DEFINING THE DESIGN OF AN INSURANCE PRODUCT
Introduction
Project Details
Industry :
Insurance
Size :
Big Corporate
Timeline :
6 Weeks
Services
Business Background
An insurance provider, with ambitions to innovate in a saturated market, set out to launch a new product tailored to modern customers. Insurance, traditionally perceived as complex, distant and transactional, needed to be redefined as clear, human, and trustworthy.
To succeed, the company needed to ensure the product was designed not from assumptions, but from customer truth. Through a series of structured research processes, ranging from Jobs to Be Done Interviews to a Concept Reality Check, the initiative aimed to align customer needs, market opportunities, and business priorities into one future-ready design anchored in customer truth and balanced with business feasibility.
Key Challenges
Shortage of clarity on who the core customers were and how they behaved during purchase.
Need to align product features with the most relevant Jobs to Be Done.
Lack of a structured framework for feature prioritization.
Internal feature ideas without prioritization by customer relevance.
Competitive pressure from competitors reaching that new market segment
Uncertainty around whether the concept would resonate with both customers and business priorities.
Project Impact
Clear alignment between customer needs and product design.
A product designed with evidence-backed customer alignment.
Competitive advantage through differentiated features.
Stronger confidence in product-market fit.
Reduced risk of misaligned investments.
Confidence that business investment matched customer priorities.
Need for a change
01
Validate the Jobs to Be Done of the insurance product.
02
Perform a Competitor & Benchmark X-Ray to assess the market.
03
Define User Personas & Archetypes to guide design.
04
Use Feature Prioritization Research to focus development.
Challenge & Impact
Insurance customers today are informed, cautious, and expect clarity and trust before making decisions. Launching an insurance product without evidence-driven validation carries high risks:
Customers may not understand or value the product.
Features may not solve the most relevant jobs in their lives.
Competitors could outpace with simpler, more appealing offerings.
Also, the existing product development process risked being guided by internal assumptions rather than lived customer realities.
The consequences of not addressing this gap were significant implications:
Missed opportunities to connect with emerging customer segments.
Risk of launching a product that lacked relevance or clarity.
Potential financial and reputational costs of underperforming products.
Strategy Pillars
Customer Truth at the Core (Customer Truth Sessions, Jobs to Be Done Interviews)
Evidence-Driven Design (User Personas & Archetypes, Feature Prioritization Research)
Market Context Awareness (Competitor & Benchmark X-Ray, Opportunity Radar)
Validation Before Launch (Concept Reality Check)
Objectives
01
Conduct Customer Truth Sessions to uncover authentic customer needs and expectations.
02
Map User Personas & Archetypes to capture diverse behaviors.
03
Conduct Jobs to Be Done Interviews to align product purpose with life needs and to ensure the minimum requirement to be fulfilled by the insurance service.
04
Apply Feature Prioritization Research to define the most impactful features.
05
Perform a Competitor & Benchmark X-Ray to understand industry standards and gaps, and the consumer trends.
06
Execute an Opportunity Radar to identify areas for innovation and uplift.
07
Validate the final product with a Concept Reality Check to ensure relevance and feasibility.
Overcoming Obstacles
Translating complex insurance terms into customer-friendly insights.
Balancing regulatory requirements with customer simplicity.
Managing internal resistance to feature deprioritization.
Lessons Learned
Truth Outweighs Assumption
Customer Truth Sessions revealed insights unseen by the business revealing unexpected needs by the customer.
Jobs Drive Relevance
Jobs to Be Done Interviews help us to address the real purpose of the product.
Less Is More
Feature prioritization ensured clarity and focus and avoided wasted effort.
Opportunity Is a Lens
The Opportunity Radar uncovered innovation pathways beyond the initial scope.
Empathy in Action
We dig deep to understand humans at all levels and translate insight into meaningful direction.
Results
Clear understanding of customer personas and archetypes in the buying process.
Validated Jobs to Be Done framework ensuring product relevance.
Prioritized feature set aligned with customer and business impact.
Competitive insight revealing gaps and innovation opportunities in the market.
Concept validated with customers, ensuring fit and feasibility before investment.
The Outcome
This project demonstrated the power of research to de-risk innovation and bring insurance closer to customer lives. By anchoring design in customer truth, validating jobs to be done, and balancing business realities with customer desires, the client laid the foundation for an insurance product that is clear, relevant, and future-ready.
Lasting Change & What Might Comes Next
This section defines how the internal team can carry the impact forward once our project concludes.
By embedding these methods into regular processes, the client can transform research from a one-time exercise into a continuous engine of better decisions, building stronger customer connections, and sustainable growth.
Sustainability
Embed ongoing Customer Truth Sessions in product development.
Establish regular Feature Validation Sprints to validate customer needs and product definition.
Build ongoing Opportunity Radar and Continuous Competitive Intelligence reviews into product strategy.
Maintain a live set of User Personas & Archetypes.
Repeat Concept Reality Checks for future iterations.
Governance to ensure research remains a decision-making anchor.
Future Outlook
Apply the same methodology to future insurance product lines.
Use Opportunity Radar as a continuous lens for innovation to maintain differentiation.
Refresh personas and competitor benchmarks regularly to adapt to market change.
Scale the Jobs to Be Done framework across all customer journeys.
