100 Days: a case study in transformation.
Making business insurance easy and accessible.
I led the design effort for Allstate Business Insurance during the overhaul of its suite of applications. For this project, Midway, I oversaw a blended team of internal resources spanning all the UX disciplines and designers from our vendor, Accenture. I built a highly collaborative culture, effectively guiding a mixed team to the product's success. My role also involved assessment and onboarding for design and technology vendors, as well as design, resource, and stakeholder management.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
The president of Allstate Business Insurance aimed to capture a larger market share of the 100 billion-dollar commercial auto industry. At the time, ABI owned 2% of the pie. To realize the vision, we created a brand new experience for small business owners to quote and purchase insurance policies. The new product was to abandon the old manual process, which took up to 3 days to approve the policy.
PROBLEM
ABI Leadership engaged Accenture/Fjord for early discovery work culminating in a clickable prototype. The goal was for the blended team of Allstate UX and two vendors to take this prototype and build a fully functional MVP within 100 days on a technology platform called Duck Creek. It was ABI's first working with the Allstate UX team to build software. In the past, they relied exclusively on vendors.
Alstate UX team was to lead the effort, and we participated in the technology vendor RFP process. Also, we obtained technical training on the chosen technology platform, Duck Creek.
During sprint zero, my team and I consumed the discovery work produced by the vendor. We familiarized ourselves with our persona - Maria, a small business owner of a landscaping company. We explored the current and future state of the experience and investigated the prototype.
Were were facing several challenges:
PRODUCT
How might we start building MVP without fully defined business requirements?
ABI leadership assumed that the prototype accounted for all the use cases and scenarios when, in reality, it covered only the happy path at a high level.
Solution
We implemented a “just-in-time” approach. We started a week with a business requirements definition session for the key stakeholders and a follow-up check-in mid-week where designs and feasibility were vetted across all ABI functions.
OUR VISION
Are we designing things right?
OPERATIONS
How might we successfully coordinate the efforts of all the internal and external teams?
The product was staffed with 4 designers from Allstate, the Creative Director, and 3 designers from Accenture. Engineers from Duck Creek completed the picture.
Solution
We assumed daily communication between Allstate and Accenture designers. The rule was a 24-hour turnaround. Sometimes hourly. Obtain answers and provide guidance ASAP. I took the role of the inter-team connector. Over time, both teams started naturally operating as one extended team.
Solution
The goal was to build and launch a new quoting experience in a new channel in 100 days. For MVP, we focused on the purchase portion of the User Journey and creating content.
The success or failure of this launch would determine the future of the remaining products in the ABI suite. Our business partners aimed to increase policies bound by at least 5%.
TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM
How might we translate our Design System and branding onto vendor’s tech platform?
Duck Creek provided an out-of-the-box solution with some inherent limitations. Due to security concerns, the vendor could not use components from our Design System.
We created the role of Interaction Analyst, who interfaced between Engineering and Design teams and attended both design and engineering stand-ups. This role has been crucial to product success and ensured the correct implementation and execution of the designs.
ONBOARDING & PREPARATION
During the two weeks preceding the start of the execution phase and the vendor engagement, I was doing the following to prepare:
Facilitated design bursts with my team and internal stakeholders to dive deeper into the persona and discovery work Fjord did.
Weekly cross-stream meetings (Business, UX, tech)
Putting together a plan for Accenture design onboarding
Preparing materials and sessions for onboarding
Obtaining engineering support for onboarding Duck Creek
Defining and planning ongoing Visual Design and Design System support for vendor engagement.
I utilized LUMA methods when conducting workshops.
STAKEHOLDER ALIGNMENT
Once our design and technology vendors were onboarded, the goal was to obtain alignment and map out clear next steps.
Before the start of development, we grounded everyone in the work done to date and plan MVP, and Post-MVP features. Also, ran a quick round of interviews and a survey of 60 Small Business Owners.
We learned that Small Business Owners (SBOs) are:
63% of customers find commercial auto insurance confusing
70% of customers do not trust their insurance companies
They trust and rely on the recommendations of their peers
Constantly strapped for time with many things to manage
Their business shifts between states of growth, stability, and decline
Small Business Owners have higher expectations and more complex needs compared to personal line customers. They have more at stake. Therefore, trust and confidence in their provider are paramount.
The experience must engender trust, transparency, and simplicity, while providing sufficient support.
Design Principles
LEADERSHIP & DESIGN OPERATIONS
Designers from Allstate and Accenture functioned as one team in a highly collborative envirnoment.
The Interaction Analyst was fully embedded in both UX and development ceremonies to ensure the correct implementation of design.
Artifact Reviews were decision making and product defining sesions with key stakeholders.
EXECUTION PHASE
The team designed and tested wireframes, and then visual design was applied. Concurrently, content design was underway, with weekly legal reviews to prepare the final content for visual mockups.
There were two main factors which improved the new experience:
Reduced number of questions within quoting flow
Reduced underwriting time on the back-end from several days to minutes.
Reviewing stages of the Small Business Owner user journey helped us define the features for Purchase flow and the post MVP, Manage & Interact flow.
Working sessions with key stakeholders allowed us to:
Define main functionality and use cases
Establish vision and direction
Arrive at the alignment between all the groups
User Journey
Sketches
USABILITY TESTING
After several rounds of internal iterations with SMEs, it was time to test the product with real users. In the screening process, we specifically targeted and vetted small business owners and tested the prototypes.
Key questions:
Do users understand the product?
Is the experience simple and effortless?
Are we adequately setting the expectations for the customer?
Do we meet their expectations?
Are they able to understand the quoting questions?
Do they know what to do after they purchase their policy?
Do we offer enough protection?
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Visual Comps
“When we first started exploring this new product, I quite literally couldn’t spell UX :) I now think of the experience as what will differentiate us in the market.”
Responsiveness
MEASURES OF SUCCESS
We were using Adobe Analytics to track the performance of the new quoting tool, especially since it was built in a new channel and on a new platform.
The numbers were speaking for themselves. The product was a huge success, and by the end of 2022, it was rolled out in 8 additional states with a plan to go nationwide.
The success of this project paved the way for the overhaul of additional products within ABI portfolio.
41 Customer Interviews
$300M
in revenue
SUMMARY
RECOGNITION
VISUAL DESIGN
Allstate was undergoing the visual identity rebranding then, and the design system was in flux. Daily communication with the product design team, Branding, and Design System was necessary to stay up to date on the changes. Click here to view more comps.
We were crating content strategy on the fly while requirements were being defined. And constantly responding to changes in company’s visual identity.
MVP LAUNCH
In 100 days, we built a new auto-quoting product in a new channel on a completely new technology platform. The team performed a feat of endurance, coordinating the efforts of multiple internal teams and two external vendors.
The initial MVP product was launched in 1 state on January 12, 2021.
Within the first year, the new platform generated $300M in business, exceeding results from the old legacy system.
108
Wireframes
It was the first time ABI had engaged with UX. We gained a seat at the table and now serve as a critical part of the organization. The president of Allstate Business Insurance sent handwritten notes to several team members to acknowledge our accomplishments.