Designing the future of pensions with Aegon
Rewriting how customers engage with their long-term savings
When was the last time you looked at your pension?
Last month, last year, chances are it was a letter dropped on your doormat.
Our pension savings can feel like invisible money. And while we might be used to proactively managing our savings accounts, or for homeowners thinking about the equity in our house, often our pensions can feel distant and untouchable. Something managed by an employer, rather than an investment we opt to own and champion ourselves.
Aegon are on a mission to change that – shifting mindsets from pension product to long-term savings.
Aegon believe there's so much more pensions companies can do to meet customers where they’re at
For example, they can help to bridge the gap in terms of both financial literacy and transparency. And they identified that they need to engage with pension customers in a more meaningful way.
With people living longer than ever before, and having multiple jobs throughout their lifetime, their customers have complex financial goals and decisions to make.
Aegon’s vision is to standout in a competitive landscape by creating a more direct relationship with their workplace customers. Putting customers at the heart of what they do, Aegon are fostering stronger engagement during the time people are in, and after they leave, the workplace.
Their goal is to help set their customers up to live better, as they live longer. We’re working together to design what this new experience might look like for customers. Co-creating, designing, and testing ideas for a brand-new pension service.
Businesses need to innovate in the pension market by going out and speaking to customers and starting to understand their needs and wants. We’re really trying to venture into designing and co-creating with people.
Lee Shaw, Product Owner, Aegon
Taking a new approach
Do you know how many pension pots you have? Do you know how much money is in them? Do you know how they are invested? What if there was one fuss-free way of accessing them all?
Working with Aegon, we started to map out what customers expect from digital services. Taking our initial ideas, we started to pull together a functioning prototype – with the aim of meeting customers anytime and anywhere.
Talking about getting closer to customers is one thing, but we knew we needed to get out and hear from people. So, we started taking our prototype out to people in their work environments. Testing our ideas in real-time meant we could get really fast feedback and make changes.
What does it take to reimagine the customer experience?
Working with a client who are really pioneering a design-led approach is exciting. We’ve come together to work as one team to:
• not just define the strategy, but make it real quickly
• establish a process of continuous testing, learning and improvement
• tackle the customer, data and tech challenges of a highly regulated industry
• unite our deep pensions and fintech experts with our designers, researchers, strategists and solution architects – all with the goal of building a scalable solution
• ultimately, reimagine and deliver a product that addresses customer needs and, in turn, creates value for both Aegon’s customers and shareholders
Getting stuff done
"Our design approach at Deloitte is all about making stuff real and making it fast, being brave and being really creative about how we do it,” says Beccy Robinson, a strategic design director at Deloitte.
“There’s always an element as well of being quite scrappy and entrepreneurial.
“We have a lot of hustle to get stuff done.”
What has the impact been?
Creating a meaningful digital service, with customers at the heart meant responding to feedback. Leaning in to the unexpected. And having our thinking challenged. Starting small, and testing bold ideas, allows for brave decision making backed by evidence.
Our research resulted in a restructured prototype. We completely overhauled the flow, recutting the end-to-end journey. We were also challenged in our assumption that a super-fast, no-barrier experience will always come out on top.
In reality, a slightly more considered experience with more explanations helped people have more confidence and improve their financial literacy.
What’s next?
Aegon are taking a unique approach, putting customer research at the heart of their decision making. Together, we’re rewriting the story for customers engaging with their pension providers and look forward to sharing a way forward soon.
I hope we deliver a digital experience that really meets customer needs, helps them feel more in control of their pensions, more engaged with their future self.
Craig Fulton, Senior UX Designer, Aegon
