We have positioned BBVA as the axis of banking innovation in Mexico

The Challenge

Life, as we know it, is changing. New technologies are revolutionizing the way we interact with each other, the way we find information and also the way we use our money. The banking sector has to tackle these new challenges, and BBVA has decided to adapt through innovation. To this end, BBVA hired us to help them face these new tendencies.

The BBVA Innovation Centers are the physical representation of the entity´s wager on jumping the gun on the future of money, and now they have inaugurated a new innovation center in Mexico, D.F. (Mexico). These centers, spread across several continents, serve as a link between the entity and entrepreneurs, clients and investors. Thanks to this junction point, BBVA hopes to create inspirational spaces, where all of these actors work together to create an innovation ecosystem in Mexico centered around the banking sector.

Strategy

At Opinno, we think of our work as consultants like a hinge between the birthplace of innovation and large companies. This allows us to impart and incorporate techniques and methodologies generally more suited to start-ups, like lean, scrum and canvas methodologies, to large corporations.

For the BBVA challenge, we needed to attract profiles with innovative potential, interested in the banking sector, and bring them together to create the community that can help to define the future of money. So, we made good use of the inauguration of the new Innovation Center to organize a master course in design thinking aimed at the community of innovators from the financial sector that BBVA aims to establish.

This methodology implies that the design of products or services should be defined according to people´s needs, and in collaboration with the target audience. The use of this methodology "offers organizations with an advantage, and a way to take the temperature of the way society thinks and behaves; but also the keys to transforming, to create impact", as our project leader Elena Rodriguez explains.

Our Solution

The final result of our work and our use of design thinking materialized at FinDesign, a two day event that included master class workshops and hands-on dynamics, delivered and guided by experts from the d.school (design school) at Stanford University (USA) in collaboration with a team of facilitators from Opinno.

During the first day, the audience was comprised of 150 attendees selected for their high value profiles, including programmers, developers, entrepreneurs and designers interested in the future of the financial sector. "The interaction between the attendees and the professors from Stanford allows them to create synergies capable of transforming into a collaborative generation of ideas", Rodriguez adds.

The first session was divided into two sections: an inspirational session based on discussions and keynotes delivered by experts, and a training session, during which d.school techniques were demonstrated and tested. This encounter, which builds upon the event we organized in Spain, explored the primary challenges of the banking sector today like financial inclusion, strategy within the Mexican market, shared economies and user experience, amongst others.

To this end, we were able to count on the work of one of the most important researchers from the d.school Adam Royalty, and the design thinking consultant and creative strategist David Janka. The director of Innovation and Entrepreneurialism in Digital Banking at BBVA, Juan Carlos Arroyo, and the creative director Daniel Granatta, completed the panel.

The second day was an exclusive event for another 50 attendees, primarily entrepreneurs, designers, programmers and the directors of some of the leading companies in the country. During this second day, the attendees received the keys of design thinking with the aim of turning the ideas with the greatest potential into business models and prototypes. The attendees were divided into seven teams, and each one assumed a different challenge to resolve. Amongst the proposed solutions, they selected the best idea, which was tested out "on the streets".

As per FinDesign Spain, our work centered on contacting and selecting the experts from Stanford University, as well as preparing and advising on the selection of attendees for the event thanks to our facilitators, who form part of our team here at Opinno.

One of the keys to the success of this type of events is the program adaptability that we are able to offer to our customers. Large events, like EmTech, the HBR Summit or IN3 Spain are a perfect example of this, but also personalized workshops that we design and execute for specific companies and organizations from sectors like transportation or culture.