ST-Ericsson is a world leader in development of wireless platforms and semiconductors. The company’s products are sold all over the world, and incorrect export classifications can have severe consequences. ST-Ericsson contacted us to convince an important, but somewhat hesitant, target group that export control is something that actually concerns them.
ST-Ericsson’s products are sold in almost all countries, and each region has its own trade laws and regulations. It is not only physical products that are subject to export control, the laws also apply to software. For example, this means that the code each programmer writes is subject to trade laws and regulations.
The programmers play an important role in export classification of products. At the same
time, this is something that is very low on their agenda. Not classifying, or incorrect
classification of products could lead to heavy fines or even blacklisting. Our challenge
was to create interest, and to motivate the programmers to actively take part in the export
classification of ST-Ericsson’s products.
Our starting point was very challenging, to say the least. How do we create a concept good
enough to change the programmers’ skeptical view? In this case, the challenge was no so much
about getting people to learn important facts. It was rather a question of changing
attitudes, and making the developers realize how important they were. We also struggled a
lot to defuse the subject by carefully using subtle humor in the concept parts.
We finally came up with a concept containing retro inspired mini games and a humoristic personal profiling where their “export personality” was decided. The necessary knowledge was integrated into the games, making it possible for the users to game their way through the e-learning.