The Power of Moments authors, Dan Heath and Chip Heath, are academics who have been applying research about decision making, motivation, and organizational behavior to practical methods in business development and education for many years. Dan Heath is a Senior Fellow at Duke University’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE), and his work in experience design models how organizations can develop the internal cultural commitments and mechanisms necessary to create change. Chip Heath is an emeritus professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and his work helps to reinforce the behavioral principles needed to create the “designable” interventions presented in the book.

Despite its basis in academic rigor, there are limitations to the authors’ perspective. The Heath brothers write for business and self-improvement audiences and often place emphasis on memorable case studies and applicable tools rather than deeply engaging with potential constraints. Limited budgets, staff shortages, and labor disputes can limit the use of experience design in actual environments. The authors also assume that readers will have sufficient power to change existing processes, pilot new ones, and develop new norms within their organization—conditions that do not apply to leaders at all levels.

Readers should consider the book to be a reliable and research-based guide to designing experiences and should recognize that “creating moments” will most likely be successful if they are tied to sustainable systems and resources.