The ripple effect: how can design futures help us anticipate the unintended consequences of pensions innovation?

Themes: Design in policy | Design futures | Participatory design | Regulation

The very nature of pensions requires futures thinking. Decisions made today will impact outcomes over time across a 50-year period. 

On a system-wide level, new reforms are coming to improve outcomes for savers. The industry is responding by improving members’ data, communications and experience. 

The Pensions Regulator is encouraging and supporting the market to innovate and improve in savers’ interests.

In this workshop, participants will use futures methods to understand how policy and industry innovation interacts within a wider system to surface the unintended consequences. 

As you anticipate the longer-term impacts of change, are there new risks emerging which undermine the policy outcomes or create grey areas for regulators?

Participant takeaways:

• applications for design futures to support policy making and service design to anticipate the impact of change on people
• increased confidence in using design futures methods to identify unintended consequences of changes and develop approaches to improve outcomes and mitigating risks
• new thinking about the (positive and negative) unintended consequences of changes happening in the pension system impacted by policy reforms and innovation trends
• learning from how the Pensions Regulator has introduced these methods to support the use of design in the policy making process, including tips for making this inclusive for people new to design and working in regulatory environments
• workshop templates, further resources and reading that have inspired and informed this work

This session:

• includes interaction
• has a cap of 60 participants