EL Innovation Methodology Workshop, 13-14 November 2017, London UK

The workshop was facilitated by Decoded, one of the world’s leading digital and innovation education companies. During the first day, attendees tackled the question of ’What can you do with technology?’ Fuelled by a nutritious breakfast of brain-food, attendees were set their task: to code their own app using HTML, CSS, APIs and Javascript, in just a few hours.

In doing so, they took a journey through the technologies that are shaping the world around us. Big Data, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things and Blockchain were all demystified, debated and evaluated: how could these technologies shape the future of European Lotteries?

With all of this technology at their fingertips, on day two participants were challenged with another simple question: what should you do with it all? They were then set a brief to launch a fantasy start-up, in just a day. In doing so, they learnt why innovation is so important to European Lotteries, and how practices from disruptive businesses such as AirBnB and Raffler can be adopted by more traditional organisations.

Attendees tackled an amazing array of challenges, from ‘Start a new lottery for bankers’ to ‘Start a new lottery for dog owners’. They all took a quick-thinking, hands-on approach to using tools and techniques, adapted from the design and start-up sectors. This included getting to know their customers – in person – by stepping out of the building and interviewing real people on the street.

They then focussed their attention on rapidly prototyping and testing potential solutions, using a build-measure-learn cycle and collecting feedback from new users of their services in real time. Finally, participants had to decide whether to pivot, persevere or stop – and in doing so, see that learning to fail is an important part of the innovation process.

Attendees then shared how they planned to return to their day-jobs – armed with new knowledge, vocabulary, insights and tools – ready to innovate more effectively than ever.