START AT THE END

Do you want to create a unique product such as the iPhone? Then start at the end!

Deciding what to create at modern companies often looks like an episode of MAD MEN: People throw ideas around until one sounds sexy enough to execute. The result? Companies overspend on marketing to drive the popularity of products people don't want. START AT THE END offers a new framework for design, grounded in behavioral science: first, observe what people want to do, then invent the product that helps them do it.

After leaving academia to build and sell several successful startups, Wallaert became Microsoft's Behavioral Scientist and a director at Microsoft Ventures.