The Comportance Framework

The Comportance Framework

The Comportance Framework

A product design framework that allows combining strategic thinking, behavioural design, goal-setting, validation and iterative execution into one meaningful flow.
A product design framework that allows combining strategic thinking, behavioural design, goal-setting, validation and iterative execution into one meaningful flow.
Applicable on any level - from full product design to small feature updates.
Applicable on any level - from full product design to small feature updates.
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About the Author

About the Author

About the Author

Tetiana Kobzar

Tetiana Kobzar

After 20 years of building software products, using different productivity frameworks, Agile principles, and applying gamification and behavioural design in product development, Tetiana realized that the product development process parts are usually disconnected, and teams miss clarity on crucial questions.

After 20 years of building software products, using different productivity frameworks, Agile principles, and applying gamification and behavioural design in product development, Tetiana realized that the product development process parts are usually disconnected, and teams miss clarity on crucial questions.

That's how Comportance was created — to fill those gaps, help teams stay aligned, and bring clarity and thoughtfulness to every step.

That's how Comportance was created — to fill those gaps, help teams stay aligned, and bring clarity and thoughtfulness to every step.

The Framework

The Seven Steps of the Comportance Framework

Why are we doing this?

Always start with “Why?” Usually it comes to one of two:
• What problem are we trying to solve? or
• What goal are we trying to achieve?

Don’t forget to think about these questions for both your organisation and your product or solution users.

How should users feel?

Human-centred design optimises the system according to users' feelings and reasons why they do or don’t do certain things, making them motivated to use our solution.

• What emotional states do we want users have? (calm, confident, energized, etc.)

• What motivational drives do we want to focus on? (progress, mastery, belonging, control, etc.)

User decisions are driven by emotion and motivation, not just logic and the better you understand your users, the more motivated and loyal they will be.

How should users feel?

How can we say we reached the goal we defined in step 1? Be specific, follow SMART or OKRs approach. Desired outcomes should be specific, measurable and achievable.

What is happening today?

Before you change anything, measure where you're starting from. Make sure you are measuring the same metrics that you set up as a goal in the Outcomes Step. That wil allow you to follow the progress and adjust the next steps more easily.

This step can reveal some additional problems. This step is also often missed during the planning. You cannot improve what you are not measuring.

What is our bet?

Even if you have a lot of great ideas, validate them one by one. Choose one hypothesis, focus on it, and test it before moving on to the next. It will help to crystallise the actions, planned functionality. Make the hypothesis clear and thoughtful.

Format: "If we [do X] for [Y audience], we expect [Z change] because [reasoning based on behavior/motivation/evidence]."

One hypothesis. Not three, not five. Pick one and test it.

What's the simplest test?

Follow the MVP principle - what's the fastest, lightest, but still meaningful and valuable for users way to test your hypothesis?

Start with the simplest idea implementation, validate it, improve based on the users feedback or the hypothesis validation process.

When and how do we evaluate?

Set clear timelines and decision criteria.

• When do we start?
• When do we check results?
• What defines success? (specific thresholds)
• What defines failure?

Decision framework:

• Go: Validated - continue to develop this hypothesis, or if the goal is fully achieved, move to the next goals
• Adjust: Learned something - pivot and test again
• Stop: Not working - move on, try the different hypotesis

No open-ended "let's see how it goes." Set the rules upfront.

The Framework

The Seven Steps of the Comportance Framework

Why are we doing this?

Always start with “Why?” Usually it comes to one of two:
• What problem are we trying to solve? or
• What goal are we trying to achieve?

Don’t forget to think about these questions for both your organisation and your product or solution users.

How should users feel?

Human-centred design optimises the system according to users' feelings and reasons why they do or don’t do certain things, making them motivated to use our solution.

• What emotional states do we want users have? (calm, confident, energized, etc.)

• What motivational drives do we want to focus on? (progress, mastery, belonging, control, etc.)

User decisions are driven by emotion and motivation, not just logic and the better you understand your users, the more motivated and loyal they will be.

How should users feel?

How can we say we reached the goal we defined in step 1? Be specific, follow SMART or OKRs approach. Desired outcomes should be specific, measurable and achievable.

What is happening today?

Before you change anything, measure where you're starting from. Make sure you are measuring the same metrics that you set up as a goal in the Outcomes Step. That wil allow you to follow the progress and adjust the next steps more easily.

This step can reveal some additional problems. This step is also often missed during the planning. You cannot improve what you are not measuring.

What is our bet?

Even if you have a lot of great ideas, validate them one by one. Choose one hypothesis, focus on it, and test it before moving on to the next. It will help to crystallise the actions, planned functionality. Make the hypothesis clear and thoughtful.

Format: "If we [do X] for [Y audience], we expect [Z change] because [reasoning based on behavior/motivation/evidence]."

One hypothesis. Not three, not five. Pick one and test it.

What's the simplest test?

Follow the MVP principle - what's the fastest, lightest, but still meaningful and valuable for users way to test your hypothesis?

Start with the simplest idea implementation, validate it, improve based on the users feedback or the hypothesis validation process.

When and how do we evaluate?

Set clear timelines and decision criteria.

• When do we start?
• When do we check results?
• What defines success? (specific thresholds)
• What defines failure?

Decision framework:

• Go: Validated - continue to develop this hypothesis, or if the goal is fully achieved, move to the next goals
• Adjust: Learned something - pivot and test again
• Stop: Not working - move on, try the different hypotesis

No open-ended "let's see how it goes." Set the rules upfront.

The Framework

The Seven Steps of the Comportance Framework

Why are we doing this?

Always start with “Why?” Usually it comes to one of two:
• What problem are we trying to solve? or
• What goal are we trying to achieve?

Don’t forget to think about these questions for both your organisation and your product or solution users.

How should users feel?

Human-centred design optimises the system according to users' feelings and reasons why they do or don’t do certain things, making them motivated to use our solution.

• What emotional states do we want users have? (calm, confident, energized, etc.)

• What motivational drives do we want to focus on? (progress, mastery, belonging, control, etc.)

User decisions are driven by emotion and motivation, not just logic and the better you understand your users, the more motivated and loyal they will be.

How should users feel?

How can we say we reached the goal we defined in step 1? Be specific, follow SMART or OKRs approach. Desired outcomes should be specific, measurable and achievable.

What is happening today?

Before you change anything, measure where you're starting from. Make sure you are measuring the same metrics that you set up as a goal in the Outcomes Step. That wil allow you to follow the progress and adjust the next steps more easily.

This step can reveal some additional problems. This step is also often missed during the planning. You cannot improve what you are not measuring.

What is our bet?

Even if you have a lot of great ideas, validate them one by one. Choose one hypothesis, focus on it, and test it before moving on to the next. It will help to crystallise the actions, planned functionality. Make the hypothesis clear and thoughtful.

Format: "If we [do X] for [Y audience], we expect [Z change] because [reasoning based on behavior/motivation/evidence]."

One hypothesis. Not three, not five. Pick one and test it.

What's the simplest test?

Follow the MVP principle - what's the fastest, lightest, but still meaningful and valuable for users way to test your hypothesis?

Start with the simplest idea implementation, validate it, improve based on the users feedback or the hypothesis validation process.

When and how do we evaluate?

Set clear timelines and decision criteria.

• When do we start?
• When do we check results?
• What defines success? (specific thresholds)
• What defines failure?

Decision framework:

• Go: Validated - continue to develop this hypothesis, or if the goal is fully achieved, move to the next goals
• Adjust: Learned something - pivot and test again
• Stop: Not working - move on, try the different hypotesis

No open-ended "let's see how it goes." Set the rules upfront.

Science and Experience Behind

Science and Experience Behind

Science and Experience Behind

What Makes Comportance Different

What Makes Comportance Different

Comportance was created after 20 years of building software products and using different product frameworks along the way. Most of them excel at one thing - they go deep on a specific aspect of product development, and that depth is valuable. But here's the problem: real product work requires all of these perspectives at once.

Comportance was created after 20 years of building software products and using different product frameworks along the way. Most of them excel at one thing - they go deep on a specific aspect of product development, and that depth is valuable. But here's the problem: real product work requires all of these perspectives at once.

Framework Type
The Gap
Comportance Step
Empathy & Research

Jobs-to-be-Done,
User Story Mapping, Empathy Maps

Don't connect understanding to behavioural psychology or concrete metrics

Step 1 (Intent)

Behavioural Design

Octalysis, Hooked Model, BJ Fogg's Behavior Model

Skip the "why are we building this" and "how do we measure success" questions

Step 2 (Emotion)

Goal-setting

OKRs, SMART goals

Don't connect metrics back to user emotion or the hypothesis being tested

Step 3 (Outcomes)

Validation

Lean Startup, Design Sprints

Leave teams unclear on emotional experience or baseline they're improving from

Steps 5-6 (Hypothesis & Validation)

Execution

Scrum, Kanban, Shape Up

Assume you already know what to build and why

Step 7 (Cadence)

Comportance doesn't care which tools you use.
It just makes sure you don't skip the essential questions at each stage.
Framework Type
The Gap
Comportance Step
Empathy & Research

Jobs-to-be-Done,
User Story Mapping, Empathy Maps

Don't connect understanding to behavioural psychology or concrete metrics

Step 1 (Intent)

Behavioural Design

Octalysis, Hooked Model, BJ Fogg's Behavior Model

Skip the "why are we building this" and "how do we measure success" questions

Step 2 (Emotion)

Goal-setting

OKRs, SMART goals

Don't connect metrics back to user emotion or the hypothesis being tested

Step 3 (Outcomes)

Validation

Lean Startup, Design Sprints

Leave teams unclear on emotional experience or baseline they're improving from

Steps 5-6 (Hypothesis & Validation)

Execution

Scrum, Kanban, Shape Up

Assume you already know what to build and why

Step 7 (Cadence)

Comportance doesn't care which tools you use.
It just makes sure you don't skip the essential questions at each stage.

Applications

Applications

Applications

You Can Use It For

You Can Use It For

New Startup Strategic Planning

New Startup Strategic Planning

New Startup Strategic Planning

Features Improvements

Features Improvements

Features Improvements

Internal Process Improvement

Internal Process Improvement

Internal Process Improvement

User Acquisition and Onboarding

User Acquisition and Onboarding

User Acquisition and Onboarding

Client Experience Analysis

Client Experience Analysis

Client Experience Analysis

Users Retention

Users Retention

Users Retention

and many more

Comportance makes you get clear before you build. It doesn't guarantee success, but it dramatically increases the odds that you're building something that matters, for people who need it, with a clear way to know if it's working.
Comportance makes you get clear before you build. It doesn't guarantee success, but it dramatically increases the odds that you're building something that matters, for people who need it, with a clear way to know if it's working.
That's it. No magic, just clarity.
That's it. No magic, just clarity.

Let's stay in touch

Email

Email

More about me

More about me

If you want to discuss the framework, invite me to speak, or explore how Comportance could be applied inside your product team, feel free to reach out.