Reimagining
retirement
Proposition design for abrdn advice
“Having worked with a few proposition design agencies, I have a nose for BS. With CreateFuture you get a team that are unafraid to get their hands dirty, that know what they're good at, that deliver innovative stretch grounded in reality. They even know how to make Zoom workshops fun.”
Andy Dunbar — Head of Product & Customer Experience, abrdn
Broadening the appeal and addressable market for abrdn's (previously Standard Life Aberdeen advice) hybrid retirement advice proposition through feature and content innovation.
Our work
Proposition Innovation | Experience Design
No two retirements are the same.
abrdn understands this. Their innovative hybrid retirement advice offer combines smart use of data and technology with the deep experience of their very human advisers to provide timely, personalised guidance.
That service was optimised around people aged 55 and above. However, due to the strength of the brand and the offering, the team were fielding enquiries from a younger cohort, often in their 40s or early 50s.
Our challenge: What could abrdn offer to meet this unmet need?
Retirement is changing.
We conducted desk research and interviews, which allowed for some interesting insights to surface, giving us a starting point. Our audience led active, ongoing lives. They certainly didn't see themselves as old. And while finances were an important part of retirement planning, it wasn’t their first, or even most important, concern.
The ways in which customers wanted to engage with support and advice had broadened, and certain trends (like video chat) had accelerated massively during lockdown. While the adoption of new technologies had grown, the ways in which financial advice was offered had barely changed.
Crucially, we learned that it was essential to get into the emotional needs of customers - their hopes and fears around their later years - before we could move them towards action.
Fresh ideas
We came together to explore the findings and insights, in order to develop new approaches in a remote sprint. This allowed us to rapidly generate and iterate ideas which, over the course of the week, came together under three banners.
A mid-life MOT
A simple, engaging tool to self-qualify prospects and help them consider the broader aspects of retirement, and guide them towards helpful content.
Lifestyle content
Videos and articles covering a wider range of retirement-related topics than just finances. Everything from finding your purpose, to keeping fit.
Courses & Coaching
Advice on more than just finances, offered through short online videos, courses and 1-2-1 career coaching.
We crafted prototypes and linked them together in an awareness to acquisition journey. From this, we got feedback via online surveys and 8 virtual interviews.
The findings confirmed an unmet need that abrdn could meaningfully support. They required a redefined content strategy and an extended scope of their digital triage tools. This process proved critical in helping inform a mindset shift, from short-term transcriptional marketing to deeper, long-term relationship building with their clients.
"As we live longer, we all need to reassess how we want to spend the extra time we've got. Retirement is not as simple as it used to be, but it also affords so many more exciting possibilities. It was great to work with the abrdn team, who genuinely care about helping as many people as possible get access to the right, good advice."
Nathan Fulwood — Strategy Partner, CreateFuture
Get in touch
We work with global brands, using design thinking to develop new, or improve existing, products and services. Our brand-led approach ensures that they outperform.
If you’re trying to do more with less, get in touch with us to help you get there and leave you in a better place.
