Finding the next best thing...

Check out this site, thisnext. Ever wonder how in the world to find the next best thing. I stumbled across this site, it has been around for a couple of years, looking for an item. This is not the item I was looking for but it is what made me realize there is way more going on than I could ever think to look for...

The Wine Rack - secret bra flask

Does this post have anything to do with credit unions? Yes, why aren't we doing more to find the next best thing we can offer our members. Doug True talked about it in his post about me too, me too. We need to be looking not at what the competition is doing but at what and how our members are leading their financial lives.

Ideas that help members financial lives can come from doing ethnographic research. Filene, in conjunction with Design Concepts did a great project on this. We need more of this across credit union land. And sometimes we don't need to wait for a member to express the need, we can create a product that fills a "hidden" need. In doing so, we create long term member loyalty. Not sure how that shows up on the net promoter score but for me, it shows up in that members stay longer and give you more share of wallet.

I know there are lots of opportunities to see new ideas that are being developed in the consumer financial space...but for ideas that you can develop shouldn't you also include insights from the members you have or the members you want to attract.