FinTech Magazine January 2024 | Page 169

forward into the ideation phase , which develops a value proposition distilled from the essence of the problem itself . “ We want to start off with a very clear problem statement that we want to try and solve ,” Jon says .
This stops the organisation from careering recklessly into creative thinking before they ’ ve fully understood the initial hurdle – something which , in less structured innovation processes , inevitably leads to a solution that is not fit for purpose , and missing internal alignment – a pre-requisite for scaling innovation projects .
Over the next 2-8 weeks , depending on the scale of the use case , Jon ’ s team will enter what he calls ‘ validation ’ – where they confirm that the problem statement they ’ re solving for is really the problem statement that exists . Ultimately , this will lead to the creation of a clear prototype that meets the stated objectives set at the outset . “ We want to validate the problem statement before we write a single line of code , because the moment we start writing any code , the cost of change goes up quite exponentially ,” he explains .
Next comes incubation , which involves the nuts and bolts of building the solution prototype that solves the problem , leading up to alpha and beta tests . “ We want to be able to take a prototype and turn that into working software that someone can test in a real-world environment . As a large corporate , that ’ s a 6-9 month process . It takes a bit of time because we ’ re actually building real , working software .”
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