Want to rile Innovia’s behavioural science team? We recommend that you casually suggest that nudges are the answer to every behavioural science question. That will definitely spark a conversation!

Innovia Technology was one of the first innovation consultancies to incorporate behavioural science, joining our established capabilities in design, science and strategy back in 2014. Dr Helena Rubinstein joined us to make that happen, fuelled by her varied experience in marketing with some of the world’s biggest corporations and experience of social psychology in academia. She also brought experience developing seminal approaches to branding and how businesses can apply behavioural science.

Fast forward to 2025 and around a quarter of our consultants have a background in behavioural science. Now led by Dr Emma Bertenshaw, they work with all our other capabilities, bringing insights which help clients understand people (and animals), and developing strategies, services, products and communications for clients around the world. Of course, beyond our own doors, behavioural science has developed in the wider world; and that wider world itself has of course changed. There was a pandemic, a digital transformation, and significant geopolitical shifts, not to mention the rise of Taylor Swift. We’ve seen so much change, but some things have stayed the course. In this piece, Dr Rubinstein gives her reflections on: 

• Why behavioural science is a natural support for innovation, and our holistic approach

• How behavioural science has changed in the last decade – across the hype cycle, and in both the private and public sector 

• How Innovia has responded to these changes 

• What’s next for behavioural science: her predictions include the effects of big data and data science, and increasing ethical concerns. 

Helena said: “Ten years ago behavioural science was new and exciting but to be honest, was massively over-hyped. That’s why at Innovia we resisted the siren call of focusing only on irrational biases in favour of understanding what really drives human behaviour. Ten years on we know more about how and why it can make a real difference to the way we create breakthrough services and products”.

You can read all of her thoughts in the “A decade of behavioural science at Innovia”. What do you think to it? Do you agree with her take? Or disagree? Whether you agree or disagree, feel free to start a discussion, either by email or on LinkedIn. And if this has left you thinking about what behavioural science at Innovia Technology could bring to your business, consumers, or innovation challenges, why not reach out to Helena to find out?

Dr Helena Rubinstein: hrr_freshperspective@innoviatech.com
Dr Helena Rubinstein: LinkedIn