DigiOps Named a Finalist in the Centrical 2025 Select Awards

When we first shared the story “We Gamified a Learning Program About AI and People Loved It”, the focus was on what happens when learning is designed around behaviour, curiosity, and application rather than content volume. What we didn’t yet know was how far that approach would travel.

We’re proud to share that DigiOps, the gamified learning experience designed by Paragon for Unilever, has been named a finalist in the Centrical 2025 Select Awards, under the category The Visionary.

This recognition matters—not just because it’s an award nomination, but because it validates a very deliberate way of thinking about learning.

What the “Visionary” Category Represents

The Visionary category recognises initiatives that push beyond incremental improvement and rethink what learning and engagement can be. It’s not about rolling out more content or deploying a new platform feature. It’s about redefining how people experience development at work.

DigiOps was never intended to be “another program.” From the outset, the ambition was to create something that felt fundamentally different from traditional digital learning—something that people would choose to engage with, rather than feel obligated to complete.

Being recognised in this category tells us that the industry saw what we were aiming for.

The Original Challenge Behind DigiOps

The challenge DigiOps was designed to address was not a lack of capability, but a lack of momentum.

AI, analytics, automation, and digital tools were becoming increasingly central to how work was done, yet learning about these topics often felt disconnected from day-to-day reality. Courses were completed, certificates earned—but behaviour didn’t always change.

The question we set out to answer was simple, but not easy:

How do you help people experience learning about AI and digital transformation, rather than just consume information about it?

Gamification was not the goal. It was the mechanism.

What Made DigiOps Different

DigiOps was built as a living experience rather than a static program.

Participants weren’t asked to “do training.” They were invited into a game-based journey that unfolded over time, with challenges, missions, competition, collaboration, and progression. Learning moments were short, varied, and intentionally designed to fit into the flow of work.

Critically, the game wasn’t about winning for the sake of winning. It was about:

• Applying concepts in context

• Experimenting safely

• Sharing ideas across teams

• Making digital capability visible and social

The result was something that felt less like training and more like participation in a shared challenge.

Why People Engaged (and Kept Engaging)

One of the most striking outcomes of DigiOps was sustained engagement.

This wasn’t driven by novelty alone. It was driven by:

• Clear narrative and progression

• Meaningful challenges rather than abstract quizzes

• Recognition that felt earned

• A sense of momentum and shared purpose

People talked about DigiOps. They compared progress. They shared creative responses. In some cases, teams even created their own side-content and rituals around the game.

That level of voluntary engagement is rare—and it doesn’t happen by accident.

Why This Recognition Matters to Us

Being named a finalist in the Centrical Select Awards is meaningful because it recognises design intent, not just results.

It validates the belief that:

• Learning can be playful without being trivial

• Gamification can drive seriousness of intent, not distract from it

• Capability building works best when people are active participants, not passive recipients

It also reinforces something we see repeatedly in our work: when learning is designed with care, structure, and respect for the audience, people show up.

A Shared Achievement

This recognition reflects a genuine collaboration.

DigiOps would not exist without:

• A client willing to try something different

• Excellent Unilever SMEs writing content and project leaders who dedicated themselves to the success of the program

• A platform partner in Centrical that enabled the experience at scale

• A shared belief that learning should feel energising, not exhausting

Awards are never the goal—but when they arrive, they’re a powerful signal that the direction is right.

Looking Ahead

DigiOps was not a one-off experiment. It was a proof point.

Since its launch, the principles behind the program—gamification, pacing, social learning, application-first design—have continued to influence how we think about learning experiences across industries.

Being named a Visionary finalist reinforces our conviction that the future of learning is not about more content, but better experiences.

And if there’s one thing DigiOps demonstrated clearly, it’s this:

When learning feels meaningful, people don’t need to be pushed. They pull themselves in.

If you’d like to explore how similar approaches could work in your organisation—or simply want to understand what makes gamified capability building succeed—we’d love to continue the conversation.