One day, 9 year old girl Sabina opened a new bank account.
Her motivation? She loved the picture of the ATM card (pug doggy – which is by the way, the world’s famous FRANK by OCBC Bank), she decided to replace her piggy bank with a real bank account.

She was fascinated. She realized that she never needed to carry cash. All she has to do is carrying this cute plastic card- she can pay or withdraw money and always put her money in the bank account. How cool! She thought.

At her first ATM experience, however, she was devastated that she could not take out less than 10 dollars. It had to be always more than 10 dollars. Moreover, when she wanted to put more money in her account, the ATM machine won’t accept any coins, only in the denomination of 10 dollars. Given her weekly pocket money is 4 dollars, this was a real big problem. She was really disappointed how limited and useless the ATM machine was for her.


She came home, she immediately began to solve her own problem.

She got a carton box, developed her very own ATM machine! This ATM machine is so cool and designed to solve her top problems.

  • She can deposit any coins, no minimum amount.
  • She can withdraw any amount she likes.
  • She identifies herself through pictures, not account numbers (humanization)
  • She branded the machine with her favorite character, Canele (dog) and Baeri (Bear) .

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Observing this little girl creating this CBS bank (CBS stands for Canele, Baeri and Sabina), I realized how powerful ‘prototyping’ is – as a problem solving tool.
Children play and constantly build something. They do it with a great enthusiasm and confidence. They build it quickly using easy materials. This is the essence of prototyping. Proactive problem solving through building – no matter how raw it is.

Everyone is born with this ability. We all have it.
It is a real shame that when we become adults, who need to solve all sort of problems in an organization, do not prototype that much any more. How innovative can a company become, if it has a culture of prototyping?

You have it. Use it.