Gamifying Innovation for Financial Services

Disruptions in technology and the economy offer opportunities for the financial industry to meet consumer demands for data protection and personalization. Financial institutions need to understand these changes and how they can help companies thrive in the new digital economy.

The digital revolution has changed the way consumers interact with financial institutions, and it’s only going to get more disruptive over time. In a world where technology is constantly evolving, financial institutions need to find ways to keep up with consumer expectations for data protection and personalization while still maintaining their competitive advantage.

But how does one design for consumers 30 years into the future?

For a group of ID students—Camille Martinez (MDes 2023), Masaya Tezuka (MDM 2023), Sujith Samuel (MDes 2023), and Meghna Prakash (MDes 2023)—it is through a deck of cards.

In partnership with a major financial services company in the US, ID’s Innovation Methods class, led by Jeremy Alexis, Vice Provost for Professional and Continuing Education and Associate Professor of Innovation, was tasked with designing a strategy for the future of financial services.

The students started with an innovation assessment to determine the client’s current offerings and needs. The group of students also did considerable research to gain a deeper understanding of the financial service industry as a whole, including by conducting a competitor analysis, an era analysis, and a survey of relevant case studies.

Ultimately, they came up with a game called “Future Capture” to help the financial services organization plan for and navigate the future of their business.

The game pack consists of:

• 14 Driving Force Cards that present a set of external and internal variables that can shape the future world. Following the PESTLE approach (Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors that influence an organization), these forces can influence the direction of strategies, policies, and decisions made in an organization.
• 9 Wild Cards that present unexpected events that, if they were to occur, could have game-changing consequences. These events are unpredictable, high-impact, and generally unpleasant occurrences.
• 4 Worksheets designed to create future scenarios by imagining how Driving Force and Wild Card elements might interact. This provides a platform to brainstorm the opportunities and challenges that those scenarios present.

A combination of a Driving Force Card and a Wild Card creates a scenario that may happen in the future. The cards provide ideas on potential external factors that may affect the organization, while the Worksheets help the players ideate on possible solutions.

Future Capture is a game recommended for 2–3 teams within the same organization, with at least two people in each team. To use Future Capture, the teams must select two cards from a shuffled Driving Force deck, and choose one of the two cards which is most relevant to the team’s organization before picking one Wild Card. With the two selected cards, the teams must then complete Worksheets which are filled with prompts to help the teams identify and address the organization’s needs in the scenarios created. At the end of the game, the teams will have identified which relevant actions today could help them prepare for the future.

The team behind Future Capture tested the game with fellow ID students before reiterating the prototype. They then tested it again to create this final version of the game with insights they got from the test sessions.

Future Capture is designed to help companies better understand how consumers think about the future and what they want from financial institutions. Not specific to the insurance industry, it can also help other industries such as banking, real estate, and investment leaders hone in on new product ideas that will resonate with customers and make them more competitive.