As we mark 13 years of the 8012 FinTech Design Center, I find myself reflecting not just on 2013, but on a journey that began around 2009, when we were asking a fundamental question at Polaris: how do we transform from a services organisation into a Product and Technology Institution…to be agenda setters.
Between 2009 and 2011, we initiated the Unmukt program to understand the art & science of human thinking, engaging over 1100 associates. While it created energy, the impact was not as enduring as we had expected and that was a defining learning, as it made us realise that thinking cannot be transformed through programs alone, but requires a continuous environment.
This led to the creation of the Design Center as an Inspirational Space, where thinking could be experienced through persona maps, empathy maps, patterns and anti-patterns, and by connecting the dots. The Center took nearly 15 months to design, with multiple iterations, and another 9 months to build.
When it came alive in 2013, it marked a shift in how we approached problems and contributed to the evolution of Intellect Design Arena Ltd in 2014 as a Product and Technology Institution.
Organising the Thinking Space
We learnt that transformation begins with organising the thinking space, because most challenges arise not from lack of intelligence, but from lack of structure in thinking. By bringing structure across imagination, learning, performance, effectiveness, influence and contribution, we moved from reactive to designed thinking.
Expanding the Performance Space
As thinking became organised, it led to expanding the performance space, where we moved beyond incremental problem solving to applying First Principles Thinking and questioning the fundamentals of systems and complexity.
Impacting Business Outcomes through Design Thinking
When thinking is organised and performance is expanded, the outcome is measurable business impact. This is reflected in platforms like eMACH.ai and Purple Fabric, which are outcomes of applying Design Thinking as a discipline to solve complex enterprise problems.
Over the last 13 yrs, more than 1lakh people have experienced the Center, and the real impact has been in how it has helped individuals/ institutions rethink their own thinking.
Design with AI
The next phase is about extending Design Thinking into the era of AI, where the focus is on designing intelligence that is precise, contextual and capable of delivering real business outcomes. Through Purple Fabric, with participation from global institutions, we are moving towards Business Impact (Precision) AI
As we enter this next phase, I would leave you with a question, and I would be keen to hear your thoughts:
Are we still experimenting with AI, or are we truly using it to create measurable business impact? Where do you see your organisation today?
