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Insurance

RACV: Transforming Innovation with Pretotyping

New member propositions tested on real customer behaviour, before RACV invested in building them.

Rapid experimentation Venture & product validation

RACV

Platform used

✓ Pretotyping ✓ Rapidly ✓ Sprints ✓ Training

38 experiments in 3 weeks

At a glance

Client
RACV
Industry
Insurance
Problem
New member propositions risked millions in build before anyone knew if customers wanted them.
Method
Pretotyping and expert sprints with a small internal team.
Timeframe
3 weeks
Team
A small innovation team
Evidence
38 experiments in 3 weeks; 14 ideas tested with real customers; 150+ run in total
Decision impact
Bad ideas killed before millions were spent
Reusable asset
Pretotyping embedded as a central innovation method

Exponentially worked with leading motoring club and mutual organisation RACV’s established innovation team, improving the company’s ability to prioritise and test ideas using pretotyping and rapid experimentation.

Following an initial two-day pretotyping workshop, RACV’s innovation team worked with us in an off-site three-week sprint to work through a large set of ideas and prioritise them. With a small team of only four people, we ran 38 experiments in 3 weeks, which is a massive achievement.

Building on the pretotyping skills we had established during our initial workshops, the sprint saw RACV design, run and iterate dozens of experiments. We tested 14 of their ideas with real customers, and gathered the data required to discover which ones were worth building.

This was transformational for RACV’s innovation process, demonstrating that sometimes the best ideas aren’t the shiny, exciting ones that everyone loves the sound of. Sometimes, ideas that people may overlook are actually the most successful with customers. By using data instead of opinion, we were able to kill bad ideas that were on the cusp of having millions of dollars spent developing them. Instead, through rapid experimentation, we were able to discover the ideas that worked with customers and pursue them, and kill the ideas that weren’t delivering results, therefore de-risking RACV’s innovation process.

RACV has since embedded pretotyping and rapid experimentation as a central method in their innovation process: now, they test ideas and pursue the best ones based on data, not opinion. As Derrick Dicker, the GM of Innovation at RACV puts it:

“I say ‘Google born and Stanford finessed’ but perfected by you! Pretotyping saved RACV buckets of time and $$$! Over 150 experiments run. If you’re not already using Leslie’s rapid experimentation process, best get onto it…”

“I say 'Google born and Stanford finessed' but perfected by you! Pretotyping saved RACV buckets of time and $$$! Over 150 experiments run. If you're not already using Leslie's rapid experimentation process, best get onto it…”

Derrick Dicker · GM of Innovation, RACV
Complimentary briefing

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I run free 30-minute executive briefings online: an intro to pretotyping, real case studies, and how to spot which AI and innovation ideas need validation before you invest. Your team joins wherever they're based.

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