Purple Ant
Demystifying Life Insurance in one swipe, making it accessible to everyone.
L&D insurance isn't just for the old & working, we think...
Objective
Purple Ant is an IoT-based SaaS platform that ingests, normalizes, aggregates, and integrates data from different sensors.
The business will be expanding into the life insurance sector and needs to better understand the space and users to properly understand the value proposition and how to position themselves.
How might we...
Determine the viability of expanding the current business from "smart home sensor technology" into the life & disability insurance sector while incorporating a "B2B2C" model.
Solution
Produce A Market Research Report that validates the opportunity space and defines who the customer is & their needs.
Prioritizing the growing business needs by presenting a solution based on multiple ideas and concepts to produce an initial prototype.
MY DESIGN PROCESS
Following the process of Human-Centered Design.
DISCOVERY - Learning, Understanding, Researching, Stakeholder Alignment, Kickoff Meetings
DEFINE - Gain Insights & Define the Problem
DEVELOP - Develop Possible Ideas & Concepts. Rapid Iterating.
DELIVER - Prototyping & Testing. Continuously Improving & Optimizing
DISCOVER
Initial Discovers
- Emerging Markets: Gig Workers & Millenials (The Who)
- Increase in User Expectations: Simplicity & Self Service Options (The Who's Expectations)
- About 50% of all Americans hold a Life Insurance Policy (Market Size)
- Increased Concern: Secure Infomation, Data Sharing, Manipulation (Motivations)
Analyze Competition
Insights
All the competitors are dedicated to superior customer service aim to be transparent with their products and work to be flexible with an all-in-one solution.
Initial User Interviews
We interviewed a total of 10 individuals.
EXPERT
“Most people just don't know how much insurance they actually need.
People are extremely underinsured from life insurance and long term care.”
JM - Franchise Owner Ameriprise
POLICYHOLDER
“My insurance company is horrendous. They have changed hands 3 or 4 times. They don't even know what payments I’ve made. I have to go back and show proof.
It doesn't make me feel comfortable.
How do I know they are taking care of what they need to as well as managing my money correctly?
IS - Life Insurance Policyholder
INSURANCE AGENT
“... People are starting to obtain more coverage than what they had in the past, even if it's not what they want... at least they have something in place.
Since COVID-19 more people are open to chatting with me...”
JC - Northwestern Agent
Insights
- Policyholders don't trust insurance companies & don't feel cared for.
- Experts know that policyholders aren't educated about Life Insurance options and benefits.
- Agents see changes in the market due to Covid an evolving Job market (gig & contract workers)
Research Insights
Prioritize Business to Consumer instead of Business to Business to Consumer.
Moving forward with a B2C platform improves the education and transparency between life insurance companies and policyholders (current and prospecting) first before targeting insurance companies and agents.
DEFINE
Two personas that embodied the users from our research:
Primary - Ayana is proactive in planning her Her thoughts and actions will help to better assess and design a solution that can then evolve into an adaptable option for someone like John.
Secondary - John wants to change. but is more likely to conform and doesn't challenge the status quo.
So what is our problem? What are we working to solve?
Current and prospective life insurance policyholders who are willing to share personal data need a platform through which they can manage/modify their insurance plans and control the data they are sharing because transparency and accessibility to their plans would build trust in the organization.
DESIGN & DEVELOP
Concept Testing
Plan: Design & Test 4 Concepts
Produce One Converged Concept, Low-Fi Wireframes, and a Clickable Prototype.
Concept D was my idea - One of many!
Refine the Scope from Concept Testing
Synthesizing the data from Concept Testing, kept the project focused on the main objective, and even helped prioritize the vision for a Minimum Viable Porotype.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
The low fidelity of the wireframes gives the space to test tasks, feasibility, and user flows before incorporating further details and context.
DELIVER
Usability Testing of Converged Concept
Intuitiveness
Is the platform understandable?
Managing Shared Data
Ease of use
Is the user frustrated?
Navigate Policy Information
Navigability
Can the user navigate the interface?
Onboarding & Sharing Data
Usability Testing Takeaways
Total of 7 participants.
100% of the participants completed all tasks.
Despite the successful completion rates, the qualitative feedback said otherwise.
Retrospective
Skewed Results
In our initial interviews, we had more Users that were available for interviews than SMEs. It is possible that their comments and feedback skewed our research in which we created a B2C solution first.
Time Constraints
The time we devoted to research did not feel like an adequate amount to do a comprehensive amount of research for a new product. We stated this to the client for certain areas to be revisited and noted areas for further exploration.
Team Success
We were all nervous about this project, we all had limited experience with Life Insurance.
The team and I struggled with what success would look like for this client.
The more we interviewed users and worked with the client we were able to strengthen our knowledge and help the client make decisions with confidence.
Team Success wasn’t about being perfect, it was about the momentum and reactions we garner from both the client-side and the end-user.