STEP 1: IDENTIFY A SPECIFIC BEHAVIOR TO CHANGE 

The program's target was to increase carpooling among employees transitioning from the old carpool platform to a new one called Get There Connect.  

STEP 2: IDENTIFY BARRIERS & BENEFITS FOR THE TARGET AUDIENCE 

Based on observations of current platform users, the team speculated that enrollment was too easy. With such little effort, most people enrolled without a strong intention to actually use the tool. There were more enrollments but there was less participation.    

STEP 3: BRAINSTORM, PRIORITIZE & SELECT BEHAVIOR CHANGE STRATEGIES 

ODOT, Professor Whillans, and her team decided to test whether adding friction during the initial sign-up process could increase long-term engagement with the platform. 

STEP 4: IMPLEMENT THE BEHAVIOR CHANGE STRATEGIES 

The researchers implemented a field experiment with over 27,000 employees. Some received a streamlined sign-up process (just creating a password), while others had a more effortful process (entering account details and creating a password).  

STEP 5: EVALUATE THE PROGRAM TO ITERATE AND IMPROVE 

While fewer people registered following the effortful sign-up, the increased usage among those who signed up more than compensated for the lower enrollment: the higher-effort approach resulted in 1.6 times more carpool trips per day over four months. Despite fewer registrations, the more effortful sign-up process yielded 795 more trips out of the 9,417 total observed trips, saving approximately 8,975 miles of travel. 

The effects persisted even after eight months, demonstrating that strategically adding friction during onboarding can lead to sustained behavior change in transportation programs. The benefits of increased engagement outweigh the costs of reduced initial participation. 

 (More details about this behavior-change strategy can be found here).