For more than 15 years, Heart+Mind Strategies has been on a journey—one that began with understanding the human and societal values that guide people’s decision making and has since evolved into a deeper appreciation of how humans make choices in today’s complex world.
We’ve seen this transformation firsthand in the world of consumer behavior, where traditional linear models of decision making have given way to dynamic choice journeys. But we’ve also come to realize organizations make choices, too—and they do it through people.
Whether it’s a customer buying a product or a leadership team choosing a strategy, the same human truths apply. Choice is messy. It’s emotional. It’s dependent on context. And at its core, it’s deeply human.
This is our point of view on human decision making (or as we like to call it, human choice making), and how it applies to both individuals and organizations.
Our Human Choice Framework
In our early work, we focused on uncovering the core values that drive people’s decision making. These values—like freedom, security, connection, or achievement—still matter deeply. But over time, we recognized that it’s not just what people value that shapes their decision making—it’s how they navigate choice in a fast-moving, information-rich, emotionally-charged world.
People don’t follow a funnel anymore. They move in loops, revisit options, weigh trade-offs, and change their minds. They balance their own needs with what others think. They act in the moment or wait until the timing feels right. In short, choice is a journey, not a funnel.
Our Human Choice framework centers on four key insights:
- Autonomy – People want to feel in control of their decisions.
- Relatedness – People are influenced by others and seek social connection.
- Competence – People need to feel confident and capable in making choices.
- Values – People are guided by deeply held personal and social priorities.
This framework doesn’t just help us understand how people buy products—it helps us understand how people make choices as humans, whether they’re shopping for shoes, choosing a career, or steering a company through uncertainty.
Consumer Choice Making: A Journey Shaped by Emotion, Context, and Values
When we apply this lens to consumer behavior, we see a world of empowered, emotional, socially connected individuals navigating a flood of options.
- Cognition and emotion work together. People blend logic and gut feelings—facts and intuitions—in nearly every choice they make.
- Social influences are ever-present. Even when we think we’re choosing alone, friends, influencers, and norms shape our thinking.
- Technology accelerates and amplifies choices. From online reviews to TikTok trends, real-time information can sway our choices instantly.
- Choice Journeys are dynamic, not linear. Consumers don’t “move down” a funnel—they zigzag, pause, restart, and sometimes leap from awareness to action in a moment.
- Values evolve with context. A person might value convenience in one moment and sustainability in another. These value trade-offs are real—and they matter.
Our goal in helping you understand your consumers or stakeholders is not to reduce people to segments or stages. It’s to illuminate the full context of choice—the emotions, relationships, pressures, and possibilities that shape the decision.
Organizational Choice Making: When Humans Choose on Behalf of Institutions
While the consumer context is where we began, we now see the same framework come to life in a powerful way inside organizations. Organizations make choices—but people within them are doing the choosing.
A strategic plan, a new policy, or a product roadmap isn’t the result of some corporate algorithm—it’s the outcome of individuals bringing their values, ambitions, fears, and goals to the table.
Our Human Choice framework applies here, too:
- Autonomy: Do decision makers feel empowered or constrained?
- Relatedness: How do social dynamics, hierarchy, and culture shape what gets chosen?
- Competence: Do people have the clarity and confidence to make bold, informed choices?
- Values: Are organizational values clear, and do they show up in real decisions—or just in PowerPoint?
Just as with consumers, organizational decisions are nonlinear, emotional, and social. And they’re often more complex—because they involve multiple people making choices together, under pressure, with consequences for others.
Whether it’s a team deciding how to respond to a crisis or a leadership group weighing brand risks against financial gain, the choice is still human—and it deserves to be understood, supported, and designed accordingly.
Choice is a Journey
Across both consumer and organizational contexts, choice is a journey. People move forward, back, and sideways in their decision making. They get stuck. They get swayed. They act fast or freeze. They want clarity, confidence, connection, and alignment with what matters most to them.
Our job—as strategists, communicators, researchers, designers—is not to control that journey. Our job is to support the choice-making journey–to understand where people are, what they’re feeling, and what they need, to choose confidently and well.
That means:
- Designing with empathy
- Mapping real choice journeys
- Bringing human values into decision making environments
- Supporting clarity over coercion
- Elevating both individual and collective agency
Designing for Human-First, Choice-Centered Strategy
What does this mean in practice? Whether you’re selling sneakers or shaping a new company vision, we believe in strategies that are:
- Human-First: Start with the person making the choice—their context, needs, and emotional state.
- Value-Driven: Align decisions and messaging with what truly matters to the chooser.
- Journey-Based: Meet people where they are in their choice journey—not where we wish they were.
- Empowerment-Focused: Give people the tools, confidence, and space to choose well—not just react.
When we bring these principles into how we design customer experiences, internal strategies, or research engagements, we unlock deeper insight, stronger alignment, and better outcomes—for people and for organizations.
Championing the Power of Human Choice
In a world of data, noise, and algorithms, the most powerful force in business and society remains… human choice. When we understand the full context of how people choose—what influences them, what matters to them, and what enables them—we unlock the key to growth, trust, and impact.
At Heart+Mind Strategies, we don’t just study decision making. We help clients champion the power of human choice—in the marketplace, in the workplace, and in the moments that matter.
Want to understand how your customers—or your teams—make choices? Let’s talk. Connect with us to explore how our Human Choice framework can help you build smarter strategies rooted in what really drives people’s choices.