Gamification in pension provision

Pension provision is boring and complicated? It does not have to be! That is because committed adessi are developing the jump-and-run game ‘Pension Run’ to shake off this stigma and make the topic of provision more approachable.

Very few people like to deal with their pension schemes. Young people in particular prefer to dedicate themselves to other topics because retirement age still seems a long way off. While most people know that setting up pension schemes makes sense and is absolutely necessary, complex constructs and the agony of choosing a concrete course of action are obstacles to individual decision-making.

But a topic that is perceived as outdated does not have to be conveyed via traditional information channels. The natural instinct to play can arouse curiosity and help motivate people to address their personal financial situations.

This blog post will take you along on the journey to the vision behind a (pension) provision-themed jump-and-run game and explain how this vision is being pursued.

How did you arrive at the idea for the game?

The adesso Community of Practice for Company Pension Schemes has engaged in intensive exchange under the premise of making procuring information in the area of (occupational) pensions less complicated and addressing a younger target group in the process. You can find out what added value the communities contribute to adesso here.

For the development process of our idea to knock the dust off the topic of pension provision, we used the double diamond method from the design thinking process in various digital workshops. Design thinking is a method aimed at developing innovative solutions to complex problems. The methodology is based on an iterative process consisting of several stages: discover, define, develop and deliver.

First, we defined the problem. This includes high entry barriers to (company) pension provision due to:

• Regulatory complexity
• Time-consuming information retrieval
• Less transparency about the usefulness and accuracy of a pension provision approach
• Lack of flexibility due to manual processes

Taking these insights as our basis, we set out to establish the solution space. Relevant needs were identified on the basis of personas. From this, we were able to derive the following key points of a possible solution to increase the attractiveness of employment using pension solutions:

• Clear information retrieval
• Transparent presentation of pension gaps or gaps in provision
• Gamification for motivational purposes

The aim of offering these added values to people led to the emergence of various possible solutions. As its preferred approach, the Community of Practice worked out a vision for a web-based game.

The intent is for users be able to steer an avatar through various levels in the style of a jump-and-run game. In the levels, users have to overcome challenges and experience the effects of various real events. The aim is to visualise the results of financial or personal decisions as well as chance-based elements and to explain them in a way that is playful. Collecting artefacts and coins and avoiding stumbling blocks or adverse events should be entertaining in the game but at the same time, provide the basis for evaluation. Users can see the impact of their own in-game decisions with the help of various progress indicators, such as account balance, age and work-life balance. For example, users can unlock new levels, obtain items to customise their avatar and also visualise the answers to the following questions:

• How does a pay raise or a desire to have children affect my life and my retirement assets?
• What is my financial situation in the event of illness or occupational disability?

Users should also be able to use their personal data to carry out a detailed calculation of possible gaps in provision on the basis of various scenarios. The application is peppered with simple explanations of technical terms and is intended to provide users the opportunity to delve deeper into the subject if they are interested.

However, in the course of this, the focus on the game itself and the thrill of the challenge are important. The seemingly difficult topics regarding coverage should be able to be examined without obligation.

How is the idea being implemented?

The application is being further developed in one of adesso’s in-house projects that is strongly oriented towards Scrum. If you want to learn more about the benefits of Scrum in detail, check out this series of blog posts.

The members of the Community of Practice for Company Pension Schemes have different roles. Having the possibility to change roles is essential so that different project participants can gain new experiences from the various perspectives inherent to each role. The development team consists primarily of students so that they can experience working on a project and are able to develop as best as possible in a protected environment. This is evidenced by the positive experiences with the adesso rotational internship.

The agile approach allows the development team to iteratively incorporate new insights from feedback loops into the game, provide additional functionality early on and remain open to further stakeholder requirements. The project benefits from the adessi’s many years of expertise in the insurance industry and the field of occupational pension provision in combination with technological and methodological competence. This mix and an interdisciplinary team of adesso Group members form the basis for the project.

Outlook

If you would like to find out about the technical aspects behind how ‘Pension Run’ is designed, what challenges the development process entails and what the application will look like, then keep an eye out for the upcoming blog posts.

Would you like to learn more about exciting topics from the adesso world? Then take a look at our blog posts that have appeared so far.

Why not check out some of our other interesting blog posts?

• IT solutions in occupational pension schemes