Moderator Natasha Jukubowski, Head of Innovation at Anomaly, opened up the floor to the four panelists: Rob Petrozzo, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Rally Rd.; Katherine Wu, former Director of Business Development at Messari; Reilly Carpenter, VP of Experience and Design at Kindur; and Leslie Campisi, Editor at Hacking Finance.
By telling human stories, connecting weird and wonderful dots, finding the offbeat and kicking up a little dirt, the panelists and audience lent their voices and stories to connect, vent and mobilize; delving deep into the inequalities and issues facing financial services around the world.
The discussion opened with a quote from Ryan Gosling’s character, Jared Vennett, in The Big Short: “Does [finance] make you feel bored? Or stupid? Well, it’s supposed to. Wall Street loves to use confusing terms to make you think only they can do what they do. Or even better, for you to just leave them the f**k alone.”
Themes emerged around using communication to foster trust, the parallels between mattresses and annuities, the intersection of human evolution and finance and the necessity to reshape the financial ecosystem for future generations who have been born into a technology-centric world. Also up for discussion: What does “good design look like in financial services? What does finance look like when it serves everyone? Is innovation still possible at the user experience level? #DoYourGrandparentsHaveAniPhoneX.
Panelists fielded questions and debated amongst themselves as to how best to weave the fibers of design and tech into the ever-evolving financial tapestry, sparking a healthy collision of opinions, backgrounds, professions and experiences.
The evening finished with an acknowledgement that the discourse was not book-ended by the evening, but by a collective desire to work together to reimagine finance.
