execution). Use when someone says "PLAID", "plaid idea", "help me find an idea", "product idea", "idea from my business", "idea from my expertise", "plaid validate", "validate my idea", "pressure-test", "is this idea good", "find fatal flaws", "validate the problem", "plan a product", "define my vision", "generate a PRD", "product strategy", "plaid design", "design from image", "translate image to design", "create design.md", "extract design tokens", "plaid launch", "go-to-market", "launch plan", "GTM strategy", "launch playbook", "plaid build", "build the app", "start building", or "execute the roadmap".
nextjs-framer-motion-animations
IncludedAdds production-safe Motion for React or Framer Motion animations to Next.js apps, including reveal, hover and tap micro-interactions, whileInView, stagger, AnimatePresence, layout and layoutId transitions, reorder, scroll-linked UI, and lightweight route-content transitions. Use when the user asks to add, refactor, or debug Motion or Framer Motion in App Router or Pages Router codebases, especially around server/client boundaries, reduced motion, LazyMotion, bundle size, hydration, or route transitions. Avoid for GSAP-style timelines, WebGL or 3D scenes, heavy scroll storytelling, or CSS-only effects unless Motion is explicitly requested.