MassMutual - CaseStudy

The Problem

42% Americans do not feel prepared for retirement, even though an average of 87% believe retirement planning is important.

This project hopes to give retirement planning, a hard edged topic, an emotional softness in the experience. The user group that we identify as critical in this topic are young millennial professionals. The final deliverables that we see appropriate for our client MassMutual and our user group include a walk-through experience/interactive objects that help millennial generations to envision a future that is exciting and hopeful that they feel connected and empathized enough to plan for it now.

We were thinking from perspectives of emotions and interactions

“Millennials and Generation X are significantly more pessimistic about achieving financial security in retirement and far less prepared as compared to Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation.”

- Boston College Center for Retirement Research (CRR), 2022

Exploring the target audience

Whom are we solving for?

We gathered some interesting insights and outlooks amongst people aged 20 - 40yrs across different walks of life and at different stages of their professional careers, here are some highlights of our finding

- Eduardo, 28

My biggest fear is looking back and realizing I should’ve started saving early for retirement or look back and realized I could’ve worked less. This makes me really anxious. ”

- Saori, 31

I only know I want to retire sooner rather than later. Ideally, maybe 50, so I can enjoy the rest of my life. Not living my last days without doing what I wanted because I am so old. But that does not sound realistic because I have not even started saving. I don't wanna even think about that now really. It's really frightening. ”

- Marco, 30

Young people assume and expect a linear career path, thinking that they will definitely make more money along the line. But, what will happen if it's not like this or any other incidents occur? We procrastinate in that sense. This is the short term bias of youth, you know? “

Could we learn from past experiences?

We also interviewed “Lifestyle Leaders”. Since 2014, the MIT AgeLab has hosted a bimonthly research panel of adults aged 85 and older — the fastest-growing age demographic in the United States — on the MIT campus. Drawn from the Boston metropolitan area, the 85-plus-year-olds who comprise the Lifestyle Leaders panel are more educated, wealthier, and healthier than most Americans of their age group. They shared insights on when, how and why they started investing in retirement but most importantly how it impacted their lives going forward

Quantitative Research

Running our survey for a week and getting about 45 responses.

Since we were trying to engage a younger crowd, we included pop culture refrences to make the survey fun and thus acquiring higher engagements. What We Observed 48% Thought 100k-250k was enough to retire 28% Did not find 401k plans appealing 45% Haven’t thought about retirement 37.5% Would want to retire before 55yr

Key Problems Identified

Lack of basic financial knowledge and were not confident in their ability to invest in retirement

Those who did have financial knowledge were not aware enough to trust financial institutions.

Lack of the ability to empathize with their future selves, thus making it hard to plan for retirement.

We can’t solve a financial problem about the future, if our audience can’t empathize with one.

Can we grab a passerby’s attention? Provoke thought and conversation?

Prototyping and Testing

Posters • Kiosk Experience • Website

Kiosk and Web Experience

Generating aged pictures using AI

We asked candidates for their age of retirement, place of retirement and the activity they would be endulging in. With the responses we gathered, we presented the candidates with an AI generated image of their older selves as polaroids, this inclucated a sense of empathy towards their ender selves and thus prompting an emotional flux towards saving for retirement.

What did we learn and how could we improve the experience?

For us to enhance the kiosk experience, providing more privacy and sparking curiosity among users was considered along with social media engagement. Additionally, we aimed to make investment roadmaps relatable, facilitating quick actions on the website without the need for direct engagement with a financial advisor. Furthermore, we wanted to anchor future returns in everyday commodities, making investment decisions more accessible and comprehensible to our audience.