Internal hackathon stimulates disruptive solutions at Itaú Unibanco

Brazilian bank Itaú Unibanco launched a new program called Data Battle, a sort of “internal hackathon” to create disruptive solutions based on data, addressing several real challenges of the bank’s business. The bank has housed eight Data Battles to date – the last one launched in June 2018. In each one of them, several talents from different areas of the bank gather to develop solutions to the challenges proposed through multidisciplinary teams, aiming at innovating, experimenting and stimulating a data-driven culture. After four days, the groups present their ideas in 4-minute pitches to an assessment team, made up of executives from the bank’s Technology and Business areas, as well as external guests.

The first seven battles had more than 2,900 entries received from employees from the most diverse areas of Itaú Unibanco, gathering 402 participants. More than 86 ideas derived from Data Battle has impacted different directories of the bank and 12 projects are being executed. “With the digitization of the market, it is fundamental to understand how to make it tangible and, consequently, generate value to our customers through data analysis,” says Itaú Unibanco director Estevão Lazanha.