A three-week ideathon with interdisciplinary teams. Experts from the insurance industry and IT, know-how from science, and the creativity of start-ups worldwide were in demand: the "Insurance4Development" format - hosted by InsurLab Germany and GIZ - represented a special form of approach for three selected challenges from ongoing development aid projects.
All three challenges had a connection to Insurance issues:
- Create a concept for insurance against loss of income in case of floods (India)
- Create an insurance product for beekeepers (Paraguay)
- Making AI-based assessment of health reimbursement claims available to developing countries worldwide
The msg subsidiary minnosphere was part of the Ideathon team for the planning and implementation of "Insurance4Development". As a technology partner, msg is a member of InsurLab Germany and employees from msg and minnosphere are involved in various areas.
As part of Innovation Consulting, minnosphere offers methodical coaching of innovation processes as well as appropriate tool support, accompanies projects for user-centric solution design and moderates design sprints. In doing so, minnosphere can always draw on msg's technological expertise and digital competence.minnosphere also co-hosts msg's internal hackathon/ideathon.
The framework conditions of "Insurance4Development" were associated with special challenges: interdisciplinary teams, distributed worldwide and assembled exclusively for this ideathon. Everyone participated voluntarily and ultimately intrinsically motivated; there was no monetary incentive. At the same time, it was an opportunity to apply approaches and methods from the field of user-centered solution finding and workshop facilitation to a development aid project and to generate concrete added value for these projects with the solution approaches developed. The completely digital implementation made the format in this constellation possible in the first place.
InsurLab Germany and GIZ used their networks and direct approaches to partner and member companies to put together the three project teams. It was possible to fill one team for each challenge. Experts from South, Central and North America, Europe and Asia contributed their knowledge. All participants and companies were active in addition to their respective activities and projects and made their participation in the workshops during the Ideathon possible.s.
The concept design, the setting and the tools for the three-week format were developed by minnosphere, which was able to provide its services pro bono with the support of msg's Insurance and Public Sector divisions. The basic structure was the Design Sprint framework with its phases for user-centered prototype development. However, it was adapted and translated to work completely online, flexible and time-shifted. The following turned out to be particularly important, from the tasks set the focus to work out what the teams each wanted to focus on during the three weeks. Three Coaches from minnosphere accompanied the Ideathon and formed a tandem for each team with challenge patrons from GIZ. The minnosphere coaches focused on workshop facilitation, guided through the entire process and methods, and reacted flexibly to the progress and development of the Challenge and the changing conditions in the teams. The GIZ patrons were primarily responsible for briefing the teams between the workshops, maintaining the flow of information and contact with the challenge donors from the development projects, other experts from GIZ and partner companies.
At the final event on May 5, after three intensive weeks, all teams were able to present their solution concepts and prototypes to the "client projects" and a jury. Although the jury did not award any prizes, they showed their highest appreciation for the teams and their individual efforts.
The development aid projects are now pursuing how the approaches to digital services and products can find their way into implementation. They are accompanied in part by the collaborations of globally based companies and people who first found each other through this ideathon. Creating these relationships is probably the most sustainable added value of Insurance4Development.