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Jason Hreha

Jason Hreha· Updated July 9, 2026

Behavioral Strategy is an applied discipline developed by Jason Hreha. The capital-B discipline documented on this site is distinct from the established academic field of behavioral strategy.

Hreha co-authored the 2010 Behavior Wizard paper with B.J. Fogg while affiliated with Stanford’s Persuasive Technology Lab. He later founded Dopamine, a behavioral product design consultancy, and held behavioral-science leadership roles at Walmart.

His definition of habit is quoted in James Clear’s Atomic Habits. He is the author of Real Change and has written for Inc., Big Think, and Behavioral Scientist.

Background #

Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab: Co-authored the Behavior Wizard with B.J. Fogg while affiliated with the lab. The paper presents a taxonomy for matching target behaviors to intervention types (Fogg & Hreha, 2010).

Dopamine: Founded a behavioral product design consultancy. See Jason Hreha’s Inc. author biography.

Walmart: Held behavioral-science leadership roles, including Global Head of Behavioral Sciences. See his Behavioral Scientist author biography and Edelman’s 2019 announcement.

Edelman: In 2019, Edelman announced Hreha as a senior advisor working with its partnership of Harvard Business School researchers. This is historical wording and does not imply a current role.

Publications #

  • Real Change: Moving Beyond Habits to Achieve Lasting Transformation (2024), ISBN 9798989578924
  • Hacking Human Nature for Good workbook series, co-authored with Dan Ariely and Kristen Berman

Selected author pages: Inc., Big Think, and Behavioral Scientist

Quoted in: James Clear’s Atomic Habits (Chapter 3): “Habits are, simply, reliable solutions to recurring problems in our environment.”

Behavioral Strategy Framework #

Jason developed Behavioral Strategy as an applied discipline that makes behavior the unit of strategy. It defines the outcome and population, compares candidate behaviors, selects or invents the highest-fit behavior, validates Behavior Market Fit in real contexts, and designs the system that enables and sustains the behavior. Its operational core includes:

  • Behavior Market Fit: Validating that a behavior is feasible for a population before building solutions
  • Four-Fit Hierarchy: Sequential validation gates (Problem Market Fit → Behavior Market Fit → Solution Market Fit → Product Market Fit)
  • DRIVE Framework: A five-phase implementation playbook

Intellectual Lineage #

Behavioral Strategy builds on and adapts ideas from:

  • Behavior Design: Fogg’s Behavior Model and the Fogg-Hreha Behavior Wizard are important antecedents. The Behavior Fit Assessment is Hreha’s later applied synthesis; this lineage does not imply that Fogg or Stanford validated the BFA.
  • Behavioral Neuroscience: Rangel, Camerer, and Montague review proposed Pavlovian, habitual, and goal-directed valuation systems. That distinction informs the framework’s treatment of automatic and goal-directed behavior; it does not validate the integrated discipline by itself.
  • Behavioral Economics (Kahneman, Thaler, Ariely): Decision-making under uncertainty
  • Choice Architecture / Nudging (Sunstein & Thaler): Useful vocabulary for context design, but limited as a strategy for durable behavior change

Connect #

See also #