The Financial Health Network has developed a series of behavioral design guides to equip product managers, designers, and strategists with a framework for building products and services that support consumers’ financial health. Drawing from the wealth of behavioral science research, these guides put forth actionable insights for providers of the following products: tools to manage spending, retirement savings plans, credit cards, and insurance policies. 

Across the four guides, we learned the following:

1. Small Changes Can Yield Significant Impacts

Implementing behavioral design doesn’t always require building new products or overhauling digital experiences. In fact, simple adjustments – such as tweaking messaging or shifting a service from opt-in to opt-out – can lead to significant improvements in customer outcomes. When implemented at scale, these changes can drive industry-wide progress toward financial health. 

One example comes from our behavioral design guide to employer-sponsored retirement savings plans, which offers strategies for employers to promote higher savings balances. Contribution rates – the portion of an employee’s pay they divert into their retirement savings account – influence employee saving balances meaningfully, since even small increases in contribution rates compound over time. Over the course of a career, saving 6% of pay instead of 3% can result in a savings difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

2. Testing New Behavioral Solutions in Specific Contexts Is Essential

To ensure that new financial products, services, features, or interventions positively impact financial health, product managers and strategists should test interventions to confirm that outcomes align with the intended goals. (The Financial Health Impact Lab offers several examples of how companies can measure impact.) Testing interventions can reveal unexpected challenges or complexities. 

For instance, encouraging credit card customers to enroll in automatic payments –  intended to help customers avoid forgetting payments – may be more complicated than it seems. Our behavioral design guide on credit cards discusses a study that found mixed results from a fintech company encouraging autopay. 

While autopay helped reduce late payments in some instances, it also led to a higher proportion of customers making only the minimum payment. By examining the impact of automatic payments, the study uncovered an unintended consequence: lower payment amounts. This shows the importance of testing features in real-world settings to ensure they promote positive financial health outcomes.

3. Common Behavioral Barriers Persist Across Products

While insurance products may function under different incentive structures and regulatory environments than retirement savings accounts or credit cards, certain behavioral principles apply across all of these solutions. Product leaders deciding where to focus should prioritize designing features that capture customers’ attention, spark positive action, and guide choices toward financial health. 

A key challenge across these products is choice overload, which happens when consumers disengage from a decision because the options are too complex or numerous. Whether they’re choosing a credit card, insurance policy, or retirement investment fund, consumers must weigh multiple options and attributes. 

Although the specific design will vary product by product, the behavioral design solution remains the same: categorize or curate smaller sets of options, make options less complex, or integrate features that help people navigate their options. For example, our Financial Health Approach to Insurance guide highlights how calculator tools can assist consumers in comparing the costs and benefits of different insurance policies, helping them choose the option that best fits their needs.

The Financial Health Network’s Maturity Assessment Program (MAP) highlights how behavioral science is central to building a business focused on financial health. The program provides a roadmap for companies looking to integrate these practices more deeply into their operations. 

By leveraging behavioral insights, providers can diagnose financial health barriers and build products that address the significant financial challenges many households face. Even small, cost-effective changes can yield substantial, long-term benefits – for institutions and for the financial well-being of those they serve.