Pandemic inspires virtual collaboration
“A compelling time to think globally and act locally”
| Challenge | A group of passionate leaders in the banking and technology sectors want to explore how they can volunteer their collective expertise and resources to improve the financial resilience of people and businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| Problem with that | – Everyone is now working remotely with unfamiliar tools, and still trying to sort out their own new routines – Given the reality of the ‘distanced’ situation, getting a clear understanding of how individuals and businesses are bearing up is challenging |
| Innovation Services delivered | Succeeded in virtually bringing together 25 banking, design and technology experts, representing various firms, across 7 time zones, to virtually collaborate and generate over 150 solution ideas, culminating in 2 prototyped solution concepts. |
Context
The global COVID-19 pandemic – arguably the most compelling problem of our times resulting in sudden and massive loss of life, loss of financial income, loss of personal freedom and loss of support.
changeUp partnered with banking technology leader, Temenos, to bring together banking leaders from North America and Europe all eager to leverage their respective knowledge and resources to explore how they might help those struggling with financial resilience.
Approach
changeUp designed, coordinated and facilitated a virtual workshop:
- Design Thinking was applied as the methodology to move volunteers through a series of 8 virtual sessions, where participants quickly became adept with virtual collaboration tools.
- Two teams were formed focusing on the situation in North America and Europe respectively.
- Interviews were coordinated with individuals and small business owners spanning 12 industries to provide participants with some direct insights into hardships being faced.
- Teams defined problem spaces focusing on the plight of small businesses, generated solution ideas, and then each team selected 1 viable idea and developed a conceptual prototype.
Impact
- Discovery: A strong similarity in challenges faced by small businesses both In Europe and in North America was confirmed.
- Product innovation: Both teams developed solutions that could easily be adapted to existing platforms.
- Process innovation: Successfully demonstrated the feasibility of a virtual, gorilla approach to problem solving within a corporate setting.
Contact Us today and make an appointment to give you a more detailed story on this case study as well as others