PRODUCT STRATEGY | CHANNEL STRATEGY | CUSTOMER RESEARCH & EXPERIENCE DESIGN
WHY
In today’s age, even the heavily regulated environment of insurance isn’t safe from digital disruption. From robo-advisory to telematics to IoT integration, companies all over the world are exploring new ways of making insurance more accessible, data-driven, and easy to use for their customers. Increasingly, this innovation is being unlocked through our mobile phones - to take advantage of benefits on the go, in the moments that matter.
Our client strived to become the #1 General Insurance (GI) digital provider in Canada, but knew they were lagging behind competitors in the critical area of mobile experience – specifically in relation to the lack of functionality and traction of their mobile app. We partnered with them to develop a product mindset for their digital channel in order to turn the experience around.
WHAT
Our mission was to understand why customers need an insurance mobile application, and what enhanced value proposition the app could offer to improve the holistic customer experience. Over the course of 12 weeks, we delivered:
- Slalom Canada Proxy Customer Survey and Customer Interview Insights to derive customer value drivers and priority areas
- Competitor Deep Dives on 15 Leading Insurance Apps across Canadian, U.S. & Global Markets to assess competitive features, experiences, and operating models
- A 3+ Year Phased App Roadmap Prioritizing 80+ Ideated Feature Experiences across 5 customer journey stages
- 19 App Prototypes of Feature Experiences (Lo-Fi) equipped with initial user testing to demonstrate product desirability
- A Mobile App Financial Investment Case & OKR Framework to create a hypothesis and toolkit for continuous product feasibility analysis
App Feature Experience Prototypes (Lo-Fi)
After I purchase insurance, I want to be guided so I can get a sense of what I will need to do in order to get what I need.
When there is a life event (moving/buying, family change etc.), I want to quickly review and edit my policy, so I have the right amount of coverage.
When there is an unforeseen event, I want an anxiety-reducing process and fair compensation, so I can focus on recovering from my losses.
When in an incident or getting pulled over, I want to keep my Driver’s License, Pink Card, and Registration information handy to be shared with a third party
When there is a life event (moving/buying, family change etc.), I want to quickly review and edit my policy, so I have the right amount of coverage.
WOW
Slalom’s recommendations for a unified app experience encompassing service, advice, and telematics demonstrated the power of experience design that puts the customer first, optimizes the holistic digital ecosystem, and creates continuous business value. Through a research-driven, multi-year roadmap and a robust investment case, the organization gained a clear understanding of both the value of investing in the mobile app experience and the tactical path from foundational improvements to long-term differentiation.
Our client gained direction for their mobile app’s aspirational value proposition and confidence in the journey to get there, saying that Slalom “made innovation seem logical and simple.”
One of the key lessons from the engagement was that while experience design drives value, numbers drive action. TDI’s primary requirement was not simply a vision for the future, but a clear hypothesis around the value that could be created and the investment required to realize it. Our high-level business case successfully addressed that need, but as executive discussions progressed, a secondary requirement emerged for deeper feature-level investment and value modeling. Leveraging Slalom’s existing investment casing frameworks, we quickly pivoted from delivering recommendations to enabling the client team, helping them accelerate toward an executive-ready investment request.
The result was a $400K engagement that informed a Phase 1 investment request exceeding $4M and contributed to a broader three-year digital strategy investment of approximately $30M. By connecting customer experience improvements to measurable business outcomes, the team helped transform innovation from an aspirational concept into a logical, actionable investment decision.
Armed with a solid go-forward plan, our client was well-positioned to immediately reassess their omni-channel experience and pivot to delivery initiation on their 2022 Mobile App Roadmap.