Becoming an unlikely change agent for innovation in financial services (Part 3 of 4)
Welcome back to our 4-part blog series on HSBC’s journey to implementing an e-learning Design Thinking course. Steve Suarez, Global Head of Innovation, Finance & Risk at HSBC, continues his four part series about working with d.schoolers Justin Ferrell and Jeremy Utley to create an innovation program at HSBC.
This is the third installment. If you need to get caught up, you can find the first and second posts here.
We had the conference rooms booked, the production crew ready to go, and were on the verge of welcoming many HSBC colleagues from all around the globe just as the world went into lockdown. I was deflated. All the work we had put into making this a reality evaporated in the blink of an eye. I was not completely disheartened, however. When everything is out of your control, as it was with the pandemic, there is nothing you can do but try your best to adapt to the environment — so, we pivoted…
As I alluded to in the previous post, innovation is about determination and perseverance. The last-minute cancellation of the offsite made me more determined than ever to deliver the 101. There was an added incentive; the pandemic forced people to switch to a completely different model of working and shifted perspectives, illustrating the benefits of design thinking.
Initially, we rescheduled the offsite to July 2020. Clearly, this was a rather optimistic assessment of COVID-19. With the dawning realisation that restrictions on travel and large gatherings would last for several months, we decided to change track — back to the drawing board altogether. The two teams put their heads together and threw out ideas of how we could still bring the course to life. After many “yes ands,” we agreed to a new method.
We proceeded with the offsite, but, like much of the world, we moved to a virtual model and altered it to a four-hour Design Thinking Boot camp on Zoom. Stanford d.school Adjunct Professors Jeremy Utley and Justin Ferrell agreed to take part and lead this virtual effort, so we had our d.school double act!
While I was initially concerned about a virtual approach, Justin and Jeremy quickly reassured me with their incredible charisma, so the delivery switch was seamless. The examples they brought in from their alumni and clients were powerful, and I could feel the attendees’ energy. We received great feedback from the participants of the Boot-camp; with some agreeing to take part in an internal promotional video, and I felt reinvigorated about the prospect of delivering this training to the Bank.
One of the most important lessons I have learned on my design thinking journey is being open to divergent ideas. I still had a core objective, to promote and share the benefits of design thinking with our colleagues globally. It became increasingly clear that we would need to switch to a completely virtual mode. At this point, we regrouped with Justin and Jeremy and began to ideate a new method of delivering the training. After some iterating, we defined a new approach…
Lights, Camera, Action
Using the Bootcamp content as our learning material, we would film Justin and Jeremy in a studio on the Stanford campus and film my sections in my attic. Thankfully, I had credit with the production company who were meant to film our offsite, so we managed to transform the attic into something like a socially distanced studio — complete with green screens, light stands, and a teleprompter! Like the initial idea, we would then split these recordings into modules and combine them with relevant articles and readings.
The key here was to make sure that we were aligned, to make it look like we had all filmed at the same location. This involved meticulous planning, from camera angles to lighting and backgrounds to audio. We also worked on doing hand-offs to each other, so Jeremy and Justin would pick up where I left off to make sure it was harmonious.
And…Scene!
I wouldn’t consider myself a natural, but the shoot was successful, and we managed to edit the videos and cut them together. I’ll admit here; I was hesitant about us being able to pull this off. I felt that the videos might appear disjointed when they were put together. I’ve never been so elated to be proved wrong! The final result was a slick, professional course, complete with relevant examples from Stanford’s alumni and case studies across several different industries.
With the course content now captured, the next step was to split it out and host it on our internal learning management system. We were finally in the home straight…or so I thought.
Next: In the finale, I will describe ‘Launch-gate’, and how a team in Poland helped us overcome the odds to deliver the training into the Bank with a bang!
About Steve Suarez — With a track record of over 27 years of transformation experience in consulting, telecommunications and financial services, Steve is a strong advocate of design thinking and its application for customer solutions. He is passionate about Innovation and the Growth Mind-set which drives his continuous learning. Most recently Steve took part in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship programme at Stanford. Please reach out to innovation@hsbc.com with any questions.
Want to bring innovation to your organization? Join our Stanford d.school Design Thinking Bootcamp to bring design thinking to your team.
