Behavior Space: Play, Pleasure and Discovery as a Model for Business Value

by Alexander Manu

Behavior Space proposes that corporations do not design products or services they design behavior spaces. Facebook is not a product, not a technology, but a behavior space. Innovation is the creation of a new behaviour space. The product or service is simply the catalyst that enables a new behavior space to emerge. The size of the behaviour space footprint, represents the potential value a product or service offers; the greater the value potential, the greater the monetization potential. Alexander Manu illustrates how these new concepts are transforming design and product development so that the process changes from a static and product-centred approach to one that is entirely centred on the user and their behaviours that emerge as they interact with what they have bought. He provides a new language to describe the way in which the physical, intellectual and emotional features of products and services achieve a relationship between the user and the brand. And he explains the concept of Play Value, which underpins the attraction for customers and depends on compelling experiences that are challenging, rewarding and absorbing; that never frustrate and that encourage repeated use. Designers and brand managers seeking to understand and exploit commercially the fundamental changes in consumers that are driven by technology, experience and social interaction will find Behavior Space a wonderful place to start.

234 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Alexander Manu is a foresight strategist, author, and professor who has spent his career studying how technological change transforms human behaviour from the inside out. Unlike commentators who approach technology as a purely technical or economic force, Manu’s work begins with a different premise: disruption is behavioural before it is technological. Tools do not simply improve efficiency. They alter perception, reshape desire, and quietly redefine identity.
For over three decades, Manu has advised Fortune 500 companies, governments, and global institutions on innovation and future-proofing, helping leaders understand that the real impact of technology lies not in the device itself, but in how it changes what people value, expect, and become. His frameworks on disruption, behavioural innovation, and the emerging present have influenced both boardrooms and classrooms, positioning him as a distinctive voice at the intersection of strategy, imagination, and human development.
He has published widely on imagination, creativity, and the evolving self in a digital world. In his recent books Transcending Imagination: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Creativity and The Disruption Continuum: Reinventing People and Purpose in an Era of Constant Change, Manu has consistently argued that technology is not an external force acting upon us, but an extension of human intention that ultimately reshapes its creator.
In his latest book, You Were Never Just Using It, he turns this lifetime of research inward. Drawing on personal history, cultural analysis, and decades of observing how behaviours evolve around tools, Manu explores the intimate relationship between everyday technologies and the formation of self. His perspective is rare: a strategist who understands systems, a philosopher of disruption who understands psychology, and a storyteller willing to examine his own becoming. The result is a book that speaks not only to innovation, but to identity.