The problem.
Most Australians approach retirement without a clear picture of what their money can actually do, and most super funds have no scalable way to help them figure it out. Personal advice is great, but expensive and slow. Generic calculators are everywhere, and don't help.
Aware Super wanted to close that gap. To give members real, personalised guidance on a path to retirement without sending every one of them to a one-on-one adviser.
The approach.
We started with the customer, not the regulation. Long conversations with members about what they actually want to know, and what they're afraid to ask. From there we worked backwards into what the product had to be, and then further backwards into what it had to be allowed to be.
- Mapped the decisions a member needs to make in the 5 years either side of retirement.
- Designed a tool that meets members at the question they're actually asking, not the question the rules want them to ask.
- Built the governance and the product in parallel, so neither was waiting on the other.
The outcome.
A digital advice tool now live to Aware Super members. Bringing a category of guidance that used to be available only to the wealthy, to everyone. Compliance signed it off. Members are using it.
What I learned.
Run the customer track and the compliance track at the same time, with shared artefacts. Tell the story over and over until everyone in the room knows it cold. Make the risk team a co-author, not a checkpoint.