APPLICATION OF CREATIVITY TECHNIQUES

Challenge: Financial literacy education is a much needed but underrepresented resource

By shifting the perspective we can better understand why this important component of learning is missing for many Americans. Disparate resources are available in abundance on the internet, so many might feel there is no need to seek out or pay for a structured learning option. Many might feel handicapped limited by their own understanding of the financial space, becoming a living illustration for ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’. Some might simply lack the discipline to carve out time to manage their finances or make and manage investment plans. We can overcome some of these challenges by creating a program with a low barrier to entry, providing a more structured learning resource, and guaranteeing that some of the program elements allow for tangible realization to serve as its own proof of concept thus allowing for continued attention devoted to financial literacy.

Challenge: What is the best way to structure financial literacy programs

Application of the SCAMPER technique:

Substitute | Can format be changed?Can emotional stigma about financial education be changed? | Can it be taught on demand online? Can it be offered as structured courses vs. unstructured on demand info? Can it be seen as an asset rather than ‘scary big black box’? Can we get kids excited about learning about personal finance management?Can it be delivered within parameters of gamification and turned into entertainment? Can ‘quests’ be set up instead of tests, to teach principles, and practice them. | Combine | What could be combined? Packaged with other learning? | Add to school curriculum, teach along side economics, offer as a training requirement prior to participating in student run organizations, offer discounts for business magazine subscriptions for holders of current STAR service subscribers, offer as a value-add to employee benefits meetings, offer professional discounts and revenue share options for industry partners who can sell the solution on our behalf (financial consultants for example). | Adapt | Who else does something like this? | Linda.com, khan academy | Modify | What adds value? | Expand into a full-blown course. Bundle with other training (potentially offered by alliances) to create a certificate program (i.e. could be bundled with accounting or economic theory); partner with consultants to offer discounted One-on-One training options. | Put to other uses | Where or how it can be used? What context? | Schools – early finance educationChurch groups/youth organizations – enhance their curriculumBuyer education – mortgages, interest rates, etc. Sessions can be offered as a value add at local banks or mortgage company offices holding open houses | Eliminate | What can be taken out reduced? What’s not needed? Can this be separated into more parts? | The coursework can be separated into thematic areas offering bite sized learning opportunities. Areas can be mortgage, interest rates, credit management, investment 101, retirement management, etc. | Rearrange/Reverse | Does order matter? | Order doesn’t matter. Financial education subtopics can be approached individually, in any order.Reverse roles –create a learning community online where enthusiasts can help advocate on behalf of STAR, effectively students teaching students and using croudsourcing to determine the direction of what courses need to be developed. |

Ideas derived from the technique that we will pursue are: * Financial literacy education will be offered as structured courses as well as unstructured on demand info * Effort will be made to create a learning community with the goal of creating a peer support network, as well as gamification platform for learning tools for younger audiences. * We will seek out alliances with schools and community organizations, as well as professional organizations in the fields of HR and finance, to allow us to have more ways to reach our audiences. * Partner with consultants and investment bankers to offer discounted One-on-One training options to our subscribers

Challenge: How can we market our programs to different demographic groups and encourage adoption. Targets are set by demographic profile and broken down into youth, young adult and mature adult.

Application of the Creativity in Other Worlds:
A group of villagers lives in dark ages and doesn’t see the value in changing their ways. We can overcome the status quo by showing them how much more profitable they can be and how much more free time they will have provided they start using more efficient tools. Their way of life will change if they knew that they would need to work only work a couple hours a day instead of sunrise to sundown because tools are more efficient.
Youth is much more interested in efficient tools because they allow them to not work as hard and focus on what matters to them - play. Therefore, in our world, we can use this approach in our campaigns focusing on highlighting attributes that do not feel like ‘studying’, highlighting game-like flow and engagement of the learning process, including satisfaction of completing levels and earning more points than peers.
Young adults in our parallel world have different priorities. They gladly adopt new tools if it means that food is on the table and they didn’t have to work even half as hard. The focus is on tangible benefits to their daily life in real time. In this world, it means our best bet for marketing messaging focus is on instant improvement of daily life for our prospective customers, for example learnings that allow them to start saving for a major purchase (a car perhaps), explain better options for funding college, enable them to better understand options for purchasing their first house and emphasize paths to financial independence.
Mature adults in the dark ages are more concerned with stability in their circles, ensuring they will have home and food regardless of their ability to provide for themselves. In many ways it is the shift from aggressive individual approach to living to a more community-centric lifestyle. In our world we can consider focusing our marketing efforts on the community aspect of our financial literacy education programs. This can manifest itself in the focus on advising sessions, Q&A with consultants, and user community resources.