ING Innovation Labs
Fostering distributed collaboration within Innovation Labs
CONSULTANCY | INNOVATION | WAYS OF WORKING

The Project
ING has concentrated its (digital) innovation activities in one business area, this entails Innovation Labs, where new digital initiatives are developed and minimum viable companies are launched and scaled. The Innovation Labs follow a structured innovation process that combines multiple innovative methodologies such as Agile, Lean Startup and Design Thinking that encourages close collaboration.
However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Innovation Labs were forced to rapidly shift from a collocated to a hybrid setting, which had several implications for the teams developing digital innovations.
The ask was to identify and analyze the impact of working remotely at the Innovation Labs and uncover opportunities to foster collaboration and innovation in a hybrid setting.
ORGANISATIONS
ING
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Deloitte
MY ROLE
Consultant (intern)*
RESPONSIBILITIES
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Coordinating the overall project
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Managing project stakeholders
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Conducting research
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Developing recommendations and creating a report
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Communicating findings and recommendations to senior stakeholders
*I developed this consultancy project during the course Digital Consultancy Project that I completed during my master’s in Digital Business and Innovation at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in collaboration with Deloitte. This project was articulated to my Master's thesis “Distributed Collaboration in Agile Innovation Processes”

Identifying the impact of working remotely for collaboration at ING’s Innovation Labs
Key Objectives
Proposing an overall direction for the Innovation Labs to foster collaboration in a hybrid setting
Recommending best practices to facilitate distributed collaboration
Approach


UNDERSTANDING THE CURRENT SITUATION
To gain in-depth insights, I conducted 12 interviews with stakeholders from different teams and departments (e.g., digital initiative leads, innovation coaches, and staff members) from labs situated in Amsterdam and Singapore.
I addressed questions about their background, their role within the lab and how they have experienced applying the digital innovation methodology, collaborating and working with their colleagues after the move to remote work.
I coded the interviews to find common themes and the relationships between them. As a result, I identified the uncovered challenges and benefits perceived by team members of the labs moving to a remote setting.
Interviews
12
Participants
13
5
Innovation
initiatives
Countries
2
DEFINING THE DIRECTION AND BEST PRACTICES
To develop the recommendations, I conducted desk research to collect existing principles and strategies for enabling collaboration and innovation in a remote setting.
I analyzed the information and evaluated its applicability to ING's specific situation.
Image source: Microsoft
CREATING THE REPORT
Based on the research, I created a report containing a list of key guiding principles for the Innovation Labs to foster collaboration in a distributed setting, as well as recommended best practices and digital tools to facilitate creativity and problem-solving in a distributed setting.
I had sessions with stakeholders to validate the first draft of findings and recommendations and decide on the format for the report and final presentation for stakeholders.
TABLE OF CONTENT
Analysis of the impact of working remotely for collaboration at the ING’s Innovation Labs
Key principles to design a hybrid setting that fosters collaboration
Best Practices and digital tools to foster distributed collaboration

PRESENTING THE RESULTS IN A VIRTUAL SPACE (VR)
For presenting the results and recommendations, I created a virtual space using Virtual Reality (VR) Technology to enhance the experience of stakeholders and improve their engagement.
I created a virtual reality room simulating an Innovation Lab. Stakeholders could join, create their avatar, move through the room to see presentations of the key points of the report and interact with other people.
I presented the findings in the digital room and facilitated an interactive discussion with all the participants on how to implement the recommendations.

IMPACT
Making it tangible
A key achievement of this project is that the leadership of the Innovation Labs decided to implement recommendations I provided for their return-to-office plan.
Moving forward
The results of this research and recommendations were used as starting point for designing the hybrid setting for the client globally.
Stakeholders engagement
The report was shared within multiple departments of the company and got traction from several stakeholders who wanted to learn more about this project, including the global head of fintech and the team responsible for designing the hybrid setting for the company.
Takeaways
Sharing Progress
As a consultant, effective communication with stakeholders is key. Providing regular project updates facilitates alignment, minimizes misunderstandings, and helps to ensure that the deliverables meet stakeholder expectations.
Engaging Stakeholders
Early and ongoing engagement with stakeholders and employees facilitates trust-building and encourages them to share their concerns, motivations, and goals. This helps the consultant to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and improvement opportunities and therefore provide more accurate recommendations.
Make it clear
Language is crucial in presenting findings and recommendations. Clear and concise language, coupled with clear visualization, increases accessibility and ensures that more individuals can understand the report and implement the recommendations.
Be creative
Engagement is key in sharing results. In this project, the use of Virtual Reality was a creative solution for the challenge of presenting findings and recommendations in a remote setting that proved to be successful as participants were engaged and active during the presentation.
TEAM
Robbert van Genuchten - Coach ING
Julian Lehmann - Academic supervisor
Camila Hurtado - Thesis Intern / Consultant