Insurtech case study

- Approach & Process - 

- Define -

Challenges: There is a danger that current business products could be eclipsed by newer technologies, resulting in a loss of business. How can we prevent this possible outcome?

Goal: Learn which innovations are currently disrupting the area of InsurTech.  If we adopt successful patterns in our work, we could enhance our methods and keep up on the cutting edge of technology for our products.

- Research -

To get an overview on the history or origins behind the InsurTech industry, I reviewed case studies such as:

• The New Era of Abundance by Brady Capital Research
• The Connected Home: New Opportunities for Property & Casualty for Insurers by Accenture

To get information on the current landscape, my co-worker and I reviewed various news articles and business research databases such as CrunchBase and CB Insights. We were looking to answer the major question of:

Which patterns allowed these InsurTechs to become successful? Is it centered in a certain area such as design, technology, agility or strategy that gives them an advantage?

- findings -

While completing the power point presentation on our findings, my co-worker and I discussed the patterns we had noticed:

• User-centered design thinking is heavily influencing InsurTech: They often start with a common problem that exists within the insurance process, and then design on demand solutions to solve the problem. The utilization of user-centered design thinking is a foundation of their success.
• Other stakeholders outside of the public should be taken into account: Other vital players living inside the ecosystem are important too.
• InsurTech pays close attention to market trends: InsurTech is currently focusing on millennials and mobile based products; paying attention to the insured's desire, needs and satisfaction that shifts the focus to customer facing products instead of legacy products.

- Take aways -

We brought up several points in closing, looking towards the future:

• Audience: Millennials will become an important group, not only as customers but also as future employees in the insurance industry. Their needs on information transparency, simple, flexible and delightful user experience along with the sharing economy ideals will become requirements of the next generation of products. Strategies such as the affinity model, money back guarantee and behavioral design could be beneficial.
• Future Technology Usage: Mobile will become even more prevalent. Millennials and the generations after exhibit an increased ability to process multi-layer information, levels of interactivity along with augmented consumption usage. All of these factors will affect product design. Similarly, services that are nice-to-have will become must-have. We should shift focus from desktop (browser) based products to mobile.
• Data-driven products: The insurance industry has a lot of data without good utilization. As time goes by, insurance companies will face more pressure to use data analytics for benchmarking. Design decisions would greatly benefit from data analytics as well to create and refine products.
• Streamlined Process: Many InsurTech companies are not only finding ways to technically streamline processes but also legally too, to create industry change. These changes are making it easier and faster for the insureds to communicate with their carriers. Could streamlining and automation go too far in eliminating insurance agents all together? Time will tell if this possible scenario occurs.
• Business Audience: Vertafore currently provides B2B products. Should we change focus in doing B2C products based on market trends or keep working on B2B products?

- deliverables -