Jiun Tyng Dai / Manon Schuurman / Bart Spel /
Parastha Kakittipoom / Edwin van Tongren
Aegon provided a challenge to the design team of creating more awareness and change the behavior of people into taking more action towards their financial situation.
The design proposal itself consists of a strategic roadmap and two technology roadmaps leading up to the ultimate goal of “Live without regret”. The strategic roadmap envisions the development of the different concept ideas with corresponding user values as well as the horizons and its values. The technology roadmaps show development, of one concept idea, over time.
Project Brief:
Changing the behavior of “young working adults” between the age of 25-35 when it comes to their financial future by guiding them in making the right life decisions.
Aegon and Frank - Live a life without regret
Target Audience:
- THE NORTH WOOD FACTORY -
Biologically, the age of 25-35 is considered as ‘youth’ phase. According to Dr. Ganguli (2011), 25-35 is the decade of years for human species to be geared for peak performance, both physically and intellectually (see Figure 1). This middle range age group is also the most diverse throughout all age groups. Lifestages such as singles, married, with or without kids, studying, employed, etc, can be seen in this age range; however, despite the wild variety in this ten years, they are all on their way of getting settled into the routines of life.
Young adults, aging 25-35, are in their "peak of life". (Dr. Ganguli, 2011)
Persona:
The advance of the internet and the popularity of portable devices have made the target group of 25-35 more knowledgeable than previous generations, making their decision making more analytical but at the same time more complicated. New challenges are created, as well as new opportunities.
For Aegon it is important to structure their future services in such a way that it provides comfort for all customers in every stage of life. Intangible services need to be made more tangible in order to assist customers through the abundance of choice and give them a clear motivation. Also the need for financial security and the demand for added value should be met in order to appeal to a younger generation. Connecting them to Aegon and make them take action towards their financial future.
Ideation Proposal:
The design team proposes a future goal for Aegon “Live without regret”. Aegon will ensure that young adults make the right life decision.
Each idea category is then divided in three horizons, indicating the distance in time from now until the implementation of the idea. on the right, see the list of criteria.
- The product makes the problem more tangible in favour of the user.
- The product makes the problem more visible in favour of the user.
- The product makes the user more aware of his financial situation.
- The product offers guidance for the user when taking action.
- The product guides the user during his complete life.
- The product Should be easily controllable.
- The product should be easy to understand.
Three ideation proposal is created:
Bring finance closer to people -
Pop-up Experience Store
The purpose of this launching strategy is to get people onboard and acquainted with Aegon.
Within this pop-up experience store customers can participate in three activities, “VR Roleplay Experience’’, “Future Beer” and “Get fit with your money”. Through these activities, they will get a glimpse of a possible future in a tangible way.
There are multiple possibilities of introducing a pop-up store like this. It could be a moving hub traveling over different locations, such as bars in universities, airports, train stations and the city center.
Make the future more tangible -
360
With the “360”, an Aegon VR device, you can have a glance in your future by having you experience the outcome of the decisions you take, envisioning your future.
This product, delivered by Aegon, help people make thought-out decisions regarding their future. Based on trends and data from the Aegon databases, with the decision you made in the VR experience, 360 shows you the most likely future outcome when you are struggling with a difficult decision in life.
Making decisions for your future purely based on financial reports consists of data and numbers can be hard, but by translating this to an "experience", things can be more easier and tangible.
Connection on an emotional level -
Buddy A
By tailoring the Buddy towards the customer, it is expected that the advise feels more genuine and the customer will be more motivated to take action.
The customer will pay a monthly fee for the buddy and will in return get regular updates, insights and advices about his personal situation and which steps to take to better take hold of the future.
The buddy will always be connected to the Aegon cloud which contains the personal information and details of each customer, advanced security systems will be needed to safeguard this information since it contains important personal details which can not fall into the wrong hands.
*Detail description of each ideation can be seen in full the full report. (see the end of this page).
Strategic Roadmap:
The development of the above Pop-up Experience Store, 360, and Buddy-A over time.
PART 1 // leading project: The Pop-up Experience Store
Pop-up Experience Store will be the first to be introduced in 2020.
After four years, in 2024, the “Aegon pop-up experience store” will turn into a ‘Aegon Retail Experience Store’. It is a permanent store where customers can receive information from advisors as well as get hands-on with different financial services, like the 360 VR experience and the first iterations of the Buddy. The physical store will connect customers with Aegon. In addition, it is a place for new customers to get to know Aegon.
Finally, it will be possible to do the activities available in the store at the ease of your own home, by introducing the Aegon Home Service, which will be introduced in 2028.
PART 2 // leading project: 360
The 360 starts out with the VR Roleplay Experience. It can be experienced in the Pop-up Experience Store, whether you are an Aegon client or not. The VR Role-play Experience at this stage is not connected with databases, but purely about experiencing possible futures from the selected character in the game.
In 2028, 360 v2.0 will be connected to multiple user database of Aegon. User will be able to experience the estimated future of their future based on their financial data base. In 2032, the algorithm of 360 will be extended to multiple users, which can be used by decision making moments of families or companies.
PART 3 // leading project: Buddy A
The Buddy will have different appearances over time. The first step in 2020 is to integrate it with user's daily life via an application on a mobile device and a wristband. This stage is primarily aimed at collecting data from the customer, it will track purchasing behavior, preferences, and surfing behaviour to form a personal profile of its user. According to this together with the financial details, gradually, in 2024, it will be able to assist advisors from Aegon to structure plans for the user and bring the two together. Over time the Buddy will become more physically present in the life of the customer and track the behavior of the customers on a more personal level.
Finally, the Buddy A will be introduced around 2030. The Buddy A will make decisions for its users based on the collected financial-database. In the far future, the buddy could take on different forms according to the customers liking.
Horizon 1 /2020-2024/
Tangible Future
The first horizon is focused on making the future more tangible. The “Pop-up Experience Store” will be the spotlight of this first horizon. Together with “VR Roleplay Experience”, “Future Beer” campaign, visible money flow, and “Get fit with your money”. These are meant to make the abstract more tangible.
Horizon 2 /2024-2028/
Understanding your options
The second horizon is mainly focused on helping people understand the options they have. The spotlight of this second horizon is “360". Its goal is to visualize a possible future, and show users all the possible options they have.
Horizon 3 /2028-2032/
Tailored Solution
The third horizon is about having a tailored solution. The spotlight of this horizon is the “Buddy A”.
Buddy A takes care of your trivial daily tasks and eases your life by making tailored decisions for you. By the year 2028, with Aegon’s “360 v2.0” it will be possible to connect multiple VR experiences to see a combined future.
Degree of Presence:
The three concept ideas represent different purposes for Aegon.
Aegon’s degree of presence, on the Y-axis, indicates how visible Aegon is to the customer.
The value of each concept idea is given in the axis of “time” and “degree of presence” on the X-axis, where a life of a man is illustrated, starting from 18, the age when they are responsible for themselves, till an age that they leave the world.
The three concept ideas support each other throughout the entire journey of life in different phases. The combination of all concepts brings Aegon the most value, by providing long-term companionship and being present vividly in sparkling moments of life.
Aegon has been good at supporting customers financially, however, supporting only from the background is not enough in this competitive industry. It is important to make Aegon visible and shape Aegon as a non replaceable lifetime partner, sharing the joy and sorrow of our consumer through their ups and downs.
Contact me for further information regarding detail explanation of the three ideations, company analysis, target audience analysis, validation, limitation, future recommendations, interview guide, technology roadmaps, toolkits, reference, and more of this research.
