Continuous Strategy Internal Application for Fortune 500 Insurance Company
Overview
A Fortune 500 Insurance Company working to solve problem areas for global underwriters that are not adopting the application and processes within the application. With plans to create an omnichannel user experience across the portfolio of applications, solve current user problems, and save users time and development costs by preventing rework.
Problem Statement
Global underwriters in this space are not adopting the application and processes within that application. Preventing accurate data collection and reporting. Underwriters are relying on manual processes to input and track the information, causing delays in reporting and inconsistencies between data sources.
UX Process
I worked closely with the Product Owner and SMEs to understand our users through a proto-persona workshop. This workshop allowed us to have an assumption-based understanding of the underwriters in this space and why they were not adopting the application and processes within that application. I determined that we needed to conduct stakeholder and user interviews to understand what business expectations and assumptions were in addition to what the users were experiencing.
Through MS Teams, I met with nine users across the globe to understand the processes within this application that were working and what was not working. After the interviews, I affinity-mapped the findings to make recommendations back to the business. I then modified the persona to align more with what our users validated during interviews. Next, I conducted a card sorting exercise to understand what data the users needed during both parts of the process and took that information forward to tech.
I then pieced together a rough user journey map to help us understand the differences between the different regional offices during this particular process. I brought forth recommendations to integrate APIs, pull data from one source of truth, and use system automation and notifications to help the user in the process. This gave the user an understanding of the step in the process the bond was currently at, streamlined communication, and aligned terminology across the organization. This work helped this vertical understand the applications and data being pulled into their legacy system and how users were struggling with the way the system works to complete their tasks.
Outcome
After presenting the findings to the stakeholders and project team, it was determined that they needed to understand the cost of making changes to the legacy system vs. working towards the omnichannel user experience. The remaining UX activities identified for the future were added to the project backlog. The work to improve the global underwriter's experience was paused.
Roles and Responsibilities
As the UX Architect on this project, I was responsible for understanding the problem space from the business, the user, and the technical lens. Working closely with the Product Owner, Stakeholders, and users we engaged several different types of methodologies to understand the problem space and find solutions that would work for the users to improve the legacy system.
Activities and Deliverables
• Proto Persona Workshop
• Persona
• Stakeholder Interviews
• User Interviews
• Affinity Mapping
• User Journey Map
• Low-fidelity Wireframes
• Presentation to Stakeholders and Leadership