Fidelity Labs are at the cutting edge of innovation for wealth management and private banking. This blog tells the story of their latest investment game, aimed at educating novices and explains why taking notice of client insight is key to developing gamification that speaks to a real need.

1. Fidelity
Labs
‘Beat
the
Benchmark’:
A
lesson
in
customer
insight
for
wealth
management
A
couple
of
days
ago
Fidelity
Labs
–
the
R&D
arm
of
Fidelity
Investments
–
launched
the
first
version
of
a
new
educational
game
for
investors
called
“Beat
the
Benchmark”.
Anyone
can
become
a
beta
tester
for
what
Fidelity
are
calling
a
“basics
of
investing
game”
or
you
can
join
Scorpio
Partnership’s
LinkedIn
group
where
we’ll
be
posting
our
own
experiences
of
playing
the
game,
including
screen
shots
and
how
we
get
on
trying
to
beat
the
benchmark.
Today
though,
I
wanted
to
focus
on
a
great
blog
from
Fidelity
Labs
that
explains
how
the
game
came
about
or,
in
their
words,
the
story
of
“how
we
came
to
compare
mutual
funds
to
sushi”.
I
strongly
urge
you
to
read
the
whole
article
because
it’s
highly
interesting
but,
very
quickly,
the
game
evolved
something
like
this…
Ø Fidelity
Labs
started
building
a
game
to
engage
college
students
–
a
simple
game
where
students
chose
stocks
to
“buy”.
Ø The
students
started
gambling
rather
than
“investing”
which
they
enjoyed
and
talked
about
lots
on
a
specially
created
forum,
but
kind
of
missed
the
bar
on
the
educational
side.
Ø Fidelity
Labs
decided
to
fix
things
with
a
game
called
“30
years
in
30
days”
in
which
students
were
gradually
given
more
to
invest
in
an
attempt
to
mirror
the
real-­‐life
experience
of
being
able
to
invest
more
the
older
you
get.
To
make
things
more
realistic
they
included
mutual
funds
as
well
as
stocks.

2. Ø Problem:
The
students
didn’t
know
what
mutual
funds
were.
In
fact,
they
didn’t
really
understand
stocks
or
bonds
either.
Ø So,
back
to
the
drawing
board.
By
now,
the
focus
wasn’t
on
a
game
that
explained
diversification
and
risk
but
a
simple,
this
is
what
stocks
and
bonds,
volatility
etc.
etc.
are.
Ø Education
is
a
noble
aim,
but
sometimes
boring
so
right
from
the
start
Fidelity
Labs
wanted
to
keep
things
fresh.
That’s
where
the
concept
of
“How
is
a
mutual
fund
like
sushi”
comes
in.
I’m
going
to
stop
the
story
there
but
we’ll
let
you
know
via
LinkedIn
how
similar
sushi
and
investing
turn
out
to
be.
What’s
really
interesting
to
me,
as
someone
who
has
championed
the
role
of
customer
insight
within
wealth
management
for
many
years
now,
is
the
fact
that
this
game
would
not
be
possible
without
customer
research.
Without
finding
out
what
the
students
thought,
how
they
played
the
game
or
what
they
said
to
each
other
about
it
Fidelity
Labs
would
have
ploughed
on
with
a
game
pitched
at
entirely
the
wrong
level.
Ultimately,
college
students
are
a
great
segment
to
engage
–
but
the
payoff
is
some
years,
maybe
decades
away.
UHNW
investors
on
the
other
hand
are
an
extremely
valuable
segment
to
engage.
With
them,
the
payoff
is
virtually
instant
and
if
you
get
engagement
right
the
payoff
can
be
very
large
indeed.
So
why
do
so
few
wealth
management
brands
use
a
similarly
rigorous
method
of
customer
insight
and
analysis
when
designing
the
content
they
put
in
front
of
HNW
investors.
The
success
or
failure
of
HNW
marketing
strategies
are
just
as
dependent
on
pitching
things
at
the
right
level
and
cost
a
whole
lot
more
than
a
game
to
develop.
So
perhaps
it’s
time
to
set
up
your
own
R&D
laboratory
–
or,
to
save
time
and
money,
come
and
use
our’s
instead…
we’d
love
to
show
you
what
your
clients
really
think.
Email
Seb@scorpiopartnership.com