ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.–A 24-hour competition that began its life based on the “hackathon” concept has named its first group of finalists.
PSCU’s Knockout 2016 competition has just concluded at the company’s headquarters here and at the offices of HawaiiUSA FCU’s campus in Honolulu, Hawaii, where teams of credit union, PSCU and even league employees were given exactly one day to collaborate and develop concepts and prototypes related to payments. The goal of the event is to help solve a problem in the payments industry that will allow credit unions to better serve their members. The winning idea is then taken by PSCU and put into the market.
Knockout is now in its fifth year and it has evolved along the way as lessons were learned about how to best optimize the competition and develop a market-worthy idea.
Fourteen teams of five competed in St. Petersburg this year; four teams of five in Hawaii. Close to 200 people are involved in some way overall.
“We learned early on the value is in helping the teams to be as successful as they can be” said Mindy Weaver, product manager with PSCU who has overseen Knockout since its inception. “It is a competition, but we also want to tap into the collaborative nature of the industry, and that is reflected in the partners we have on hand from MasterCard and First Data, and the internal people we have on hand, the PSCU consultants. They are on hand so that when a team runs into a challenge or a red flag we can put them in touch with the right consultant.”
Weaver said one change now in place is to provide help with the financials related to the various projects. Financials are one of six areas that must be addressed in each team’s proposals, and early on many of the ideas put forward were not fiscally feasible. The other areas include a product’s function, feasibility, industry impact, and time to market.
“We strongly encourage them to meet with a financial consultant early to run through the numbers,” Weaver said. “For some, the numbers can be eye-opening when they meet with a financial consultant. Many are more focused on the creative side than on the ROI.”
How It Works
The Knockout competition allows teams to form and to meet and to have a board concept they bring with them prior to the start of the 24-hour clock, but they are not permitted to put “pen to paper” or do anything formal, said Weaver.
The teams do not interact with each other during the competition, which takes place inside atrium lobby and other meeting spaces of PSCU’s building in St. Petersburg, as well as at HawaiiUSA’s facilities. That can occasionally lead to some duplication of proposed ideas. But that’s OK, said Weaver, as each proposal features unique ideas within it.
How the teams utilize their 24 hours is up to them. Weaver said some teams will all leave at night and return to their hotels for some rest; some do tag-teams so someone is working at all times; some teams are early birds, others are night owls, and some stay for all 24 hours.
Once the competition comes to a close, each team has seven minutes to present its proposal to a panel of five judges. Each team uses one presenter, although the whole team can answer questions. In St. Petersburg this year, the panel included one judge from Apple, with which PSCU has formed a partnership as part of its Innovation Lab.
In addition to the Apple representative, for KnockOut 2016 the panel of judges includes representatives from PSCU, Projekt 202, First Data, CFE Federal Credit Union, Oceanit and the Hawaii CU League. The judges evaluated all the teams’ concept submissions and select five semi-finalists. The finalists’ videos will be uploaded to the KnockOut website for open voting. The winning team will receive a $1,500 travel voucher for their dream vacation; second place team members will receive an iPad Pro; and third place team members will receive a $250 Visa gift card.
“We have done work on the winning idea all four years. Two are in development,” said Weaver. “Last year’s idea has already been incorporated into our credit card app, and another ideas was taken in-house by the credit union.”
Previous Winning Ideas
Examples of two of the ideas include:
- eXpress Transfer, KnockOut 2014’s winning idea, brings balance transfers to the forefront of the member’s mobile experience. It utilizes PSCU’s Data Analytics to market balance transfers to appropriate cardholders by displaying the potential savings via an interactive calculator and push notifications. The idea is currently in development.
- Sope Box, a pop-up feature that eliminates collection calls in early delinquency stages, was the winner of KnockOut 2015. This creative solution offers multiple payment options and enhances the overall member experience. Further development of the idea is scheduled to begin in the near future, PSCU said.
While the structure of the competition has evolved a bit, Weaver said it has not strayed from the “hackathon premise, where you have a short time to solve ‘X.’ But the concept was to never be so strong on the technical side that it eliminated a good idea.”
The winners of this year’s competition were, from Florida: Team Pineapple – PSCU; Team Boomshakalaka! - Financial Center First Credit Union (Indianapolis); Team BECU - BECU (Tukwila, Wash.); and Team Cajun Power - University of Louisiana FCU (Lafayette, La.)
Winners in Hawaii were Team Rock’em Sock’em - PSCU & Hawaii State FCU (Honolulu).