Alterkind works on the part of the plan where people have to act.
A business case can be sound, the strategy coherent, the service well designed, the product ready to ship. Then someone has to do something. A customer has to switch. A manager has to use the tool when the old route is faster. A patient has to take the next step. A team has to keep doing the new thing after the launch noise fades.
That is where a lot of good work fails: the required behaviour was assumed rather than examined. Alterkind helps organisations make work fit the behaviour it depends on, through Behaviour Thinking®, the method we created for finding behavioural assumptions, testing their fit, and improving the conditions before money, time and reputation commit.
The missing test
Organisations already test the visible parts of work: the numbers, the technology, the service logic, the brand, the delivery plan. Those checks matter, and most plans still carry one bet none of them touch: someone will do something differently, at the right moment, under real pressure.
The bet hides inside familiar words, right up until they turn to fog.
Adoption · Engagement · Compliance · Uptake · Retention · Culture change.
Our work makes the fog specific. Who has to do what, at which moment? What do they do now instead, and why does that make sense to them? What pressure pulls them back? What has to change for the new behaviour to happen?
The practice and the method
Alterkind is the practice. Behaviour Thinking® is the method, category and movement we created: a practical way to work with behaviour, for organisations tired of vague engagement metrics, awareness campaigns and late-stage adoption fixes.
The method shows up in three forms.
Behavioural Fit.
For work about to launch, scale or receive serious investment. We find the behaviours the plan depends on, test how realistic they are, and show what needs to change before the money commits.
Behavioural Design.
For work already in delivery. We help teams define the behaviour, understand what is shaping it, and design the route so people can act.
Behavioural Infrastructure.
For teams that need the capability to stay. We build the tools, rituals, decision standards and training that keep the judgement alive beyond one project or one expert.
What we do
Practical ways to make work fit real behaviour. No generic consultancy menu, no training catalogue, no behavioural science theatre.
Behavioural Fit Session
Ninety minutes on one live behavioural bet. Fixed fee, written decision note.
Behavioural Fit Review
The full pressure-test of the behaviours a plan depends on, before launch, scale or investment.
The Invisible Business Model Canvas
A free instrument for mapping the hidden behavioural bets inside a plan.
BehaviourKit
The toolkit for applying Behaviour Thinking inside live delivery work.
Team capability
Training, rituals and standards for teams that need the method without outside help.
Built in live work
Behaviour Thinking began on projects rather than as a workshop format, and it grew from one repeating pattern: a plan that looked sensible right up until it met the behaviour it depended on.
The method has since run with PwC, Accenture, Infosys, the World Economic Forum and the Estonian Government. It is taught at Hyper Island, Politecnico di Milano and Manchester Metropolitan University. Behaviour Thinking® is a registered UK trademark.
Twelve years in the making
Twelve years of making the method more usable by more people. The next turn is yours: use it, learn it, lead it.
Coined Behaviour Thinking.
The belief that work should be judged by the behaviour it depends on.
Launched BehaviourKit.
A collection of methods: PDFs, canvases and prompts that made the thinking usable. Over the years it grew into a connected way of working, capturing how Behaviour Thinking runs inside a live project.
Brought the method into education.
Programmes and courses at Hyper Island, Manchester Metropolitan University and Politecnico di Milano. Thirteen cohorts and more than 250 professionals later, 93% apply the tools within 30 days.
BehaviourKit relaunched, and the canvas released.
BehaviourKit relaunched as a product built to support judgement, and the Invisible Business Model Canvas released to answer the question every plan should face: where are the behavioural blindspots in this business? Free, for anyone.
Run by Lauren A. Kelly
Alterkind is run by Lauren A. Kelly: behavioural scientist, behavioural designer and teacher at three universities. Fifteen years applying behavioural science inside products, services, policy and transformation, in the territory where behavioural science meets service design, product strategy and decision-making. Based in Manchester, working with organisations in the UK and internationally.
How we work
Alterkind is deliberately small, and the size shapes the work. The method stays close to the person using it. The tools come from repeated project patterns rather than from pitches. The aim is to leave behind clearer decisions, better instruments, and teams that can see the behavioural layer for themselves. Given the choice, we make the work simpler rather than the engagement bigger.
Start with the behaviour the plan is betting on.
About to launch, scale or invest? Bring one live piece of work. The Behavioural Fit Session finds the bet, tests the fit, and gives you a written decision note you can forward.