Sustainability Initiative at MIT Sloan
The Sustainability Initiative at MIT Sloan empowers leaders to take action, professionally and personally, so that humans and nature can thrive for generations to come. We are the founders of SHIFT.tools and oversee the platform.
Climate impacts of financial institutions: Market research and product specification for an information tool
CURRENT STATE
Our confidence in the fit of our platform concept to user needs is low (let’s call it 3 out of 10). We have anecdotal information to suggest that some sustainability-minded foundations, universities, and corporations might be interested in climate impact information, about certain financial products (e.g. investment funds for endowments and employee 401k plans). But we don’t know how large this market segment might be. And we don’t know what interest there would be in climate impact information about other financial products like business bank accounts or insurance plans.
GOAL STATE
We would like to get to a higher confidence level — at least 7 out of 10 — before definitively investing in the development of an information platform, or directing our efforts elsewhere. In particular, we would need to know answers to some of Bill Aulet’s “Disciplined Entrepreneurship” questions: Who is our customer? What could we do for our customer? How would our customer acquire our product?
DELIVERABLES
The final deliverable is a narrative report with a market analysis and high level product specification for an information tool that would communicate the climate impact of financial institutions to their current and prospective customers. It would include:
- Raw data about prospective users of the platform
- Market research on key customer segments
- Qualitative research (interviews, observations, meeting/conference participation) to understand decision-making processes around financial service procurement.
- Bonus: Get customer reactions to hypothetical mockups of data displays.
- Recommendations about whether and how to invest in the information platform we envision.
- Observations about the competitive landscape for such a platform, which arise in the course of market research.
- A set of design guidelines or technical requirements for a platform that would meet customer needs.
Resources ( 1)
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