The Financial Empowerment Challenge Ideas phase has begun! If it’s anything like the Research phase, we should be in store for some creative, insightful and unexpected ideas that will change the way we look at financial empowerment – and of course, some lively discussions and inspiring collaborations that will bring out the best in our ideas along the way. Recapping the Research Phase When OpenIDEO uses human-centered design to tackle a big topic like financial empowerment, they start with research because it allows them to dig deep into the issue, understand more about what’s working and what isn’t, and build empathy for the people it affects. During the Financial Empowerment Challenge Research phase, our collaboration with OpenIDEO used approaches like interviewing, sharing personal stories, observing the models and systems that are already out there, and finding creative ways of putting ourselves in other people’s shoes. This helped the team experience the issue from all angles and uncover patterns and themes that could shed light on the places we really need to focus on when we start brainstorming solutions. What’s Synthesis? There’s no official roadmap for synthesis, but it’s where the team brings together all of the research, observations and insights, take a step back, and identify emerging themes and opportunity areas for designing solutions. In other words, we ask ourselves: ‘What areas appear to be ripe for innovation?’ So how did the team do this?

• They read through all of your Research posts (yes, all 272 of them!), digging into the conversations they’ve sparked, and identifying the issues and insights each post brings to light.
• They kept track of these insights, and noted when other posts offering additional (and sometimes contrasting) perspectives got added along the way.
• Towards the end of the Research phase, they started grouping and regrouping the posts and their underlying themes until clear opportunity areas emerged.
• When we had 6 that stood out, we started crafting new “How Might We” questions, generative prompts to encourage explorations in the Ideas phase.

What’s next? As we dive into the Ideas phase, we’ll be able to choose from these opportunity areas, or “Missions,” and add our relevant ideas – no matter how early-stage – that might have potential for addressing these issues. Read more about these Opportunity Areas. What fresh ideas do these opportunity areas spark for you? As we move forward, let’s keep the momentum going. Join a local OpenIDEO Meetup to brainstorm solutions with other passionate people in your credit union or community, or download the Brainstorm in a Box to host your own ideation session. Add your own ideas, or help others’ ideas develop by contributing your comments, questions and expertise. And remember, like the human-centered design process, OpenIDEO challenges are meant to be iterative, so the earlier you get your idea onto the platform, the more community input you’ll receive!