Insurance Company
Launching a Progressive Web App to engage customers and attract new ones
Challenge
Expand on research to strategically build an MVP solution, reduce churn and attract new customers
Outcome
Personalized, PWA experience, providing trustworthy information and timely reminders
Screenshot from project
Who is the client?
Our client is the second-largest writer of U.S. commercial property-casualty insurance, and the sixth-largest writer of U.S. personal insurance through independent agents.
Their Innovation Team conducts research both internally and with customers to uncover potential opportunities. Our work with this team grew from first conducting user research with homeowners, followed by a human-centered approach.
“thoughtbot is a very thoughtful and deliberate partner who went all in on our project. Not only do they provide a high quality of work but they do so through a positive, and productive commitment.
Photos of the design sprint
The Challenge
Through their user research with policy holders, specifically homeowners, it was clear that customers were concerned they didn’t have all the resources and knowledge to maintain their property.
They had a lot of pride in ownership, and wanted to keep their home safe and proactively avoid larger expenses or major breakage down the line. Our client had an opportunity to solve a problem not only for their current policy holders but also a wider audience. This solution would support their active customers, as well as provide a differentiator that would attract new customers.
Our client engaged thoughtbot to help them take their idea and turn it into a plan. They knew they wanted to quickly get an MVP out into the market and would benefit by bringing in a fresh perspective as well as a larger breadth of technology expertise. They were looking for a collaborative partner that would help them through the stages of the product design and development lifecycle.
Screenshots from the prototype
The Solution
We started by synthesizing the existing user research and capturing their underlying assumptions about homeownership.
This informed their Product Design Sprint, which worked to validate or invalidate their riskiest assumptions by prototyping a potential solution to test with users. As a result, this led to a clear path forward. Now that the group had a strong handle on the product, including how users would likely want to interact with the tool, the team made their final decisions around a tech stack, and moved forward with a Progressive Web App, powered by Elm.
In thinking through the needs of the users, it was clear the solution would need to be applicable to various stages of ownership, provide quality information, and use timely prompts to handle the “remembering” for them. That being said, the product also needed to be simple enough to allow for an easy onboarding flow that still gathered relevant pieces of information to deliver a unique experience.
The Outcome
We had a very positive engagement from both a collaborative partnership and MVP Product launch perspective.
They were able to ship an MVP product aligned with larger business milestones, that would support existing customers while serving as a differentiator in the industry. The teams also truly enjoyed working together every step of the way. As the group transitioned to working together remotely due to the Pandemic, having the established standards for interactions, such as using video meetings, helped ensure communication remained strong. The project in its entirety and the relationships that were established left a positive impact on both sides.
“The thoughtbot team was a great team and we jived very quickly. Not only were they stellar design and development partners, but also wonderful people who instilled an upbeat, positive and fun culture to our working relationship.