The Gig economy is one of the major paradigm shifts in the 21st century. Expected to be more than 50% by 2027, its growth has been phenomenal, outpacing the growth of the US workforce by 3x and pumping $1.4 Trillion into the economy in 2017. A key driver of this change has been the rising prominence of the millennial demographic. As with any major systemic change, it breeds new challenges and opportunities. And when a major international bank gave us the initial brief, it provoked a deep eagerness in us to uncover them and design a new business model to capture this growing trend. In this age of VUCA, it is vital for companies to be on the constant lookout for white spaces. Innovation is no longer just a means to gain strategic advantage, it has become a necessary survival mechanism. This report presents a framework of the innovation process that led us to a viable solution that can be taken into the market in the near future, addressing a key problem faced by workers in the gig economy. It takes you through a journey of exploration and discovery, leading to synthesis and idea generation and eventually resulting in a tested hypothesis and prototype. To develop our process we decided to use the Design Thinking method, developed by designers in the 1950s and later popularized by the international design firm IDEO. It creates a framework for the process of innovation and converts the uncertainty and ambiguity associated with innovation strategy into a human-centered, iterative approach that goes deep and broad in the area of focus, while constantly zooming in and out of it.
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