In my previous role at a financial services company, I led a project aimed at digitizing analog processes to improve the user experience for our life insurance products. We focused on enhancing the Declaration of Insurability process, but the challenge was that we had limited knowledge about the specific user pain points and were working on many assumptions.
As the primary researcher, I initiated the project by conducting a series of in-depth interviews with recent life insurance customers. The goal was to uncover what worked well, what didn’t, and what they wished had been different in their application experience. These insights laid the foundation for our user-centered approach
Based on the interviews, I collaborated with the design team to create a comprehensive journey map. This visual breakdown detailed the phases of the insurance application process and the specific steps within each phase. To bring the user perspective to life, I embedded key quotes and video clips directly from the interviews, which enriched our understanding of user needs at each stage of the journey.
While the qualitative insights provided valuable depth, I knew we needed a broader understanding of the scale of these challenges. To complement the interviews, I designed and ran a quantitative survey that filled in the gaps. The survey allowed us to gauge the scope of the identified opportunities, enabling us to quantify user preferences and pain points.
The combination of qualitative and quantitative research gave our team a much deeper understanding of our users’ needs. With these insights, we established a clear “north star” that guided both product and design decisions. This user-centered data became instrumental in shaping our product roadmaps and future development plans, ensuring that our decisions were driven by real user needs, not just business assumptions.
Deliverables:
Journey map – built iteratively through multiple rounds of research
Survey results – multiple rounds of surveys to help inform long term strategy and immediate decision making