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Behavioral Selection

Jason Hreha· Updated July 10, 2026

Behavioral Selection explicitly involves identifying and prioritizing the specific behaviors that, if adopted by your users, will reliably drive strategic outcomes and measurable success. It is a core process within the broader Behavioral Strategy discipline.

Note: On this site, Behavioral Selection is the umbrella label for a two-step workflow: Behavior Matching to enumerate candidates, then Behavior Ranking & Selection to decide.

Key Insight #

Not all behaviors are equally impactful; rigorous selection clearly identifies behaviors with the highest potential for measurable strategic results.

Example #

A subscription-based business aiming to increase renewals may use Behavioral Selection to identify behaviors strongly correlated with retention, such as users engaging weekly with a key feature or sharing content regularly. Clearly targeting these selected behaviors directly improves renewal rates.

Practical Steps #

The Behavior Fit Assessment is a practitioner decision tool for comparing candidate behaviors across Dispositional Fit, Capability Fit, and Context Fit. It is not a validated measurement instrument. Treat the minimum dimension as a bottleneck and prioritization heuristic; it is not a deterministic probability of behavior.

A score of 6 out of 10 on each Behavior Fit Assessment dimension is a starting threshold that must be calibrated by domain, population, context, stakes, and observed behavior.

  1. Clearly define the outcome, population, and context.
  2. Generate candidate behaviors (use Behavior Matching to enumerate options).
  3. Record provisional Dispositional Fit, Capability Fit, and Context Fit ratings and their evidence.
  4. Use the minimum rating to identify a candidate bottleneck, then prioritize candidates by fit evidence, expected outcome impact, and measurement feasibility.
  5. Establish Behavior Market Fit through observation in realistic contexts before scaling.

Heuristic: Explicitly select and prioritize behaviors that directly drive your measurable strategic outcomes.

Selection rule (keep it simple) #

Behavioral Selection is intentionally constrained:

  • Compare before committing: use ratings and evidence to surface candidate bottlenecks rather than declare viability.
  • Then validate: prioritize a candidate with a strong comparison and clear outcome path, then observe behavior in realistic contexts.

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See also #