Today’s Gallery Day FaceTime call with Pat Keran from Optum went well. It was helpful for us all to come together and synthesize all of the research we have individually done up to this point and also see what each of the other group members have done. It was also good to get Pat Keran up to speed with what we have been considering for this project. Between this synthesis of information and Pat’s excellent input, we were able to brainstorm some ideas at the end of Gallery Day to figure out what other research we should do and to also get a more focused and narrowed idea of what problem we want to attack. One of the big things that Pat mentioned to us is that we should begin to consider a more diverse population of retirees, as the concerns and issues will be vastly different for people in retirement depending upon their socioeconomic background or cultural roots.
What I considered to be Pat’s best piece of advice for us moving forward, is to be conscious that whatever innovative idea we choose to move forward with is personalized, accessible, and engaging. These seem to be the three most important factors when considering a population who, on average, can be considered a bit more stubborn or stuck in their ways and resistant to technology in many cases.
Moving forward, I think that some important secondary research should involve taking Pat’s advice on learning about the needs of a more diverse population of retirees and analyzing patterns that exist across people of multiple backgrounds. We will also need to continue to narrow down our focus on what end of the retirement spectrum we will want to consider. We made good progress today in agreeing that we think want to focus on the earlier end of the spectrum and that the spectrum we are considering should not include age discrimination. Throughout all of our research and during Gallery Day, we have learned and affirmed that age does not necessarily have any relation or importance for where you appear on the spectrum of retirement.