How will the banks of tomorrow operate, look, grow and thrive in a budding fintech environment and increasingly globalised market? Sitting down with Twimbit founder and CEO Manoj Menon we learn about his vision for creating joyful research based on a user centric model.
In a world where people are being bombarded with new information, providing an entertaining way to learn about disruptive technologies and stay abreast of the latest industry trends is no easy task. Twimbit is creating web3 research that is easy to consume by the general public.
Partnering with Web3 companies like Unique Network, Twimbit is educating the masses about the larger benefits of blockchain technology. The research is designed to bring crypto and enterprise communities closer, giving businesses increased access to the opportunities crypto brings to enterprises.
One of the challenges Twimbit presented to its network was to understand future use cases of NFTs in the banking sector. From simplifying claim issuance to strengthening security, the understanding of NFT applications was greatly enhanced with an emphasis on this form of community led research.
Democratizing research is key
Focusing on greater access to quality research to improve learning and development, Twimbit is taking a very contrasting approach as compared to research giants like Gartner and Frost and Sullivan.
The users identify topics, the team at Twimbit identifies the contributors that can solve the problems posed by the users. The contributors can be internal or external.
“To begin with, we currently have a little over 200 experts who have contributed to share their unique perspectives on various industry issues. The experts participate in discussions and or publish research papers to address the topics of interest to the users.”
“Our mission at Twimbit is to help democratize research so that it can create a better learning environment for every individual on this planet,” says Menon.
“We believe that the research industry has not kept pace with all the change that is happening around us. Take for example the way you and I consume content today in our personal lives. It is visual, social, collaborative and community led. This is unfortunately not how we consume research content today.”
Routine jobs will be automated in the future
Twimbit is quick to tackle the current issue with the way the content is being produced and consumed.
“Now, people fall asleep when they look at research pieces, they don't consume it. The single biggest application of research, which is absolutely critical for everybody moving forward is learning and development. Because if you don't learn about your industry, you are at high risk of obsolescence. Our job is likely to be automated.”
As automation becomes a feature of our everyday lives, critical thinking and creative use of our skills will keep us relevant to the jobs market that no longer requires skills for a great number of positions.
“The big value is in applying contextual knowledge so that we can innovate business processes, make things better, and drive more value for the companies. So that's how the vision for Twimbit came about, can we help democratize the consumption of research for learning.”
To satisfy the need for visually appealing, entertaining research that will help make content consumption easier Twimbit took a three-step approach. They made the platform accessible with a free version for everyone, and an affordable premium version that costs only $995 per year. They also knew that it wasn’t enough to keep the price down.
Menon proceeded to walk me through a demonstration of the platform and I must admit the visuals are enticing and the navigation is easy and mobile-friendly. As Menon says, “almost like a social media platform for people to consume research.”
Are decentralized social media platforms putting creators first?
“We have quizzes, we have contests, we do a variety of things to help improve the overall consumption of the platform. So it's not just a one way of going and reading a piece of research report. You can come and participate in a small quiz for three minutes.”
How does Twimbit decide on which research topics to cover? To begin with, they have focused on five distinct themes, biz., banking & financial services, telecoms, customer experience, disruptive technologies and digital transformation.
“We said let's start with banking and telecoms because those two industries and then customer experience because it's such a big thing globally for every company. The fourth one is disruptive technologies. And that's where we are covering Web3, Blockchain, and NFTs. And the final one is digital transformation.”
For the specifics within each of these subject areas, they centre the research content to focus on based around the user's needs.
“If you feel that there's a particular insight that you wanted, and we haven't created it, you can come and say, Hey, I request for this insight. And then we work on it.” This bespoke research service is novel and provides valuable insights for users who are interested in consuming research. “
Our goal is to use that as a fabric, to build it around the customer and serve the customer needs, rather than somebody sitting and deciding what to produce next.”
When reflecting on his experience in research firms Menon says that “despite producing all the research, despite people signing up for research, nobody shows up on their platforms to actually consume their research because it was not personalized to them.”
At Twimbit, the whole experience is tailored around the end users. “So we learn about you. And you will see just like on Instagram, what do you like? We say insights that find you.
As industries are changing and automation becomes more prolific across different industries, new skillsets and ways of thinking are required to keep up with the demands of tomorrow.
“If you don't train your people, you will be stuck with all the inefficient people who don't who cannot meet the needs of tomorrow. And for individuals as well. If I do learn that, I will not grow I will be on a declining curve of my career.”
Bringing the right people together to learn about Web3
Twimbit is working with Unique Network, a Web3 project focused on advanced NFT infrastructure and the future of NFT technology.
“We believe in disruptive technologies, NFTs and blockchain. What we find is that while there is a lot of talk about NFTs, most of the conversations on NFTs are limited to art and games. Our clients are large enterprises. And we think that we need to bridge that chasm between the NFT enthusiast, and real business practitioners. So, that’s why we are working with Unique Network,” says Menon.
He believes that true innovation will happen if these two ecosystems start converging. Twimbit can help to bring these two worlds together for greater learning and development. They are starting the conversations to explore the future of NFTs in banking.
“If we can get 10 People from the universe of Unique, connected with 10 different banks, I think we would have made some progress.”
In a very Web3 frame of mind, Menon truly believes in collaboration and putting the right pool of people together to have the right conversations.
“The best way of learning and solving a problem is through collaboration. So if I can bring three or four people together to solve a problem, and they are from different fields, then I think we'll solve that. Most Nobel Prizes these days are not won by individuals. If you look, they won by teams, right? We're saying, we'll bring people together to solve problems. The individual expert may not be the answer to everything. But can we create the right pool of people to come together to have a conversation and then, and then build it up from there.”
Also published here.