My name is Ting Chang, and I am currently an Associate Consultant at GEP Worldwide, a boutique consulting company that focuses on procurement management. In my role at the company, I optimize clients’ procurement practices and drive savings through strategic sourcing. Occasionally, I helped with the UX research team in my company on the side.
How did you apply for this position?
I applied to this role through Penn Campus recruitment – the career fair that typically happens in the fall semester. That year was the first time that Penn had a virtual career fair due to COVID. I talked to the recruiter and went through the entire recruitment process remotely.
At that time, I knew that I was passionate about problem-solving and wanted to develop my soft skills further, particularly in the early years of my career, so I was looking into consulting. Through networking, I learned that this position in the company often involves negotiation, which is related to behavioral science, as I took a fun course about negotiation behaviors in the MBDS program. That's how I ended up here.
How did you get to be behavioral?
I went to a liberal arts college for my undergraduate degree. During that time, I was able to study whatever subjects I was interested in, and I was particularly interested in economics and psychology. People told me that I would have to pick one of them to focus on in the end because I needed to write a senior thesis to graduate, and I could only have a professor from one subject to be my mentor. However, I found the intersection of economics and psychology -- behavioral economics -- fascinating. I was attracted to the ideas of understanding the biases behind decision-making, how to influence decision-making and applying this knowledge to economic choices. As liberal arts colleges offer more generic studies, I decided to pursue a master’s degree and learn more about behavioral science. That's how I discovered the MBDS program at Penn and applied for it.
How did I find out UX and how did I find the connection between behaviors and UX?
I was exploring something related to behavioral science applications or research on human behavior, something that can also contribute to others’ happiness. I first networked with some UX Designers and got introduced to the niche field of UX research, which focuses on behavioral research and translates findings into real impacts. Such an idea clicked to me. As the virtual world is getting closely connected to our daily life, I think it’s interesting to explore and understand more about human behaviors on digital products and platforms. This would be an area to leverage behavioral science and greatly impact individuals’ happiness.
As for the second part, how did I find behavioral science and UX research connected? Both behavioral science and UX research are connected by their desire to understand people's behavior. A big part of UX research is identifying user needs, what they want, how they behave, and how to make their journey smoother and happier. This resonates a lot with the behavioral science projects that I did at MBDS, where we explored behavioral interventions to remove barriers on a behavioral journey and incentivize specific behavior.
How having a background in behavioral science and having interest in the UX help you with your current work?
First, a big part of procurement management involves negotiation. In my position, I have had many opportunities to support negotiation meetings. With a behavioral science background, I can quickly identify the negotiation techniques being applied based on the behavioral research I learned before. I was also able to make suggestions on negotiation strategies based on the research findings of negotiation behavior studies. Meanwhile, I would say real-world business negotiation has taken my learning of negotiation behaviors to another level outside of the classroom as I need to consider balancing business needs with the pure intention to apply behavioral techniques.
Second, in my company, there are opportunities to support event planning or running initiatives, which I viewed as a room to leverage behavioral science. For example, I was once involved in an initiative where I had to send out mass emails and encourage people to sign up. I was able to apply framing in my email and got a higher response rate and sign-up rate. Although this is not my primary responsibility at work, I enjoy identifying such small opportunities to utilize my behavioral science background.
Another way that behavioral science has benefited me at work is to treat my clients or the stakeholders as my users through a behavioral science lens. I constantly think about their journeys, personas, needs, and barriers. How can I make my communication easier for them to digest? How to structure my message to facilitate their decision-making? Or even how to avoid potential biases in group discussions? Based on my training in behavioral science, I would try out some behavioral techniques that I believe would help the situation. Instead of finding a place to apply behavioral science explicitly, it's about bringing that mindset as a behavioral scientist, like always thinking about how I can influence this person's decision-making.
How are behavioral sciences perceived by stakeholders within your organization?
Most of my colleagues do not have an official background in behavioral science, but I noticed that the nature of consulting works has led them to apply behavioral techniques. They developed a mindset to make stakeholders' lives easier. This is connected to behavioral science because it requires understanding the audience's needs and building mental shortcuts to facilitate decision-making for others. Even though they may not be aware of the behavioral theories behind their actions as I am, they have practiced behavioral science naturally.
How do you stay updated with research and new insights in behavioral science?
I usually check out the blogs that I subscribe to. I also follow some of the thought leaders in behavioral science on LinkedIn, so I keep seeing their updates and absorbing new information. Recently, since we're returning to in-person events, I have been attending the Action Design meetup events in New York. For example, they invited Michael Hallsworth to chat about his new book (A manifesto for Applying Behavioral Science) before the publication. So far, it's been very fun to meet other people from various fields who are passionate about behavioral science.
Besides work, what topics do you like to discover more?
I generally enjoy learning about human society and behavior. Aside from psychology, I have been reading subjects like economics, political science, and history -- basically social science. I have been reading a book called "Sapiens," which talks about human evolution. The author has written two other books discussing the human future and the present. I'm excited to finish this one and move on to the others. Another book I have been reading is "Upheaval" by Jared Diamond, who also wrote "Guns, Germs, and Steel," a book I read during my undergraduate studies. It’s interesting to look at human activities from a higher viewpoint as countries.
What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who started their career, based on either your personal or professional experience?
If you have a passion for behavioral science and know why you love it, keep in mind that it's like running a marathon. You may not reach your destination in the short term, but if you persist and keep moving forward, knowing where you want to go, you will eventually get there.
---------------
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Ting and I had this chat on 04/13/2023.
You can connect with her on her Linkedin
Comments