Modes — The Missing Variable Between Situation and Personalization

Part three of a four-part mini-series unpacking the frameworks in Dave Norton’s new book, Human Context: How Intelligent Companies Build Customers.

Most companies build their entire models around habits and routines. But the number one behavior people exhibit today isn’t a habit or a routine — it’s mode acquisition. People move fluidly between modes all day, they’re fluent in the language of them (”I’m in writing mode, don’t talk to me”), and they expect the companies they interact with to understand where they are. Most companies don’t. This episode explains what modes are, how they connect to situational markets, and why knowing someone’s mode tells you more about how to serve them than any demographic ever could.

What’s in This Episode

The definition that matters most — and it’s one word. A mode is a mindset and a set of behaviors that a person gets into temporarily. That last word is what separates modes from habits (permanent patterns) and routines (permanent structures). Right now, the three hosts are in podcast mode. When they hit stop, they won’t be. Joe takes a different tone between episodes. Aransas’s voice changes. Dave gets Joe’s “I’m in writing mode” texts. People are already living this way — the framework just names what’s happening.

The ballpark and the batter. To connect modes back to the last episode: if situational markets are the ballpark — the bounded context, the market you’re going after — then modes are the batter. The same situation can contain many different modes. Two people can both be in the situation of choosing a college for their daughter. One is in full mommy mode — relational, emotionally loaded, cross-domain in its implications (financial, personal, professional, aspirational). Another is an adult returning to education for themselves, in a more self-directed, pragmatic mode. Same situational market. Completely different mode. Completely different support needed. Joe’s extension makes it even richer: everyone on the field is in a different mode at every moment. The batter stepping up with a runner on third is in a different mode than when he’s in the dugout. And if you know someone’s in dugout mode — Dave’s point is clear — sunflower seeds are your product.

Modes cross demographics. That’s the whole point. Aransas in mommy mode could be any age, any income, any geography. The mode — not the demographic — tells you what she needs. Joe names the full stack of jobs that mode carries with it: functional, emotional, social, and aspirational. Know the mode, and you know the context. Know the context, and you can personalize in a way that demographic data never allows.

How modes, situations, and jobs connect. The three frameworks work together as a system. Jobs to be done describes what the customer needs broadly — the functional, emotional, social, and aspirational outcomes they’re hiring for. Situational markets describe the bounded context: the when-statement, the market that’s been identified and sized. Modes describe how — the specific mindset, energy, and intention the person brings to that moment. Dave’s summary: situation tells you the market, mode tells you how they’re experiencing their time within it. Know all three, and you have context that’s genuinely actionable.

Why modes replace personas — and why that matters. Personas imply a static, monolithic person. Modes are the opposite: dynamic, contextual, temporary. A person is not their persona. They are whoever they are in this moment, in this situation, in this mode. That concept changes what you build, what you say, and how you show up. The mode map in Human Context gives companies a practical tool: map your specific situations to the modes customers are likely to enter, and build for those combinations rather than for a type of person.

Most companies are leaving this on the table. Dave has been developing the modes framework for over a decade. He remains genuinely surprised that more companies don’t use it — especially now, when the language of modes is so embedded in how people describe themselves. The person who texts “I’m in writing mode” is handing you a direct signal about their context. Most companies have no system for receiving it.

Get the Book

Human Context: How Intelligent Companies Build Customers by Dave Norton is available now on Amazon (Kindle and print) and on Dave’s Substack. The book includes a mode map framework and industry-specific workbooks showing how to apply modes, situational markets, and the other frameworks to your category.

Find the hosts by name or as The Experience Strategist at theexperiencestrategist.substack.com.