Defining a Problem Space
“Houston, do we have a problem?”
Profile
Industry: Financial Services / Asset & Wealth Management
Customer in focus: Cross industry data management professionals
Change topic: Problem definition
Engagement: 1 month engagement of 3 changeUp|GLOBAL partners
Location: Virtual engaging U.K. based participants
Challenge
A leader in Data Management noticed that their clients in the Asset Management industry were all dealing with very similar and debilitating challenges grounded in data. They observed that asset and wealth managers all spent a great deal of time and money doing the same custom build of solutions without ever becoming more efficient. With each firm working in isolation to address these challenges, this situation resulted in:
- redundant spending
- stifled growth and innovation
- delivery of marginal customer experiences
- challenges reporting to regulators
Approach
changeUp|GLOBAL partnered with our Data Management leader and brought together a group of cross-industry competitors. Together we applied selected aspects of the Re:Solve™ framework and collaboratively explored this shared challenge as follows:
- First, based on observations and client research, we constructed a hypothesis articulating this cross-industry problem which, if addressed, could benefit the industry as a whole as well as each firm individually. In other words 'lift all boats'.
- Then invited data management experts representing various firms from across the U.K. Asset Management industry to engage in a series of 3 90-minute virtual collaborative working sessions.
- During each session we facilitated exercises tailored to validate the hypothesis, determine if indeed this was a cross-industry challenge, and gain a richer understanding of the overarching Asset Management data problem.
Deliverables
- Survey results establishing a baseline understanding of the problem.
- A categorized set of problematic AM data management patterns and themes experienced within firms.
- An Asset Management Data Entity Map illustrating the providers and consumers of AM data.
- A shared definition of the data management problem space formed by those directly engaged and responsible for data management.
- A picture of the AM data problem ecosystem and inherent hot spots.
- A set of insights into the challenges of working in this problem space, as well as next steps.
“Having everyone in the same (virtual) room highlighted what one
Asset Management team couldn’t solve alone.”
Head of Data Management – Workshop participant
Impact
Discovery: Confirmation of a cross-industry problem surrounding the acquisition, maintenance, retention and usage of Asset Management data.
Building consensus: Brought together a group of competitors to form a team of partners who developed a meaningful understanding of their shared problem and desire to fix it together.
Advancing the cause: Articulated a case for moving forward with a cross-industry effort, and enabled the next step - engaging organizations already charged with enabling industry-wide efficiency and governance to take up this effort on behalf of and with the industry as a whole.
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